“The Pierre Omidyar Insurgency,” a piece by Past Fellow Andrew Rice, published by the New Yorker has been named a finalist in the 2015 Mirror Awards. The piece is nominated for Best Profile and offers a fascinating look at the rather mysterious founder of eBay and his fight for government transparency. The winner will be […]
The New Yorker — Nicholas Schmidle’s latest piece describes “a billion-dollar mirage” that resulted in a financial scandal in the Middle East and legal proceedings in the United States. This is just the latest of many compelling long form pieces written by Schmidle in his capacity as a Staff Writer at the magazine, where he has been since […]
Past ICWA Fellow Pramila Jayapal is gaining a lot of attention as a state senator in Washington. Many are impressed with her activist roots and expect her to go far in politics. Read “From Handcuffs to Elected Office: Washington State’s Rabble-Rousing Senator,” a profile of Jayapal by Sanjena Sathian for Ozy. […]
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso – On Nov. 1, 2014, the day after Blaise Compaoré resigned as Burkina Faso’s president and fled the capital in a convoy, abruptly ending his nearly three-decade hold on power, a 40-year-old man named Prosper looked on as an opposition lawmaker exulted over the autocrat’s hasty departure while giving a radio interview […]
LAGOS, Nigeria–Election day dawned cloudy and cool in Lagos; an odd tranquility filtered through my window. I heard birds, and the wind, rather than the normal honking and hawking—the ambient sounds that permeate the air here, fueling what seems to be endemic insomnia among its residents. The silence was particularly notable after the clamor […]
By Allyn Gaestel AG-1 / NIGERIA / FEBRUARY 2015 LAGOS – Comrade Agbodemu Ishola Musbau strode through Ebute-Metta, a bustling neighborhood of concrete block homes interspersed with fading colonial houses, their deep brown, mint green and mustard yellow stucco walls stained with watermarks and exhaust fumes. Weaving between bright yellow vans and golf carts—the […]
ABIDJAN – Thiossane and Moctar meet in classic West African fashion. Trying to send a text message one day to an old friend from school, Thiossane, an educated but unemployed resident of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, enters the number incorrectly and instead reaches Moctar, an uneducated grave-digger who has recently lost his job. Moctar […]
Malia Politzer January 2015 \MP-16 PARIS, France – Earlier this month, France experienced its worst terrorist attack in 50 years. It started the morning on the 7th of January, at approximately 11:30am, when two men wearing balaclavas and bulletproofed vests, and armed with Kalashnikovs, forced their way into the editorial meeting of the Paris-based […]
In the wake of the tragic Charlie Hebdo attack, newly appointed ICWA Fellow Jonathan Guyer has become a media sensation. A specialist on Arabic cartoons and culture, Jonathan is ideally suited to supply a unique Middle East-based perspective on developments. Most recently Jonathan authored a piece for Guernica Magazine. He has written several other articles, including […]
Based in Cairo, Jonathan’s Fellowship will be focused on art, mass media, and satire. Watch our video to find out more about Jonathan and his plans for his ICWA Fellowship. […]