Human Rights & Social Justice Reporting


Awards & Honors

The Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California, has presented a James Madison Award for champions of the First Amendment and freedom of information to Erin Siegalin the "Author category for her investigation of human rights abuses in Guatemala’s adoption industry, as well as the U.S. government’s role, in which children have been stolen, sold and offered as orphans to well-intentioned Western parents. Her book,“Finding Fernanda,” has received wide acclaim."

Jan Goodwin, Schuster Institute Senior Fellow, received two 2011 Clarion Awards for her investigative articles

E. Benjamin Skinner, Schuster Institute Senior Fellow, was honored as a 2011 Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum.

"The Adoption Underworld," Jan. 11, 2009, Washington Post, won a 2010 Clarion Award.

"The Lie We Love," Foreign Policy magazine, Nov./Dec. 2008:

2008 Special Honor for Excellence in Reporting on the Media from The Council on Contemporary Families, "The Opt-Out Myth," published in Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 2007. 

2007 Clarion Award, first place in the category for best newspaper feature, "First Things First," published in The Boston Sunday Globe, June 24, 2007.

2007 Clarion Award, first place in the category for best magazine feature, "The Opt-Out Myth," published in Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 2007.

2007 Cushing Niles Dolbeare Media Award in the category of daily newspaper single story for "First Things First," published in The Boston Sunday Globe, June 24, 2007.


Investigative Reporting on
  Human Rights & Social Justice Issues


Selected Institute Articles



Human Trafficking & Modern-Day Slavery

NEW "The Fishing Industry's Cruelest Catch," E. Benjamin Skinner, February 20, 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek.

"How U.S. Budget Cuts Prolong Global Slavery," June 28, 2011,  Time.com.

"Modern-Day Slavery: A Necessary Beat with Different Challenges," Winter 2010, Nieman Reports.

"Modern-Day Slavery on Washington's Embassy Row?" June 14, 2010, Time.com.

“The New Slave Trade,” January 18, 2010, Time.com.

“Pakistan’s Forgotten Plight: Modern-Day Slavery,” October 27, 2009, Time.com.

“The Fight to End Global Slavery,” Summer 2009, World Policy Journal.


Food Justice, Food Safety

NEW "Dining With Dioxin," Karen Coates, March 7, 2012, The Faster Times.

NEW “The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table,” Tracie McMillan, February 21, 2012, Scribner. Read excerpts>

"Why Your Food Isn't Safe," Madeline Drexler, October 2011, Good Housekeeping. Learn more>


International Adoption Fraud & Corruption

NEW "The U.S. Embassy Cables: Adoption Fraud in Guatemala, 1987-2010," Erin Siegal, February 1, 2012, Cathexis Press. Read excerpts>

"Finding Fernanda: Two Mothers, One Child, and a Cross-Border Search for the Truth," Erin Siegal, November 1, 2011, Cathexis Press.

"The Makeni Children," August 9, 2011, Slate.com

"Orphaned or Stolen? The U.S. State Department investigates adoption, Nepal, 2006-2008," February 21, 2011, The Huffington Post.

 "Anatomy of an Adoption Crisis," September 10, 2010, ForeignPolicy.com.

"Adopting new standards on adoption," September 10, 2010, "Comment is Free," Guardian.co.uk.

"The Baby Business," June 15, 2010, Democracy Journal.

"Preventing adoption disasters," April 17, 2010, The Boston Globe Op-Ed.

"The Seamier Side of International Adoption," May 10, 2009, The New York Times Opinion Blog.

"The Orphan Trade: A look at families affected by corrupt international adoptions," May 8, 2009, Slate.com.

"The Adoption Underworld," January 11, 2009, The Washington Post.

"The problem with saving the world's 'orphans'," December 11, 2008, The Boston Globe.

"The Lie We Love," Nov./Dec. 2008, Foreign Policy.


Criminal Justice

NEW "Abuse Case Raising Statute Questions," Hella Winston, February 28, 2012, The Jewish Week.

NEW "Fight Over Mondrowitz Documents Coming To A Head," Hella Winston, February 7, 2012, The Jewish Week.

"In Lakewood Abuse cases, A 'Parallel Justice System," Hella Winston, December 6, 2011, The Jewish Week.

"Failing the Test," Michael Blanding and Lindsay Markel, November 20, 2011, The Boston Globe Magazine.


Environmental Justice

NEW "Dining With Dioxin," Karen Coates, March 7, 2012, The Faster Times.

"The Flavor of Danger," Jerry Redfern and Karen Coates, Winter 2011, Gastronomica.

“Digging deeper,” Rebekah Cowell, July 6, 2011, IndyWeek.com.

“Living on the edge,” Rebekah Cowell, April 20, 2011, IndyWeek.com.

"The waste land,” Rebekah Cowell, February 16, 2011, IndyWeek.com.


Injustice in Political Asylum

"Broken Promises: Seeking Political Asylum in America,"  Jan Goodwin, April 2010, Ladies Home Journal.


Women Veterans' Healthcare

"The VA Health-Care System's Dishonorable Conduct," Jan Goodwin, March 2010, Good Housekeeping.


Sexual Harassment of Teenagers in the Workplace

"Is Your Daughter Safe at Work?," June 2007, Good Housekeeping.


Gender Inequality

"Do Women Count?," Spring 2008, Brandeis University Magazine.

"The Mommy War Machine," April 29, 2007, Sunday Washington Post Outlook section.

"The Opt-Out Myth," March/April 2007, Columbia Journalism Review.

"Striking Back," September 3, 2006, The Boston Globe.

"Fighting for Fair Treatment," April 27, 2006, The American Prospect Online.

"The Skinny Pink Paycheck Syndrome," February 12, 2006, Los Angeles Times.

"Too Pretty a Picture," November 25, 2005, The Washington Post.

"Mothers Prosecuted, Punished, For What They Didn't Do," May 26, 2005, USA Today.


Homelessness in Boston

"First Things First," June 24, 2007, The Boston Sunday Globe IDEAS.


Aircraft Safety

"Boeing Parts and Rules Bent, Whistle-Blowers Say," April 17, 2006, The Washington Post A1.     


© 2008-2012 Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, 02454. All rights reserved.