Board of Trustees of The City University of New York

RESOLUTION I.B.5 TO Award an Honorary Degree at Commencement by the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism October 7, 2019

WHEREAS, journalist Masha Gessen is one of the keenest investigative reporters and observers of Russian politics and culture, as well as the present world of political life in the United States; and

WHEREAS, Gessen, a staff writer at , is the author of ten books and countless articles for a variety of top journalistic outlets, including Slate, , Vanity Fair, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, U.S. News & World Report, and ; and

WHEREAS, their publications have been acknowledged with numerous awards, fellowships and other honors, including the 2017 National Book Award for The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed ; and

WHEREAS, the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism is committed to serving the public interest by cultivating the next generation of skilled, ethically minded, and diverse journalists, and Gessen represents the values to which the Newmark J-School holds true, and to which we hope our graduates aspire; and

WHEREAS, in granting this degree, the Newmark J-School will recognize Gessen's extensive contributions to our understanding of Russia and the importance of free expression through insightful and provocative books, essays, and articles; and

WHEREAS, the honorary degree will also recognize their commitment to a robust democratic life, an informed electorate, and an active fourth estate; and

WHEREAS, with the Newmark's J-School's emphasis on investigative reporting and the importance of strong journalism that stands up to tyranny, Gessen is an ideal candidate for the first-ever honorary CUNY degree from the J-School

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT

RESOLVED, That the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY award Masha Gessen the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, at the school’s commencement ceremony on December 13, 2019.

EXPLANATION: In awarding Masha Gessen the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, the J-School will recognize their rigorous and tenacious reporting, their commitment to holding those in power to account, and their impressive body of work, all of which match the J-School's and CUNY’s highest ideals. MASHA GESSEN

Masha Gessen is a Visiting Professor at , a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine and a frequent contributor to MSNBC news programs. They have an international reputation as a keen observer, reporter and analyst of, first, Russia, and now the United States’ political system. At Amherst, they have taught two courses: Fact, Fiction and the Truth, and Trump and the Media. They have been a guest speaker in classes at our school and a panelist at one of our public events.

Gessen’s writing focuses on Putin, Russian culture, LGBT rights, science journalism, and U.S. politics. They have especially focused on the rise of authoritarianism. Masha has written ten books, including the 2017 National Book Award winner, The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. They have written for a variety of publications including Slate, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, U.S. News & World Report, and The New Republic. Gessen has received numerous awards and honors for their reporting, including from the Overseas Press Club, the Carnegie Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 2017, the NY Public Library invited them to give its prestigious Robert B. Silvers lecture.

The Kirkus Review selected The Future is History as one of the best non-fiction books of 2017, calling it, “A superb, alarming portrait of a government that exercises outsize influence in the modern world, at great human cost.” The Los Angeles Review of Books said about the book: “It’s not merely a journalistic or historical account of national collapse and the Putin regime’s strangulation of Russia. It’s also a profoundly novelistic account that should be considered part of the great Russian literary tradition — a tradition through which Russians could possibly pierce the obscuring trauma of their past and trace possibility on the void of their future.”

About Gessen’s biography of Putin, Tina Brown wrote in the Daily Beast: “Thanks to her fearless reporting and acute psychological insights, Masha Gessen has done the impossible in writing a highly readable, compelling life of Russia's mysterious president-for-life.” writes about Gessen’s book on the crack down on the Russian group, : “Words Will Break Cement is a keenly observed and often moving account. Though she writes in clear sympathy with Pussy Riot's cause, Gessen is not indulgent towards her subjects.”

In bestowing the 2018 Hitchens Prize, the judges summed up their work: “Her life testifies to the power of the written and spoken word as a force for justice and human rights, and as a bulwark against those who would constrain them.”