Jane Ferguson, an award-winning foreign correspondent, will visit campus to share her experiences living in the Middle East and reporting from the Arab world, Africa and South Asia.
Jane Ferguson, an award-winning international correspondent for PBS NewsHour, contributor to The New Yorker and 2020 McGraw Professor of journalism at Princeton University, will host a community lecture and visit with classes and student organizations during an upcoming visit to Elon University.
Titled “What’s Left Behind: Afghanistan after ‘Heartbreak of US Departure,’” Ferguson’s community lecture on Thursday, Nov. 18, will address Afghanistan’s future after the recent withdrawal of the United States military. The lecture will be held in the McEwen screening room and begin at 6:30 p.m.
Ferguson is uniquely qualified to discuss the Middle East having lived and reported in the region for more than 13 years. Her work focuses on U.S. foreign policy and defense, conflict, diplomacy and human rights. Now based in New York City, Ferguson has collected several awards during her career. Her reporting on the brutal civil war in Yemen was honored with an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, a News and Documentary Emmy Award and a Peabody Award nomination. In 2019, Ferguson was named the George Polk Award recipient for Foreign Television reporting.
Ferguson’s visit to Elon is part of her role as a Pulitzer Center grantee. In recent years, the center has supported her reporting on the food crisis, women’s rights and U.S. departure in Afghanistan.
During her campus visit, Ferguson will meet with students in Elon News Network and the Elon chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists as part of a collaboration between the groups. All Elon students are welcome to join the SPJ/ENN conversation with Ferguson, who will meet with the student journalists on Wednesday, Nov. 17, at 6:30 p.m. in the ENN newsroom.
Kyra O’Connor, who serves as the president of the Elon SPJ chapter and executive director of ENN, said she is excited for students to hear Ferguson’s perspective as an international correspondent, something O’Connor herself admires.
“I am always appreciative of the opportunity to see different roles in journalism,” O’Connor said. “It will be beneficial for our students to talk with Jane in a conversational setting, as well as the classroom.”
Nyah Phengsitthy, who serves as the managing editor of The Pendulum, said she is grateful that Elon focuses on bringing successful people in the journalism industry to campus.
“I’m really looking forward to hearing about Jane’s work, especially her in-depth reporting for the Pulitzer Center,” Phengsitthy said. “I think it will inspire ENN and SPJ members, and remind them why their reporting is so important.”
Elon University is a partner of the Pulitzer Center’s Campus Consortium network, an educational initiative that brings Pulitzer Center staff and journalists to Elon’s campus twice a year. With Elon’s membership in the consortium, students have the opportunity to work with the center on developing international reporting projects, which have been featured on the center’s website and can be disseminated through media partners.