Join the Columbus Council on Worlds Affairs (CCWA), the Polish Studies Initiative(PSI), and the Center for Slavic and East European Studies (CSEES) on November 12th to hear CCWA's CEO Patrick Terrien sit down with Witold Szablowski, a Polish journalist known for his in-depth reporting from the edges of the European Union. Before he began working for Poland’s leading independent newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, and its long form supplement, Duży Format, Szablowski worked at the TVN 24 television station and CNN Türk. A graduate of the Department of Journalism and Political Science at Warsaw University, he also studied Political Science in Istanbul, where he got to know Turkey from the inside out.
At 5:30 on November 12th, Mr. Szablowski will be giving a presentation about his book, Assassin from Apricot City, in Dulles Hall, room 0012. Light refreshments will be served after the presentation. Mr Szablowski will also be signing copies of his book following the presentation.
As a journalist, Szablowski has spoken with the family of Ali Agca, the Turkish assassin who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II; joined forces with British Al Jazeera to prepare a program on post-communist political vetting in Poland; hitch-hiked through Kosovo; and scoured Turkish bazaars tracing the story of the shoe that Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi threw at President George W. Bush.
A collection of his reports from Turkey, published in English under the title Assassin from Apricot City, has been described as “a multi-layered story of Turkey torn between East and West, between Islam and Islamophobia, suffused with conservatism and post-modernity, longing for Europe while at the same time displaying a healthy dose of Euro-skepticism.” Szablowski has received a number of important awards for the pieces featured in Assassin from Apricot City. Among them, his report on Turkish honor killings, “It’s Out of Love, Sister”, received an honorary mention at the Amnesty International competition for the best articles concerning human rights. And, in 2010, Szablowki received the European Parliament Journalism Award for his article “Today Two Bodies Will Wash Ashore” on the issue of immigrants trying to illegally enter the European Union through the “purgatory of Istanbul.”
The webcast can be watched free of charge through CCWA's webpage.
Co-sponsored by PSI, CSEES, CCWA, and the Polish Cultural Institute of New York.
