News
Afşin Yurdakul (‘09JS), anchor and correspondent for Habertürk News Network, has been selected as the Robert L Long Nieman Fellow.
This conference aims to present three interrelated themes through which the right to the city can be understood, articulated or negotiated. These themes include Urban Policies and Governance; Social Fabric and Urban Practices; and Living in Amman: Housing, Access, and Speculative Growth.
On March 9th 2018, Prof. Anya Schiffrin – The Director of Technology, Media and Communication Specialization at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, launched her book “African Muckraking – 75 Years of Investigative Journalism from Africa” at the Aga Khan Graduate School of Media in Nairobi, Kenya. The event was well attended by notable Kenyan journalists like; Linus Kaikai, John-Allan Namu, Catherine Kasavuli and Catherine Gicheru among others. The event featured a panel of speakers who spoke on investigative journalism in Kenya and also addressed questions from the audience.
The book features a collection of stories about stories that highlight investigative journalism in Africa. Works that have been highlighted are those by Fatooma Noor (Kenya), Catherine Gicheru (Kenya), Mae Azango (Liberia), Peter Kimani (Kenya), Rafael Marques (Angola), Tom Maliti (Kenya) and Carlos Cardoso (Mozambique) – among other legendary African journalists.
The book is categorized into subjects that matter to the African audience. These are; Struggle for Independence, Conflict, Corruption, Health, Women, Rural Affairs, Human Rights, Oil and Mining and the Environment.
To sustain investigative journalism, Prof Schiffrin highlighted some important measures;
- Overcoming dependence on donor funding as key to long-term sustainability
- Considering social media as a viable platform to solicit and report stories
- Recognizing that African muckraking is changing societies, it can no longer be ignored as it has fostered new powerful partnerships across countries.
The book is available locally at Prestige bookstore and on the web at amazon.com
The controversies sparked by US president Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the ensuing reactions by Palestinian leaders in Ramallah and Gaza was the theme of a talk “The Trump Administration and Jerusalem”, conducted last Saturday by Rashid Khalidi at the Columbia Global Centres in Amman.
Ali Betil, producer, director, and cinematographer, is one of Turkey’s most talented filmmakers. He received an MFA from the Film Program in Columbia University’s School of the Arts in 2014, and has produced multiple award-winning films such as Keep the Lights On (2012) and Love Is Strange (2014).
UNHCR MENA, in collaboration with Columbia Global Centers | Amman, have published a research paper, Impact of Separation on Refugee Families, as the first step of an initiative to conduct a regional study of the effects of family separation on displaced people.
Columbia’s Institute for Ideas and Imagination has announced its first cohort of fellows, a group of 16 preeminent scholars, writers, and artists from around the world who are being brought together for year-long residencies at Reid Hall in Paris. Reid Hall is the home of Columbia Global Centers | Paris. The fellows will begin their residencies in September 2018.
The shift from a small programme focused on “policy and advocacy investments for children” to “a large-scale humanitarian programme” was the subject of the talk delivered by UNICEF Representative to Jordan Robert Jenkins at the Columbia Global Centres in Amman on Wednesday.