2018 Livingston Award Finalists Announced

 

The Livingston Awards for Young Journalists and the University of Michigan announce the 2018 finalists in local, national and international reporting. The finalists, selected from over 500 entries, will move to the final round of judging. The awards honor the best reporting and storytelling by journalists under the age of 35 across all forms of journalism.

The national judges will introduce the winners on June 6, 2018, at a New York City luncheon.

Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the University of Michigan to support the vital role of a free and independent press, the awards bolster the work of young reporters, create the next generation of journalism leaders and advance civic engagement around powerful storytelling. Other sponsors include the Indian Trail Charitable Foundation, the Mollie Parnis Livingston Foundation, Christiane Amanpour and Dr. Gil Omenn and Martha Darling.

“The exceptional work of the Livingston Awards finalists demonstrates the singular power of journalism to document and interpret the issues and events shaping our times. It is a privilege to recognize such a broad range of talented reporters, committed to bringing depth, nuance and truth to our understanding of the world.

The national judges will introduce the winners on June 6, 2018, at a New York City luncheon.

The Livingston Awards regional judges read all qualifying entries to select the finalists in local, national and international reporting. The regional judging panel includes: Raney Aronson-Rath, executive producer, “Frontline,” PBS; Molly Ball, national political correspondent, Time; Stella Chávez, education reporter, KERA Public Radio; Chris Davis, Vice-President of Investigative Journalism, Gannett; David Greene, host, “Morning Edition,” NPR; Stephen Henderson, host, “Detroit Today,” WDET; and Shirley Leung, columnist, The Boston Globe.

The Livingston Awards national judges review all finalist entries and select the winners. The national judges are Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent, CNNi and host, “Amanpour on PBS”; Ken Auletta, author and media and communications writer, The New Yorker; Dean Baquet, executive editor, The New York Times; John Harris, editor-in-chief and co-founder, Politico; Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune; Anna Quindlen, author; María Elena Salinas, host, “The Real Story with María Elena Salinas,” Investigation Discovery; Bret Stephens, op-ed columnist, The New York Times; and Kara Swisher, executive editor, Recode

Following are the 2018 finalists, for work produced in 2017. Links to their work here.

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Local Reporting

  • Evan Allen, Nicole Dungca and Jan Ransom, The Boston Globe
  • Bethany Barnes, The Oregonian/OregonLive
  • Neil Bedi, Jonathan Capriel, Anastasia Dawson and Kathleen McGrory, Tampa Bay Times
  • Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker
  • Lauren Caruba, San Antonio Express-News
  • Christopher Collins, The Texas Observer
  • Jose A. Del Real, The New York Times
  • Jonathan Edwards, The Virginian-Pilot
  • Mike Hixenbaugh and Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle
  • Vivian Ho, San Francisco Chronicle
  • Ed Mahon, York Daily Record/Sunday News
  • Tracy Mumford, Riham Feshir, Meg Martin, Minnesota Public Radio News
  • Tricia L. Nadolny, Philadelphia Media Network
  • Ese Olumhense, City Limits in partnership with The Investigative Fund
  • Maria Perez, Naples Daily News
  • Gregory Pratt, Chicago Tribune
  • Raven Rakia, The Intercept
  • Bigad Shaban, Michael Bott and Rachel Witte, NBC Bay Area (KNTV)
  • Joy Lukachick Smith and Joan Garrett McClane, Chattanooga Times Press
  • Stephen Stirling and S.P. Sullivan, NJ Advance Media (The Star-Ledger/NJ.com)

 National Reporting

  • Stan Alcorn, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX
  • Amy Brittain and Irin Carmon, The Washington Post
  • Brian Burnsed, Sports Illustrated
  • Alana Casanova-Burgess, “On the Media,” WNYC Radio
  • Eliana Dockterman, Haley Sweetland Edwards, Kaitlyn Emerson, Spencer Bakalar, Julia Lull and Diane Tsai, Time
  • Steve Dorsey, CBS News
  • Ronan Farrow, The New Yorker
  • Emmanuel Felton, The Hechinger Report/The Nation
  • Cat Ferguson, The Verge
  • Connie Fossi, Daniel Rivero, Laura Juncadella and Kristofer Rios, Fusion
  • Brian Freskos, The Trace
  • Damian Garde, STAT
  • Rachel Glickhouse, ProPublica
  • Henry Grabar, Slate
  • Amy Julia Harris and Shoshana Walter, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting
  • Sara Jerving, Vice News
  • Taylor Mirfendereski, KING 5
  • Brett Murphy, USA TODAY Network
  • Emily Steel and Michael S. Schmidt, The New York Times
  • John Woodrow Cox, The Washington Post
  • Jie Jenny Zou and Chris Young, The Center for Public Integrity

 International Reporting

  • Kimberly Brooks and Roberto Daza, Fusion Media Group
  • Mansi Choksi, Harper’s Magazine
  • Will Fitzgibbon, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
  • Susannah George, The Associated Press
  • Christina Goldbaum, The Daily Beast
  • May Jeong, In These Times
  • Jacob Kushner, Foreign Policy
  • Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times
  • Micah Loewinger, “On the Media,” WNYC Radio
  • Lizzie Presser, The California Sunday Magazine
  • Kenneth R. Rosen, The Atavist Magazine
  • Juliana Schatz Preston, Show of Force
  • Kevin Sieff, The Washington Post
  • Ben C. Solomon, The New York Times
  • Sushma Subramanian, Slate

More on the finalists and links to their work »

Choreographed Peace Summit in Korea

The lines were clearly drawn between North and South Korea during our visit to the Korean Demilitarized
Zone (DMZ) earlier this year. Much has changed since then but much remains to be seen.

To be a journalist often is to be the skunk at a garden party.

And I certainly felt my skunk-like tendencies kick into gear as I watched the beautifully choreographed Inter-Korean Summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on live TV.

The optics were no doubt powerful and emotional: on a sunny morning in late April, Kim Jong-un strolled up to the Military Demarcation Line that has divided the Korean peninsula for the last 65 years, reached across, and shook hands with President Moon. Then he stepped over the low curb that marks the border, shook hands again, and then took President Moon by the hand and stepped back over the border together onto North Korean soil.

It was undoubtedly a significant moment. The two heads of state later would emerge from their talks with plans to formally end the Korean War and work toward denuclearization. When I stood at roughly that same spot about 50 days earlier gazing into North Korea with other Knight-Wallace Fellows, the situation was much more tense. For months the world seemed on the brink of all-out war, with leaders on both sides making increasingly bellicose public statements.

So the sight of the two Korean leaders holding hands offered a much needed glimmer of hope in what had become a hopeless situation. For me as a Korean American, the idea of peace between the two Koreas is particularly powerful as every Korean family’s personal history is intertwined with painful reminders of those darkest days of the Korean War.

As I watched this historic event unfold on live TV, I knew this was a big deal. But the skunk in me couldn’t help but stink up the room.

What will denuclearization look like? What about the Kim regime’s blatant human rights abuses? What are Kim Jong-un’s true motives? This is, after all, the same man who reportedly had two of his senior officials executed in 2016 using an anti-aircraft gun, a weapon normally reserved, as the name suggests, for aircraft.

Yes, journalists can be party poopers. It’s why North Korea remains dead last on the annual World Press Freedom Index, which ranks nations according to the level of freedom available to journalists.

South Korea, on the other hand, has come a long way in promoting a free press. During our fellowship tour of the country, we had a private screening of the 2017 film “A Taxi Driver,” which depicted the 1980 Gwangju massacre, a horrific event in which South Korean soldiers and government-backed thugs murdered untold numbers of pro-Democracy demonstrators. The movie showed how news organizations were either silenced or complicit in spreading the government’s misinformation.

Fast forward 38 years and that same country has now surpassed the United States on the World Press Freedom Index.

While that’s a positive sign for South Koreans (and a really troubling one for Americans), it also goes to illustrate an important point: the distance between freedom and tyranny is often very short. It took Kim Jong-un only a few minutes to stroll forward into a world of press freedom that April morning; it took his limousine only a few seconds to ferry him back.

Throughout our tour, we learned that the South made great strides in building and strengthening democratic institutions since the ceasefire almost a lifetime ago. That’s good news. But the skunk in me thinks that the lesson for any democracy is that it’s always easier to tear down than to build.

Robert Yoon is a political journalist and the Howard R. Marsh Visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Michigan.

Korea Without Frilly Clothes

A highlight of the trip: revisiting my grandparents’
place in Seoul and digging up old photos that I didn’t
find as interesting on previous trips.
Photo submitted by Candice Choi

Staring at video of the Samsung chairman allegedly with prostitutes, I knew this trip to Korea would differ from my past visits.

The hidden camera footage was published by Newstapa, an investigative group formed in 2012. The newsroom was one of the first stops for the Knight-Wallace Fellows and signaled I’d be seeing the country from new perspectives.

My last trip to Seoul was more than 20 years ago, when I was in high school. Upon arriving for childhood visits, my conservative grandparents would take my brother and me shopping for stuffy clothes and make us wear them to a formal restaurant. The ritual made me see new clothing and the entire country of Korea as suffocatingly superficial.

Yet after learning the Fellows were headed to Korea, I grew excited about returning with a reporter’s mindset. I read up on modern Korean history and politics and began to see the country’s vibrancy.

Among our stops were a museum of antique Korean furniture, the taping of a K-pop TV competition, and a U.S. military base. We also went to the Demilitarized Zone, which jarringly played to tourists with cardboard cutouts of soldiers for photo ops while also reminding us of the peninsula’s tragic past.

Our visit would take on added significance weeks later, when the leaders of North and South Korea would meet at the same site to discuss denuclearization and perhaps formally ending the Korean War.

Back at the Newstapa office, our host was a young woman who left her job with the police force to become a reporter, inspired in part by the movie “Spotlight.” She wore a modern black hanbok that gave her an authoritative presence as she explained libel laws that allow journalists to be criminally charged.

Newstapa nevertheless published video that appears to show the Samsung chairman with prostitutes. Adding to the intrigue, the tapes were apparently obtained for blackmailing purposes before ending up with Newstapa.

It was ethically messy, making the decision to publish all the more daring.

Newstapa’s model of relying on reader donations is also provocative. The idea is to gain public support as an independent news source in a society where conglomerates have huge power. The approach is a challenge to news outlets around the world.

Outside newsrooms, some of the best moments were unscheduled, such as people watching on the subway and wandering alone on the striking campus of Ewha University. Over a late night coffee, a friend who works as a TV sports analyst explained his quest to emulate the argumentative style of New York sports radio. I laughed imagining a Korean version of “Mike and the Mad Dog.”

The highlight of the trip, though, was returning to my grandparents’ apartment, which was largely unchanged from my childhood. My grandfather died of stomach cancer years ago and my grandmother has Alzheimer’s disease, making it too late to ask about their pasts. But I dug out stacks of old photo albums I had never bothered looking at before.

The black-and-white images showed them in unfamiliar contexts – smiling on a train, mingling at a garden party, wandering down a Seoul alley. I realized how little I knew about their lives, which spanned Japanese colonialism, the Korean War and the country’s economic boon.

Growing up, I thought my grandparents were overly conservative and limited in their worldview, traits I chalked up to their Korean background. In the years since, I’ve come to see the immaturity of those judgments, a realization this trip helped underscore.

Candice Choi is a 2018 Knight-Wallace Fellow and Food Industry Writer for the Associated Press (New York, N.Y.).

China’s Soft Power: Understanding Beijing’s Growing Worldwide Influence

Louisa Lim, Mark Magnier and Dayo Aiyetan

Knight-Wallace Fellows Louisa Lim, Mark Magnier and Dayo Aiyetan at the Eisendrath Symposium

March 20, 2018 | 3 p.m.
Rackham Amphitheatre, fourth floor
915 Washington Street, Ann Arbor

Watch the discussion
Have a question about the topic? Tweet using #WallaceHouse.

 

 

On stage with the foreign correspondents of Wallace House
China’s move to change the constitution, allowing President Xi Jinping to remain in power, could have a major impact on its global influence. A panel of Knight-Wallace international journalists examines China’s growing clout and how this power is being deployed around the world, with implications for media, academia and the entertainment industry. Is Beijing already influencing what we read and watch or are fears of its influence overblown?

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

 

About the Speakers
Dayo Aiyetan is a 2018 Knight-Wallace Fellow,  investigative reporter and founder and executive director of the International Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news agency in Abuja, Nigeria. In this role, he has trained more than 100 reporters, aiming to promote a culture of data-driven accountability journalism in Nigeria.

Louisa Lim is a 2014 Knight-Wallace Fellow and the author of “The People’s Republic of Amnesia; Tiananmen Revisited.” She reported from China for a decade for NPR and the BBC. She is now a senior lecturer in Audio Visual Journalism at the University of Melbourne and the co-host of the “Little Red Podcast,” a monthly podcast focusing on China beyond the Beijing beltway.

Mark Magnier is a 2018 Knight-Wallace Fellow and the Beijing-based China economics editor for The Wall Street Journal, where he oversees coverage of the world’s second-largest economy and its seismic impact on Chinese society and the rest of the world. Previously, he served as bureau chief in New Delhi, Beijing and Tokyo for the Los Angeles Times.

 

About the Moderator
Mary Gallagher is a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, where she is also the director of the Center for Chinese Studies, and a faculty associate at the Center for Comparative Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research. Her research areas are Chinese politics, comparative politics of transitional and developing states, and law and society.

 

Free and open to the public.

For questions about the event email: [email protected]

This event is produced with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Michigan Radio is a co-sponsor of the event.

Wallace House Presents Bret Stephens of The New York Times

Bret Stephens
Bret Stephens, New York Times columnist

“Free Speech and the Necessity of Discomfort”

February 20, 2018 | 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre
University of Michigan
911 N. University Avenue
Free and open to the public

View video »

Join the conversation

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens calls disagreement “the most vital ingredient of any decent society.” Being able to reasonably take issue with an asserted stance or belief, he argues, enlarges our perspectives and energizes our progress. Shutting down disagreeable speech does more to imperil our principles than uphold them. Yet in this era of coarse polarization, the art of thoughtful disagreement has given way to hostile close-mindedness. And tolerance is often misinterpreted as the absence of discomfort.

Join Bret Stephens and Wallace House for a provocative discussion on the role of social and personal discomfort in education and its necessity in a functional democracy.

About the Speaker

Bret L. Stephens joined The New York Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2017. He came to The Times after a long career with The Wall Street Journal, where he was deputy editorial-page editor and, for 11 years, foreign affairs columnist. Before that, he was editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post. At The Post he oversaw the paper’s news, editorial and digital operations and its international editions, and also wrote a weekly column. He has reported from around the world and interviewed scores of world leaders.

Stephens is a Livingston Awards national judge. Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, he is the author of “America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder.” He was raised in Mexico City and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and a master of science from the London School of Economics. He lives in New York and Hamburg, Germany.

For questions about the event email: [email protected]

Co-sponsored by U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.
This is a U-M 2018 series event “Speech and Inclusion: Recognizing Conflict and Building Tools for Engagement.”

Wallace House Presents NPR’s Joshua Johnson and “1A”

Joshua Johnson in 1A's studio
Joshua Johnson, host of NPR’s daily program “1A”

“Speak Freely: Debating the First Amendment in a Changing America”

February 15, 2018 | 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Rackham Auditorium
915 E. Washington Street
Free and open to the public

Watch the video»

Experience the Show

Join Wallace House and Michigan Radio for a special event with NPR’s daily talk show, “1A.” Joshua Johnson and his panel of guests will examine the First Amendment, free speech and what it means in a divided America. The discussion is of particular urgency and value, as the debate over allowing white supremacist Richard Spencer to speak at universities, including our own, rages across college campuses.  Come and participate in the national conversation, meet the production team and experience the show.

About “1A”

“1A” is an NPR daily radio program. Host, Joshua Johnson, convenes a national conversation about the most important issues of our time. The show takes a deep and unflinching look at America, bringing context and insight to stories unfolding across the country and the world. The program, production of WAMU in Washington, D.C., airs on more than 200 NPR stations and can be heard on Michigan Radio every Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to noon.

About Joshua Johnson

Joshua Johnson is host of “1A,” one of the most important daily conversations in America. Before joining “1A” at WAMU, he co-created and hosted the provocative nationwide public radio series, “Truth Be Told,” which explored race in America. Johnson also taught podcasting at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. He is an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists. Johnson began his public radio career helping launch a unique regional news partnership between Miami’s NPR station, WLRN, and The Miami Herald. Then he served for over five years as morning news host for KQED in San Francisco.

“2018 Speech and Inclusion: Recognizing Conflict for Building Tools for Engagement” Series

The series invites students, faculty and staff to openly discuss, listen and engage with differing views on free speech and to advocate for voices that have historically been silenced – important issues that continue to challenge both our campus and the nation.

Sponsored by several U-M units and part of overall Diversity, Equity & Inclusion efforts on campus, this series of events explores how views about speech and inclusion play out in politics, culture, higher education, sports and journalism, and how to engage in productive conversation that can promote a positive campus environment and help the community more deeply understand these complicated issues.

For questions about the event email: [email protected]

This is a U-M 2018 series event “Speech and Inclusion: Recognizing Conflict and Building Tools for Engagement.”

Michigan Radio is a co-sponsor.

The Livingston Lectures with Brooke Jarvis

Brooke Jarvis, Ann Lin and Jason De Leon

“Beyond the Wall:
The Human Toll of Border Crossings”

January 31, 2018 | 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Annenberg Auditorium

Free and open to the public
Reception with speakers following the event.
Watch the discussion »

A Conversation with Brooke Jarvis, Ann Lin and Jason De León

In the public debate over immigration policy, the mortal toll of border crossings are too often faceless statistics. A Livingston Award-winning journalist, a MacArthur Genius and anthropologist, and a U-M public policy expert will share the stories and findings behind immigration statistics and discuss the complexities, ramifications and human lives that are involved in clandestine migration.

About the Speakers

Brooke Jarvis is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and The California Sunday Magazine. Her work has been anthologized in “The Best American Science and Nature Writing” and her story about working for a year at a remote leper colony in Hawaii was included in the collection “Love and Ruin.” Jarvis received the 2017 Livingston Award for national reporting for her feature story “Unclaimed,” the story of an anonymous man, an undocumented immigrant kept alive by machines for nearly 17 years in a San Diego hospital, and the networks of immigrant families that search for their missing loved ones.

Jason De León is an associate professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan and director of the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP). His research interests include theories of violence, materiality, death and mourning, Latin American migration, crime and forensic analyses, and archaeology of the contemporary. De León was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2017.

About the Moderator

Ann Lin is Associate Professor of Public Policy in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She teaches courses on public policy implementation, gender and politics, qualitative research methods and immigration. Lin is currently studying potential immigration policies and the beliefs of American immigrants with a special focus on Arab Americans.

This Livingston Lecture event is co-sponsored by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the International Policy Center.

This Livingston Lecture event is produced with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Figure it out – Apply for a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan

Now is the fight time to apply for a Fellowship
Mosi Secret 16′ explains how a Knight-Wallace Fellowship
changed his life both personally and professionally.

Mosi Secret, Knight-Wallace Fellows Class of 2016, shares on Medium how his Fellowship year changed the trajectory of his professional life and how it impacted his personal life.

He explains why he left his job as a reporter for The New York Times, a position that for many represents the pinnacle of American journalism. 

He discusses how it felt walking away from his comfortable life in New York in pursuit of what he describes as an ill-defined dream. Secret maintains that his time at the University of Michigan was the beginning of a march toward a deeper and more sustainable sense of happiness and professional satisfaction.

“If you’re thinking of changing your life and career,” said Secret, “there’s no time like the present. Apply.” Learn more what about what attracted him to the program.

The Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists at the University of Michigan are accepting applications from U.S. applicants for the 2018-19 academic year. We’re looking for accomplished, mid-career journalists eager for growth and deeply committed to the future of journalism. The deadline to apply is February 1, 2018.

Read Mosi Secret’s reflection on his fellowship year on Medium.

 

Mosi Secret was a member of the Knight-Wallace Fellows Class of 2016. He is an independent journalist based in Brooklyn, NY.  Find out more about what Mosi Secret has been doing post-Fellowship.

Molly Ball Appointed to the Livingston Awards Judging Panel

 

Molly Ball
Molly Ball, National Political Correspondent
for Time

Wallace House is pleased to announce the addition of award-winning political reporter and Knight-Wallace alum, Molly Ball, to the Livingston Awards’ judging panel.

A prominent voice on U.S. politics, Ball serves as National Political Correspondent for TIME, covering the Trump administration, the national political climate, personalities, policy debates, and campaigns across America. She is also a political analyst for CNN and frequent television and radio commentator.

“Molly Ball brings a keen, intuitive eye and astute sensibility to everything she approaches,” says Lynette Clemetson, Wallace House director. “We are pleased to have her join us as a Livingston Awards regional judge. It is especially meaningful that Molly was a Knight-Wallace Fellow with a deep connection to our mission. We look forward to all she will add to our collegial and dedicated group of judges.”

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 Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism and the Lee Walczak Award for Political Analysis for her coverage of political campaigns.

“Molly Ball brings a keen, intuitive eye and astute sensibility to everything she approaches,” says Lynette Clemetson, Wallace House director.

A graduate of Yale University, she was a 2009-2010 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. Ball grew up in Idaho and Colorado. She lives in Virginia with her husband and three children.

The regional judges read all qualifying entries and select the finalists in local, national and international reporting categories. In addition to Ball, the regional judging panel includes: Stella Chávez, education reporter, KERA public radio (Dallas); Chris Davis, Vice President of Investigative Journalism, Gannett; David Greene, host, “Morning Edition,” NPR; Stephen Henderson, host, “Detroit Today,” WDET; Shirley Leung, columnist, The Boston Globe; and Raney Aronson-Rath, executive producer, “Frontline,” PBS.

The Livingston Awards national judges review all final entries and meet to select the winners in local, national and international reporting. The national judging panel includes: Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent, CNN, and host of “Amanpour on PBS,” PBS; Ken Auletta, media and communications writer, The New Yorker; Dean Baquet, executive editor, The New York Times; John Harris, editor-in-chief and co-founder, POLITICO; Clarence Page, syndicated columnist; Anna Quindlen, author; María Elena Salinas, host, “The Real Story with María Elena Salinas,” Investigation Discovery; Bret Stephens, op-ed columnist, The New York Times; and Kara Swisher co-founder and executive editor of Recode.

The Livingston Awards is now accepting entries for 2017 work. Entry deadline in February 1, 2018.

An MLK Symposium Event with Lydia Polgreen

Lydia Polgreen
Lydia Polgreen, editor-in-chief of HuffPost and 2009 Livingston Award winner

“Who Gets to Define American Values”
with Lydia Polgreen

January 16, 2018 | 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Rackham Amphitheatre
University of Michigan
915 E. Washington Street
Free and open to the public

View video »

Join the conversation

Is kneeling during the national anthem a show of disrespect or a display of patriotism? Is extending a welcome to immigrants and refugees central to American ideals or a threat to them? Is the Confederate flag a symbol of heritage or racism? The social, cultural and political fabric of the country is increasingly torn by uncivil debates about the essence of American values. Lydia Polgreen, editor-in-chief of HuffPost and 2009 Livingston Award winner, will discuss the vital role of journalism and a free press in a thriving democracy and its responsibility in the current populist moment.

Fresh off the Listen to America road trip, a 25-city bus tour to engage with people and communities that feel left out of dominant national narratives, Polgreen will address the legacy and current relevance of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and engage the audience in a conversation about voice, power and participation in civil society.

About the Speaker

Polgreen was named editor-in-chief of HuffPost in December 2016 after spending nearly 15 years at The New York Times. There she led an initiative to expand its audience outside the United States, with an initial focus on Latin America. Previously, she was Deputy International Editor, South Africa bureau chief, correspondent for the New Delhi bureau and chief of the West Africa bureau. Before joining The Times, Polgreen was a reporter in Florida and New York state. She began her career as assistant editor and business manager for The Washington (D.C.) Monthly.

Polgreen was a 2006 recipient of the George Polk Award for foreign reporting. She received the 2009 Livingston Award for international reporting for her series, “The Spoils,” an account of how mineral wealth brought misery and exploitation to much of Africa. In 2007, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

 

For questions about the event email: [email protected]

This is a 2018 Annual U-M Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium event.

Co-sponsored by the Department of History, Department of American Culture and Department of English Language and Literature.