The IGL Launches the Program for Narrative and Documentary Practice Led by Photojournalist Gary Knight
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This spring, the Institute for Global Leadership is launching a new initiative: the Program for Narrative and Documentary Practice.
Founded and directed by acclaimed photojournalist and VII co-founder Gary Knight, the Program will teach students to seek out and explain complicated situations and communicate these situations to the public in a clear, engaging fashion, using visual, written and oral narratives. A program that imbues Tufts students with a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of narrative and documentary skills with an emphasis on marrying traditional narrative to visual narrative will add considerable value to the existing core of the Tufts and IGL missions.
The principle focus of the program is practice and field work underwritten by a sound understanding of theory and concept and a solid foundation of content. Combining experiential instruction, mentoring, and research, the Program will function as a significant guiding force, enabling students to view themselves as leaders for change and progress through investigative journalism and narrative storytelling.
The Program will teach, practice and present documentary narrative work through collaborative partnerships and extended fieldwork, using photography, film and video, audio, and the written word. Student projects will address significant social, economic, political and environmental issues, as well as capture and convey contemporary memory, life, and culture in innovative ways to help students understand, engage and communicate difficult and compelling local and global issues.
During the academic year, the Program will offer an intensive seminar, a lecture course, public lectures, and local and international workshops.
Knight has brought world-renowned journalists on to his board to work with the students, share their experiences as mentors, and to provide opportunities for students to engage issues globally.
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Nichole Sobecki
Nicki joined the IGL’s Exposure program as a freshman and participated in it, as well as other IGL programs, throughout her four years at Tufts. She had the opportunity to work on projects in internationally in Cambodia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Rwanda, and Pakistan, as well as nationally in Philadelphia and Providence. Since her graduation in 2008, she has been working for GlobalPost, based in Istanbul.
“I first met Gary Knight the summer after my freshman year at Tufts. I was among a small group of students selected to participate in an Exposure workshop in Kosovo led by Gary Knight and Mort Rosenblum. I arrived in Prizren thrilled, and more than a little nervous, to be coached by a duo who's collective experience spanned continents, and whose skilled reporting had informed and inspired so many before me. Since then I have had the opportunity to work with Gary in Boston and Cambodia, in addition to Kosovo. Part mentor, part friend, and formidable to those with uncultivated discipline, Gary has a unique ability to inspire those around him to reach high.
“The "Knight critique" is synonymous with many things -- a jolt of mild terror as you awaited a reaction to your work, a feeling of camaraderie as we all sat around formalizing edits and writing up notes, a moment of pride when one of your images made an impression. Mostly, though, what stuck out to me about the Knight method was Gary's rapid and indubitable assessment of your day's take. Never have I felt my weaknesses were more easily found out; rarely have I felt prouder than when I put my best efforts forward and found them recognized as such.
“Working with Gary meant fellowship, a sense that we were all in it together. It was a challenge that required only the highest of standards; it pushed us all forward. Only now, as I have begun to work in the field -- where a tip off from a colleague may be the only way you find out about a story, and where your safety is often in the hand of a friend -- do I realize how fundamental that idea is to this line of work.
“For the two years since I graduated from Tufts I have been based in Istanbul, Turkey, where I am the Turkish correspondent for GlobalPost and have had my work featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Boston Globe and others.
"When I graduated in 08' and decided to pursue journalism, the financial crisis had just hit and I was bombarded with warnings. "Slashed budgets!" "Changing media environment!" "Closing bureaus!" It seemed like the last job in the world to begin pursuing. I didn't listen, and ended up discovering what the doomsdayers had missed. As budget cuts led many newspapers to retrench on foreign coverage, new and creative methods of reporting were growing from the cracks in the industry.
"There seems to be an amnesiac approach to the trade; to the fact that this is a discipline that requires training. Without it, you become reliant on a handful of amateurs with little discipline and unsteady ethics -- a dangerous formula in a field dedicated to communicating subtle and diverse realities the world over. As Mort wrote in a passionate op-ed this year: "societies get the news coverage they deserve.
"There is much to be learned by being in the field, but fundamentals need to be honed by those who have been there before, experts like Gary who understand how journalists work and what makes the difference between passable coverage and real reporting. Context. Ethics. Balance. Drive. This has never been a job that can be taught from a handbook, but today -- when the very structure of the media landscape is in a state of upheaval, the dedicated mentorship of the next generation of journalists is needed more than ever.
"I have had the privilege to work with a number of talented, intrepid journalists. But from critiques in Kosovo, to conversations in Siem Reap, Gary remains the most passionate, dedicated, and creative teachers I have had the honor of working with.