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

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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: WallaceHouseEvents@umich.edu

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: WallaceHouseEvents@umich.edu

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.

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

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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: WallaceHouseEvents@umich.edu

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.

Taking Wallace House to the Public

 

Lydia Polgreen, Brooke Jarvis, Joshua Johnson and Bret Stephens
Wallace House campus events include public engagements with Lydia Polgreen, Brooke Jarvis, Joshua Johnson and Bret Stephens

 

Anyone who has spent time in Wallace House knows that, as an organization that supports the work of journalists, we are also defenders of free speech. It is a fundamental belief evidenced in the irreverent caricatures of politicians that ring our living room and the wide array of provocative books and periodicals that fill our library. It is a proclamation painted in the washroom just off the foyer, in black block letters, a central tenet impossible to ignore – even in the smallest room in the house: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

That sentence, penned by the English writer Evelyn Beatrice Hall in a 1906 biography of the French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire, is commonly referenced in defense of free speech. For journalists, it serves as a dramatic restatement of basic rights laid out in the First Amendment, that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…”

At a time when that foundational right is being challenged and reexamined, it is all the more important to articulate its significance. Wallace House is working to do just that, through public events aimed at highlighting the vital role of journalism to document, interpret, analyze and investigate the forces shaping society.  

By moving journalism away from devices and distractions and into public spaces, we aim to close the gap between an increasingly indifferent public and the reporters taking stock of our times. In this era of echo chambers, we feel called to actively foster civil discourse across profound gulfs of mistrust and cynicism.

For journalists, a free press is inextricably bound to the broader principle of freedom of speech, a principal that is most critical to defend when it is inconvenient and difficult to stomach. Our winter 2018 events will tackle that complexity head on, with prominent speakers from NPR, The New York Times and HuffPost.

We’ll encourage audiences to wrestle with how the American ideal accommodates and protects both Colin Kaepernick and Richard Spencer. We’ll examine the continuum from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s long arc of the universe to hashtag revolutions and crowd-sourced justice. And we’ll elevate important stories subsumed by fast-paced news cycles, from the unseen tragedies of border crossings to the global implications of China’s expanding soft power.

Such tough discussions are regular fodder for the journalists who come through the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards, the truth-seekers and tellers who think, work and interact within our Wallace House walls. It’s pressing now that we move those conversations out into the open, to forums that prompt wider-reaching debate. Free speech and a free press, after all, are rights too precious to take for granted.

We hope you will mark these events on your calendar, share them with friends and join us.  

1/16/18 | “Who Gets to Define American Values?” with Lydia Polgreen of HuffPost

1/31/18 | “Beyond the Wall: The Human Toll of Border Crossings” with Brooke Jarvis, Livingston Award winner

2/15/18 | “Speak Freely: Debating the First Amendment in a Changing America” a special event with NPR’s daily news program “1A” and host Joshua Johnson

2/20/18 | “Free Speech and the Necessity of Discomfort” with Bret Stephens of The New York Times

3/20/18 | “China’s Soft Power” The Eisendrath Symposium on International News

Information on times, venues and speaker details can be found on our event pages.

Lynette Clemetson is Director of Wallace House, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards at the University of Michigan. She is a 2010 Knight-Wallace Fellow.

Wallace House Presents Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Fahrenthold

David Fahrenthold
David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post

“Trump, Twitter and Fake News: How Journalists Can Build Credibility by Opening Up Their Work” with David Fahrenthold

October 26, 2017 | 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre

View Video »

 

 

How should the press adapt when those in power use the epithet “fake news” to attack real reporting? Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post, offers suggestions for both reporters and news consumers on navigating this new era. He will discuss how journalists can open up their own reporting process through social media, show the public the work that underlies their stories and invite readers in as collaborators. He shares how reporters and readers can avoid passing on actual fake news, by examining the news sources and the individual stories that they read, especially those stories and sources that confirm their own views of the world.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Fahrenthold used social media to follow-up on Donald Trump’s pledge to donate money to veterans groups. Posting his reporter’s notes on Twitter to solicit leads, Fahrenthold uncovered Trump’s questionable charitable practices and found no evidence that Trump donated money to veterans groups as he’d claimed. Fahrenthold was also the first reporter to reveal the existence of the “Access Hollywood” 2005 video in which Trump bragged about groping women. For his series of stories, Fahrenthold won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.

A graduate of Harvard, Fahrenthold has been at The Washington Post since 2000. There he reports on President Trump’s businesses and conflicts of interest. He previously covered the police in Washington, D.C., the environment, New England, Congress and the federal bureaucracy for the paper.

This event is co-sponsored by Communication Studies, the Department of English Language and Literature and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

The 32nd Graham Hovey Lecture

“Piercing the Bubble: Politics, Media and America’s Prosperity Gap” with Alec MacGillis

September 14, 2017

Wallace House Gardens
620 Oxford Road, Ann Arbor

Watch the video recording.

Alec MacGillis, political reporter for ProPublica and 2011 Knight-Wallace Fellow will deliver the 32nd Graham Hovey Lecture. He will address income inequality in the U.S. and the perilous implications of winner-take-all cities and left-behind places.

His reporting and analysis of blue collar voters in the 2016 presidential election earned him the 2017 Polk Award for National Reporting and the 2017 Scripps-Howard Award.  This work included his piece, “Revenge of the Forgotten Class,” which was published the morning after the election and drove much of the post-election conversation. His recent investigation for ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine titled “Jared Kushner’s Other Real Estate Empire,” exposed the disreputable landlord practices of the president’s son-in-law and advisor.

MacGillis is also the recipient of the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting. He is the author of “The Cynic,” a biography of Senator Mitch McConnell.

MacGillis was previously a senior editor at The New Republic and a national reporter for The Washington Post. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The New York Times Magazine.

He earned a B.A. in history and English from Yale University. As a Knight-Wallace Fellow in 2010-2011, MacGillis studied income inequality. His subsequent reporting examined the culprits and costs of this issue with stories ranging from the influence of corporations on public policy to the disruption of Democratic Party strongholds.

The annual 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 national conversation. 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.

Welcome remarks by Liz Barry, Special Counsel to the President.

A reception followed the lecture.

Watch the video recording.

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An IRE Event with 2017 Livingston Winners

Taub, Jarvis, Chavez

From the human toll of border crossings to Assad’s authorization of mass killings: Exploring Livingston Award winning stories with the Knight Foundation

June 22, 2017 | 5 – 6 p.m.
Grand Canyon 9-10, first floor
JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa
5350 East Marriott Drive
Phoenix, Arizona

 

 

IRE conference attendees can meet the 2017 Livingston Award winners and learn how these reporters transformed their story ideas into award-winning investigations. From tracking down sources to crafting narratives, they will examine ways to dig deeper and tell powerful stories.

Speakers:

  • Panelist: Brooke Jarvis, 2017 Livingston Award winner for “Unclaimed,” from The California Sunday Magazine, an investigative narrative about an unidentified migrant bed-bound in a San Diego hospital for 16 years and the networks of immigrant families searching for their missing loved ones.
  • Panelist: Ben Taub, 2017 Livingston Award winner for “The Assad Files,” from The New Yorker, an investigative feature exposing a complex, dangerous operation to capture top-secret documents that link mass torture and killings in Syria to the highest levels of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime..
  • Moderator: Stella Chavez, Livingston Awards judge and 2007 Livingston winner, for “Yolanda’s Crossing,” an investigation into a sexually-abused Mexican girl abducted and smuggled across the U.S. border.

This event is presented by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
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.

Leaks, Whistleblowers and Big Data: Collaborative Journalism Across Borders

Obermayer, Guevara, Richard Perrin

 

Wallace House Presents the investigative journalists behind The Panama Papers and Luxembourg Leaks at the inaugural Eisendrath Symposium

February 20, 2017 | 3 p.m.
Rackham Amphitheatre, fourth floor
915 Washington Street, Ann Arbor

Event is free and open to the public.

 Watch the full video of the event.

 

A panel of Knight-Wallace Fellows and the deputy director for The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) will share their stories about the biggest data leaks in history, the establishment of global networks for investigative reporters and the seismic impact of collaborative journalism.

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

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

Will Potter, a 2016 Knight-Wallace Fellow and Marsh Professor of Journalism at the University of Michigan, will moderate the discussion.

Panelists:

  • Bastian Obermayer is a 2017 Knight-Wallace Fellow and deputy head of the investigative unit for Süddeutsche Zeitung, the largest national daily newspaper in Germany. He is the reporter initially contacted by the anonymous source of The Panama Papers. Obermayer is also the author of several books, the most recent of which is the story of The Panama Papers.
  • Marina Walker Guevara is the deputy director of The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). A native of Argentina, she has reported from a half-dozen countries and her investigations have won more than 25 national and international awards. Walker Guevara managed some of journalism’s most consequential investigations on global corruption including The Panama Papers, which involved more than 370 reporters from 107 media organizations in 76 countries. Other investigations include Swiss Leaks, Luxembourg Leaks and Offshore Leaks.
  • Edouard Perrin was a 2016 Knight-Wallace Fellow and is a documentary investigative reporter for Premières Lignes Télévision in Paris. He is the reporter who revealed Luxembourg’s secret tax deals with major international corporations in 2012, the story that morphed into Luxembourg Leaks. He produced two documentaries on the topic, earning him several awards and a criminal indictment in Luxembourg. Acquitted in June 2016, Luxembourg appealed the initial decision and retried Perrin in December 2016. A new verdict is expected on March 15, 2017.
  • Laurent Richard is a 2017 Knight-Wallace Fellow, investigative journalist and editor-in-chief of Premières Lignes, a television production and news agency based in Paris. He oversaw Premières Lignes Télévision’s coverage of the Luxembourg Leaks in 2014. Richard is currently developing a collaborative journalism network devoted to publishing the work of reporters who are threatened, jailed or killed.

Michigan Radio is a co-sponsor of the event.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
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.

 

 

Covering Trump: The Presidency and the Press in Turbulent Times

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December 2, 2016 

4:00 to 5:30 p.m. 

B1580 Blau Hall
Ross School of Business

Event is free and open to the public

A panel of national journalists and a political science expert will offer analysis about the presidential election and the tempestuous aftermath during a public discussion at the University of Michigan.

The focus will be on criticism of the media, what journalists, pollsters and political experts missed, and the path forward in covering an unprecedented presidency and divided country.

Lynette Clemetson, director of Wallace House at U-M, said it is important to hear from reporters who have covered the presidential election from the beginning.

“It is even more important to turn our attention to what comes next,” Clemetson said. “We are entering uncharted waters. As much as news organizations need to to examine their coverage priorities, news consumers need to become astute in assessing the flood of information coming at them and the role and function of a free press in society.”

The panel includes alumni of the U-M Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists who covered the campaign and will report on the transition, as well as a former Livingston Awards winner and a U-M expert who follows elections and voting behavior.

Panelists:

● Craig Gilbert is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Washington bureau chief and author of “The Wisconsin Voter” political blog. He has covered every presidential campaign since 1988 and has written extensively about the electoral battle for the swing states of the industrial Midwest. Gilbert was a 2010 Knight-Wallace Fellow.

● Vincent Hutchings, U-M professor of political science, is an expert on public opinion, elections and voting behavior. He studies demographic change and its effect on voting behavior and how campaign communications are designed to appeal to various group identities.

● Tracy Jan is a national political reporter who covered the campaign for The Boston Globe. She focused primarily on the GOP, including Christian evangelicals, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. This month, she joins The Washington Post to develop a new beat on the intersection of race and the American economy. Jan was a 2015 Knight-Wallace Fellow.

● Laura Meckler is a staff writer with The Wall Street Journal where she covered the Democratic presidential primary and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. She has reported on presidential politics, the White House, changing American demographics, immigration and health care. In 1999, she received a Livingston Award for national reporting.

● Katie Zezima is a political reporter for The Washington Post where she covered the Obama White House years. She chronicled the campaigns of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Texas Senator Ted Cruz from start to finish and before switching to enterprise reporting on social issues riling the election in its final months. Zezima was a 2012 Knight-Wallace Fellow.

Jon Morgan, an editor in the Washington bureau of Bloomberg News since 2010, will serve as moderator. He was a 2001 Knight-Wallace Fellow.

The event is being presented by Wallace House and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts.

Watch video of the event»