The Schuneman Symposim has been cancelled. 

March 31, 2020

All programs in Baker Center Theater

Presented by the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and the School of Visual Communication

#smitty-2020

Myanmar Burning
9 a.m.
Shoon Naing, investigative reporter for Thomson Reuters
@shoon_naing

An award-winning Burmese journalist based in Yangon, Myanmar, Shoon has been working as a correspondent for Thomson Reuters news agency for more than two years, covering stories from Myanmar’s fractious politics and civil wars to the Rohingya refugee crisis and dangerous jade industry.

In 2018, she contributed to “Myanmar Burning,” a series of 10 stories on the expulsion of the Rohingya from Myanmar, which won several awards including the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting and the Farfel Prize for investigative reporting.

Before joining Reuters, Shoon worked at a local English-language daily newspaper called Myanmar Times. She started her journalism career in 2015 during Myanmar’s historic general election when Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory. Shoon worked as a freelance project assistant and interpreter for international media outlets such as Channel News Asia, the Guardian, ZDF German Television and National Geographic.

She was born and raised in Yangon, where she grew up under the military regime and experienced the country’s democratic transition from the front row while working as a journalist. Shoon studied engineering at the University of Malaysia Sabah.

The Fall of Mosul
10:30 a.m.
Victor Blue, freelance photojournalist
@victorjblue

Victor J. Blue is a New York based photojournalist whose work is most often concerned with the legacy of armed conflict, human rights and the protection of civilian populations, and unequal outcomes resulting from policy and politics. He covers national and international news stories for major newspapers and magazines, shoots documentary photo projects that accompany the conflict in Afghanistan and post-conflict Guatemala, and maintains a personal documentary practice that spans decades. Blue has completed assignments in Guatemala, Afghanistan, Syria, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Argentina, Peru, Iraq, and India, and has documented news stories and social issues across the United States. He holds a master’s degree in visual communication from Ohio University.

Blue’s photographs have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harpers Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Mother Jones, The San Francisco Chronicle and on The Discovery Channel and The History Channel. His work has been supported by grants from the National Press Photographers Association and Ohio University. Blue has earned seven Pictures of the Year International awards and three NPPA Best of Photojournalism awards, among other awards and citations.

 

Screening of "The Nightcrawlers," a documentary produced by National Geographic
1:30 p.m.

“With unprecedented access, ‘The Nightcrawlers’ is an unflinching exposé of Philippines President Duterte’s war on drugs, in which some claim over 20,000 people have been killed. RL, a former staff photographer for a prominent newspaper, leads the Manila Nightcrawlers, a small group of determined photojournalists on a mission to expose the true cost of the violent campaign. Through covering both sides of the conflict, ‘The Nightcrawlers’ reveals a harrowing twist behind Duterte’s deadly crusade.” National Geographic’s description of the film

The Nightcrawlers
3:05 p.m.
Basilio “Eli” Sepe, freelance photojournalist
@basiliosepe

Sepe is an independent photographer based in Manila, Philippines, and was named Photographer of the Year for the Philippines in 2018. Sepe’s coverage focuses on national and regional concerns. He has done multimedia work for various international and local outfits such as ABS-CBN News Online, UCANews, European Press Photo Agency, Getty Images, Associated Press Television News and more. Sepe is also an active member of the Photojournalists’ Center of the Philippines and an alumnus of the Angkor Photo Workshops 2016. His work on the Philippine drug war has been recognized by the International Photography Awards.

Sepe received second place in the Top news, Singles category of the 5th Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest in 2019. He also served as the photography editor for The Varsitarian, the student publication of the University of Santo Tomas where he also received his Fine Arts degree. Sepe was one of the photojournalists who contributed to “The Nightcrawlers,” a documentary film produced by National Geographic.