Wallace House Presents our 2023-2024 lineup of live events with Rachel Swarns, Raney Aronson-Rath, and Kara Swisher. Please mark your calendars for the events below and join us.

For nearly two decades of reporting from and about Michigan, 2017 Knight-Wallace Fellow and ProPublica journalist Anna Clark has covered numerous consequential stories, from the Flint water crisis to the mass shooting at Oxford High School. Join her for a discussion on the dangers of a culture of secrecy for Michigan and beyond and what it takes to push back.

This is an in-person event and will not be live-streamed. A video recording will be available on our website after the event.

More information about this event.

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Human rights violations are systematic in Haiti. The situation has worsened considerably since the multiplication of massacres in 2018 and the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021. The gangs control large areas of the country and practice a scorched-earth policy. Knight-Wallace Fellow and Haitian journalist Roberson Alphonse will share his observations on the Haitian tragedy.

More information about this event.

Hosted by:
Donia Human Rights Center Lecture

Co-sponsors:
International Institute

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The U-M Space Institute will host a special screening of the Netflix documentary about the design and launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and a panel discussion featuring 2013 Knight-Wallace Fellow and Film Director Shai Gal and Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, the previous Associate Administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, as well as other experts in space and astronomy.

“Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine” follows the ambitious decades-long mission to create and deploy the largest-ever space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope. The documentary showcases a remarkable team of NASA engineers and scientists as they take a giant leap in trying to understand the mysteries of the universe.

More information about this event.

Co-sponsors:
University of Michigan Space Institute
Department of Astronomy
Aerospace Engineering

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For eight years, Martin Baron served as executive editor of The Washington Post, leading its newsroom from Jeff Bezos’s purchase of the paper to the election and presidency of Donald Trump. Join Baron in conversation with Stephen Henderson for a discussion on Baron’s new book “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos and The Washington Post,” as he details his tenure at The Post and examines larger issues of the press and its role in democracy.

More information about this event.

Co-sponsors:
Detroit Public Television (DPTV)

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Join us for a special event featuring CNN anchor and Chief Washington correspondent, Jake Tapper, as part of the continuing series: “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.” Tapper will be joined in conversation with Wallace House Director, Lynette Clemetson. Their wide-ranging discussion will cover the state of democracy and the role and responsibility of the press in a democratic society, as well as how Tapper’s experience of being an anchor and correspondent informs his craft of writing.

Tapper’s newly released book, “All the Demons Are Here,” will be available for purchase at the event. The author will stay for a short book signing after the program.

This event is presented by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy in partnership with Wallace House Center for Journalists and U-M Democracy & Debate. 

More information about this event.

Co-sponsors:
Alumni Association of the University of Michigan

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Literati Bookstore is proud to welcome Laura Meckler to present and discuss her book “Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity.” in collaboration with Wallace House Center for Journalists and the Department of English Language and Literature at The University of Michigan. She’ll be joined in conversation by Dr. Brianne Dotson.

More information about this event.

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What is the responsibility of American institutions in reparative justice?

Join New York Times journalist and author Rachel Swarns in conversation with Wallace House director Lynette Clemetson, as she discusses her book “The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold To Build the American Catholic Church,” a story of servitude and slavery spanning nearly two centuries and detailing the beginnings of Georgetown University and the U.S. Catholic Church. Swarns’s journalism started a national conversation about universities with ties to slavery.

Swarn’s book, “The 272,” will be available for purchase at the event.

More information about this event.

Co-Sponsors:
Center for Racial Justice housed at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Center for Social Solutions
Donia Human Rights Center
Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies

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Join Knight-Wallace Fellows Kat Stafford ’22 of Reuters and Anna Clark ’17 of ProPublica as they discuss “The Role of History in Investigative Reporting,” moderated by University of Michigan historian Stephen A. Berrey.

More information about this event.

Hosted By:
Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies

Co-sponsor:
Wallace House Center for Journalists

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Join Knight-Wallace Fellow Iuliia Mendel for a discussion of her book “The Fight of Our Lives.”

Written with the sound of Russian bombs and exploding shells in the background, Mendel details life lived under the Russian siege of her home country, Ukraine, in 2022. She says goodbye to her fiancé, who joins the front lines like many other Ukrainian men. Throughout this story of Zelenskyy, Ukraine, and its extraordinary people, Mendel reminds us of the paramount importance of truth and human values, especially in these darkest times. Mendel held the position of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Press Secretary for over two years until the spring of 2021.

More information about this event.

Hosted By:
Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia

Co-sponsors:
Center for European Studies
International Institute
Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies

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An AP team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion. As the only international reporters who remain in the city, they capture what later become defining images of the war. The documentary shows vivid, harrowing accounts of civilians caught in the siege and a window into what it’s like to report from a conflict zone and the impact of such journalism around the globe.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with producers Raney Aronson-Rath and Michelle Mizner.

The Eisendrath Symposium honors Charles R. Eisendrath, former director of Wallace House, and his lifelong commitment to international journalism.

More information about this event.

Co-sponsors:
Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia
International Institute
Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies

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During the period that spanned from the Revolution of Dignity to the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, accomplished Ukrainian film producers Pavlo Peleshok and Yurko Ivanyshyn assumed the dual roles of defenders of their nation and chroniclers of its unfolding tragedy. Drawing on their personal film archives and fragmented memories, the pair assembled a mosaic of the causes and consequences of today’s Russian-Ukrainian war, starting from the end of 2013. As volunteers, Peleshok and Ivanyshyn ventured to the frontlines and hotspots of the Donbas region, risking their lives to capture the reality of the conflict. Even amid the ceaseless turmoil, they remained steadfast in their determination to create content that would convey the stark truth of the war to the wider world. 

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Pavlo Peleshok.

More information about this event.

Co-sponsors:
Wallace House Center for Journalists
International Institute
Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Center for European Studies

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Award-winning journalist Kara Swisher has interviewed nearly every consequential innovator and tech entrepreneur working today. Her new memoir, “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story,” is an insider’s tale of success, failure, hubris and optimism. As Detroit gains influence in technology and the EV revolution, Swisher sits down with Mary Barra, chair and CEO of General Motors, to discuss her new book and explore the dynamic interplay of legacy companies, innovation, strategic bets on the future, and tech’s potential to solve problems and not just create them.

Co-sponsors:
Gerald R. Ford School
U-M Democracy & Debate
U-M School of Information

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Russian-born author, political journalist and historian Mikhail Zygar will discuss his book “War and Punishment,” a story about an alternative, anti-imperialist Russian historical narrative. Starting last fall, all high school students in Russia are required to study history using a textbook written by Putin’s former minister of culture (and his ghostwriter), Vladimir Medinsky. Zygar debunks all the myths Putin’s history textbook promotes, and the the myths Putin uses to justify the war in Ukraine.

Zygar’s book, “War and Punishment,” will be available for purchase at the event.

More information about this book this event.

Hosted By:
Center for Russian, East European, and

Co-sponsors:
Wallace House Center for Journalists
Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia

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