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SoJust

New Social Justice Leadership Series features speakers who have forged career paths in social change and justice.

Recent spotlights

Callie Crossley asks
Associate Director
E.J. Graff: "Did Sexism Hurt Martha Coakley?"
Monday, Jan. 25, 2010
1:00 - 1:30 p.m.
WGBH FM 89.7 on the new
Callie Crossley Show.

TUNE IN to hear Florence Graves, Founding Director of the Schuster Institute, discuss "Privacy and Public Officials" with
MN Public Radio's Midmorning host Kerri Miller, political strategists Carol Dahmen and Bob Shrum, and psychology professor Frank Farley, Wed., Jan. 13, 10 a.m. EST.

Congratulations to Elaine Schuster, co-founder of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism and board member of the Women's Studies Research Center. She has been appointed as a United States representative to the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

"Donor appointed to represent United States at UN," Nov. 20, 2009, The Hoot.

"Schuster appointed to UN," Nashrah Rahman, Nov. 17, 2009, The Justice.

"Elaine Schuster serving as public delegate for the U.S. delegation to the United Nations General Assembly," Nov. 17, 2009, BrandeisNOW.

Brandeis University Magazine Fall 2009 issue features a story based on Schuster Institute's investigation into corruption in international adoptions: "Other People's Children," by Theresa Pease (PDF).

New from Senior Fellow
E. Benjamin Skinner:
South Africa's New Slave Trade and the Campaign to Stop It, Jan. 18, 2010, Time.

Pakistan's forgotten plight: Modern-day slavery, Oct. 27, 2009, Time.

Senior Fellow E. Benjamin Skinner has received the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for his book
A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery (Free Press, 2008).

Associate Director and Senior Researcher E.J. Graff has won four prestigious journalism awards for her article "The Lie We Love,” Foreign Policy magazine, Nov./Dec. 2008:

2008 Sigma Delta Chi Award in Journalism for best in Magazine Investigative Reporting
2008 James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism
2009 Clarion Award for best Magazine Feature Article
2009 Casey Medals
for Meritorious Journalism honorable mention for Magazine Reporting

Follow the link for our full investigation.

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Spotlight!

Haiti's Children in the Spotlight

The New York Times "Room for Debate": "Haiti's Children and the Adoption Question," with commentary by E.J. Graff and other prominent experts in the field, Feb. 1, 2010.
PRI's The World interviews Senior Fellow E. Benjamin Skinner on the subject of "Haiti's Child Slaves," Feb. 1, 2010.
New Updated HAITI webpage with Resource Guide
Senior Fellow E. Benjamin Skinner, describes his mission to Haiti to help Bill Nathan, former child slave who now dedicates his life to needy Haitian children.
- Haiti Rescue: Saving the Man Who Saved My Life, TIME Magazine, Jan. 20, 2010.
- TIME's video: "Haiti Rescue: Saving the Man Who Saved My Life," Jan. 20, 2010.
- Extreme Measures to Save Extraordinary Man, ABC WORLD NEWS, Jan. 17, 2010.
Senior Fellow E. Benjamin Skinner's recent book A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery (Free Press, 2008) includes a chapter about his experience in Haiti and the tragic phenomenon there of child domestic slavery (also known as restavek).

Corruption in International Adoptions

"Celebrity Adoptions and the Real World," commentary by The New York Times editors, with a contribution by E.J. Graff: "The Seamier Side of International Adoption," May 10, The New York Times Opinion Blog.
"The Orphan Trade: A look at families affected by corrupt international adoptions," a photo essay that presents the stories and struggles of families affected by fraudulent international adoption, May 8, 2009, Slate.com.

"The Adoption Underworld," a full-page collaboration between The Washington Post and the Schuster Institute, January 11, 2009.

Includes "The orphan manufacturing chain," which graphically illustrates the steps by which international adoption money can be exchanged for children; and"Out of Cambodia," which recounts how a Cambodian child named Songkea was abducted for U.S. adoption, and reunited with her family five years later.

"The problem with saving the world's 'orphans'" dispels the myth of the world's 'orphans' by showing how some adoption agencies use enormous sums of money to locate and attract healthy, "adoptable" children, The Boston Globe Op-Ed, December 11, 2008.

Award-winning investigation: "The Lie We Love," Foreign Policy, Nov./Dec. 2008, E.J. Graff, Associate Director and Senior Researcher, Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. Includes a Photo Essay: The Baby Bazaar.

Documentation, research, and analysis: Corruption in International Adoptions. In-depth information about serious irregularities in international adoptions worldwide.

Interactive map: See which countries have been plagued by serious corruption in international adoptions, and find links to further information.

Teen Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

A shocking report—teenagers are in more danger from sexual predators at their after-school, weekend, and summer jobs than through the Internet.

Sexual Harassment of Teens at Work

"E.J. Graff shines a light on the dark side of teen summer jobs," BrandeisNOW spotlight for Wednesday, July 15, 2009
"Summer Jobs Often Lead to Harassment," ABC's WCVB-TV Channel 5 Boston's investigative reporter Rhondella Richardson's interview with E.J. Graff (broadcast July 10, 11pm)
"Is Your Daughter Safe at Work?" PBS Now/Schuster Institute, February 20, 2009
Sexual Harassment of Teens at Work, a resource site about the problem of sexual harassment as it relates to teens; and soon to come, a sampling of cases that have been brought to court
"Where are working teens being harassed... and suing for it?" interactive map
“Is Your Daughter Safe at Work?” E.J. Graff in Good Housekeeping, June 2007

In both the NOW broadcast and the Good Housekeeping article, abused teenagers share their own stories, offering insight into the lives of more than 200,000 teens who are sexually assaulted on the job each year, and hundreds of thousands of others who are sexually coerced, groped, grabbed, and cornered in ways for which they are entirely unprepared. We track their legal journeys to justice, and examine how the issue impacts teenagers across the country—many of whom don’t know how to report workplace abuse, or even how to recognize when their bosses cross the line.

Pocantico Declaration

Network of nonprofit news organizations forms

The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism’s founding director, Florence Graves, is among 25 nonprofit journalism organization leaders who agreed to join forces to promote and support watchdog reporting that is dedicated not to the profit motive but to the public interest.

The announcement came via the Pocantico Declaration, which followed the conclusion of a recent groundbreaking meeting at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s Pocantico Conference Center in Tarrytown, NY.