Amanda Sperber
Amanda Sperber (2021) is an award-winning investigative journalist who has been based in East Africa for eight years focusing on Somalia. Her work reporting on U.S. airstrikes has impacted American military policy and shifted narratives on state-building. Her reporting prompted two open letters from leading House Democrats, and since she started covering U.S. airstrikes in Somalia, the military admitted to its first civilian casualties since it began carrying out strikes in 2007 and instituted a civilian casualty reporting protocol. Sperber won the Kurt Schork Memorial Award (Freelancer Category) for her investigations in Somalia. She won the One World Media Award (Popular Features Category) for her coverage of sexualized violence in South Sudan’s civil war. Her work has been recognized by the Frontline Club and the Amnesty International Media Awards.
As a fellow she will work on a definitive account of the human-impact of U.S. counterterrorism operations in Somalia.