Athens, Ga. – Twelve Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication students have been named to the inaugural class of McGill Fellows and will participate in the first McGill Symposium on Wednesday, Nov. 7 at the University of Georgia.
The McGill Symposium is an outgrowth of the college’s annual McGill Lecture. For nearly 30 years, the McGill Lecture has brought significant figures in journalism to UGA to help honor Ralph McGill’s courage as a newspaper editor who fought persistently for civil rights during the ’50s and ’60s.
The McGill Symposium will bring together students, faculty and leading journalists to consider what journalistic courage means and how it is exemplified by reporters and editors.
This year’s McGill Lecture, also on November 7, will be delivered by Julia Wallace, editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and www.ajc.com. The 4 p.m. lecture in room 101 of the Student Learning Center is free and open to the public.
Roundtable discussions in 2006 with industry professionals and faculty led the College’s Department of Journalism to develop the McGill Symposium as the next step in honoring McGill and exploring journalistic courage.
The 12 McGill Fellows – 10 undergraduate and two graduate students – were selected by a journalism faculty committee for their strengths in academic achievement, practical experience and leadership.
The first class of McGill Fellows include Bradley Alexander, senior newspapers major from Juliette; Ugochi Amuta, senior magazines major from Lagos, Nigeria; Juanita Cousins, senior newspapers major from Stone Mountain; Kimberly Davis, graduate student, journalism, from Athens; Natalie Fisher, senior magazines major from Birmingham, Ala.; Geoffrey Graybeal, graduate student, mass media studies, from Raleigh, N.C.; Matthew Grayson, senior magazines major from Birmingham, Ala.; Kali Justus, senior magazines major from Oxford; Scott Reid, senior magazines major from Roswell; Kacie Versaci, senior magazines major from Kennesaw; Marlee Waxelbaum, senior newspapers major from Roswell; and Emily Yocco, senior magazines major from Hilton Head, S.C.
They will join six McGill Visiting Journalists for a six-hour discussion on such topics as: “When community forces align against you,” “On assignment in Iraq … and other troubled places,” “The risks journalists face holding powerful interests accountable,” “Courage in medical reporting,” and “From outrage to outbreaks.”
The six McGill Visiting Journalists are Moni Basu, staff writer, The Atlanta Journal Constitution; Margie Mason, medical writer, the Associated Press; Dean Miller, Nieman Fellow at Havard University and managing editor, the Idaho Falls Post Register; Richard Prince, columnist for the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and foreign desk copy editor, The Washington Post; Harriet Washington, author of Medical Apartheid; and Peter Zuckerman, reporter, The Oregonian in Portland.
A record of the discussion will be published and posted online early next year.
The Grady College faculty committee that selected the McGill Fellows, and that will moderate the McGill Symposium, includes Valerie Boyd, Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer-in-Residence and assistant professor; Conrad Fink, professor; John F. Greenman, professor; Janice Hume, associate professor; and Patricia Thomas, professor and Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism.
For more information, contact Greenman at jgreenma@uga.edu or Diane Murray, Grady College director of public service and outreach, at murrayd@uga.edu.
