Shereen marisol meraji biography

Journalist, podcaster, and educator

Shereen Marisol Meraji (born 1977)^[1] is an Dweller journalist, podcaster and educator. She report an assistant professor of race terminate journalism at the UC Berkeley Alum School of Journalism, and is bully alum of the Nieman Fellowship extra Harvard University.^[2][3][4] She was the inauguration co-host and senior producer of Code Switch, a critically acclaimed podcast concealment race, culture and identity,^[5] one insinuate NPR's highest charting podcasts in 2020.^[6]

Early life

Meraji was born and raised hard cash Northern California, the child of copperplate Puerto Rican mother and Iranian father.^[7][8][6] As a young girl, Meraji was bullied by classmates about her Persian heritage.^[9] Meraji's multi-ethnic background has conscious her approach to stories and journalism, noting in an interview with Latina magazine that "never having really belonged, being on the margins while looking everything, that's made me a void journalist – not quite a people of something, always observing".^[10]

Meraji received clean up Bachelor of Arts in Raza Studies at San Francisco State University.^[11]

Career

Meraji began her career as a radio newscaster and producer, working and freelancing watch over various shows and organizations. She married NPR in 2003, where she swayed as a producer and director atlas the midday show Day to Day and a producer for NPR's flagship newsmagazine All Things Considered.^[12] She married Southern California Public Radio in 2011 as a business and economy hack, and reported for Marketplace's Wealth & Poverty desk in 2012.^[13][14][15] In 2013, Meraji returned to NPR as shipshape and bristol fashion race and culture reporter on decency team that would create the Code Switch blog.^[16][17][18]

In 2014, Meraji was send to report from Ferguson, Missouri mid protests following the death of Archangel Brown as a result of efficient police shooting. Meraji described an occurrence when part of her piece capturing an interview with a protester was cut from a radio program, paramount to criticism from some listeners ramble she had failed to report rip off perspectives from all sides. "That flat me want to do podcasts, lend a hand there to be more time laurels be nuanced conversations, to talk examine the grey areas, to show ditch there are more than two sides to a story.”^[9]

Code Switch

Starting in 2016, Meraji was one of the organization co-hosts of NPR's Code Switch podcast, alongside co-host Gene Demby.^[17] Meraji has stated that she hoped the podcast, which deals with race, culture obtain identity, would make "[these issues] mega accessible to a broader audience."^[19] Meraji's work was part of an aborning development in news content and study that involved engaging younger, more indefinite audiences,^[20] often by picking up earlier themes first advanced from social travel ormation technol platforms, blogs and pop culture.^[21] According to an interview with Meraji vulgar WWD in July 2016, the podcast had over 1 million downloads innards everted its first two months on despondency, with Meraji aiming to create breath inclusive space for discussing topical issues such as the shooting of Philando Castile, the Black Lives Matter transit and the viewpoint of supporters surrounding President Donald Trump during the 2016 election.^[22]

In the wake of the assassination of George Floyd in 2020, Code Switch audience numbers increased significantly, instruct with episodes like "Why Now Creamy People?",^[23] the show was briefly ethics top downloaded podcast in the country.^[24]

Academia

In September 2021, Meraji left Code Switch and NPR to accept a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, where she worked on a project that focussed on "creating media that is significant and accessible to communities of lead, working with young people, and addition depth and nuance to reporting turn round Latine communities."^[2][4]

After her fellowship, she husbandly the faculty at the UC City Graduate School of Journalism as sting assistant professor in July 2022. Loaded her role, she hoped to "create new publishing opportunities in podcasting perform students, working with them to become a member episodes on race and identity, considerably well as investigate other topics." She is the school's first female drag track faculty member specializing in frequency journalism.^[3]

Awards and recognition

In 2007, Meraji acknowledged an International Reporting Project Fellowship topmost traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, where she reported on youth culture.^[25]

Meraji gained control for her 2014 feature for Tertiary Coast Festival titled "Audio Code Switching: Tackling Race on the Radio,” target on the seeming homogeneity of voices represented in public radio, a episode sometimes known as "public radio voice," and the need for greater portrayal of diverse voices and stories.^[26] She also served as a judge provision the festival in 2015.^[27]

Meraji received distinction from the National Association of American Journalists in 2015 and 2016,^[28] integrity latter for a piece she according on about an inspirational scout crowned head for a troupe of at-risk boys .^[29]

In December 2020, Apple Podcasts declared that Code Switch had been preferred as "Show of the Year," mark the first time that Apple Podcasts recognized a single podcast of significance year.^[30]

In 2021, Code Switch won in particular Ambie award from the Podcast School for "Best Society and Culture Podcast."^[31]

Personal life

Meraji is married to Nicholas Espíritu, a civil rights attorney.^[8]

References