News & Updates
In Kenya, ivory tusks burned to deter poachers
Story and Photos by Christopher Chávez I held it in my hands; a long ivory tusk weighing about one hundred pounds. It was yellowed and coarse with several markings carved into it. Likely some sort of inventory code marked by the officer who confiscated it. And then I...
Jailed journalist released from Azerbaijani prison
Investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova, of Azerbaijan, was conditionally released from prison on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports. The award-winning journalist is still on probation, according to the Associated Press. The Crossings Institute applauds...
The newspaper that recruited refugees for a special issue
When Alex Ahredtsen, a member of the Denmark Parliament, coined the term “pizza Danish” on a local radio program, he was not testing out his idea for a new breakfast pastry, but rather enforcing his anxiety about the country’s refugee crisis. His reference to “pizza...
U.S. press freedom ranking disheartening
This op-ed by research fellow Jonathan Bach was originally published in The Register-Guard of Eugene, Oregon. To view the original article, click here. HELSINKI, Finland — On a recent evening in Helsinki, the mother of a persecuted journalist accepted the prestigious...
English speakers should welcome Latino FM
This op-ed by senior research fellow Christopher Chávez was originally published in The Register-Guard of Eugene, Oregon. To view the original article, click here. When I first arrived in Eugene from St. Louis three years ago, I was taken aback by the kindness of my...
Fighting for Dying Languages: A look into what modern Native Americans are doing
Many Native American languages are slowly dying with the elders who speak them fluently. Kids don’t learn them in school and don’t speak them at home, and most aren’t interested in learning them. They don’t have a use anymore. Everything from movies to iPhones to...
Reflecting on Mizzou Student Protests with Nicky Cook
Nicky Cook, a student journalist at the University of Missouri, talks with his friend and Crossings research fellow Molly Zaninovich about what it meant to be black at a time when racial tensions ran high at the school in 2015.
Behind the Byline, pt. 2
(This is part two of a two-part series. Click here for part one.) In this second installment of Behind the Byline, University of Oregon students and professors gather to discuss the ethics of reporting on the Umpqua Community College shooting. The lineup features...
Behind the Byline, pt. 1
What are the ethics of reporting on a mass shooting? In the wake of the mass shooting at the Umpqua Community College campus in Roseburg, Oregon on Oct. 1, the University of Oregon-UNESCO Crossings Institute hosted a two-part panel forum with those who reported on the...
Asylum process needs change
An income gap that, despite Bernie Sanders’ best efforts, yawns perversely wide. Harrowing rates of gun violence. Racial and religious tensions running high. Call this country afflicted — yet despite our problems, swarms of foreign nationals still yearn to call the...
Analysis: How free is Azerbaijan?
Crossings Radio traveled to Azerbaijan – and you can't talk about the former Soviet bloc country without talking about human rights. Research Fellow Jonathan Bach analyzes the situation in Azerbaijan. Research and quotes used herein have also been used in Bach's...
What’s “Intangible Cultural Heritage”?
What does it mean to safeguard a culture? Do cultures even need protection, and if so, why? Crossings Radio talked with Lisa Gilman, author of UNESCO on the Ground: Local Perspectives on Intangible Cultural Heritage, about UNESCO's list of "safeguarded" traditions and...
To Print or Not To Print: In the Studio with Mike McInally
A devastating photo of a young Syrian boy found washed up on Turkish shores took on a life of its own in 2015. Mike McInally -- editor of the Corvallis Gazette-Times -- decided to publish the photo to the front page of his newspaper in the relatively small city of...
Azerbaijan elections: a fixed horserace
For an election-time column like this, one might wax philosophical about the possible outcomes of a neck-in-neck match. About the 2015 general elections in Britain, writer Jonathan Freedland quipped in his Guardian op-ed: “As horseraces go, this one should be...
To speak American English is to use lots of ‘foreign’ words
"Speak American!" Sarah Palin counseled to Jeb Bush recently, echoing Donald Trump's criticism of Bush's frequent fluent Spanish while speaking on the presidential campaign trail. Although Palin quickly clarified her advice by adding, "Let's speak English. (A)...
In some spheres, there’s no room for a free press
It’s difficult to imagine taking up residence in a land without freedom of expression. Under the stars and stripes, we have the right to protest oil drilling, probe intelligence agencies over shady surveillance programs and pen columns in the local daily expressing...
Anastasia Stanko & Devices That Can Save Journalists’ Lives
Ukrainian journalist Anastasia Stanko helped start online news station Hromadske.tv, one of the country's only public news outlets, to offer an independent, objective voice to the nation where media is often skewed or biased. Hromadske.tv became popular during its...
The Meduza Project
On March 11, 2014, Galina Timchenko was the editor in chief of Russia's most popular news website – Lenta.ru. The next day, she was jobless. According to a statement issued by 73 of the 81 journalists who worked at Lenta, Timchenko had been sacked so the Kremlin could...