Newsletter Archive
May 24, 2012. Schuster Institute fellows receive honors, and through their reporting, make impact on human rights policy. PDF press release>
May 16, 2012. Fraud and corruption in international adoption, Sierra Leone, Guatemala with focus on investigative reporting by E.J. Graff and Erin Siegal. PDF press release>
May 11, 2012. Dogged independent reporting on child sexual abuse coverups in some ultra-Orthodox communities by Hella Winston, and news that Beacon Press has published Erin Siegal's award-winning book "Finding Fernanda" about systemic corruption in the international adoption system between the United States and Guatemala. PDF press release>
March 7, 2012. Response to Rush Limbaugh's attack on Tracie McMillon and "The American Way of Eating," her new book (Scribner, 2012) in which she describes her undercover investigative reporting effort to learn more about the relationship between economic class and food distribution. PDF press release>
April 30, 2012. New project "Investigating Power" spotlights 29 investigative journalists, including Florence Graves, and illustrates how their work has informed and added crucial value to American democratic society. PDF press release>
February 21, 2012. "The Fishing Industry's Cruelest Catch" by E. Benjamin Skinner for Bloomberg Business Week links slavery in fishing vessels in the waters around New Zealand to seafood at American retail outlets. PDF press release>
News Archive
June 27, 2012. The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism welcomes four investigative journalists as Senior Fellows to the Institute’s Ethics & Justice Investigative Journalism Fellowships. They join 14 other Fellows in working with Institute staff and Brandeis University student research assistants on reporting projects related to social justice and human rights issues that are often underreported by mainstream media. Press release>
May 21, 2012. Schuster Institute Senior Fellows have received prestigious fellowships to report on social justice issues:
- Erin Siegal was named a 2012 Soros Justice Fellow by the Open Society Foundation.
- Jerry Redfern has been named a 2012-13 Scripps Fellow at the Center for Environmental Journalism at CU Boulder.
- Tracie McMillan will be a 2012-13 Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan.
May 20, 2012. The New York Times's Public Editor Arthur Brisbane spotlighted that newspaper's failure to credit the Jewish press for its foundational reporting in its recent two-part series on child sex abuse cover-ups in some ultra-Orthodox communities. Schuster Institute's Senior Fellow Hella Winston was among those Brisbane pointed to for her reporting on these issues, as well as the Schuster Institute's Executive Editor Melissa Ludtke, for first bringing the problem of lack of attribution to his attention.
"Credit Where Credit Is Due," Arthur Brisbane, May 19, 2012, The New York Times.
May 15, 2012. Commenting on the New York Times two-part series about child sexual abuse in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, the Village Voice’s Nick Pinto blogged that "many were dismayed that the Times series failed to credit the work of other reporters who have been on the beat for years," including groundbreaking reporting by Schuster Institute Senior Fellow Hella Winston.
May 11, 2012. "The Stolen Makeni Children" is Schuster Institute Senior Fellow E.J. Graff's follow-up report about 29 children from Sierra Leone whose birthparents allege were stolen. Now, 14 years after their adoption by Western families, a court in Sierra Leone agrees.
May 11, 2012. Investigative journalist and Schuster Institute Senior Fellow Hella Winston has been reporting on issues revolving around child sexual abuse in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities for four years. Her investigative articles have been published in The New York Jewish Week. Links to her reporting since 2008>
May 11, 2012. Investigative journalist and Schuster Institute Senior Fellow Erin Siegal's book "Finding Fernanda" was published this week by Beacon Press. The book documents, perhaps the first time, what's been called by some as "the perfect crime"—fraud, corruption, and child trafficking in international adoption between Guatemala and the United States.
May 7, 2012. Schuster Institute Senior Fellow E. Benjamin Skinner gave the keynote speech at last week's "Combating Labor Trafficking" conference on May 1, 2012 in Washington, D.C. The conference was organized by the International Stability Operations Association and the American Bar Association: Industry and Experts Engage at Labor Trafficking Conference
May 2, 2012. Schuster Founding Director Florence Graves is among 26 investigative journalists spotlighted for their investigative reporting in Charles Lewis's new project Investigating Power. Lewis, the project's executive producer, documents “great moments in journalism" and connects those moments to today's American democratic society.
April 24, 2012. Brooklyn DA, In Shift, Opens Window On Abusers' Names—Hella Winston, April 24, 2011, The Jewish Week.
April 24, 2012. Abuse Case Dates Suggest Brooklyn DA Is Cooking Numbers For Kol Tzedek Hotline—Hella Winston, April 24, 2011, The Jewish Week.
April 20, 2012. "Quest for Justice," Theresa Pease, Brandeis Magazine, Spring 2012.
"Most working days, [Schuster Institute Assistant Director Lindsay Markel], other Institute staff members and a team of eight paid student sleuths comb public records and analyze circumstances around [one man's] alleged crime, searching for clues that justice was not served. The case — among those being investigated by the Schuster Institute’s Justice Brandeis Innocence Project — recently was taken up by the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the Massachusetts public defender organization, which filed a motion for a new trial. Markel hopes the extensive legwork done at Brandeis will help provide crucial information for those seeking to overturn [the] conviction."
April 12, 2012. "Commentary: Did slaves catch your seafood?" Sophie Elsner, GlobalPost. Researcher and student research assistants investigated the fishing supply chain and connected fish caught in New Zealand waters to American consumers.
April 10, 2012. "High Court Ruling on Mondrowitz 'Troublesome', Hella Winston, The Jewish Week. Brooklyn DA not required to release documents pertaining to failed extradition of alleged child molester.
April 10, 2012. Schuster Fellow Rebekah Cowell received a Sigma Delta Chi Award in the Newspaper Investigative Reporting (Non-Daily) category for "The Waste Land," "Living on the Edge," and "Digging Deeper," a series that investigates the municipal policies of situating dump sites near African-American and Latino neighborhoods in North Carolina.
April 10, 2012. Schuster Senior Fellow Madeline Drexler received a Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service in Magazine Journalism for her article "Why Your Food Isn't Safe." Drexler investigated food safety policy in America, foodborne illness, and proposed solutions for improving public health.
April 3, 2012. Melissa Ludtke, Executive Editor at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University, was among 300 nominees for the list of 100 outstanding U.S. journalists in America compiled by the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University.
March 17, 2012. Melissa Ludtke honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame for breaking gender barriers for women reporters covering sports.
March 7, 2012. Statement in response to Rush Limbaugh's attacks against Tracie McMillan and her book "The American Way of Eating."
January 5, 2012. The Schuster Institute and the Fund for Investigative Journalism join forces to support independent public interest investigative journalism through a new Fellowship program. Press release | Meet the fellows
December 1, 2011. Melissa Ludtke, formerly of Harvard's Nieman Reports, joined the Schuster Institute as Executive Editor.
November 12, 2011. Elaine Schuster, cofounding donor with her husband Gerald of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, was honored at the Big Sister of Greater Boston's 60th anniversary event.
June 16, 2010. UN-Schuster Institute panel discussion: "Hidden in Plain Sight" addressed the news media's role in exposing and explaining modern-day slavery and human trafficking; New York, New York.
March 4, 2010. Florence Graves, the Schuster Institute’s Founding Director, participated in a symposium at Suffolk University Law School focused on “Forging a New Future for Journalism in America.”
July 1, 2009. Network of nonprofit news organizations forms
The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism’s founding director, Florence Graves, was 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 groundbreaking meeting at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s Pocantico Conference Center in Tarrytown, NY, June 29-July 1 2009.