Partial Reading Lists Announced

If you would like to get started on the reading for your study abroad class, here’s a preview of some of what will be on the required reading lists:

RTV 4931 Ethics and Problems
In The Hot Zone: One Man, One Year, Twenty Wars by Kevin Sites. (New York: Perennial, 2007.) Backpack journalist Kevin Sites became known as the NBC photojournalist who recorded the video of a Marine executing a captured Iraqi prisoner in a mosque. Sites writes about the ethical dilemmas journalists face in wartime situations. He also gives insight into how journalism is changing because of technology.

The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood by Helene Cooper. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.) New York Times reporter Helene Cooper grew up as a privileged child in the African nation of Liberia in the 1970s. Her life changed forever when her family was caught up in a violent coup. Cooper writes about how those events shaped her decision to become a journalist covering many of the world’s hotspots.

RTV 4930 Travel Reporting
A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives and Inspiration by Michael Shapiro. (San Francisco: Travelers’ Tales, 2004). Shapiro interviews some of the top travel reporters and writers working today about their successful techniques. Borrow some inspiration from their great ideas!

Returning to France

After visiting France twice - once in 1996 and again in 1997 - I look forward to returning in May 2009.

France has always meant adventure to me. It was one of the first countries I wanted to visit after taking French in high school and reading Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. I think if I could visit one point in history, I would pick Paris in the 1920s.

In addition to visiting Paris before, I've briefly passed through Lyon, Nice and Strasbourg. I look foward to visiting the western part of the country with our trip to Bordeaux.