Cullman Center Institute for Teachers: Writing about Victims: A Journalism Workshop with Carlos Dada

Carlos Dada, Instructor

This is a week-long seminar from July 27 – July 31

Reporting on victims is a fraught and troubling process. To what extent does “serving the public interest” justify examining people’s pain and writing about their lives? How does the journalist come to terms with work that, at every step in the process, may have consequences for the subject -- and for the journalist? And what about the perpetrators of abuse and atrocities? Do they deserve the microphone the journalist offers them? We will examine these delicate issues through articles, books, and documentaries about victims in different parts of the world, including El Salvador, Rwanda, and Indonesia. Seminar participants will practice this kind of journalism by writing pieces of their own about victims. No previous journalism experience is required for this seminar.

Carlos Dada is the founder and former editor in chief of El Faro, an online news site based in San Salvador. A Knight Fellow at Stanford in 2005 and a member of the Cabot Prizes Board at Columbia University, Dada has received the Maria Moors Cabot Award and the Internazionale Premio Anna Politkovskaja Award, among other distinctions. His journalism has focused on war crimes and impunity. This year at the Cullman Center he is working on a book about the killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the death squads in El Salvador in the 1980s.

The deadline to apply for this seminar has passed.