Journalism as Witness

Guardians of Memory, Sustainers of Community

Thursday, November 10, 2022
5:45 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. EST
Location: Healy Hall Riggs Library Map

Growing up as a missionary kid in Nigeria, Fred Bahnson wrestled with the disconnect of seeing adult missionaries serving the local community while also building literal walls that separated themselves from those they had come to serve. Those childhood years of isolation led to his later interest in monastic spirituality, shaping both his interior spiritual practice as well as the subjects he writes about as a freelance religion journalist and Pulitzer Center grantee. With support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Bahnson accompanied Fr. Columba Stewart, OSB, Georgetown University’s 2021 Costan Lecturer and the 2019 National Endowment for the Humanities’ Jefferson Lecturer, on a quest to digitally preserve manuscripts held by a prominent Muslim family in Mali. Along the way, Bahnson was forced to face the limitations of his professional and personal calling, captured in his Harper’s Magazine article, “Guardians of Memory: The quest to save ancient manuscripts.”

Attendees joined us for a reflective conversation on this and Bahnson’s other profiles on monastic figures and the contemplative life, including an exploration of what it means to embrace “journalism as witness” in a secular world. The discussion was moderated by Paul Elie, a Berkley Center senior fellow.

This event was part of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and was co-sponsored by Georgetown University’s Journalism Program.

Public Health Measures: This event took place in-person on the Georgetown University campus. Georgetown University required all visitors to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, or to attest to having a medical or religious exemption from being vaccinated. All visitors completed the COVID-19 visitor registration for this event.

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GU Journalism Director Rebecca Sinderbrand delivers opening remarks.

Fred Bahnson shares his experience as a Pulitzer Center grantee.

Senior Fellow Paul Elie moderates the discussion.

Bahnson and Elie exchange stories about their experiences as religion-focused writers in a secular world.

Participants

Fred Bahnson Toggle

About Fred Bahnson

Fred Bahnson is an American writer and the author of the book Soil and Sacrament (2013). He is currently a Pulitzer Center grantee. Bahnson’s work focuses on spirituality and the environment. His writing has appeared in publications such as Harper’s, Oxford American, Orion, Notre Dame Magazine, Emergence, Image, The Sun, and the Best American Spiritual Writing series.

Fred Bahnson's Profile

Paul Elie Toggle

About Paul Elie

Paul Elie is a senior fellow with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the director of the American Pilgrimage Project, a university partnership with StoryCorps based in the Berkley Center. His work deals primarily with the ways religious ideas are given expression in literature, the arts, music, and culture in the broadest sense. In the American Pilgrimage Project he examines the ways religious beliefs inform the experiences of the American people at crucial moments in their lives. Elie is also the moderator of Georgetown's Faith and Culture Series, a series of public conversations about the interaction of religion, art, literature, and society. He is the author of two books. The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003) is a group portrait of four twentieth-century Catholic writers (Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, Thomas Merton, and Dorothy Day). Reinventing Bach (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012) chronicles the transformation of Bach's music through recording technology in the hands of great musicians (Albert Schweitzer, Pablo Casals, Glenn Gould, Yo-Yo Ma, et al.). Both books were National Book Critics Circle Award finalists, and The Life You Save May Be Your Own received the PEN / Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction, a Christopher Award, and two Modern Language Association book prizes.

Paul Elie's Profile