Best Foot Forward

Kevin "KAL" Kallaugher

 

Widely known for his satirical editorial cartoons, Kevin "KAL" Kallaugher spent five days as an artist in residence at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy in November. During that time, he worked in one of Sanford's public spaces to create a clay sculpture commemorating the 2008 presidential campaign. The artist's three-dimensional likeness of Barack Obama shows the president-elect in runner's garb, crashing through a barrier.

As part of his residency, Kallaugher met with students and participated in a Sanford Institute panel discussion on satire in American politics. The week before his residency, an exhibit of nearly 100 of his cartoons, "Mightier Than the Sword: The Satirical Pen of KAL," opened in Sanford's Rubenstein Hall. The exhibit runs through this spring.

Kallaugher's connection to Duke dates back to his undergraduate years at Harvard, where he became friends with Frederick Mayer, now an associate professor of public policy at Duke and director of the department's graduate-studies programs.

KAL has created cartoons commenting on world affairs for The Economist since 1978, and his work has appeared in other prominent publications worldwide including Le Monde, Der Spiegel, Pravda, The Australian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, and Newsweek. From 1988 to 2006, he drew more than 4,000 cartoons as the cartoonist for the Baltimore Sun.