Every year, throughout the world, journalists sacrifice their lives to shed light on some of the most important issues of our times. In 2018, the high-profile murder of Jamal Khashoggi focused worldwide attention on the human costs of a free and open press. In a special 2019 Lovejoy Convocation, Colby College will honor the 66 journalists and media workers who lost their lives last year and consider the dangers journalists face in pursuit of stories that inform our global understanding.
Through a conversation and Q&A with journalists and scholars, we will explore the courageous acts of reporters and photojournalists and the stories they uncover that add depth and humanity to our knowledge of the world’s challenges.
The 2019 Lovejoy Award panelists are:
Hala Al-Dosari is the Washington Post’s inaugural Jamal Khashoggi Fellow and a scholar in residence at New York University School of Law’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. Al-Dosari is an award-winning activist and scholar who focuses on social determinants of health, gender-based violence, and gender norms as they relate to women’s issues in her home country of Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf states. Previously, she held fellowships at Harvard’s Institute for Advanced Study and at Johns Hopkins University. Her work has been published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, and the Guardian. She won the Freedom Award from the Freedom House in 2016, and she serves on the advisory boards of the Human Rights Watch Middle East/North Africa Division and the Gulf Center for Human Rights. Al-Dosari earned a Ph.D. in health services research and epidemiology from Old Dominion University.
Quil Lawrence is the veterans correspondent for NPR News with a portfolio of work that includes stories from around the world, including the Arab world, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba, Israel, and the West Bank. Previously, he was NPR’s bureau chief in Baghdad and Kabul, which positioned him to cover the 2001 fall of the Taliban, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the broader politics and culture of both countries. His work in the United States about the veterans who served in those countries won him a Robert F. Kennedy Award; he also won a Gracie Award for reporting on women combat veterans. He was also honored with the IAVA Salutes Award for Leadership in Journalism from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Born in Maine, Lawrence, fluent in Spanish and conversant in Arabic, studied history at Brandeis University, concentrating on the Middle East and Latin America.
Martin Smith is a veteran filmmaker and journalist with more than 40 years of experience covering events from 9/11 to the fall of communism in Russia to the current crisis at the southern U.S. border. One of the first journalists to investigate Colonel Oliver North’s undercover Contra arms network, he was also on the front lines investigating the rise of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. His work with PBS FRONTLINE and as an independent documentary filmmaker has won numerous George Polk Awards, Emmys, Peabody Awards, and Writers Guild Awards. In 2014 he was awarded the John Chancellor Award from Columbia University for displaying courage and integrity in journalism. Smith sits on the board of the Overseas Press Club and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a B.F.A. from the Institute of Film and Television at New York University. He is the founder of Rain Media.
Smith’s “The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia” has garnered acclaim. Reviews can be found here: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, POLITICO‘s “Playbook”, NPR, The Washington Times, Business Insider, Haaretz (Reuters syndication), Times of Israel, U.S. News & World Report, Middle East Eye, Middle East Monitor, The Globe & Mail (Reuters syndication) Deseret News, Times Now News, The Daily Mail, Yahoo! News (Bloomberg syndication), Times of India (Reuters syndication), Forbes, The Daily Beast, Bloomberg Government, New York Post, The Hill, The Jerusalem Post, The National Post, UPI, Reuters, TIME Magazine, Bloomberg, USA Today, Al Jazeera, The Independent, The Wall Street Journal2
Colby College remembers alumnus Elijah Parish Lovejoy through the annual Lovejoy Award, which honors journalists who demonstrate courage, integrity, and craftsmanship.
Born in Albion, Maine, Lovejoy graduated from Colby in 1826. On Nov. 7, 1837, in Alton, Ill., the newspaper editor and publisher was killed after he refused to stop publishing anti-slavery editorials. He was called America’s first martyr to freedom of the press by John Quincy Adams.
Current Lovejoy Selection Committee Members include Matt Apuzzo ’00, reporter and investigative correspondent, New York Times; Nancy Barnes, senior vice president and editorial director, NPR; Sewell Chan, editorial page editor, Los Angeles Times; Marcela Gaviria, producer, PBS FRONTLINE; Neil Gross, Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology, Colby College; Martin Kaiser, former editor and senior vice president Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Mindy Marqués, vice president and executive editor, Simon and Schuster, former editor, Miami Herald; and Ron Nixon, global investigations editor, Associated Press.
For more information, visit colby.edu/lovejoy
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