March 16, 2023
Oakland University will offer an insightful discussion about documenting war and its impact on individuals and communities during a virtual event on Wednesday, March 22 from noon-1 p.m. The Zoom link to attend the event is here.
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) photographer of the year Salwan Georges, an OU alumnus, will share his on-the-ground experience documenting the war in Ukraine.
Professors Richard Stupart (University of Liverpool) and Jennifer Midberry (Lehigh University) will join the conversation about the power and ethics of photography to bear witness to war and trauma. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Chiaoning Su, director of the Klein Center for Culture and Globalization at OU.
“Last year when the war first began, we put together a similar panel to advocate for international support for Ukraine. It is truly sad that a year after, we still don’t see an end to this war,” said Dr. Su. “We hope this panel will encourage meaningful conversation about the trauma and moral responsibility to bear witness to such atrocity.”
Salwan Georges |
Dr. Richard Stupart |
Dr. Jennifer Midberry |
Georges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist for The Washington Post. In 2020, Georges was awarded a Pulitzer Prize with his team for covering climate change around the world. In 2021, he was named Photographer of the Year by Pictures of the Year International for covering a racial reckoning in Minneapolis, an unforgettable U.S. national election and a deadly pandemic. This year, he was named Photographer of the Year by the NPPA for his work covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the race to save Black Rhinos in Africa and the fentanyl crisis in the U.S. and Mexico. His ongoing work on Middle Eastern communities in the United States has been added to a collection at the Library of Congress in D.C.
Dr. Richard Stupart is an assistant professor at the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool. His doctoral research work was on the norms and practices of journalists working in South Sudan. His current work is on the ethics and practice of bearing witness, journalism and emotion and practices of mediating war and conflict. He also pursues interests in media and development, the sociology of humanitarianism, conflict and representation, and post-conflict archive-building.
Dr. Jennifer Midberry is an assistant professor in Lehigh University's Journalism and Communication Department. Her research agenda explores how journalism practice can be improved to create more ethical coverage of marginalized groups and be more effective at evoking audience empathy and engagement with important social issues. As a former photographer and photo editor, much of her work focuses on photojournalism and her projects are intended to have practical insights for visual journalists in addition to advancing visual communication and journalism theory. Previous to her career in academia, she worked as a visual journalist for organizations such as The Philadelphia Daily News, the Associated Press, AOL News, and ABC News.
The event is presented by OU’s Klein Center for Culture and Globalization and the Department of Communication, Journalism and Public Relations. For more information, email [email protected] or call (248) 370-4567.