Exeter, NH (April 15, 2009)—The 24th annual Robbins Memorial Symposium, hosted by Phillips Exeter Academy, will present a film showing and panel discussion, “The Search for Social Justice: Colombia’s Story” with reporter and film maker Margarita Martinez, World Policy Institute Senior Fellow and author, Silvana Paternostro, and James Henderson, professor of International Studies at Coastal Carolina University. A film will be shown on Sunday, April 19 and the panel on Monday April 20, both at 6:30 p.m., in the Phelps Academy Center Forum, located on Tan Lane. They are free and open to the public. On Monday there will also be a morning school wide assembly.

This year’s award winning film entitled, La Sierra, features Martinez’s experiences of working with the youth who struggle to survive in the violent neighborhood of Medellin. Martinez, a native of Colombia, South America, and a reporter for the Associated Press, has made numerous courageous contacts with the Colombian paramilitary, guerillas and women’s rebel groups. Colombia is ranked as one of the most dangerous countries for reporters, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. A question- and –answer session will immediately follow.

For more than 10 years, over 30,000 people have been killed in Colombia’s bloody civil conflict, with left-wing guerillas fighting against the government and illegal right-wing paramilitary groups. As guerillas and paramilitaries sought to control marginal city neighborhoods, urban gangs aligned themselves with each side. The national conflict translated into a brutal turf war that pitted adjacent barrios against each other. La Sierra explores intimate, unflinching portraits of three young lives, over the course of a year in one such barrio (La Sierra, in Medellin). Defined by violence, and a community wracked by conflict, each of the three youths undergo profound changes, experiencing victory, despair, defeat, death, love, and hope. Panelists for the discussion include:

Margarita Martinez is a reporter for the Associated Press in Bogota, Colombia, where she covers civil conflict, gangs, and negotiations between the government and insurgent groups. She graduated from Bogota’s University of the Andes in 1994, with a law degree and worked at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. She is 1998 graduate of Columbia University in New York, where she was a Fulbright Scholar majoring in journalism and international affairs. After a stint with NBC News, Martinez moved back to Colombia. Her news coverage at the AP eventually led her to Medellin’s poor barrios, which are often described as a source of Colombia’s violence.

Senior Fellow Silvana Paternostro specializes in women’s issues and has written extensively about Cuba, Central and South America, AIDS, revolutionary movements, and Latin American arts and culture. Her books include, My Colombian War: A Journey through the Country I Left Behind, combines memoir, history and reportage to tell the story of Colombia's forty-year-old civil war and uncover the truth about U.S involvement in the country; and, In the Land of God and Man: Confronting Our Sexual Culture, which explores gender roles and the effect of government and religion on women's lives in Latin America. Paternostro has been a reporter and writer for various publications, including The Daily News,The Miami Herald, El Nuevo herald. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, the Paris Review, the New Republic, among other publications. Paternostro holds a bachelor’s in political science from the University of Michigan, and a master’s in international media and communications from Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs.

James Henderson is a professor of international studies at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina, holds a Ph.D. from the Texas Christian University, a master’s from the University of Arizona, and a bachelor’s from the Centenary College of Louisiana. Specializing in Latin American history and modern Colombian history, Henderson previously served on the faculty of Grambling State University, and was a Fulbright Scholar. He has written numerous scholarly articles and books on Latin American history and culture, including his book A Reference Guide to Latin American History. Henderson is a former member of the Peace Corps.

The Robbins Memorial Symposium was established in honor of the late David C. Robbins, an alumnus of Phillips Exeter Academy, class of 1978. Robbins went on to Brown University, where he did extensive research on the problems of developing countries. He was also a research assistant in the Institute for East West Securities. Robbins researched—academically and through travel—the roots of poverty, famine and revolution.

For more information, please call Donald Foster at (603) 777-3452, or dfoster@exeter.edu. To learn more about student activities on Exeter’s campus, visit our webpage. A complete list of news and events is available on our website. Upcoming events are also available on our public events line at 603-777-4309. For directions, call 603-777-4330.