Pardee Seminar Leads to Op-Ed in Boston Globe

Prof. Ellen Ruppel Shell, Professor of Journalism and co-Director of the Center for Science and Medical Journalism at Boston University, who attended the recent Pardee House Seminar on “Dealing with Disasters” says that, in part, the conversation at the Seminar inspired her to write an op-ed on the recent earthquake in Haiti which was published in the Boston Globe on April 8, 2010.

The op-ed, titled “Fatal Magnetism of the City,” partly builds on the conversations at the seminar and quotes one of the panelists (Prof. Enrique Silva) and makes the argument that “Haiti is hemorrhaging, and the Band-Aid we’re offering to apply will barely slow down the flow. For that country’s health and our own, it’s time to rethink policies — economic and political — that encourage the congregation of so many people in such small, vulnerable spaces not only in Haiti, but in urban centers around the globe.”