We are pleased to welcome UW-Madison Alum Jacob Kushner back to campus for a week-long residency, November 28 through December 1st. His visit will feature a variety of events, including an educator book club, a public lecture, career conversation, and classroom visits. See below for more information.
Jacob Kushner is an international correspondent covering Africa, Germany, and the Caribbean. He reports on migration, science, global health, foreign aid and investment, prejudice, terrorism and violent extremism, climate change, and wildlife. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Harper’s, The New Yorker, The Economist, National Geographic, Foreign Policy, VICE Magazine and The Guardian. He is the author of China’s Congo Plan, which was favorably reviewed in The New York Review of Books. He has photographed for National Geographic and field-produced for VICE on HBO, and PBS NewsHour. He has received numerous grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and will be discussion his latest Pulitzer Center reporting during his visit.
Originally from Milwaukee, Jacob graduated from UW-Madison with a B.A. in journalism and Latin American studies and received his MA in Political Journalism from Columbia University. While in Madison, he wrote for The Daily Cardinal, La Comunidad News, the Wisconsin State Journal, and Wisconsin Watch. In 2020, he published This is How the Heart Beats: LGBTQ East Africa, a book collaboration with photographer Jake Naughton (UW Journalism & African Studies ’10).
Thank you to our partners for co-sponsoring this residency: Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program, African Studies Program, International Studies Major, and School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UW-Madison.
International Book Club: The Belly of the Atlantic with Vlad Dima
Join us for our November Book Club with Vlad Dima, Professor and Chair of African Cultural Studies at UW-Madison for a discussion of the award-winning novel The Belly of the Atlantic by French-Senegalese author Fatou Diome. The first 20 Wisconsin K-12 educators who register for this event will receive a free copy of the book, and the first 20 UW-Madison students to register will receive one as well!
Participants are encouraged to read The Belly of the Atlantic by Fatou Diome before attending this online event. Learn more about this event by clicking the link above.
From South Africa 2010 to Qatar 2022: The lessons and legacies of sporting mega-events with Peter Alegi
Qatar has spent billions of dollars constructing infrastructure and facilities for the 2022 World Cup. What impacts do sporting mega-events have on host countries? African soccer expert Peter Alegi examines the lessons and legacies we can draw from South Africa's experience in 2010, and tells us what to look for in the forthcoming World Cup.
Peter Alegi is a History Professor at Michigan State University, and the author of Laduma! Soccer, Politics & Society in South Africa and African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World’s Game, and also co-editor of Africa’s World Cup and South Africa and the Global Game. Alegi's latest work has been published in the Journal of Southern African Studies, the International Journal of the History of Sport, and Radical History Review, as well as in edited books like Sports in Africa and Global Africa. His current research projects include a study of the role of digital technology in African history.
International Film Club: The Workers Cup with Natasha Iskander
Join us for our November Film Club with Natasha Iskander, a Professor at NYU-Wagner, who recently published an acclaimed book examining the lives of migrant workers recruited to build the stadiums for the World Cup of 2022 in Qatar. The featured film is The Workers Cup. Natasha will draw on her research to deepen our understanding of issues of migrant labor and human rights in Qatar. The first 15 educators and 10 students to register will receive a copy of Natasha's book, Does Skill Make Us Human?
Participants are encouraged to watch the Workers Cup before attending this online event. See links for trailer and where to watch the film by clicking the event link above.