Andrea Elliott has told many stories in her career at The New York Times.
Before a crowd of about 150 Thursday night, she told the one that won her a Pulitzer Prize.
The reporter spent eight months at a Brooklyn mosque learning about the hardships of being a Muslim prayer leader after Sept. 11.
“I was trying to understand Islam,” she told the audience at the Reitz Union Rion Ballroom. “He was trying to understand America.”
Earlier in the day, Elliott participated in a journalism workshop at the Reitz Union, where she answered questions about her career to about 15 people.
Elliott said she considers herself a reporter on Muslims rather than a reporter on Islam because her stories are really about the people.
Islam On Campus brought Elliott to UF as part of its Islam Awareness Month activities.
Islam on Campus paid Elliott $5,000 for her visit, according to Ziad Ghanimi, chairman of the Islam Awareness Month committee.
