Please join Interrupting Criminalization on Tuesday, April 14th at 5:30-6:30 PM ET for a virtual discussion with IC Abolition Journalism Fellow Lewis Raven Wallace and author Anita Varma on Anita’s new book Solidarity in Journalism: How Ethical Reporting Fights for Social Justice.
Solidarity is a risky word in journalism. Saying “solidarity” has led to journalists being fired, censured, and stigmatized. Yet solidarity is also a longstanding principle in some of the most celebrated journalism in the United States dating back to the 1800s, in which journalism unapologetically stood up for the truth of people’s universal basic dignity when it was being strategically and selectively denied under the status quo.
Join us for a virtual conversation with Anita Varma on her book Solidarity in Journalism: How Ethical Reporting Fights for Social Justice, in which she explains what solidarity in journalism means, why it matters, and how journalists practice it even amid pressures to adhere to official versions of events. Refusing to abandon truthful reporting in favor of officials’ preferred narratives is often risky yet urgently necessary for journalism to serve society, which starts with prioritizing people who are struggling to survive.
Anita Varma is the author of Solidarity in Journalism: How Ethical Reporting Fights for Social Justice, which is her first book. After earning her PhD in Communication at Stanford University in 2018, Varma went on to start the Solidarity Journalism Initiative at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics (Santa Clara University) which she then brought with her to Austin, Texas when she joined the School of Journalism and Media (University of Texas at Austin) as faculty member in 2021. She has served on the boards of the Society of Professional Journalists (Northern California Chapter), Press On, The Objective, and the Solidarity History Initiative.
Lewis Raven Wallace (they/he/ze) is a journalist and the author of The View from Somewhere: Undoing the Myth of Journalistic Objectivity and Radical Unlearning: The Art and Science of Creating Change from Within (forthcoming in 2025). He co-founded Press On and now works as Interrupting Criminalization’s Abolition Journalism Fellow. Lewis is white and transgender. Learn more about Lewis and their work as part of our Abolition Journalism Fellowship.