News &#038; Events Archive

1 day ago

The RIAS Berlin Commission is planning two big alumni events for US fellows this year and two big events for German alumni. All alumni are invited to annual RIAS Media Prize Awards ceremony in Berlin on May 23 at the RIAS Funkhaus and alumni will have a panel discussion and another gathering at the historic RIAS building on May 24. Please write to info@riasberlin.org for more details on the two get-togethers in Germany.

There will also be several alumni get-togethers in San Antonio, Texas at the RTDNA Excellence in Journalism convention on September 5-7, including a reception on September 6, a breakfast gathering and a panel discussion on September 7 RIAS panel – “So you want to be a journalist and travel the world for your stories? From the Texas border to Mexico to the Croatian border to Serbia, we can help you.” It’s open to all RTDNA members and non-members can obtain a special day-pass rate by registering here: www.spj.org/eij-register-oneday.asp RIAS will offer $100 travel stipends for all RIAS alumni traveling from out-of-town to who take part in at least 2 of the 3 alumni events. Please let us know if you’re interested and will be attending.

The highlight of the year will be a new one-week alumni program in Berlin for about 30 U.S. alumni in early November that will be timed to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. The co-financed program will include just two two-hour appointments in the mornings and an evening get-together with local alumni. Afternoons will be kept free for alumni to do reporting on 30 years of German unification or the Berlin Wall or alumni networking on their own with German alumni. The November alumni program will start on November 5 and run to November 11. RIAS will pay for hotels and program costs in Berlin while alumni themselves will pay for their own flights. RIAS is planning to have a reciprocal alumni program in Washington DC/West Virginia in late October 2020 shortly before the U.S. elections for 30 German alumni.

Please let us or your local alumni chapter – which will be nominating many of the participants – know if you are interested in taking part. The November program is designed to encourage and support all those alumni-building efforts. Alumni who have been active in the alumni network, have supported RIAS or are planning to work on stories on the fall of the wall are especially encouraged to take part. There is no formal application form. Please send a short email to info@riasberlin.org explaining why you would like to attend that alumni week for the 30th anniversary of the Berlin Wall and what, if anything, you are planning to report on for your network back home. ... See MoreSee Less

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2 weeks ago

American journalists and students tour Germany, Brussels on RIAS exchange program

rtdna.org

Fellows named for three RIAS German-American Exchange programs.

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www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-dresden-restoration-notre-dame-20190422-story.html ... See MoreSee Less

4 weeks ago

To rebuild Notre Dame after its fire, French can look east to Dresden’s Frauenkirche

latimes.com

After the devastating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, global interest in the improbable reconstruction of Dresden’s Frauenkirche so long after its destruction during World War II – as well as other churches and historic buildings across Europe – has grown.

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The Big Pond #24: Being Muslim in the Midwest

1 month ago

RIAS alumni Joe Sampson and Rosemary Pennington produced this audio documentary "Being Muslim in the Midwest" for the Goethe Institute's "Big Pond" listening series is being released today in the US and Germany. The series is part of the Deutschlandjahr USA program and other RIAS alumni also contributed features - including Katie Davis, the Kitchen sisters, Martina Gross, Kerstin Zilm and KCRW Berlin.

www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/kul/tec/tbp/mim.html

Rosemary and Joe will be on Cincinnati Public Radio (wvxu.org) on Tuesday 4/23 at 12:06 pm EST to talk about the project.
www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/kul/tec/tbp/mim.html ... See MoreSee Less

goethe.de

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1 month ago

Alumni chapter events in March in Hamburg, Berlin, Washington DC and New York

March was a busy month for RIAS Berlin Commission alumni chapters in Germany and the United States.

RIAS Berlin Commission board member Melissa Eddy talks about her work for the Commission and at the New York Times in Germany with Jiffer Bourguingon, a former correspondent for Der Spiegel in Washington DC
Two of the biggest alumni chapters, in Hamburg and Berlin, held a series of interesting evening events with local organizations in Germany’s two largest cities to talk about transatlantic issues while alumni chapters in Washington DC and New York City held get-togethers at popular restaurants with German participants on the spring program to the United States. The idea behind the alumni chapters is to keep the spirit of the RIAS Berlin Commission alive for former participants, RIAS media prize winners, guest speakers to RIAS programs and friends of RIAS. There are no membership fees and the chapters as well as their meetings and events are organized locally by a network of volunteers.

There were about 25 American alumni members and RIAS media prize award winners such as Bill Whitaker of CBS in both of the U.S. cities who joined the 14 German RIAS participants for spirited discussions on Friday March 8 in Washington DC and on Friday March 15 in New York City. The events were organized thanks to the energy from U.S. chapter leaders Marissa Melton, Michael Garguilo, Clare Toeniskoetter and Stacey Samuel as well as U.S. coordinator KC Schillhahn. The alumni events in Hamburg — organized by chapter leaders Nadine Gries and Michail Paweletz — and Berlin — which was organized by Vladimir Balzer, Petra Gute and Anja Heyde — were also well attended.

Melissa Eddy of The New York Times in Berlin took part in a lively panel discussion on March 20 with Jiffer Bourguingon, a former correspondent for Der Spiegel in Washington DC, at an alumni meeting at the Villa Heine at the Elbe. The event was held in cooperation with the Business Club Hamburg for the first time and widely considered a great success with about 10 Hamburg-area RIAS alumni attending, including two-time RIAS fellow Ingo Zamperoni, and another 12 guests from the Business Club Hamburg. Melissa Eddy talked about her work in Germany for The New York Times, the mission of the RIAS Berlin Commission and her ties to the organization — where she as a board member she volunteers her time to help pick participants for programs in the United States. She also regularly gives talks to American participants coming to Germany.

Other topics included and discussed in the Q&A were President Trump and the media, the Nordstream 2 pipeline and the growing field of Democratic candidates ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
RIAS alumni taking part in the Hamburg get-together were:
Charlotte Horn (NDR)
André Schünke (ARD/NDR)
Ingo Zamperoni (ARD)
Peter Eichenberg (NDR)
Edith Heitkämper (NDR)
Stephan Brünjes (NDR)
Heike Keuthen (NDR)
Patrick Döcke (ARD)
Katja Schultze-Brüggemann (NDR)
Kai Küstner (NDR)
Michail Paweletz (ARD)
Nadine Gries (NDR)
In Berlin, the local Alumni Chapter joined the new American Academy Director Terry McCarthy for a “fireside chat” at the historic villa in the banks of Wannsee on Wednesday evening, March 6. More than a dozen members of the Berlin chapter gathered in the splendid library of the American

Berlin alumni chapter meets with American Academy Director Terry McCarthy at the historic American Academy villa on the banks of Wannsee
Academy to talk about current issues as well as learn more about the subjects from current resident fellows:

Fred Donner, Professor of Near Eastern History in The Oriental Institute and Department of Near Estern Language and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, who is researching “Arabyc Papyri for the Early Islamic Period (7th century)”. He talked about how that was connected to Islam today.
George Frampton, Co-Founder and CEO, Partnership for Responsible Growth, Washington DC, talked about his project “Carbon Pricing: The Future of US Climate Policy”.
RIAS alumni taking part in the Berlin get-together were:
Petra Gute (RBB)
Anja Heyde (ZDF)
Vladimir Balzer (Deutschlandfunk)
Rita Lauter (Zeit Online)
Dirk Steinmetz (frei)
Karl Hinterleitner (ZDF)
Ute Kindler (frei)
Elena Kuch (HH) NDR
Kristin Joachim (ARD Hauptstadtstudio)
Michael Rötzscher (RBB)
Mirja Fiedler (Deutsche Welle)
Michael Stempfle (ARD Hauptstadtstudio)
Gerlind Vollmer (Deutsche Welle)
Dorte Störmann (RBB)
Jasmin Teerforth (Leiterin Bewegtbild / Redaktion der Bundeswehr)
Michael Wagenbach (ZDF)
Caroline Kuban (Deutschlandfunk) ... See MoreSee Less

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