Call for Papers: The Peace Journalist magazine
Warm greetings from Chisinau, Moldova, where I’m engaged as a Fulbright Scholar this academic year.

The Peace Journalist, a semi-annual magazine produced by the Center for Global Peace Journalism, is seeking submissions for its April edition. Submissions should be 600-1600 words, and address peace journalism/peace media research and projects. Please also submit photos, if possible. We do not run articles about general peace projects or processes unless they have a strong media component/angle.

The previous edition of The Peace Journalist can be found at https://www.scribd.com/document/681077185/Peace-Journalist-Oct-2023-Web .

The deadline for submissions is March 5. The magazine usually fills up quickly, so the sooner you can get your pieces in, the better. Please submit to steven.youngblood@fulbrightmail.org .  Note that this is a new email address for me.

Thank you in advance for your submissions.

Best wishes,

Steven Youngblood
Director, Center for Global Peace Journalism
Editor, The Peace Journalist magazine
steven.youngblood@fulbrightmail.org
@PeaceJourn

Fulbright Update
Professional burdens: Wine tasting, sumptuous banquet
Sometimes the burdens of academia are almost too much to bear. Then other times…

At the invitation of fellow academics, I fulfilled my professional responsibilities last semester, and visited the wine science department at the Technical University of Moldova. There, my two Fulbright colleagues and I were greeted by the Technical University’s rector (president), and two of the world’s leading experts in wine science. The trip was thoughtfully arranged by my colleague Ian Toma.

Wine "class" at the Technical Univ., fall 2023

The experts gave us a tour of their impressive facilities, including numerous fancy, modern machines used to test wine. One machine could test up to 100 elements in a single sample, things like sugar content, Ph, and so on. Most of the scientific discussion was well over my head, but I understood the main idea, which is that the production of wine is very complex and exacting.

After the tour, my colleagues and I were invited to sit at a long table featuring a sumptuous buffet. To fulfill my academic responsibility, the professional thing to do was to eat copious amounts of outstanding items like red peppers stuffed with vegetables, chicken cutlets, and sour cherry pies (placintas, in Romanian). Then I really fell on my professional sword when our hosts started pouring 11 different varieties of wine. To not drink would have been unprofessional. Some of the wine was what they call vin nou, new wine, which is sweeter and without the complexities of “finished” wines, according to the experts. Then we tried lots of whites and reds before we got to the dessert wines. No, I didn’t drink 11 full glasses of wine, and I did use the small bucket to pour out excess wine from every sample. (A Google search says this is inelegantly called a spittoon, which conjurs up images of spur-adorned cowboys and swinging-gate Western saloons.) I liked the dry whites the best.

I learned more about wine in the two hours at the Technical University than I had known previously. And most importantly, I used the opportunity to practice my professional collegiality as an academic. I know my colleagues must be proud.

Filming Singura Acasa, late November

Fulbright Update:
A Star Isn't Born
Move over, Brad Pitt and George Clooney. There’s a new 60-ish hottie invading the silver screen (or at least, the screen on your phone). This silver fox has all of your charm, charisma, and good looks, and brings academy-award caliber performances to every scene.

I’m not sure who this might be, but it sure as hell isn’t me.

In the last few weeks, I have made my acting debut as one of the co-stars of a serial produced by the Centrul Media pentru Tineri here in Moldova. The series of short films, “Singura Acasa” (Home Alone), deliver a socially important message to young viewers about misinformation and stereotypes in an accessible, entertaining format. My performance is nothing if not entertaining, though I’m not sure if viewers will be laughing at me or with me. (See how to watch Singura Acasa, below.)

Basically, I play myself, an American professor in Moldova. The plot revolves around me trying to find an apartment, and a Moldovan couple’s indecision about whether to rent to me.

Not only did I have to learn my lines (something I’d never done before), but I had to “act,” or try to act, and I had to do all of this in Romanian, meaning that 90% of my waning brain power was concentrated on correctly pronouncing my lines.

Filming Singura Acasa, late November

We shot most of the scenes on a single day, over a 12 hour period. I had the least luck when I tried to remember and then perfectly pronounce the words as exactly written on the script. These lines ended up sounding very wooden. I did better when I was able to just say the lines using the Romanian words I would normally use, words that know how to pronounce, more or less. Now, my grammar is far from perfect, but these semi-improvisations ended up sounding much more fluid and natural than the scripted lines.

My fellow actors were quite good, especially the leads, played by Madalina and Gabriel. To the extent that my performance is palatable, it’s because I fed off the energy of my peers, and because of the outstanding shooting and editing by our colleague Leonid. Director Alexandru was also a calming influence, smoothing over my ineptitude-fueled frustrations.

If I were Brad and George, I wouldn’t be too worried. In terms of looks, they would both still be better looking than me even after a disfiguring industrial accident of some sort. And let’s not even mention acting talent. But I do have one thing on them: I bet I my Romanian is much better than theirs.

How to watch Singur Acasa, featuring me
I made my first cameo (at 7:28 on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce9oV0zb8Wo ) on season 1, episode 2 of Singura Acasa. This is the next episode that centers around my character:  https://youtu.be/IKb_gOxKwrM?si=i5ygjyWAwF18WIlk .

Not much of an actor...

 

Alfred Friendly Fellowships--Apply Now!
In June 2024, Alfred Friendly Press Partners is planning a month-long training program at the Missouri School of Journalism for journalists in exile in the U.S. The program is looking to build skills and resiliency in these areas: Security, Legal, Journalism and Climate.

Interested journalists in exile in the U.S. can apply here. The deadline is Jan. 15.

I know and respect the director of this program, Prof. Randall Smith, and know as well that those selected will get a top-notch training at one of the country's best journalism schools. Share liberally, and if you qualify, apply today!