The Tuesday, Oct. 20, lecture will explore the human impact of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises and the importance of reporting from overlooked conflict zones.
Journalist Sophie Neiman, whose award-winning reporting has documented human rights violations and the experiences of civilians caught in conflicts across East and Central Africa, will visit the School of Communications on Tuesday, Oct. 20, to discuss her coverage of Sudan’s ongoing civil war.
The public lecture, titled “Media Matters: Covering Sudan’s Civil War,” will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Jane and Brian Williams Studio, located at 129 N. Williamson Ave. The Pulitzer Center and the School of Communications are co-presenting the free event.
Neiman’s visit comes as Sudan faces a devastating humanitarian crisis that has displaced more than 8 million people since civil war erupted in 2023. Despite the scale of the suffering, the conflict has received relatively little international attention compared with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Lorraine Ahearn, assistant professor of journalism and Elon’s liaison to the Pulitzer Center’s Campus Consortium, said Neiman’s dispatches from countries including Uganda, Rwanda and Mozambique underscore the importance of eyewitness journalism in regions that foreign news desks often overlook.
“At great risk, Sophie Neiman has been the eyes and ears in conflict zones that many mainstream media organizations ignore,” Ahearn said. “That neglect has consequences: indifference on the part of the outside world, and lack of humanitarian support.”
Current challenges extend beyond Sudan. Decades of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including the ongoing M23 rebellion, have resulted in an estimated 6 million deaths. Together, these conflicts illustrate the enormous human toll of warfare in Africa and the need for sustained international reporting.
Yet Neiman’s work, published in outlets including The Christian Science Monitor, New Lines Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Telegraph, and Prospect Magazine, focuses on more than violence and displacement. She documents the courage and agency of people navigating extraordinary circumstances.
Ahearn said that approach offers audiences a more personal understanding of conflicts that can otherwise seem far-off or overwhelming.
“Neiman’s stories aren’t about numbers – mind-numbing as those numbers are,” Ahearn said. “Through her words and camera lens, we meet teenagers with no choice but to take up arms, witness a labor and delivery ward operating in a combat zone, and see the legacy of conquest literally stitched into tapestries by an elderly artist. These stories capture the human face of war.”
Elon University is a long-standing member of the Pulitzer Center’s Campus Consortium, a network of colleges and universities that support the center’s mission to promote journalism on critical global issues. The organization pairs students with mentors and advises student journalists through the reporting and publication phases.
Event details
What: “Media Matters: Covering Sudan’s Civil War,” featuring journalist Sophie Neiman
When: Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 5:30 p.m.
Where: Jane and Brian Williams Studio, 129 N. Williamson Ave., Elon, NC
Presented by: Pulitzer Center and Elon University’s School of Communications