Emory, CNN Launch Forum Series

, CNN and The National Center for Civil and Human Rights have joined forces to launch CNN Dialogues, a series of discussions set to debate "major issues that define our times." 

CNN anchor and host of “The Situation Room” Wolf Blitzer will lead the first discussion, “The 2010 Census and a New America,” on August 31 at . The five panelists will include Yul Kwon, host of PBS’ “America Revealed” and winner of television’s “Survivor: Cook Islands,” and Emory University American Studies professor Dana White.

The other forums set for 2011 will discuss “the impact of the digital age upon concepts of privacy and American culture” and the effect of openness on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered communities,” according to a news release.

“This partnership and series are the culmination of an effort to bring together the renowned scholarship of Emory, the ethical leadership of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and the global resources and prominence of CNN in an open forum in service for the public,” Rudolph P. Byrd, founding director of Emory’s James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference and professor of American Studies, said in the release.

Tickets for the first forum are $25 and are available online or by phone. Proceeds will support the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference at Emory University.

To purchase tickets via phone: James Weldon Johnson Institute- 404.727.2515; National Center for Civil and Human Rights- 404.991.6988