Communications and Media in Humanitarian Affairs
About the Course Directors
Larry Hollingworth is the Humanitarian Programs Director for the Center for International Humanitarian Cooperation (CIHC) as well as Visiting Professor of Humanitarian Studies at the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs of Fordham University in New York. Over the past few years, he has served as Humanitarian Coordinator on CIHC-sponsored missions for the United Nations in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and Pakistan.
After serving as a British Army officer for thirty years, Larry joined UNHCR and held assignments in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. He was appointed UNHCR Chief of Operations in Sarajevo, during the siege of the city in the Balkan conflict.
He is a frequent lecturer on relief and refugee topics in universities and is a commentator on humanitarian issues for the BBC.
Robin Andersen is a Professor of Communication and Media Studies, Director of the M.A. Program in Public Communication, and Director of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at Fordham University. She is the author of 4 books and dozens of book chapters and journal articles.
Her research interests include the ways in which media influence public opinion and social policy, including the links between advertising persuasions, consumer culture and environmental issues and policies. Her most recent research explores the influences of images of nature on ecotourism and the environment. She also writes about the relationship between media and war, including the interactions between fact and fiction, entertainment, information and video games.
She often serves as a consultant for non-profit groups, and has helped develop strategic communication designs for humanitarian organizations. She is featured in numerous educational documentaries.
Andy Hill was born and educated in Britain and studied modern languages at Manchester University before taking a Diploma in Journalism Studies at the University of Cardiff. He worked briefly for Britain's Guardian newspaper before being accepted as a graduate trainee by Reuters news agency in London. He became a correspondent in Brussels, Paris and Vienna before being transferred to Nairobi, Kenya, as a correspondent covering 22 countries in the region. On return to London he was an Assistant News Editor for Reuters worldwide and then Business news editor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. A yearning to return to reporting saw him transferred to Cyprus, the Reuters HQ for the Middle East, and he livied in both Kuwait and Baghdad after the first Gulf war before a transfer back to Nairobi. The regional story was dominated by the unravelling of Somalia and Rwanda. He then went to Dublin to spearhead a new all-Ireland Reuters bureau and cover the peace process. His final assignment with Reuters was in Pakistan and in Afghanistan during the time of the Taliban.
Andy took an early retirement before working for Oxfam in Jerusalem as a Media officer and then as Country Manager responsible for operations in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. After four years he moved back to Kenya where he began training humanitarian agencies in the art of using the media to the benefit of their beneficiaries and organisations. He and former Reuters colleagues set up the training organisation MediaTrain and he is now based in Nairobi where he edits magazines and organises training sessions across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
