Seminar on International Reporting

DATES: June 12 - July 28, 2010

Participants should plan to leave the US on June 11th in order to arrive on site for the first day of the program on June 12th.

ELIGIBILITY: this program is open to all undergraduate and graduate students, including students who do not attend George Mason University.

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.

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

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

Apply online by March 19, 2010!

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)
• Business Reporting in Israel and the Palestinian territories (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)
  

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

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.

Jonathan Ferziger has reported from the Middle East during most of the past two decades for Bloomberg News and United Press International. After covering the first Gulf War for UPI from Saudi Arabia and Israel, he worked as Jerusalem bureau chief through 1995, when he won a Nieman Fellowship to study at Harvard University. UPI later sent him to Hong Kong as its Asian Regional Editor. He was hired by Bloomberg as Asian features editor in 1997 and returned to Israel, a year later to cover financial markets, banks and fiscal policy. Since 2005, Ferziger has been Bloomberg's lead political correspondent. Ferziger is a graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton and earned a masters degree at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is married with a son and daughter.

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.