Thirty New Nieman Fellows Include Many Newspaper Journalists

By: E&P Staff The Nieman Foundation has named 30 U.S. and international journalists -- including many from newspapers -- as 2007-2008 Nieman Fellows at Harvard Unversity.

Among them are:

-- Alicia Anstead, Bangor (Maine) Daily News, who'll study "the imaginative, political, and historical underpinnings of art in a consumer culture."

-- Gaiutra Bahadur, a freelance journalist who has written for The Philadelphia Inquirer, who'll study the consequences of globalization for developing countries.

-- Josh Benton, staff reporter at The Dallas Morning News, who'll look at the impact of school-rating systems like No Child Left Behind.

-- James Causey, night city editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who'll study the marketing/advertising strategies of the hip-hop industry and their impact on cities.

-- Kate Galbraith, a freelancer who has written for publications such as The New York Times and The Boston Globe, who'll explore how government policy fosters or impedes the development of alternative-energy technologies such as solar power or biofuels.

-- Jenifer McKim, reporter for the Orange County (Calif.) Register, who'll study the problem of child prostitution and the related issues of gender, family, and sexuality that put young women at risk.

-- Dean Miller, executive editor at The Post Register of Idaho Falls, who'll study "the role of faith and pluralism in American communities."

-- Mary Newsom, editorial writer at The Charlotte Observer, who'll look into "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 at The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, who'll 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 for USA Today, who'll explore "the troubled marriage of science and society" as it relates to the debate about stem-cell research, evolutionary biology, and climate change.

-- Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi, Iraq, a reporter in The New York Times' Baghdad bureau, who'll study "human-rights law and transitional justice in post-war and post-authoritarian societies as well as examine the role that Islam plays in establishing human-rights laws."

-- James Baxter, editorial page editor of the Edmonton Journal, who'll study "the legal, economic, and foreign-policy questions arising from increased international focus on how humans effect the environment."

-- Andres Cavelier of Colombia, multimedia manager for El Nuevo Herald, Miami, who'll study how U.S. and Latin American media, especially online operations, increasingly impact the more than 41 million Hispanics living in the U.S. and their families overseas.

-- Melanie Gosling, environmental reporter at The Cape Times in South Africa, who'll explore "the nature of the global economy and its role in developing countries."

-- Aboubakr Jamai of Morocco, journalist and former publisher of Le Journal in Casablanca, who'll study democratization and economic development.

-- Siew Ying Leu of Malaysia, a correspondent for the South China Morning Post, who'll study the role China's rural population will play in the political and economic future of the country.

-- Andrew Meldrum, correspondent, The Guardian and Observer, United Kingdom, who'll study the role of the press in Zimbabwe and South Africa to assess how effective it has been in holding political leaders to their pledges of good governance and improved living standards.

-- Raul Penaranda of Bolivia, editorial director at La Epoca, who'll study the relationship between a country's economic structure and its living standards.

-- Andrew Quinn of the United Kingdom, senior Southern Africa correspondent for Reuters, who'll study the politics, economics, and public-policy implications of AIDS vaccine research.

-- Fernando Rodrigues of Brazil, columnist for Fohla de S. Paulo, who'll look into how governments evolve in Third World countries and the different forms democratic governments take.

-- Jing Zhao (Michael Anti) of China, a reporter in The New York Times' Beijing bureau, who'll study how the role of the media changes during political transformation in countries such as China, Iran, and Russia.

More than 1,200 journalists from 88 countries have studied at Harvard as Nieman Fellows since the program was established in 1938.