Brent Walth

Brent Walth joined the UO School of Journalism and Communication in 2015 after more than 30 years as an editor, author, and investigative reporter. Brent has worked as a staff writer and managing editor for Willamette Week; Oregon State Capitol correspondent for the Eugene Register-Guard; and as Washington, DC, correspondent and senior investigative reporter for The Oregonian. Brent also was a 2006 Nieman Foundation fellow at Harvard University. In 2008, Brent founded the Scholarship For Civic and Watchdog Journalism, given to SOJC students who demonstrate a commitment to in-depth reporting. Brent was inducted into the UO School of Journalism and Communication Hall of Achievementin 2014.

At the SOJC, Brent teaches writing and reporting courses, including investigative reporting, solutions journalism and data journalism. Brent is co-founder and co-director of the Catalyst Journalism Projectwhich brings together investigative reporting and solutions journalism to spark action and response to Oregon’s most perplexing issues. Catalyst has helped dozens of SOJC journalists publish their work with professional news organizations, and the project has been recognized internationally for its innovative approach to bringing investigative journalism together with solutions-oriented reporting. He also serves as co-director of the Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism, which selects and places interns at news organizations around the state. Snowden interns are chosen for their potential for successful media careers based on their journalistic experience, commitment to ethics, passion for journalism, and academic performance.

Dr. Liz Bohls

Professor Liz Bohls teaches in the UO English Department. She is the author of Slavery and the Politics of Place: Representing the Colonial Caribbean, 1770-1833 (Cambridge, 2014) and articles on the African diaspora in the Caribbean and elsewhere, as well as on travel writing, women’s literature, and aesthetics. She is currently researching slave trade tourism in Ghana.