Amanda Sperber, the award-winning international correspondent, and fall 2023 James H. Ottaway Sr. Visiting Professor of Journalism at SUNY New Paltz, addressed to the extended campus community in a public lecture on Nov. 2 with new ideas for considering the act and the purpose of international news coverage.
Her remarks focused on themes that are central to “International Reporting,” the upper-division Journalism seminar she is teaching as this year’s Ottaway Professor. She’s leading students through the profession’s legacy as a tool of colonialism, and suggesting ways that new generations of reporters can subvert this history in the field.
“I have gained an intimate understanding of how Western foreign correspondence influences social and cultural norms in a region,” she said. “Sitting with the discomfort of this reality made me envision a course that advances a new way of international reporting.”
In this course and throughout her career, Sperber seeks to highlight the best of what international reporting does: hold people in power accountable.
“What I have found is that the greatest of this work does not report the news as much as it unpacks,” she said. “The job of the reporter is to bring about the uncomfortable truth of power dynamics … the job of the international correspondent is to examine and report on what is keeping us apart.”
Sperber’s expertise is resonating with New Paltz students like Michael Erkan ‘25 (Journalism).
“This has been the most professional and impactful course than anything I’ve done in college thus far,” he said. “I’ve realized through taking this course that I can apply my experiences to being an in-the-field reporter.”
About the James H. Ottaway Sr. Visiting Professorship
The James H. Ottaway Sr. Visiting Professorship, SUNY New Paltz’s only endowed professorship, is named for the founder of Ottaway Newspapers Inc., who was a leader of the American Press Institute and a lifelong supporter of high-quality journalism in the Hudson Valley and across the globe.
The Ottaway Visiting Professorship was established in 2000 through the generosity of James H. Ottaway Jr. ’18 HON and Mary Ottaway ’70g (Elementary Education).
Numerous well-known journalists have preceded Sperber as Ottaway professors, including Pulitzer Prize winners, foreign correspondents, book authors, editors, investigative reporters and experts in finance, science, and consumer journalism.
More information about the Ottaway Visiting Professorship, including biographies of previous professors, can be found at https://www.newpaltz.edu/ottaway/.
