Globe and Mail journalist Stephanie Nolen (BJH ’93, DCL ’09) has won the 2014 Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for her reporting from India. The award is presented annually to a foreign correspondent for coverage that “accurately and sensitively portrays India to a foreign audience”.
Between 2008 and 2013, Stephanie was the Globe and Mail’s South Asian bureau chief, based in New Delhi. The award recognises her multimedia project, ‘Breaking Caste’, which began in 2011 and continued for the next three years. Through videos, interactive maps, and the personal stories of the many Indian girls Stephanie interviewed, ‘Breaking Caste’ explores issues of gender and caste and how they continue to shape the lives of many Indians today, even as the country modernises rapidly.
Now Latin America bureau chief for the Globe and Mail, based in Rio de Janeiro, Stephanie feels honoured by the award. “The time I spent at the Prerna School was the most instructive – and the most joyful – of my five years in India, and I believe that the story of these girls is the story of the most important issues in India today,” she says. “But caste and gender discrimination are still largely taboo topics, they are rarely part of public debate, and so it’s particularly gratifying to see our work at The Globe recognized for covering them.”
Globe and Mail editor-in-chief David Walmsley says that Stephanie’s “drive and hunger to report bravely on subjects that are unpopular but essential to be heard, has never diminished. . .Her journalism doesn’t just report the facts. . .she feels the story”.
Stephanie received her award in New Delhi on 9 September. She is also the author of an ebook, Out of India.
