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Axios
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Two 2025 Pulitzer winners trace roots to Fayetteville
Two winners of a prestigious prize for writers this year grew up in Fayetteville. One received Pulitzer recognition for her work on the first draft of history following the Dobbs decision, the other for a 1,000-year retrospective on Native Americans. Why it matters: Ziva Branstetter and Kathleen DuVal 's works highlight significant cultural and political issues in the U.S., bringing attention to people and events that might otherwise be lost to time. What they're saying:"Few, if any, school districts in the middle of America can lay claim to having two current Pulitzer Prize winners among their alumni," Fayetteville School District Superintendent John Mulford said in an email. "We are very proud of Dr. Duval and Ms. Branstetter, and we congratulate them on these prestigious honors." State of play: Though neither woman attended the University of Arkansas, it serves as a common denominator; both their fathers taught there and settled in Fayetteville. Branstetter, a senior investigative editor for ProPublica, worked with a team on " Life of the Mother," a series about how abortion bans have led to preventable deaths of women in Georgia and Texas. The series won for public service reporting. She graduated from Fayetteville High School (FHS) in 1982, then went to Oklahoma State University. Much of her career as an investigative reporter and editor was spent in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but she also did stints at Reveal and the Washington Post. "The reason we're doing this work is to point out to policy makers — and really the people who vote for them, the people who can apply pressure — that there are opportunities to save lives," she told Axios. Case in point:"Ziva had the vision that we should gather death records ourselves, reach out to families and ask experts to help us understand if and how abortion laws were impacting health care. ... Her passion, encouragement and support made it possible," ProPublica reporter Kavitha Surana told Axios. DuVal, a professor of history with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, won the prize in history for her book " Native Nations: A Millennium in North America." It chronicles U.S. history through the lens of Indigenous nations. She graduated from FHS in 1988, then earned her bachelor's degree in history at Stanford and her Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on the influence of different cultures on early America. "I think for a long time it was important to most Americans to kind of believe that the United States had a right to the whole continent and that maybe Native Americans hadn't," she said. But in recent years, DuVal said, the public has become more interested in Native American history and that the communities "have always been here and are still really an important part of the United States." Case in point: DuVal was editor of the FHS literary magazine, named "Best High School Literary Magazine" in 1988 by the Columbia University School of Journalism, her father, John DuVal, told Axios.
NZ Herald
28-04-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
NZ Herald Premium subscription special offer: Get the best journalism from here and abroad for 50 cents a week
Five-, six- or seven-day subscribers to the Herald 's print editions, or our regional newspapers, are entitled to full digital access; go to to activate your Premium subscription. A Premium subscription helps Kiwis make sense of the fast-paced, ever-changing news cycle, from analysis of current events to in-depth investigations and absorbing features, to opinion pieces you won't find anywhere else - on any device. The best journalism from NZ and around the world Our award-winning newsroom continues to produce some of the biggest and most important stories from around Aotearoa. Six years since we started our Premium subscription model, access to journalism that you can trust has never been more crucial. We've charted the downfall of the Du Val husband-and-wife property developers and their lifestyle of flashy opulence, glamour and wealth, until the money ran out. Want to know which high-achieving high schools are close to affordable housing? We've crunched the NCEA achievement rates of 493 schools and compared them with housing costs in their areas. Nearly 300 directors sit on the boards of our biggest public companies. These are the biggest-earning players in New Zealand corporate governance. New Zealand's First XV rugby is among the most competitive in the world. From the mesmerising skills of Sacred Heart's Cohen Norrie to the towering presence of St Peter's Tevita Tatafu, these 10 players are poised to shine in the future. Kiwis are relocating to Australia in droves - hundreds of us a month are moving there. We've run the numbers, comparing New Zealand and Australian incomes, house prices, rents and expenses - and caught up with those testing their fortunes in the 'Lucky Country'. Be part of the conversation A Premium subscription also lets you have your say by commenting on selected articles and participating in live Q&As with experts on the hottest topics of the day. Premium subscribers also get access to exclusive newsletters, including our Premium News Briefing, which tells you everything you need to know for the day by the time you've made your first coffee, and our weekly Opinion newsletter, which rounds up the mood among our columnists and commenters.
New York Times
05-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
Histories of Native America and the Port of Los Angeles Win Bancroft Prize
A sweeping history of Native Americans and a study of the creation of the port of Los Angeles in the 19th century have won this year's Bancroft Prize, one of the most distinguished honors for scholars of American history. Kathleen DuVal's 'Native Nations: A Millennium in North America,' published by Random House, was described by the prize jurors as 'a seamless panorama of 1,000 years of American history,' which draws on both written records and Native oral histories to tie together the stories of the more than 500 Indigenous nations who inhabit what is now the United States. 'By crafting a historical narrative that introduces readers to a new national story,' the jurors write, 'DuVal helps explain the Indigenous cultural and political renaissance of our own age.' DuVal, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is part of a new wave of scholars of Native America, who challenge the idea that the defeat of Indigenous people was inevitable, and who emphasize their resilience and continued cultural vitality. Hamilton Cain, reviewing the 752-page volume in The Minneapolis Star Tribune, called it 'intimate yet comprehensive,' adding, 'No single volume can adequately depict the gamut of Indigenous cultures, but DuVal's comes close.' The second winner, James Tejani's 'A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles and America,' published by W.W. Norton, reconstructs the complex interactions between 19th-century engineers, merchants, military, Native tribes and others that turned the tiny San Pedro estuary into what is today the busiest seaport in the Western Hemisphere. 'By returning the attention of historians to infrastructure, material objects, and logistics,' the Bancroft jurors wrote, 'Tejani opens our eyes to a new way of thinking about the trans-Mississippi West.' Tejani, an associate professor at California State University, grew up near San Pedro Bay, and occasionally weaves personal observations into the history. Julia Flynn Siler, reviewing the book in The Wall Street Journal, described it as packed with 'detailed, careful scholarship' that turns the story into 'a lens through which to view American expansionism.' The prize, which awards $10,000 to each winner, was created in 1948 by the trustees of Columbia University, with a bequest from the historian Frederic Bancroft. Entries — 249 this year — are evaluated for 'scope, significance, depth of research and richness of interpretation,' according to the prize announcement.
