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Learn about the connection between solidarity and ethical journalism, social justice and homelessness in San Francisco. Solidarity in Journalism by Anita Varma provides an incisive explanation of how solidarity is a longstanding though rarely stated ideal in ethical journalism. Based on ten years of research that began with the best of San Francisco community journalism on homelessness in 2016, Varma illustrates the enduring presence of solidarity in action that prioritizes the firsthand knowledge of people struggling to survive. At a time when journalism faces staunch criticism for worsening social division the United States through insistent “impartiality,” Varma advances a daring argument that solidarity is the greatest strength of ethical journalism which has always been biased in favor of truth, basic dignity and the public interest.

Books will be available for free to the first 50 attendees, and a signing with the author will take place following the program.

Anita Varma is the author of Solidarity in Journalism: How Ethical Reporting Fights for Social Justice (Columbia University Press), which is her first book. Her publicly engaged work on solidarity in journalism began when she was a PhD student at Stanford University in the Department of Communication. After earning her PhD in 2018, Varma went on to start the Solidarity Journalism Initiative at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics (Santa Clara University) which she then brought with her to Austin, Texas when she joined the School of Journalism and Media (University of Texas at Austin) as faculty member in 2021. Varma’s award-winning scholarship has gained international recognition among journalists fighting the good fight for social justice around the world. Her second book, Dangerous Solidarity: How Truth Telling Persists in Hostile Conditions is in development. Varma is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and her ancestral home is Chakia, Bihar (India).

Casey Ticsay is a multimedia journalist whose work focuses on immigration, history and human rights. In 2022, she founded Mahalaya Newspaper, which centers the voices and experiences of Filipinos and Filipino Americans across the United States through solidarity journalism. She holds a master's degree in Migration Studies from the University of San Francisco, a bachelor's degree in Broadcast Communications from San Francisco State University and a certificate in TV Foreign Reporting from the Danish School of Media and Journalism.