About This Project
About Revealing Romania
Ten journalism students from the University of Illinois are taking on the roles of foreign correspondents. May 19th they will embark on a three-week reporting trip to Romania and Italy under the guidance of Journalism Professor Nancy Benson Romania is a gateway to exploring European Union expansion.
As a relatively new EU country, with a developing economy and democracy, Romania still has many pressing problems to solve. This creates a rich environment for the American students to pursue a range of story topics. The students will be based in Bucharest and Cluj, working alongside Romanian journalism students at Babes-Bolyai in Cluj and reporters at The Bullet , produced by the Independent Journalism Center in Bucharest. Among the many stories they will document is the migration of Romanians to more prosperous EU countries in search of work, and the Romanian governments efforts to lure these citizens back to their homeland.
The students will also travel to Italy to explore the impact of EU expansion on countries witnessing a spike in legal immigration, and where the immigrants are not always welcome. In Rome, the Mayor is accusing Romanians of committing crimes and is seeking to deport Romanians in large numbers. During the one-week stopover in Rome the journalism students will interview Italians about the impact of EU expansion on their population, and Romanians about their treatment by Italians.
To learn about all the story topics visit the "meet the journalists" section of the blog.
We wish to thank the following people and groups for their support in the Revealing Romania effort:
Chancellor Richard Herman
Leon Dash - Journalism Swanlund Chair
Center for Global Studies
Russian, East European, Eurasian Center
European Union Center
