2025: Khaled Abu Toameh, award-winning Arab Israeli journalist, gave the Poynter Fellowship Lecture, Reshaping the Middle East: Israeli-Arab Relations Post-2023. Link here to the announcement. Khaled Abu Toameh grew up in the Arab-Israeli town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye. He received his BA in English literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and he began his journalism career working as a reporter for a Palestinian Liberation Organization-affiliated newspaper in Jerusalem. He has served as a Senior Producer for NBC News specializing in Palestinian and Arab affairs, as well as the Palestinian Affairs correspondent for the Jerusalem Post. He has produced several documentaries on Palestinian affairs for the BBC, England’s Channel 4, and other outlets. He has gained a reputation for serving as the eyes and ears of foreign journalists in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, having reported on events there for decades. He has lectured widely, including invited appearances before the United Kingdom’s House of Commons, the Canadian Association of Journalists, and many university campuses across the US and Canada. He has received many journalism awards, including the 2014 Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism from the Los Angeles Press Club.
2024: Rabbi Diane Fersko, author of We Need to Talk About Antisemitism, for meetings with faculty, students, and a community event. Rabbi Fersko conducted a lunchtime training session, “Understanding the Jewish Experience,” for DEI staff and volunteers in the medical and engineering schools.
2023: Dara Horn, novelist and author of People Love Dead Jews, for discussions with students and faculty, and a public lecture attended by 300