CNN Anchor Chris Wallace in conversation with Governor Gretchen Whitmer

Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Chris Wallace

An Evening with CNN Anchor Chris Wallace and Governor Gretchen Whitmer

6 PM | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2023

Rackham Auditorium
915 E. Washington Street

Wallace House Presents CNN Anchor Chris Wallace and Governor Gretchen Whitmer as part of the continuing series “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.”

Watch this hour-long special event with Mr. Wallace and Governor Whitmer as they discuss politics, public service, the media, and the state of our democracy, with opening remarks by the University of Michigan President Santa Ono

About Chris Wallace

Chris Wallace is an anchor for CNN and host of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? which also airs on HBO Max. He has covered every major political event of our time, including five presidential elections, and has interviewed every president since George H.W. Bush.

His career in journalism spans more than 50 award-winning years in broadcasting, including 14 years at ABC News as chief correspondent and host, and at NBC, as chief White House correspondent, moderator of Meet the Press and anchor of NBC Nightly News. He spent 18 years at Fox News as anchor of Fox News Sunday.

A graduate of Harvard University, Wallace began his career as a city hall reporter at The Boston Globe. Wallace is also the New York Times bestselling author of Countdown bin Laden: The Untold Story of the 247-Day Hunt to Bring the Mastermind of 9/11 to Justice and Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World.

About Governor Gretchen Whitmer

Governor Gretchen Whitmer is a lifelong Michigander who as governor has signed over 900 bipartisan bills and four balanced, bipartisan budgets.

She lists among her accomplishments the largest education investments in state history, increases in on-campus mental health resources, and expanding low or no-cost child care in affordable, high-quality pre-K.

Governor Whitmer earned a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from Michigan State University. The governor spent time as a Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence at the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy in 2015. Reflecting on that time, she told graduates at U-M’s 2019 Commencement, “I experienced my own version of the Michigan Difference.”

Co-Sponsors:
Ford School
Democracy & Debate

With support from Detroit Public Television (DPTV)

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Jelani Cobb in conversation with Celeste Watkins-Hayes

An evening with scholar and journalist Jelani Cobb
in conversation with Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Ford School interim dean

“The Half-Life of Freedom: Notes on Race, Media and Democracy”

6 PM | TUESDAY, JAN. 24, 2023

An in-person event at Rackham Auditorium
915 East Washington Street

Did you miss the in-person event or would you like to watch it again?
Watch the video recording.

Wallace House Presents journalist and scholar Jelani Cobb, in conversation with Ford School interim dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes, as part of the continuing series: “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.” Watch Cobb, dean of Columbia Journalism School and staff writer for The New Yorker, as he examines race, historic challenges to democracy, the impact of the media, and how these inform our current moment.

 

 

About Jelani Cobb

Jelani Cobb is the dean of Columbia Journalism School and a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he writes about race, politics, history and culture. He received a Peabody Award for his 2020 PBS Frontline film “Whose Vote Counts” and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary in 2018. He has also been a political analyst for MSNBC since 2019.

He is the author of “The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress” and “To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic.” He is the editor or co-editor of several volumes, including “The Matter of Black Lives,” a collection of The New Yorker’s writings on race, and “The Essential Kerner Commission Report.” He is the producer or co-producer on a number of documentaries, including “Lincoln’s Dilemma,” “Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union” and “Policing the Police.” 

Dr. Cobb was educated at Jamaica High School in Queens, New York; Howard University, where he earned a B.A. in English; and Rutgers University, where he completed his M.A. and doctorate in American history in 2003. He received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation and the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

 

About Celeste Watkins-Hayes

Celeste Watkins-Hayes is the interim dean of the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and founding director of the school’s Center for Racial Justice. She is also the Jean E. Fairfax Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, professor of sociology and an Anti-Racism Collaborative research and community impact fellow.

She is an internationally recognized scholar and expert widely credited for her research at the intersection of inequality, public policy, and institutions, with a special focus on urban poverty and race, class and gender studies. Dr. Watkins-Hayes has published two books, numerous articles in journals and edited volumes, and pieces in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education and Chicago Magazine. She has been widely quoted in the popular press as a national expert on social inequality, HIV/AIDS and societal safety nets.

Dr. Watkins-Hayes holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in sociology from Harvard University and a B.A. from Spelman College, where she graduated summa cum laude.

 

Co-Sponsors
Ford School
Democracy & Debate
Alumni Association
With support from our media partners at Detroit Public Television (DPTV) and PBS Books

 

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Linda Villarosa, New York Times Journalist, on Racial Disparities in U.S. Medical Care

Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives
and on the Health of Our Nation

An MLK Symposium event with journalist and educator Linda Villarosa

4:30 PM | TUESDAY, JAN 17, 2023

Annenberg Auditorium, Ford School
735 S State Street | Room 1120

Watch the video recording of the event.

Research and writing about racial health disparities in the United States often focus on poverty and poor education as primary causes for disparate outcomes. Journalist and educator Linda Villarosa says those gaps don’t account for the fact that Black Americans “live sicker and die quicker” than their White counterparts regardless of income and education.  They don’t explain why a Black woman with a college education is more likely to die or almost die in childbirth in the U.S. than a White woman with an eighth-grade education. The under-acknowledged effects of racism, Villarosa argues, have numerous devastating consequences on Black bodies, on the healthcare system, and on the health of our society as a whole. 

Join us as we welcome Linda Villarosa in conversation with Lynette Clemetson, director of Wallace House Center for Journalists, with a special welcome by Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Interim Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and Founding Director of the Ford School’s Center for Racial Justice. 

About the speaker

Linda Villarosa is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine where she covers race, inequality and public health. Her book, “Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation” was named one of the best books of 2022 by The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly and NPR. A journalism professor and program director at the City University of New York, she is a former health editor for The New York Times and former executive editor of Essence magazine. Villarosa has written and led coverage for years on the intersection of race, medicine and social justice. Her work has won numerous awards and has prompted national conversations on topics including black infant and maternal mortality; medical myths tied to race; eugenics; and the disparate toll of pandemics on Black communities from HIV/AIDS to Covid-19. 

About the moderator

Lynette Clemetson is the Charles R. Eisendrath Director of Wallace House Center for Journalists, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists at the University of Michigan.

Co-Sponsor:
Center for Racial Justice housed at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

This is a 2023 U-M Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium event.

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Wallace House Presents the feature film “She Said,” and a conversation with Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporters and authors of the book “She Said”

Special Screening of the feature film “She Said,” and conversation with Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

Meet Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists behind the Harvey Weinstein exposé

5:30 PM | Monday, Nov. 28, 2022

Michigan Theater

Purchase tickets: Michigan Theater
Free tickets for students: Michigan Theater

This event will not be live-streamed. Wallace House and its co-sponsors will not receive any proceeds from ticket sales.

A special screening and conversation

On October 5, 2017, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of The New York Times broke the story of Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexual abuse allegations and changed the world. The publication of their investigation spurred the #MeToo movement, with victims voicing allegations of systemic sexual harassment and abuse by hundreds of powerful men across every walk of life and industry.

Meet the reporters behind the groundbreaking expose and watch the feature film, “She Said,” based on their book of the same name.  The conversation with Kantor and Twohey will follow the movie screening. 

Carey Mulligan portrays Megan Twohey, and Zoe Kazan portrays Jodi Kantor in the film “She Said,”
based on the reporters’ book of the same name.

About Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

Jodi Kantor is a prize-winning investigative reporter and best-selling author whose work has revealed hidden truths about power, gender, technology, politics and culture. 

In October 2017, she and Megan Twohey broke the story of Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexual abuse allegations. Before then, Kantor’s reporting on the havoc caused by automated scheduling systems in Starbucks workers’ lives spurred changes at the company and helped launch a national fair scheduling movement. After she and David Streitfeld investigated publishing practices at Amazon’s corporate headquarters, the company changed its human resources policies, introducing paternity leave and eliminating its employee ranking.

Kantor is also a contributor to “CBS Mornings.” 

Megan Twohey is a prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times who has focused much of her attention on the treatment of women and children.

In addition to breaking the story of Harvey Weinstein, she uncovered an underground network where parents gave away adopted children they no longer wanted to strangers they met on the internet. Known as private re-homing, the illicit practice took place with no government oversight and at great risk to children. “The Child Exchange” series prompted states to pass new laws to protect children. Two of the main subjects were sent to prison. Twohey testified before a U.S. Senate committee.

While reporting in Chicago, Twohey exposed how police and prosecutors were shelving DNA evidence collected after sex crimes, robbing victims of the chance for justice. In response to her stories, Illinois passed the first state law mandating the testing of every rape kit. 

Twohey is also a contributor to NBC and MSNBC.

In addition to her work on “As the World Turns,” Landon has also appeared on several other NBC shows, including “The Night Shift” and “Chicago Med.” She has proven herself to be a versatile actress who is capable of portraying a wide range of characters, from tough and gritty to vulnerable and emotional. Overall, Jennifer Landon’s career has been closely tied to NBC, as she has appeared on several of the network’s most popular shows over the years. Her talent and dedication to her craft have made her one of the most respected actresses of her generation, and she continues to be a force to be reckoned with in the entertainment industry.

Co-sponsors:
College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Michigan Engineering
Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Wallace House Presents an Evening with Author Anna Quindlen

An evening with author Anna Quindlen
in conversation with Anne Curzan, dean of LSA

WRITE FOR YOUR LIFE
6 PM | Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022

Rackham Auditorium
915 Washington Street

Free and open to the public

This is an in-person event.

Best-selling author Anna Quindlen says recording our daily lives in an enduring form is more important than ever, urging us to pick up a pen and find ourselves. Join Anna Quindlen and Anne Curzan, LSA Dean and English Professor, for an in-person discussion about Quindlen’s book “Write for Your Life,” and learn how anyone can write and why everyone should.

About Anna Quindlen

Anna Quindlen is a novelist and journalist whose work has appeared on fiction, nonfiction, and self-help bestseller lists. She is the author of nine novels: Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue, Blessings, Rise and Shine, Every Last One, Still Life with Bread Crumbs, Miller’s Valley, and Alternate Side. Her memoir Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, published in 2012, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Her book A Short Guide to a Happy Life has sold more than a million copies. Her most recent books are Nanaville: Adventures in Grandparenting and Write For Your Life. While a columnist at The New York Times, she won the Pulitzer Prize and published two collections, Living Out Loud and Thinking Out Loud. Her Newsweek columns were collected in Loud and Clear. Quindlen is the recipient of our Richard M. Clurman Award for mentoring and has served as a Livingston Awards judge for Wallace House since 2009.

Anna Quindlen is a highly respected American journalist, essay writer, and opinion columnist who has been awarded numerous prizes for her writing, including a Pulitzer Prize. She is known for her insightful and poignant commentary on a wide range of topics, including family life, women’s issues, politics, and social justice.

Quindlen’s writing style is characterized by a clear and concise prose, a deep empathy for her subjects, and a commitment to social justice. She has a gift for capturing the complexity of human experience and the nuances of interpersonal relationships, making her writing both relatable and deeply affecting.

About Anne Curzan

Anne Curzan is the dean of the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the Geneva Smitherman Collegiate Professor of English Language and Literature, Linguistics, and Education, and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor. Her research focuses on the history of the English language, attitudes about language change, language and gender, and pedagogy. She has published multiple books and dozens of articles. She has also created the audio/video courses Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins and English Grammar Boot Camp for Great Courses. For six years, Professor Curzan wrote the blog Lingua Franca for the Chronicle of Higher Education.She is the featured expert on That’s What They Say, a weekly segment and podcast on Michigan Radio that explores our changing language, and serves on the Wallace House Executive Advisory Board.

Co-Sponsors

College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Department of English Language and Literature

Detroit Public Television
Literati Bookstore
Michigan Radio

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The 35th Graham Hovey Lecture with Scott Tong, host of NPR’s “Here & Now”

“China’s Paradox: Authoritarianism and Weakness”

September 15, 2022 | 5 p.m.
Reception following lecture

Wallace House Gardens
620 Oxford Road, Ann Arbor

Welcome remarks by Tabbye Chavous,
Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer

This event is in-person.

Watch the video recording.

Wallace House announces the return of our outdoor, in-person Graham Hovey Lecture

In 2013, longtime China correspondent Scott Tong came to the Knight-Wallace Fellowships to research China’s on-again, off-again ties with the global community and how it connected with his own family. The resulting book, “A Village with My Name: A Family History of China’s Opening to the World,” examines nationalism and globalization through the stories of five generations of Tongs. China’s openness to the western world delivered great benefits to the country yet came at a devasting human price during Mao’s communist rule. In the end, this openness made it possible for Tong to become an American journalist covering China.

Today, Beijing’s increasingly antagonistic relations with Washington and many advanced economies present a great risk to its own economy and high-tech development.

Now a co-host of NPR’s Here & Now Tong returns to Wallace House to deliver the 35th Graham Hovey Lecture and discuss Beijing’s increasing authoritarianism and international aggression and what it signals for its own future and that of globalization.

About the Speaker

Scott Tong is an author and the co-host of Here & Now, NPR’s midday news magazine, produced at WBUR. Previously he spent 16 years at Marketplace as Shanghai bureau chief and senior correspondent. As a 2014 Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, Tong explored comparative ecosystems, innovation and the history of China.

About the Graham Hovey Lecture

The annual Graham Hovey Lecture recognizes a Knight-Wallace journalist whose career exemplifies the benefits of a fellowship at the University of Michigan and whose ensuing work is at the forefront of our national conversations. The event is named for the late Graham Hovey, director of the fellowship program from 1980 to 1986 and a distinguished journalist for The New York Times.

 

This event is outdoors. Wallace House will follow the University of Michigan’s Covid protocol and guidelines for this in-person event.

Michigan Radio
Michigan Radio

Michigan Radio is a co-sponsor of this event.

The Eisendrath Symposium with Elena Milashina, Simon Ostrovsky and Ronald Suny

While the Russian invasion of Ukraine swiftly united NATO and western nations in condemning Putin, enacting sanctions and supplying defense weapons, there are growing cries for the U.S. and its NATO allies to do more militarily. Join Knight-Wallace journalists who have reported extensively from the region and a U-M policy expert as they examine Putin’s suppression of a free press, the call for direct military support, and the geopolitical, economic and humanitarian consequences of the growing conflict.

Elena Milashina is an award-winning senior investigative reporter for Novaya Gazeta, the acclaimed independent Russian news organization that recently ceased publication in response to threats of closure and imprisonment from the Putin regime. Simon Ostrovsky is a video journalist and filmmaker who reports for PBS NewsHour and The New York Times. Ronald Suny is a professor of history and political science at U-M and a senior researcher at the National Research University-Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Wallace House Director, Lynette Clemetson, will lead this discussion.

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

About the Speakers

Elena Milashina is a 2009-2010 Knight-Wallace Fellow and an investigative journalist “Novaya Gazeta,” Russia’s last remaining independent newspaper before it ceased publication in response to threats from the Putin regime. She investigates and brings to attention accounts of enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial executions, torture, and persecution of relatives of alleged insurgents, women’s rights in Chechnya and beyond. Milashina exposed a major crackdown on gay men in Chechnya in spring 2017, investigated the catastrophe of the Kursk submarine, and hostage crises in Moscow and Beslan. She has documented atrocities committed by both sides during the 2008 Russia-Georgia conflict and pressed for an end to impunity. She has repeatedly received death threats from the Chechen authorities. She is the recipient of Human Rights Watch’s Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism ad the International Women of Courage Award.

Simon Ostrovsky is a 2021-2022 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow. As a Special Correspondent for PBS NewsHour and an investigative journalist, he is best known for his coverage of the Crimea crisis and the war in eastern Ukraine for which he was nominated for two Emmys. He won a DuPont Award from Columbia University in 2015 for his “Selfie Soldiers” documentary, which tracked Russian soldiers in Ukraine through their social media posts, and an Emmy Award in 2014 as a producer of VICE on HBO. Ostrovsky has covered extensively the countries of the former Soviet Union, where he witnessed five revolutions and four wars. He has served as South Caucasus Bureau Chief for Agence France Presse and as an investigative reporter at CNN. His work also has appeared on the BBC and CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”

Ronald Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History and Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago.  The grandson of the composer and ethnomusicologist Grikor Mirzaian Suni and a graduate of Swarthmore College and Columbia University, he taught at Oberlin College (1968-1981), as visiting professor of history at the University of California, Irvine (1987), and Stanford University (1995-1996).  He also served as Senior Researcher at the National Research University, Higher School of Economics, Saint Petersburg (2014-2016).  He was the first holder of the Alex Manoogian Chair in Modern Armenian History at the University of Michigan (1981-1995), where he founded and directed the Armenian Studies Program. 

About the Moderator

Lynette Clemetson is the Charles R. Eisendrath Director of Wallace House, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists at the University of Michigan.

Thank you to our co-sponsors:

Knight Foundation

Michigan Radio

Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia

Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Detroit Public Television

PBS Books

Wallace House partners with Ford School for Speaker Series “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press”

Featured speakers from left to right include Molly Ball, Barton Gellman and Anne Applebaum

About the Series

U.S. democratic institutions are under attack. While law enforcement agencies and a Congressional committee still work to investigate the January 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol – political violence aimed at blocking or overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election – a wave of subsequent efforts have continued to seek to undermine the norms and structures that have given Americans basic confidence in elections and in the peaceful transfer of power. Meanwhile, from statehouses to the Supreme Court, bitter debates rage over voting rights, access, and security. The University of Michigan will host four award-winning journalists who will share their insights into the forces threatening and protecting American democratic structures and systems.

The series will also explore the current state of journalism and the role of the press in upholding democratic institutions–at a time of demagogic attacks on the media and dramatic shifts in media ownership and independence. The series begins with three events in March featuring Molly Ball, Barton Gellman, and Sarah Kendzior, and will culminate in a keynote lecture at the Michigan League by Pulitzer Prize winning author, journalist, and historian, Anne Applebaum, on April 4.

This speaker series is hosted by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Co-sponsored by Democracy & Debate, Wallace House, Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum, and Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation.


Molly Ball, “Democracy: What It Takes”

4:30 p.m. ET | Wednesday, March 9

Weill Hall, Betty Ford Classroom (1110)

735 S. State Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Watch the event

Join us for a discussion with two Knight-Wallace alumni. Hear from TIME National Political Correspondent and Molly Ball in conversation with longtime political writer Craig Gilbert to kick off the Spring 2022 Democracy in Crisis series.

This is an in-person event limited to current University of Michigan students, faculty, and staff. All attendees will be required to complete the ResponsiBlue screening before entering the building, and masks are required. Registration is required to attend.

The event will also be live-streamed for those outside of the university, or university members who choose not to attend in person. The live stream will appear on this page on the day of the event. Registration for the live stream is optional.

About the Event

The 2020 election, conducted in the shadow of an unprecedented pandemic and a president determined to sabotage the vote, laid bare how fragile America’s democratic institutions are. What did we learn from the weaknesses 2020 exposed? What efforts are underway to sabotage—and protect—the next national election? And how can we strengthen democracy going forward?

About the Speaker

A prominent voice on U.S. politics, Molly Ball serves as national political correspondent for Time and is a frequent television and radio commentator. She is the author of Pelosi, the first biography written with the House Speaker’s cooperation. Prior to joining Time, Ball was a staff writer covering U.S. politics for The Atlantic. She previously reported for Politico, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and the Las Vegas Sun. She has worked for newspapers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Cambodia, as well as The New York Times and The Washington Post. Ball is the recipient of the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency, the Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, and the Lee Walczak Award for Political Analysis for her coverage of political campaigns. A graduate of Yale University, she was a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan in 2009-2010 and serves on the Livingston Award judging panel.

About the Moderator

Craig Gilbert is the recently retired Washington Bureau Chief and national political reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He has covered every presidential campaign since 1988 and chronicled Wisconsin’s role as the nation’s most enduring political battleground. Gilbert has written extensively about the battle for the swing states of the industrial Midwest, the region’s shifting political map, its increasingly polarized political culture and the deepening urban-rural divide. His work has been recognized by Editor & Publisher, the National Press Foundation, the National Headliner Awards, the Milwaukee Press Club, and the Columbia Journalism Review, which called him the “most political science friendly reporter in America.” Gilbert was a Knight-Wallace fellow at the University of Michigan; a writer in residence at the University of Wisconsin, and is currently a Lubar Fellow at the Marquette Law School. Gilbert previously worked for the Miami Herald, the Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman and was a speechwriter for New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He has a B.A. in History from Yale University.


Barton Gellman, “Democracy in Crisis”

4:00 p.m. ET | Wednesday, March 23

Register now

Watch here

Join us for Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Barton Gellman in conversation with Michigan Law Professor from Practice Barbara McQuade, as part of the spring 2022 Democracy in Crisis series.

This is a virtual event.

About the Speaker

Barton Gellman, a staff writer at The Atlantic, is the author most recently of Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State and the bestselling Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency. He has held positions as senior fellow at The Century Foundation, Lecturer at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School and visiting research collaborator at Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy. Before joining The Atlantic, Gellman spent 21 years at The Washington Post, where he served tours as legal, diplomatic, military and Middle East correspondent. Gellman anchored the team that won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the National Security Agency and Edward Snowden. He was previously awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for a series on Vice President Dick Cheney. In 2002, he was a member of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for coverage of the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath. Other professional honors include two George Polk Awards, two Overseas Press Club awards, two Emmy awards for a PBS Frontline documentary, Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

About the Moderator

Barbara L. McQuade, BA ’87, JD ’91, is a professor from practice. Her interests include criminal law, criminal procedure, national security, data privacy, and civil rights. From 2010 to 2017, Professor McQuade served as the U.S attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Appointed by President Barack Obama, she was the first woman to serve in her position. Professor McQuade also served as vice-chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and co-chaired its Terrorism and National Security Subcommittee. As U.S. attorney, she oversaw cases involving public corruption, terrorism, corporate fraud, theft of trade secrets, civil rights, and health care fraud, among others. Professor McQuade also serves as a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Lawfare, Just Security, Slate, and National Public Radio, and she has been quoted in The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Politico, and other publications. Before becoming U.S. attorney, Professor McQuade served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit for 12 years, serving as deputy chief of the National Security Unit, where she handled cases involving terrorism financing, export violations, threats, and foreign agents. Professor McQuade began her career practicing law at the firm of Butzel Long in Detroit. Professor McQuade previously taught at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. Professor McQuade has been recognized by the Detroit Free Press with the Neal Shine Award for Exemplary Regional Leadership, The Detroit News with the Michiganian of the Year Award, Crain’s Detroit Business as a Newsmaker of the Year and one of Detroit’s Most Influential Women, the Detroit Branch NAACP and Arab American Civil Rights League with their Tribute to Justice Award, and the Council on Legal Education Opportunity with their Diversity Award.


Sarah Kendzior, “Hiding in Plain Sight”

4:30 p.m. ET | Thursday, March 31

Register Now

Sarah Kendzior, author of Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America, will be in conversation with Jonathan Hanson, political scientist and lecturer in statistics at the Ford School as part of the spring 2022 Democracy in Crisis series.

This is a virtual event. The event will have a live watch party in Weill Hall, Room 1110. A free copy of Sarah Kendzior’s book, Hiding in Plain Sight, will be provided for attendees at the viewing party on a first-come first-serve basis. Attendance at this watch party is limited to current University of Michigan students, faculty, and staff. All attendees will be required to complete the ResponsiBlue screening before entering the building, and masks are required. Registration is required to attend.

About the Speaker

Sarah Kendzior is a journalist who lectures on politics, the economy, and the media. Since 2006, she has regularly given talks and keynotes at universities and policy forums around the world. She is the author of the best-selling book The View From Flyover Country, which was re-released in 2018 after originally being published as an eBook in 2015 and becoming a bestseller the following year, and her new book Hiding in Plain Sight

Sarah Kendzior received her Ph.D. studying the authoritarian states of the former Soviet Union and has since put that expertise to use in explaining what is happening to the United States. Today she writes regularly for the Globe and Mail, NBC News, and Fast Company. She has over 350,000 followers on Twitter and is regularly interviewed by the media both in the US and abroad. In summer 2018, she launched the Gaslit Nation podcast with Andrea Chalupa. She is a recurring guest on the MSNBC show AM Joy, where she discusses corruption in the Trump administration as well as the Russian interference scandal.

Sarah Kendzior’s Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America pulls back the veil on a history spanning decades, a history of an American autocrat in the making. In doing so, she reveals the inherent fragility of American democracy – how our continual loss of freedom, the rise of consolidated corruption, and the secrets behind a burgeoning autocratic United States have been hiding in plain sight for decades.


Anne Applebaum, “Democracy in Crisis: The Twilight of Democracy”

4:00 p.m. ET | Monday, April 4

Michigan League Ballroom

911 N University Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Register Now

Pulitzer Prize winning historian, journalist and commentator Anne Applebaum delivers the keynote lecture of the Spring 2022 Democracy in Crisis series, in conversation with Ford School Dean Michael S. Barr.

This is an in-person event. All in-person attendees will be required to complete the ResponsiBlue screening before entering the building. Registration is required to attend.

The event will also be livestreamed for those who choose not to attend in-person. The livestream will appear on this page the day of the event. Registration is optional.

About the Speaker

Pulitzer Prize winning historian, journalist and commentator on geopolitics, Anne Applebaum, examines the challenges and opportunities of global political and economic change through the lenses of world history and the contemporary political landscape. Informed by her expertise in Europe and her years of international reporting, Applebaum shares perspectives on, and the far-reaching implications of, today’s volatile world events. In July 2020, Penguin published Anne’s book ‘Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism’. Anne was later named one of “The Top 50 Thinkers of the Covid-19 Age” by Prospect magazine. She is a Senior Fellow of International Affairs and Agora Fellow in Residence at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. For many years, Applebaum wrote a biweekly foreign affairs column for The Washington Post which is syndicated internationally. She is now a staff writer at The Atlantic.

Read Anne Applebaum’s current piece in The Atlantic on Russia’s war in Ukraine and why the world’s democratic powers must help Ukraine win.


Public Engagement 2021-2022

Wallace House teamed with partners across campus to bring conversations into the public spaces – both virtual and in-person. Thank you for joining us.

(L to R) Elena Milashina, Simon Ostrovsky and Ronald Suny

Wallace House Presents the Eisendrath Symposium with Elena Milashina, Simon Ostrovsky and Ronald Suny

Devastation in Ukraine and the Consequences of Engagement

April 18, Noon ET

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While the Russian invasion of Ukraine swiftly united NATO and western nations in condemning Putin, enacting sanctions and supplying defense weapons, there are growing cries for the U.S. and its NATO allies to do more militarily. Join Knight-Wallace journalists who have reported extensively from the region and a U-M policy expert as they examine Putin’s suppression of a free press, the call for direct military support, and the geopolitical, economic and humanitarian consequences of the growing conflict.

Elena Milashina is an award-winning senior investigative reporter for Novaya Gazeta, the acclaimed independent Russian news organization that recently ceased publication in response to threats of closure and imprisonment from the Putin regime. Simon Ostrovsky is a video journalist and filmmaker who reports for PBS NewsHour and The New York Times. Ronald Suny is a professor of history and political science at U-M and a senior researcher at the National Research University-Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Wallace House Director, Lynette Clemetson, will lead this discussion.

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

The Knight FoundationRonald and Eileen Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia (WCEE)Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES), Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and Michigan Radio are co-sponsors of this event. 

Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press

A special series featuring Molly Ball, Barton Gellman, Sarah Kendzior and Anne Applebaum

U.S. democratic institutions are under attack. While law enforcement agencies and a Congressional committee still work to investigate the January 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol – political violence aimed at blocking or overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election – a wave of subsequent efforts have continued to seek to undermine the norms and structures that have given Americans basic confidence in elections and in the peaceful transfer of power. Meanwhile, from statehouses to the Supreme Court, bitter debates rage over voting rights, access, and security.

The series will also explore the current state of journalism and the role of the press in upholding democratic institutions–at a time of demagogic attacks on the media and dramatic shifts in media ownership and independence.

March 9: Molly Ball, “Democracy: What It Takes”

March 23: Barton Gellman, “Democracy in Crisis” Virtual event

March 31: Sarah Kendzior, “Hiding in Plain Sight” Virtual event

April 4: Anne Applebaum, “Democracy in Crisis: The Twilight of Democracy” In-person event

This speaker series is hosted by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Co-sponsored by Democracy & Debate, Wallace House, Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum, and Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation.

Robin Wright Photo credit: April Brady/Project on Middle East Democracy

America’s Place in the Post-Afghanistan World

With Robin Wright, writer for The New Yorker and Jawad Sukhanyar, journalist and 2019 Knight-Wallace Fellow

4 p.m. ET | Wednesday, October 27

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What are the implications of the U.S. retreat from Afghanistan? Does it mark the “end of the American era?” What can the world community do for the thousands of Afghan refugees across the globe? How will the Taliban government treat women and Afghans who worked with Western organizations? Amid the continuing uncertainty, journalists Robin Wright and Jawad Sukhanyar will give their perspectives on the evolving situation, in conversation with Lynette Clemetson, Director of Wallace House.

 

Robin Wright has written for The New Yorker since 1988 as a contributing writer and columnist. Her first piece on Iran won the National Magazine Award for best reporting. A former correspondent for The Washington Post, CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, and The Sunday Times, she has reported from more than 140 countries. Wright is the author of several books. Her book, “Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World,” was selected as the best book on international affairs by the Overseas Press Club.

She received her bachelor of arts and masters’ degrees from the University of Michigan and was the first female sports editor for The Michigan Daily.

Jawad Sukhanyar, journalist and 2019 Knight-Wallace Fellow, was a reporter for The New York Times in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2019. He returned to Ann Arbor to join the university as a journalist-in-residence with the Donia Human Rights Center and the International Institute. This research fellowship, sponsored by Wallace House, will commence once Sukhanyar receives full clearance from U.S. resettlement and immigration officials. He will study the implication of the U.S. departure from Afghanistan and new rule under the Taliban.

Sukhanyar first came to the university in September 2018 as a Knight-Wallace Fellow, where he studied issues related to women’s rights in Afghanistan. Read more about Sukhanyar’s journey

This Policy Talks @ the Ford School event is co-sponsored by Wallace House and the Donia Human Rights Center.

Beth Fertig and Aisha Sultan

Covering 9/11: How the attacks shaped our world today

With Beth Fertig and Aisha Sultan

4 p.m. ET | September 9, 2021

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It’s been 20 years since the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the world we live in is still shaped in many ways by the events of that day. Join the Ford School and Wallace House for a special retrospective on 9/11 with journalists Beth Fertig of WNYC and Aisha Sultan, a nationally syndicated columnist, who has written about the U.S. Muslim experience, in a post-9/11, post-Trump America. Lynette Clemetson, Director of Wallace House, will moderate the conversation. 

Beth Fertig is a senior reporter at WNYC. She is currently covering New York City’s economic recovery from the pandemic. Since starting her career at WNYC in 1995, she has reported on immigration, public education, 9/11, and city politics. She has won many local and national awards.

Fertig is a New York City native who discovered her love for journalism at The Michigan Daily, her college newspaper at the University of Michigan. She also has a Master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. She is a frequent contributor to National Public Radio.

Aisha Sultan is a nationally syndicated columnist and award-winning filmmaker and features writer. Her work has run in more than a hundred publications. She has won several national honors, including the Asian American Journalists Association “Excellence in Written Journalism” award for her coverage of the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. Her work explores social change with an emphasis on education, families and inequality.  Sultan teaches college writing at Washington University. Her essay on being a Muslim in this country during 9/11 and the ensuing 20 years was published in the September 1, 2021 issue of Newsweek.

This conversation will be moderated by Lynette Clemetson, Director of Wallace House.

This event is a Josh Rosenthal Education Fund Lecture and part of the Policy Talks at The Ford School event series, co-sponsored by Wallace House. 


Inside The Cartel Project: The Power of Collaborative Investigative Journalism

With Laurent Richard, Dana Priest and Jorge Carrasco
Moderated by Lynette Clemetson

 

The Eisendrath Symposium on International Reporting

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

12:30 p.m. ET

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In 2012 Mexican journalist Regina Martinez was murdered in her home. She had been reporting on the links between drug cartels, public officials and thousands of individuals who had mysteriously disappeared. Eight years later, her investigations were published simultaneously around the world as The Cartel Project.

Forbidden Stories, a nonprofit newsroom created by Laurent Richard during his year as a Knight- Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, organized the project, secretly bringing together an international network of journalists dedicated to continuing the work of Martinez. Sixty reporters from 18 countries, followed her leads to expose a global network of Mexican drug cartels and their political connections around the world.

For a behind-the-scenes look at the global investigation, join the journalists who made it happen. Laurent Richard of Forbidden Stories, Dana Priest of The Washington Post and Jorge Carrasco, editor of Mexican news magazine Proceso, and a longtime friend of Regina Martinez, will share how collaborative journalism can keep alive the work of reporters who are silenced by threats, censorship or death.

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


More about The Cartel Project

About the speakers
Jorge Carrasco is a director of Proceso, an influential independent weekly in Mexico. Before joining Proceso 15 years ago, he was a reporter for El Economista and head of the UN Secretary General’s press office for Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

Dana Priest has been a national security and investigative reporter for The Washington Post for more than 30 years. She is the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes, an Emmy and two George Polk Awards, among other prizes. She is the author of two best-selling books and the Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Maryland.

Laurent Richard is a French award-winning documentary filmmaker, producer and founder of Forbidden Stories, a network of investigative journalists whose mission is to continue and publish the work of other journalists facing threats, prison, or murder. Richard was a 2017 Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, where he developed Forbidden Stories.

About the moderator
Lynette Clemetson is the Charles R. Eisendrath Director of Wallace House, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists at the University of Michigan.

About the translator
Ana Avila is an investigative journalist from Mexico, a 2020 Knight-Wallace Fellow and the current Marsh Visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Michigan.

Knight Foundation is a co-sponsor of this event.

Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

Michigan Radio is a co-sponsor of this event.