Seminar on International Reporting

DATES: June 12 - July 28, 2010

PROGRAM COST: $7450--please see the last paragraph under "Program Details" for what this cost covers.

UNDERGRADUATE CREDITS: Students may earn a total of 6 undergraduate Communication credits for participation in the program. Check with the study abroad office at your home institution to learn how credits will transfer. Mason students may participate in the program for credit in Communication 307 or 399 or New Century Learning 475.

GRADUATE CREDITS: Graduate students may earn up to 6 credits in Communication. Mason graduate students may earn graduate credit in Communication 590.

CONTACT: Sarah Mournighan via email by clicking on her name or call her right now at 703.993.2106

ELIGIBILITY: Program is open to graduate and undergraduate students from *all* US public and private institutions. All are invited to apply and may earn credit toward their degree at their home university.

THIS UNIQUE SEMINAR PROVIDES GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS THE OPPORTUNITY TO DEVELOP THEIR REPORTING AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS WHILE LIVING IN JERUSALEM. Students will meet leading journalists, visit media outlets—print, broadcast and online—and learn how to reach a global audience across a variety of media platforms by focusing on issues such as culture, politics, religion, environment and business. Students will also work with seasoned foreign correspondents who specialize in Middle Eastern and international affairs: learn interview techniques, hone reporting skills, acquire hands-on experience, and build proficiency in multimedia tools.

Here are the seminar modules, including instructors. Click on the syllabus here [DOC] to learn more about each instructor and what each module will address:

• The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict as a Prism for International Reporting (Linda Gradstein)
• Media in the Palestinian Territories (Wafa Amr)
• Religions Without Borders: Religious and Cultural Affairs in the Middle East and Beyond (Ilene Prusher)
• The Business of Business Reporting in Israel and Palestine (Jonathan Ferziger)
• Reflections on Conflict: Water Scarcity in Israel and Palestine (Miriam Herschlag)
• Beiti, My Home: Studying Israeli and Palestinian Literature as a Springboard for Creative Writing and Memoir (Ilene Prusher)
  

THE PROGRAM COST INCLUDES

• Housing and Daily Breakfast-- 6 week stay at the Gloria Hotel, located inside the Jaffa Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem
• Up to 6 Credits of Tuition
  
• Excursions--various sites in Israel and the Palestinian territories during the seminar; Petra, Amman, Jordan, and the Dead Sea
• Other Expenses--ground transportation to and from academic-related sites during the seminar; a mandatory Pre-departure orientation; emergency evacuation and repatriation insurance; International Student ID Card.
• Airfare from Tel Aviv to Amman while on the program; the program cost does not include roundtrip international airfare.

Faculty

Linda Gradstein, was the NPR correspondent in Jerusalem for more than 20 years. She has won several awards for her coverage including the Overseas Press Club Award for her coverage of the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and was part of a team that won the Alfred I. DuPont award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism for coverage of the Gulf War. Linda has a BS in Foreign Service and an MA in Arab Studies at Georgetown University, where she returned to teach journalism in 2009. She also spent a year as a Knight Fellow in Journalism at Stanford University in 1999. Linda speaks both Hebrew and Arabic fluently.

Ilene Prusher has been a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor since 1999 and currently serves as the Boston-based newspaper's Jerusalem bureau chief. She has covered 25 countries across the Middle East, Asia and Africa, reporting from some of the world's most troublesome hotspots over the past decade: Iraq, Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since graduating in 1993 from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Ilene has also written for publications including the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday, and the New Republic, as well as British newspapers such as the Financial Times, the Guardian and the Observer. Her essays and book reviews have been published in magazines such as Moment, Habitus, The Jerusalem Report, Tikkun and Ha'aretz Books. She was the recipient of a United Nations Correspondents' Club Award in 1998 for her coverage of post-war Somalia. She has taught writing and journalism as a visiting fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and at the Pardes Institute. Read a story by Ilene Prusher by clicking here.


Steve Klein is a journalist, teacher, media consultant, sports content specialist and online writing instructor. Steve is in his seventh year as coordinator of the Electronic Journalism program in the Communication Department at George Mason University. At Mason he teaches classes in Writing Across Media, Online Journalism, Sports Writing and Reporting and Political Journalism. Also a working journalist for most of his career at several newspapers (USA Today, the Lansing State Journal, the Stamford Advocate, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Akron Beacon Journal, the South Bend Tribune, the Wisconsin State Journal), Steve has taught at Michigan State University, American University, Cape Cod Community College and GMU for more than 20 years.

*CGE reserves the right to make changes to a program in light of currency fluctuations, changing security and safety conditions, or any other unforeseen circumstances.