Journalist and author Shane Bauer will discuss his book, “American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment,” in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications on April 13 at 2:30 p.m. via Zoom.
The conversation is the result of a request from students enrolled in the college's Social Justice, Human Rights and the Media course, which is reading the book. The CoJMC Book Club is also reading the book. The CoJMC book club engages faculty and staff in the college reading and discussing important works on matters of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Bauer is a former reporter at Mother Jones magazine. From 2009 to 2011, Bauer was held hostage in Iran with his girlfriend journalist Sarah Shourd and their friend Josh Fattal, author and Ph.D. candidate at NYU. Together they co-authored a memoir, "A Sliver of Light," about the experience.
In 2015, Bauer took a job as a prison guard in Louisiana to investigate corporate-run prison, the subject of the award-winning piece, “My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard.” He delves deeper into this experience in “American Prison.:
In 2016, he went undercover again to investigate America’s resurgent right-wing paramilitary movement. Bauer spent his early career reporting on the Middle East including Iraq, Sudan, Chad, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Israel/Palestine. His work has appeared in The Nation, Salon, Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle among many others. Bauer has numerous awards for his reporting including a National Magazine Award for Best Reporting, a Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Journalism, a Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism and an Izzy Stone Award.
Bauer will speak with students, faculty and staff via Zoom in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications course Social Justice, Human Rights and the Media. To join the conversation, go to https://unl.zoom.us/j/6961069115.
