Dreams and Displacement in Afghanistan Lecture, by Pulitzer Journalist May Jeong

Join investigative reporter and Pulitzer Center grantee May Jeong for a discussion of her experiences reporting from Afghanistan.

In preparation for this talk, attendees are encouraged to watch Afghan Dreamers, a documentary about an all-girls robotics team from Afghanistan and their fate as the Taliban came to power. The film is teen friendly and can be used in the classroom. You can view the trailer here. The film is currently streaming on Paramount+.

May Jeong is an investigative reporter and Pulitzer Center grantee. Her reporting from Afghanistan, where she lived from 2013 to 2017, was awarded the South Asian Journalist Association’s Daniel Pearl Award, the Bayeux Calvados Normandy Award for War Correspondents, and has been recognized by the Kurt Schork and Livingston Awards. May is best known for her months-long investigation into the MSF hospital bombing in Kunduz, Afghanistan for The Intercept. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the New York University Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, and a Logan Nonfiction Fellow at the Carey Institute for Global Good.

About the FilmWhen the five members of the Afghan Girls’ Robotics Team were born, education was still forbidden for women under then-Taliban rule. Fast forward to 2017 when the unlikely all-girls robotics team from Afghanistan was formed and quickly gained fame at international competitions. Their success began shifting perceptions back home, where long-held views disapproved of females pursuing STEAM programs. Instead, now they were embraced by hundreds of young girls inspired to emulate their pioneering role models. AFGHAN DREAMERS follows the team around the globe as they proudly represent the version of their nation they want the world to know. But Taliban forces and ongoing violence pose threats to their promising futures. Determined to build a better tomorrow for their country, the women must find a way to pursue their dreams in the face of tumultuous civil unrest.

This event is co-sponsored with the Middle East Studies Program, the Center for South Asia, and the 4W Initiative at UW-Madison.