‘Her Biography Speaks for Itself,’ says President Morton about Diplomat and Journalist-in-Residence Elizabeth Colton
Sophia Huang | November 24, 2021
Special to The Echo
Colton speaking at an event in 2017.
Holding a beige and tan briefcase in one hand and a cane in the other, Elizabeth (Liz) Colton, Ph.D., enters the Monday morning class with an unhurried and steady walk. To begin her thrilling story-telling and passionate lecture on op-ed writing, Colton pulls out three physical newspapers from her well-worn Gurkha bag.
“Reading newspapers is like meditation for me,” Colton said later in an interview. “I read all the time, online and paper, everything — all of them.”
By the age of ten, Colton had created three little newspapers: one locally for her school, one for her neighborhood in Asheville and one internationally for family and friends. Before going off to college, Colton gained experience in journalism by working with local newspapers, including the Asheville Citizen-Times. Meanwhile, she was dreaming of becoming an adventurer who would work as a diplomat, journalist and foreign correspondent around the world.
Initially an English graduate, Colton decided to pursue a Ph.D. in social anthropology after a formative Peace Corps experience in Kenya. She became a trailblazer in international journalism, including Newsweek's first female Middle East correspondent and bureau chief in Cairo. Over the span of decades, Colton worked in 120 countries; met with popular and controversial leaders; and won many awards in diplomacy, international education and journalism, including a prestigious News and Documentary Emmy Award in 1982 for her two ABC news specials on Libya.
“Her biography speaks for itself,” Lynn Morton, Ph.D., president of Warren Wilson College (WWC), described Colton. “She is pulling all of these threads — culture, understanding, diplomacy, politics, journalism, investigative journalism — all of these things come together in this incredible, really inspirational woman who had this incredible career, and now she is retired and still wants to do it. She still wants to make a difference in the world.”
Warren Wilson’s international students, who her parents hosted in their Asheville home over holidays and breaks, nurtured Colton’s childhood dreams. Now, as Diplomat and Journalist-in-Residence at WWC, she hopes to share her expertise and experiences to encourage the future generation to follow their dreams. She believes that everyone can be a citizen diplomat and affect change on a local, national and global level.
“I see Warren Wilson as a perfect kind of place where you can promote this idea of diplomacy, beginning on a local level,” Colton said. “ … Of course, as is taught generally, diplomacy involves nations working to promote their agendas in the world and working with other countries. … What I talk about is citizen diplomacy, international, and global diplomacy. That you can start right here and go out. That's what I call “glocal diplomacy” for all kinds of diplomatic endeavors.”
Jay Roberts, Ph.D., provost and dean of the faculty at WWC, created Colton’s title and position, and he encourages students to connect with Colton and attend her public lectures.
“There are so many depths to explore in her biography and her experiences,” Roberts shared. “I always love sitting down to listen to her stories because she’s just got such an amazing range of stories.”
After joining last fall semester in 2020, Colton gave a virtual lecture on inspired work and on November 22, she gave a public lecture in-person on “Diplomacy & Journalism Across the Disciplines.” She will give another lecture titled “Diplomacy & Journalism-Inextricably Linked in Today’s World” at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 in the McGuire Room of the College’s Library.
“I saw in Liz Colton really a conjunction of what I am trying to do with the College around deliberate dialogue, being able to talk together, being able to work productively towards the greater good,” Morton said.
Colton’s ultimate vision is to build a center for diplomacy at Warren Wilson College that incorporates the school’s liberal arts and sciences education, and philosophy of interdisciplinarity, which, according to Morton, Colton embodies.
The office for the Diplomat and Journalist-in-Residence is located in the Writing Studio area on the lower level of the Library. She can also be contacted via email: elizabeth.colton@warren-wilson.edu.
For more reading on Colton, Dale Neal, who holds an MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson, wrote a captivating story on Colton’s adventures in the Asheville Citizen-Times.
