Elinor Burkett
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Elinor Burkett (born October 9, 1946) is an American journalist, author, film producer, and documentary director. A film produced by her, '' Music by Prudence'', won the 2009
Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announ ...
on March 7, 2010.


Education

In 1975, Burkett graduated from the
University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
with a doctorate in Latin American History. In 1988, Burkett earned a master's degree from the
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism sch ...
.


Career

Burkett was a history professor at
Frostburg State University Frostburg State University (FSU) is a public university in Frostburg, Maryland. The university is the only four-year institution of the University System of Maryland west of the Baltimore-Washington passageway in the state's Appalachian highlan ...
in
Frostburg, Maryland Frostburg is a city in Allegany County, Maryland. It is located at the head of the Georges Creek Valley, west of Cumberland. The town is one of the first cities on the "National Road", US 40, and the western terminus of the Western Marylan ...
for 13 years. In a dramatic turn, she gave up her tenure to get a Masters at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She was a staff writer for the ''
Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by McClatchy, The McClatchy Company and headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Founded in 1903, it is the fifth-largest newspaper in Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward County, Fl ...
'' from 1988 to 1992 and she has been published by leading publications such as ''
The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...
,'' ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' and ''
Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...
''. She has held
Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...
professorships in both
Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...
and
Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
and received numerous awards and grants for her work as a historian and writer. She also chaired the Department of Journalism of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.Author (Golda)
HarperPerennial. Retrieved on June 27, 2010

The Journalism School: University of Columbia. March 8, 2010
She authored her first book in 1993, written with Frank Bruni. In ''A Gospel of Shame : Children, Sexual abuse and the Catholic Church'' the pair explored the incidences of Catholic sex abuse cases. Two years later she wrote ''The Gravest Show on Earth : America in the Age of AIDS''. Burkett offered a scorching criticism of the 'AIDS industry' for greed, self-promotion and putting politics over prevention. In 1997, she again collaborated with Bruni on ''Consumer Terrorism : How to Get Satisfaction When You're Being Ripped Off''. A year later she collaborated with
Susan Molinari Susan Molinari (born March 27, 1958) is an American politician, company executive, journalist, and lobbyist from New York. A member of the Republican Party, she sat in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1990 to 1997, representing Staten Isl ...
on ''Representative Mom: Balancing Budgets, Bill, and Baby in the U.S. Congress''. In the same year she challenged her own liberal feminist beliefs by interviewing conservative women for ''The Right Women : a Journey through the Heart of Conservative America''. In 2000's ''The Baby Boon : How Family-Friendly America Cheats the Childless'', she attacked the US government and industry for pro-family initiatives that leaves the nation's childless paying the price. A year later she released her study of an American high school, ''Another Planet : a Year in the Life of a Suburban High School''. In 2004 she wrote ''So Many Enemies, So Little Time. An American Woman in All the Wrong Places..''. She related to her time in
Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...
where she moved in 2001 as a Fulbright Professor teaching journalism at the Kyrgyz-Russo Slavonic University. That same year, in the wake of 9–11, she travelled across all the -stans, as well as Iran, Iraq, Russia, China, Mongolia, and IndoChina. In 2004 Burkett also co-directed ''Is It True What They Say About Ann'', a documentary about the right-wing commentator
Ann Coulter Ann Hart Coulter (; born December 8, 1961) is an American conservative media pundit, author, syndicated columnist, and lawyer. She became known as a media pundit in the late 1990s, appearing in print and on cable news as an outspoken critic ...
. Four years later, she wrote her first biography, about the late Israeli Prime Minister,
Golda Meir Golda Meir (; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was the prime minister of Israel, serving from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only female head of government. Born into a Jewish family in Kyiv, Kiev, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) ...
. In the book Burkett vindicated Meir for her role in the
Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...
, stressing that far greater responsibility lay with the
Israeli Defense Minister The Ministry of Defense (, acronym: ) of the government of Israel, is the governmental department responsible for defending the State of Israel from internal and external military threats. Its political head is the defense minister of Israel, ...
,
Moshe Dayan Moshe Dayan (; May 20, 1915 – October 16, 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of General Staff (Israel), Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defe ...
. A film that she was involved in the production of, '' Music by Prudence'', won the 2009
Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announ ...
. She was removed from production of the documentary a year earlier, resulting in a lawsuit and out of court settlement. It caused a media frenzy when, in the midst of the televised Oscar ceremony, the
82nd Academy Awards The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2009 and took place on March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, beginning at 5:30 p.m. ...
, she interrupted the acceptance speech of producer and director Roger Ross Williams. It was widely touted as the "Kanye Moment" of that year's Oscars, referring to the Kanye West incident at the
2009 MTV Video Music Awards The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, honoring the best music videos from the previous year between June 2008 to June 2009, were presented on September 13, 2009, at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and televised by MTV. The ceremony was ...
.


Personal life

Burkett divides her time between New York and her home in
Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; ) is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council claimed it to be about ...
,
Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
, where she trains journalists, writes and makes films.


Bibliography

*'' Golda'', (
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...
, New York), 2008, *''So many enemies, so little time : an American woman in all the wrong places...'', (HarperCollins, New York), 2004, *''Another planet : a year in the life of a suburban high school'', (HarperCollins, New York), 2001, *''The baby boon : how family-friendly America cheats the childless'', Free Press, New York, 2000, *''The right women : a journey through the heart of conservative America'', (
Charles Scribner's Sons Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City that has published several notable American authors, including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjori ...
, New York), 1998, *''Representative mom : balancing budgets, Bill, and baby in the U.S. Congress'', ( Doubleday, New York), 1998, (Co-authored with
Susan Molinari Susan Molinari (born March 27, 1958) is an American politician, company executive, journalist, and lobbyist from New York. A member of the Republican Party, she sat in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1990 to 1997, representing Staten Isl ...
) *''Consumer terrorism : how to get satisfaction when you're being ripped off'', ( HarperPerennial, New York), 1997, (Co-authored with Frank Bruni) *''The gravest show on earth : America in the age of AIDS'', (
Houghton Mifflin Co Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company ( ; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, and reference works. The company is based in the Boston Financial District. It was formerly known as the Houghto ...
,
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
), 1995, *''A gospel of shame : children, sexual abuse and the Catholic Church'', (Viking, New York), 1993, (co-authored with Frank Bruni)


Filmography


Producer

*'' Music by Prudence'' (2010) *''iThemba'' (2010)


Director

*''iThemba'' (2010) *'' Is It True What They Say About Ann'' (2004)


References


External links

*
Author profile of Elinor Burkett
at
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burkett, Elinor 1946 births Living people 21st-century American women American documentary filmmakers American feminists Film directors from Pennsylvania American women academics American women documentary filmmakers American women journalists The Atlantic (magazine) people Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Film producers from Pennsylvania Frostburg State University faculty Journalists from Pennsylvania Producers who won the Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award University of Pittsburgh alumni Writers from Philadelphia American expatriates in Zimbabwe