The Poynter Center hosts a series to highlight creative work and research by IU Bloomington faculty in ethics and democratic life and culture.

2010 Roundtables | 2008 Roundtables | 2009 Roundtables

Spring 2011 Poynter Center Roundtable

Nick Cullather

The Hungry World: America's Cold War Battle Against Poverty in Asia

Tuesday, April 26, 4-5:30 pm, Poynter Center, 618 East Third Street

On April 26, Nick Cullather, Associate Professor in the IU Department of History, discussed his recent book, The Hungry World: America's Cold War Battle Against Poverty in Asia. Cullather, a historian of US foreign relations, explores the use of food as a tool of psychological warfare and regime change during the Cold War. The book won the 2011 Ellis W. Hawley Prize for the best book-length historical study of the political economy, politics or institutions of the US in its domestic or international affairs. Cullather also received the 2011 Robert H. Ferrell Prize for the best book in international relations history. Both prizes are awarded by the Organization of American Historians. The Ferrell prize is named for one of Cullather's predecessors and former teachers at IU, so it carried special meaning.

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Fall 2010 Poynter Center Roundtable

Khalil Gibran Muhammad

The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America

Professor Khalil Muhammad discussed his new book (Harvard University Press, 2010) on Tuesday, October 5. Muhammad shows how crime statistics shaped the earliest national debates about the comparative fitness of European immigrants versus African Americans for full participation in modern society. Immigrant criminality signaled class inequality in the age of global industrialization, whereas higher arrest and incarceration rates among African Americans proved their racial inferiority in the "land of opportunity." In the post-Civil Rights urban North of the early twentieth century, European immigrants became "deserving criminals," but African Americans were their "own worst enemies." This crucial period in U.S. history, Muhammad argues, helped shape the landscape of urban America and the politics of crime and punishment today. Professor Muhammad is Assistant Professor of History at Indiana University, and Associate Editor of the Journal of American History.

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Spring 2010 Poynter Center Roundtable

David Boeyink

Making Hard Choices in Journalism Ethics

Professor Dave Boeyink discussed his new book, Making Hard Choices in Journalism Ethics: Cases and Practice, on Wednesday, April 21, at the Poynter Center. Boeyink is Associate Professor of Journalism and Director of the Journalism Honors Program at Indiana University. His co-author, Sandra Borden, is Professor of Communication and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University. Boeyink explained that he and Borden wanted to write a textbook that was different--one that started with the cases and used the cases to figure out the ethical issues.