The Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship

The Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship is organized by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) and the friends and family of Elizabeth Neuffer, a Boston Globe reporter who was killed in May 2003 while covering the war in Iraq. The fellowship supports women journalists who report on human rights and social justice issues, and combines research opportunities at CIS and other Boston-area universities with opportunities at the New York Times and the Boston Globe.

Neuffer Fellows-who are resident at MIT's Center for International Studies-design a program that combines academic research with practical experience covering human rights. They also play a key role in the Elizabeth Neuffer Forum on Human Rights and Journalism, a program held each May. For more information or to apply, contact the IWMF at neuffer@iwmf.org.

Priyanka Borpujari—an independent journalist based in Mumbai, India, has been selected as the 2012-13 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow. Borpujari is the eighth recipient of the annual fellowship, which gives a woman journalist working in print, broadcast or online media the opportunity to build skills while focusing exclusively on human rights journalism and social justice issues. The award is offered through the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) and is sponsored in part by the Center for International Studies at MIT.

Borpujari, 27, has worked as a reporter for six years for publications including Mumbai Mirror, The Asian Age and exchange4media.com. Since launching her freelance career three years ago, she has focused on the plight of indigenous groups that are being systematically displaced from their land.

Borpujari reported on the ways in which indigenous populations in the state of Chhattisgarh were being caught in a war between a government keen on displacing them to make way for mines and factories, and armed Maoists. Her reports brought focus to what she describes as "deprived, malnourished, burning India," even as false police charges were levied against her in an attempt to keep her away from reporting in the region. She says she has "attempted to uncover the gory hidden civilian war for resources in India, which is often ignored by the mainstream media, in its rush to portray a shining, emerging economy."

Press Release You can contact Priyanka at:pri_b@mit.edu or 452-2562.