About This Project
Barack Obama and John McCain probably won't battle over immigration in the fall. Both favor comprehensive immigration reform. But the issue has not gone away. It is at center of local and congressional races, and after the election will re-emerge with a vengeance in the new Congress.
This country is in the midst of a wave of immigration that is transforming our politics. Latinos and Asians are now acquiring the kind of political clout that the Irish or Italians once enjoyed. And in older towns and in states affected by this new immigration, resentment is building against the new immigrants. It is directed explicitly against illegal immigration, but often includes legal immigrants as well.
News 21 sent teams of journalists to Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, California, Texas, Arizona and Washington, D.C. to explore how this new wave of immigrants is affecting American life and politics.
We'd also like to thank all the kind staff at Columbia Journalism School who went out of their way to help us, including:
Tarin Almanzar, Steven Aungst, Susan Caplan, Thaddeus Craddock, Larry Fried, Krishnan Gajadharsingh, Jason Gambrell, Derek Gano, Craig Hettich, Bernardo Huapaya, Clyde Lingenfelter, Jairo Mateo, Scott Osborn, Dee Phillips, Regina Scriven, Steve Ross, Jeffrey Sieben, Christine Souders, Tim Spayd, Chenese Wilson, Vincent Wright and Dian Zhou.
And a special thank you to our 2007 coordinator, Prof. Ari Goldman, for the generous use of his mini-fridge and toaster.
Biographies of News21 Fellows and Reporters
Stokely Baksh
Baksh is a multimedia journalist from Washington, D.C., who has worked as a national correspondent for the newswire United Press International under the technology and business desks, and reported for the non-profit investigative journalism organization Center for Public Integrity. A recent graduate of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, she completed an investigative project that explores the profitable business of immigration detention with her colleague Renee Feltz. The investigation won the Melvin Mencher Award for Superior Reporting and the James A. Wechsler Award for National Reporting.
You can visit stokelybaksh.com or Business of Detention at businessofdetention.com.
Amy Crawford
Amy Crawford has a master's degree from the Columbia Journalism School. She has covered everything from scientific breakthroughs (for Smithsonian magazine) to sordid crimes (for the New York Post). Her writing has also appeared in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The Chicago Tribune and The Philadelphia Inquirer. She grew up in Morocco, Rwanda, Cote d'Ivoire, Nicaragua and the U.S. and graduated from Cornell University in 2005.
Don Duncan
Since 2006, Don Duncan has freelanced print, radio and video work from New York and Beirut, Lebanon. Previous to that he lived in Paris and Hong Kong but he is originally from Ireland.
This January, he reported on the refugee crisis and reconstruction project following the Nahr al Bared conflict in northern Lebanon. His work has been aired/published by The New York Times online, Time.com, NPR, RTE (Irish National Radio), The San Francisco Chronicle, The Daily Star (Lebanon), Marie Claire Taiwan, Numéro magazine (France), Vanidad magazine (Spain), City Magazine (Hong Kong) and Evoke magazine (Ireland).
Renee Feltz
Renee Feltz was introduced to journalism in the listener-sponsored, commercial-free environment of the Pacifica radio network. She founded the news department at KPFT in Houston, Texas, where her focus on under-represented voices led her to interview more than 25 men and women on Texas Death Row. During Hurricane Katrina she coordinated national coverage for the network and traveled to New Orleans to interview immigrants as they rebuilt the city without protective gear. She has also reported for the BBC, CBC, FSRN, Air America, Making Contact, The Texas Observer, Mother Jones, Indymedia, and The Indypendent. She graduated in 2008 from the Columbia School of Journalism, where she had a broadcast concentration and was a fellow in the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. She and her colleague, Stokely Baksh, won the Melvin Mencher Award for Superior Reporting, and the James A. Wechsler Award for National Reporting for their multimedia investigative masters project, www.BusinessofDetention.com, which examined how one well-connected company dominates the business of detaining undocumented immigrants until they agree to be deported.
Channtal Fleischfresser
Channtal Fleischfresser has a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Columbia Journalism School, specializing in online media. She graduated with a B.A. in History from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004. Channtal’s work has appeared in NYC24.com, the Queens Courier, the Queens Chronicle, the Durango Telegraph, the Daily Pennsylvanian, and her blog, Junction Blvd. She is now an Associate Producer for Worldfocus on PBS in New York City. She is originally from São Paulo, Brazil.
Mira Jang
Mira Jang recently received a M.S. in journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She was a fellow at the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, which supported her master’s project on immigration judges and the asylum-seeking process.
Before coming to Columbia, Mira was a staff writer at The Orange County Register and The Long Beach Press-Telegram, where she covered city hall and politics.
Mira earned a M.A. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles and a B.A. in politics from Occidental College.
She is from Los Angeles.
Anup Kaphle
Anup Kaphle is an award-winning multimedia journalist. His work has appeared in Forbes.com, WNET-New York, The Daily News, BardPolitik, NYCinteractive.org and The Himalayan Times. He is now a multimedia fellow at the Atlantic Monthly in Washington, DC.
Anup was awarded the Foreign Press Association's first prize in an annual competition open to international graduate students. He is the winner of 2008 Henry N. Taylor Award, given by Columbia Journalism School to a member of the International Division who has demonstrated the qualities of a superior journalist.
Born in Pokhara, Nepal, Anup came to the United States in 2003. He has an M.S in journalism from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. in English from Tusculum College in Greeneville, Tennessee.
Anup is a regular blogger for SAJAForum.
For News21, Anup worked on the Cowboys & Indians project.
Jonathan Maher
Jonathan spent nine years in France doing strategic research & project management, working for La Société Générale, La Caisse des Dépôts and the French Railway Network (RFF). In 2007, he left for the U.S to attend the Harvard Kennedy School. He joined the News21 team in the summer of 2008 to pursue his interest in politics and journalism. He'll be returning to the Kennedy School to complete his master's degree.
Jonathan was born and raised in Canada, and has a BA from McGill University and a master’s degree from Sciences Po Paris.
Elizabeth Méndez Berry
Elizabeth Méndez Berry's work has appeared in the Washington Post, Vibe, the Village Voice, and Time, among many others.
"Love Hurts," her controversial article on domestic violence in the hip hop industry, was selected for ASCAP's 2006 Deems Taylor award for music
journalism. The article was also included in Da Capo's Best Music Writing anthology, as was her essay on Jay-Z, "The Last Hustle."
Born in Toronto, she now lives in New York, where she recently completed her masters in journalism at Columbia University.
Indu Nepal
Indu graduated from London School of Economics with a degree in International Relations. Prior to coming to Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism Nepal was a human rights reporter at The Kathmandu Post. She also worked at the BBC World Service in London briefly as a radio presenter and translator and interned at their UN bureau in New York. Indu was born and raised in Nepal.
She worked on Law and Disorder project for News21.
Biographies of News21 Editors
A. Adam Glenn
Managing Editor A. Adam Glenn is an award-winning journalist and independent digital media consultant with more than 25 years of news experience. His consulting client list includes former NBC Universal Chairman & CEO Bob Wright, J-Lab: Institute for Interactive Journalism, Knight Digital Media Center, Yale University, Marist Institute for Public Opinion, The Donald & Shelley Rubin Foundation, and Rodale Inc., as well as local news organizations. He is co-founder of a citizen journalism training project, I, Reporter, which in 2007 was one of the pioneering winners of the Knight News Challenge Award. Prior to going solo, Adam worked in newsrooms in New York and Washington, most recently as senior producer at ABCNews.com. He is a contributing blogger on the group weblog E-Media Tidbits and serves on the editorial advisory board member of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Adam teaches new media journalism at Columbia Journalism School, and science, health and environment reporting at NYU’s graduate journalism program and has taught journalism in India in 2002 as a Ford Environmental Journalism Fellow. Adam has traveled extensively in Western Europe and South Asia. He holds a master’s degree in international affairs from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy in Boston and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. He has served for three years as managing editor of the Columbia News21 program, including the 2006 project on homeland security and the 2007 project on religion in America.
Melanie Huff
Administrative Coordinator Melanie Huff, assistant dean of students, has been with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1988. She has degrees from Barnard College and Columbia University Teachers College. She is a writing instructor with Legal Outreach, Inc. and has served as the convention coordinator for the South Asian Journalists Association for many years.
John Judis
Editorial Coordinator John B. Judis is a senior editor of New Republic, where he has worked since 1984. As a visiting scholar at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Judis wrote The Folly of Empire: What George W. Bush Could Learn from Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
Judis' articles have appeared in American Prospect, New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Washington Monthly, American Enterprise, Mother Jones, and Dissent. He has written five books, including The Emerging Democratic Majority (with Ruy Teixeira), The Parodox of American Democracy, and William F. Buckley: Patron Saint of the Conservatives.
Russell Chun
Russell Chun, Flash and design consultant to Columbia News21, is a freelance scientific art developer and multimedia Flash developer, author, and teacher. He creates visual and interactive educational media and consults and teaches others to use Flash as an effective pedagogical tool.
Russell is an adjunct at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and at City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School of Journalism. He has authored several books on advanced Flash: Flash 5 Advanced, Flash MX Advanced, Flash MX2004 Advanced, Flash 8 Advanced, and Flash CS3 Advanced, all in the VisualQuick Pro Guide series published by Peachpit Press in association with Macromedia/Adobe Press. His books have been translated in multiple languages and sold internationally. He has also written about Flash in magazines such as SBS Digital Design and MacWorld.
Kenan Davis
Kenan Davis is a multimedia journalist whose work has appeared in The Valdosta Daily Times, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The Village Voice, The Queens Tribune and on WAMC/Northeast Public Radio. He is now a new media fellow at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Carey King
This is Carey King's second year serving as newsroom manager for News21. She has spent the summer making sure that traveling reporters have beds on which to sleep and on-deadline reporters have plenty on which to nosh. She would like to note the (somewhat anthropological?) results of the (grantedly, small-sample-size) study she's conducted comparing this year's reporters to last: Religion reporters drink herbal tea. Political reporters drink black.
Dave Mayers
Dave Mayers is a multimedia journalist. He's currently working as a new media fellow at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. After his year at Columbia, he wants to use new media to tell more compelling stories from the developing world.
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, News21 Flash producer, built the Columbia project's home page and its immigration timeline, and provided general assistance to the Columbia fellows.
Ahmed grew up in California, Kuwait, Egypt and Austria. He has most recently worked as a news producer for The New York Times and as a web producer for the PBS international documentary series, Wide Angle. His work has been featured in Frontline/World online, TimeOut, Washington Week and other blogs.
He graduated from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where he now teaches as an adjunct professor for new media skills. He hopes to one day adopt a dog and produce a feature-length documentary film, but not necessarily on the same day. His family is originally from Palestine.
Duy Linh Tu
Duy Linh Tu, multimedia consultant to Columbia News21, is a multimedia producer, journalist, and educator. He is the co-founder and Creative Director of Resolution Seven, a New York City-based video and DVD production studio. His clients range from non-profit groups to very-much-for-profit corporations. Resolution Seven produces commercials, industrials, and short- and long-form documentaries.
Duy has been a full-time faculty member at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism since 2001, where he coordinates the New Media Program. Duy is a lecturer at MediaBistro, where he conducts seminars on topics such as podcasting and multimedia journalism. Over the past six years, Duy has trained hundreds of journalists, producers, and other content creators interested in learning the tools of multimedia journalism and production.
Duy received his Masters degree in journalism from Columbia University. He is a board member of the New York Film/Video Council.
