David Abel, award-winning reporter with The Boston Globe and a documentary filmmaker, is the next Visiting Knight Chair for the Center for Communication, Culture, and Change at University of Miami School of Communication.
During his time at UM, Abel will be working with students on a documentary film project reporting on the ban of private airboat use in the Everglades. The ban is part of a law passed by Congress to protect and expand the national park.
Endowed by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Visiting Knight Chairs are journalists at the forefront of the field who innovatively teach classes and create projects that advance journalism in the digital age.
Abel has spent more than a decade at The Boston Globe covering poverty, terrorism, academia, and the environment. His latest journalistic venture is creating documentary films, with his most recent film, Sacred Cod: The Fight for a New England Tradition, set to be broadcast by Discovery Channel in spring of 2017.
Abel’s storied career as a journalist began in Mexico City interviewing citizens protesting against corruption in the country. He is one of a handful of American journalists to live in Cuba since the revolution and was deported after reporting on oppressed citizens of the island nation.
“If there is one thread throughout my career, one overarching goal, it has been this: to give voice to the voiceless,” says Abel.
His extensive teaching career spans for more than 10 years, including teaching journalism classes at Boston University, Emerson College, and Northeastern University.
Originally from New York, Abel studied political science and philosophy at University of Michigan and earned his master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.
To learn more about David Abel visit http://davidabel.blogspot.com/.
