Friday, August 14, 2020 - 03:15
Despite the disrupted academic calendar and lockdowns across Iraq and Kurdistan, AUIS journalism students continue to report on events in the region. Indeed, thanks to a collaboration with international media startup newscoop.com, their writing has been reaching a global audience.
Newscoop, a new hub for young journalists to share reporting and opinion about their regions with a global English-language audience, won a bootcamp prize from German newspaper Deutsche Welle’s Global Media Forum in 2019. So far, eight AUIS students have contributed multiple articles on topics as varied as LGBT issues in Iraq, the history of Turkey’s conflict with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and the experience of coronavirus in Yezidi refugee camps, as well as more personal reflections.
Camilla Warrender, Newscoop’s managing director, said, "Working with the students of AUIS has been rewarding in the extreme. Their stories have provoked in many Newscoop readers an interest in geopolitical events that have not been covered well in the U.S. press. That your students have so much heart has also added to the power of their articles, and our joy in working with them."
Meanwhile, journalism major Sipa Nihad, a regular Newscoop contributor, was selected from over 4,000 applicants to attend the International Youth Summit Lahore Program in Pakistan, but due to global travel disruption was unable to attend in person. Nonetheless, her achievement, and the work published at Newscoop, testifies to the quality and energy of AUIS’ student journalists.
Current or prospective AUIS students interested in majoring or minoring in journalism can contact English department chair Ali Chetwynd for more information.
Linked below are the AUIS student articles published with Newscoop.
For many Yazidi refugees, unbearable life conditions lead to suicide
August 3, 2014: Yazidis remember that black day
Domestic violence in Iraq worsening in COVID-19 lockdown
The fight for education: after the Battle of Mosul
To be LGBTQ in Iraq
Letter To My Mother
In Iraqi Kurdistan on Christmas, Christians and Muslims pray together
Near-death at Mt. Sinjar
In the Name of God…
A young girl chasing her dream
Fighting Pride of the Yazidis
Understanding the Conflict between PKK and Turkey
Rebuttal To Erdogan’s PR Offensive on Rojava
Iraqi women step up
We Are All Rojava
The Luckless Kurds