Iason Athanasiadis, a 2008 Nieman Fellow and freelance journalist, wrote Nieman Reports' lead story about journalists in Iran in the Summer 2009 issue. He also contributed a photo essay about contemporary Iran, and now he is reporting from Iran in the chaotic aftermath of the disputed Iranian election for the Washington Times, Global Post, and the Untold Stories blog on the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting's Web site, which is supporting his reporting in Iran. Read more
In "Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh," Gerald Grant, a 1968 Nieman Fellow, compares two cities—his hometown of Syracuse, New York, and Raleigh, North Carolina—in order to examine the consequences of the nation’s ongoing educational inequities. Read more
James Scott, a 2007 Nieman Fellow, has authored "The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship," available in bookstores this week. In this book, Scott recounts the story of the horrifying attack on the U.S.S. Liberty by Israeli fighter jets and torpedo boats, and the tremendous impact it had on the lives of the crew. Read more
Hugh Morris, a 1951 Nieman Fellow, died June 2, 2009, in Frankfort, Ky. A longtime bureau chief for The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal, Morris was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 1997. He was 94. Read more
In this multimedia project produced for the Center of Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard, freelance photojournalist Kael Alford’s “unembedded” photography provides an example of “contextualized” reporting on a Muslim community in the global spotlight. Alford portrays Najaf, Iraq beyond the US cordon and Mahdi Army lines during the siege of August, 2004. Read more
Ronnie Ramos, a 2003 Nieman Fellow, has been hired by the NCAA as its Managing Director of New Media Strategies and Content Development. During the past five years at the Atlanta Journal Constitution one of Ramos' chief duties has been providing sports and features content for the AJC web sites. Now, he'll be focusing on the internet full time. Read more
This Tuesday night, PBS' FRONTLINE presents an encore broadcast of "Inside the Meltdown." First broadcast in February, producer Michael Kirk — a 1980 Nieman Fellow — investigates how the economy went so bad so fast, and why emergency actions taken by then-Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and others,vfailed to prevent it. Read more
Callie Crossley, a 1983 Nieman Fellow, will be awarded an honory degree from Cambridge College. Crossley — a media commentator, public speaker, and Program Manager for the Nieman Foundation — will receive the Doctor of Humane Letters at the college's 38th Commencement on Sunday, June 7. Read more
Washingtonpost.com managing editor Ju-Don Roberts has been moved into the position of deputy of the Universal News Desk. Roberts most recently oversaw the daily news operations at the web site and played a key role in setting strategy for the Washington Post's web operations. She is a 2004 Nieman Fellow. Read more
Jodi Rave, a 2004 Nieman Fellow, is ending her newspaper career to write a book about Elouise Cobell and the Indian Trust Fund lawsuit. Rave worked for Lee Enterprises newspapers for 11 years, reporting on Native American issues. Read more
