Nieman Foundation announces U.S., International Fellows for 2007-08

Thirty U.S. and international journalists have recently been named to the 70th class of Nieman Fellows at Harvard University.

Established in 1938, the Nieman program is the oldest midcareer fellowship for journalists in the world. The fellowships are awarded to working journalists of “accomplishment and promise” for an academic year of study at the University. More than 1,200 journalists from 88 countries have studied at Harvard as Nieman Fellows.

The U.S. journalists in the 2007-08 Nieman class, including their areasof interest, are as follows:

Alicia Anstead, Bangor Daily News, Maine, will study the imaginative, political, and historical underpinnings of art in a consumer culture. Anstead is the Arts & Culture Nieman Fellow.

Gaiutra Bahadur, a freelance journalist who has written for the Philadelphia Inquirer, will study the consequences of globalization for developing countries, particularly as it relates to migration and poverty levels. Bahadur is the Louis Stark Fellow, which honors the memory of The New York Times reporter who was a pioneer in the field of labor reporting.

Joshua Benton, staff reporter, Dallas Morning News, will explore the impact of school rating systems, like No Child Left Behind, and their impact on classroom instruction and the effects they can have on the way schools operate.

James Causey, night city editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, will study the marketing/advertising strategies of the hip-hop industry and examine their impact on America’s central cities and cities throughout the world.

Kate Galbraith, freelance correspondent, who has written for The Economist, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe, will study how government policy fosters or impedes the development of alternative-energy technologies such as solar power or biofuels.

Christine Gorman, science reporter and Time magazine contributor, will study how the basic primary health care infrastructure in poor countries develops and how efforts to train and retrain the people responsible are undertaken. Gorman is a Nieman Fellow in Global Health Reporting.

Joan Martelli, producer, ABC News in New York, will study the increasing friction between Muslim and Christian societies throughout the world, with a specific focus on women and children in those societies.

Jenifer McKim, reporter, Orange County Register, will study the problem of child prostitution and the related issues of gender, family, and sexuality that put young women at risk.

Andrew Meldrum, correspondent, The Guardian and Observer, United Kingdom, will study the role of the press in Zimbabwe and South Africa to assess how effective the press has been in holding nationalist parties to their pledges of good governance and improved living standards.

Dean Miller, executive editor, The Post Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho, will study the role of faith and pluralism in American communities. Miller is the Donald W. Reynolds Nieman Fellow in Community Journalism.

Mary Newsom, associate editor, The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, N.C., will study what lies ahead for cities and metro regions and the media that help provide a sense of identity and a shared sense of mission to these communities.

Olivera Perkins, staff reporter, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, will study the racial implications of urban sprawl, how policy decisions affect racially segregated housing patterns, and what role those decisions play in high urban foreclosure rates.

Dan Vergano, science reporter, USA Today, will study the troubled marriage of science and society as it relates to the debate about stem cell research, evolutionary biology, and climate change.

Stuart Watson, investigative reporter, WCNC-TV, Charlotte, N.C., will study criminal sentencing inequities and factors influencing the disparities in criminal sentencing to gain a better understanding of the connections between crime and punishment.

Walter Watson, senior supervising producer, National Public Radio, Washington, D.C., will study how the new media will affect communities that lack access to the changing way news and information are delivered.

The international journalists in the 2007-08 Nieman class, including their areas of interest, are as follows:

Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi (Iraq), reporter, The New York Times-Baghdad bureau, will study human rights law and transitional justice in postwar and postauthoritarian societies as well as examine the role that Islam plays in establishing human rights laws. Razzaq al-Saiedi is the Ruth Cowan Nash Nieman Fellow.

Ran An (China), medical reporter, China Newsweek, will study emerging public health issues resulting from economic development and how the international community cooperates with developing countries to solve public health issues. An is a Nieman Fellow in Global Health Reporting.

Iason Athanasiadis (Greece), freelance reporter working in Iran, will study the politics and economies of Central Asia and explore Third World economic development and the future of energy markets. Athanasiadis is the Carroll Binder Nieman Fellow.

James Baxter (Canada), editorial writer, Edmonton Journal, Canada, will study the legal, economic, and foreign policy questions arising from increased international focus on how humans affect the environment, with an emphasis on how Canadian governments will deal with those questions. Baxter is the Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellow.

Ayelet Bechar (Israel), freelance filmmaker, will study how the Arab world views Palestinians who are citizens of Israel and examine the issues surrounding Israeli immigration policy. Bechar is the Robert Waldo Ruhl Nieman Fellow.

Andres Cavelier (Colombia), multimedia manager, El Nuevo Herald, Miami, will study how U.S. and Latin American media, especially online operations, increasingly impact the more than 41 million Hispanics living in the United States and their families overseas. Cavelier is a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Latin American Nieman Fellow.

Melanie Gosling (South Africa), environmental reporter, The Cape Times, will study the nature of the global economy and its role in developing countries, especially its effect on the environment and human development. This fellowship is supported by the Nieman Society of Southern Africa.

Aboubakr Jamai (Morocco), journalist and former publisher of Le Journal in Casablanca, will study democratization and economic development, with an emphasis on the interplay of political liberalization and economic growth.

Siew Ying Leu (Malaysia), Guangzhou correspondent, South China Morning Post, will study the role China’s rural population will play in the political and economic future of the country. Leu is the Barry Bingham Jr. Nieman Fellow.

Raul Penaranda (Bolivia), editorial director, La Epoca, will study the relationship between a country’s economic structure and its living standards, with an emphasis on Latin American economies. Penaranda is a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Latin American Nieman Fellow.

Andrew Quinn (United Kingdom), senior Southern Africa correspondent for Reuters, will study the politics, economics, and public policy implications of AIDS vaccine research as well as undertake an intensive review of the science of AIDS. Quinn is a Nieman Fellow in Global Health Reporting.

Fernando Rodrigues (Brazil), columnist, Fohla de S. Paulo, will study how governments evolve in Third World countries and the different forms democratic governments take throughout Latin America and the world. Rodrigues is a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Latin American Nieman Fellow.

Holly Williams (Australia), senior Asia producer, Sky News-Beijing bureau, will study the connection between social upheaval and crime and its potential political consequences to societies and governments. Williams is the William Montalbano Nieman Fellow.

Simon Wilson (United Kingdom), editor, BBC-Middle East bureau, Israel, will study how the United States and its Western allies have pursued the “War on Terror” and the lessons to draw from those policies.

Jing Zhao (Michael Anti) (China), reporter, The New York Times-Beijing bureau, will study how the role of the media changes during political transformation in countries such as China, Iran, and Russia. Zhao is the Atsuko Chiba Nieman Fellow. His fellowship honors the memory of Atsuko Chiba, a 1968 Nieman Fellow.

The U.S. fellows were selected by Roberta Baskin, veteran investigative journalist and a 2002 Nieman Fellow; Nolan Bowie, senior fellow and adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government; Greg Brock, senior editor at The New York Times and a 1994 Nieman Fellow; and Margaret Geller, senior scientist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard University. Bob Giles, Nieman Foundation curator and a 1966 Nieman Fellow, chaired the committee.

The Nieman Fellows in Global Health Reporting were selected by Jay Winsten, an associate dean and the Frank Stanton director of the Center for Health Communication at the Harvard School of Public Health; Linda Harrar, a documentary producer/writer whose films focus on science; and Giles.

The Nieman Fellow in Arts & Culture Reporting was selected by Don Aucoin, feature writer at The Boston Globe and a 2001 Nieman Fellow; Jack Megan, director of the Office for the Arts at Harvard University; and Giles.

The Nieman Foundation also publishes the quarterly magazine Nieman Reports and is the home of the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism and the Nieman Watchdog Journalism Project.