Marwa Atik needs five pieces of trim, the kind embellished with pearls and black jewels. At a store in downtown L.A.’s Fashion District, boxes of trimmings line the walls from floor to ceiling, but Atik scans quickly and zeroes in on what she wants. At her direction, a clerk climbs a tall, wooden ladder and […]
THATCamp: How scholars can connect with broad audiences
I’m writing from my last day at THATCamp Prime at George Mason University. THAT stands for “The Humanities and Technology” — it’s really great unconference for digitally-interested scholars who are trying all sorts of great things to share, teach and engage people in their work. I came here looking for ideas for Asia Beat, both […]
Filling Foreign News Gaps with Scholars: Asia Beat
I’m working with the Association for Asian Studies, the Journal of Asian Studies and Jeffrey Wasserstrom on a new news proposal. We’re one of 51 finalists of some 1,000 entries to the Knight News Challenge and will find out in a few weeks if they will help fund the project. In the meantime, we’re looking for more […]
On the cover of the Journal of Asian Studies
The Journal of Asian Studies, where I am an advising editor, published a photo I took on its cover of its most recent issue. It’s an image an image that I took in May, 2008 from a bridge overlooking the Sai River, which sits between Thailand and Myanmar. On the right are bustling tourist and […]
Ai-jen Poo: The Rock Star of Community Organizing
At a conference about social movements in Los Angeles last month, all it took was the mention of her name and the crowd erupted in applause. In the world of community organizing, Ai-jen Poo, the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, is a rock star. As the crowd sat, though, Poo asked the women to […]
Photography
See more of Angilee’s photography on Flickr.
Part 2 of my interview with Rob Schmitz
In the Los Angeles Review of Books: In part 2 of this interview, Rob Schmitz talks more about factory workers in China, the vast system of netting installed at factory dormitories to cut back on worker suicides, the problems with and opportunities for doing responsible journalism in China, and his book recommendations. Listen here.
Part 1 of my interview with Rob Schmitz
In the Los Angeles Review of Books: “Rob Schmitz is the Shanghai bureau chief for American Public Media’s Marketplace. He broke the story about Mike Daisey, showing that Daisey’s reporting on Chinese factory workers for This American Life was full of fabrication. He talks here with Angilee Shah about that story, about reporting in China, […]
Women and Guns: Hype vs Reality
Pro-gun organizations and retailers have been hailing the rise of women gun owners for years and the mass media has not been far behind. Reports about women with guns and stores that are seeing a rise female customers have been circulating newspapers since the 1980s. Today’s “pink pistols” are reminiscent of the Ladysmith handguns of […]
April 18 at UCLA, I’ll be in coversation with Marketplace China correspondent Rob Schmitz
These days, Rob is in the news for debunking the Mike Daisey Foxconn investigation that aired on This American Life. We’ll be talking about that story and his other reporting on China for American Public Media’s Marketplace radio program at UCLA on April 17. Is there something you want me to ask? Please leave your questions in […]