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Steven Thrasher

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Steven Thrasher
Alma materNew York University
Occupation(s)Journalist, academic
EmployerNorthwestern University
WorksThe Viral Underclass
TitleDaniel H. Renberg Chair of social justice in reporting

Steven William Thrasher (born c. 1978[1]) is an American journalist and academic. In 2019, he became the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg Chair of social justice in reporting and an assistant professor of journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Thrasher’s journalism has appeared in The Village Voice,[2] The Guardian,[3] Scientific American[4] and The New York Times.[5] He is a contributing editor for BuzzFeed.[6] He was the recipient of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association Journalist of the Year award 2012,[3][7][8][9][10] and the Al Neuharth Award for Innovation in Investigative Journalism 2015.[11] In 2017, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for the American Sociological Association’s journal Contexts[12] and in 2019, he was awarded a $75,000 Creativity and Free Expression grant from the Ford Foundation.[13] His first book, The Viral Underclass, was published by Celadon Books in August 2022.[14]

Early life

Thrasher was born circa 1978 in Ventura, California and grew up in Oxnard, California.[1] He attended Oxnard High School where his father Bill was a teacher, then New York University Tisch School of the Arts.[1]

Career

After graduating from Tisch, Thrasher worked as a script assistant on Saturday Night Live, before working on the crews of several films including HBO Films’ The Laramie Project. He then worked as an interviewer collecting oral histories for the StoryCorps Project, before becoming a staff writer at The Village Voice in 2009. In 2012, Thrasher was laid off from the Voice.[1] He continued as a freelance journalist while working toward a doctorate in American studies from New York University in 2019.[1]

In 2014, Thrasher was approached to investigate the story of Michael ”Tiger Mandigo” Johnson, a young Black gay man near St. Louis who had been arrested for HIV transmission. Thrasher proceeded to publish a series of articles arguing that Johnson’s conviction had been racially charged. Johnson was released five years into his 30.5 years sentence, an unprecedented 25 years early.[15] Thrasher’s coverage exposed how the HIV legislature reinforced stigma against patients and disincentivized people from getting tested, and how those affected by HIV criminalization, like Johnson, were often given unfair sentences. His work decriminalizing HIV led to his recognition as one of Out magazine's Out100 in 2019.[16]

Thrasher also returned to St. Louis in 2014 to cover the uprisings after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson.[17]

In August 2022, Thrasher published The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide with Celadon Books, an imprint of Macmillan.[18][19][20] The book received a starred review in Publishers Weekly.[21]

NYU graduation controversy

As the student speaker at the 2019 convocation ceremony for NYU's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Thrasher sparked controversy by expressing support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement "against the apartheid state government in Israel".[22] NYU president Andrew Hamilton rejected the possibility of a boycott and said Thrasher had omitted these comments from the version of the speech submitted for review.[22][23] Upon learning that Thrasher had a history of posting allegedly anti-Semitic content on Twitter, Hamilton expressed shock and said, “Thrasher should never have been a speaker for the doctoral convocation."[24] Judea Pearl, father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, said of Thrasher's selection: "Thrasher demonstrates that, when soil conditions are right, poisonous weeds can grow in our best universities, on our own very watch."[25] Pearl, chancellor professor of computer sciences at UCLA and member of the National Academy of Sciences, renounced his NYU 2013 Distinguished Alumnus Award.[26] Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro and Provost Jonathan Holloway criticized Thrasher's choice to express unscripted, controversial views at the ceremony, but also said that he will still be joining their university faculty. Schapiro and Holloway also made it clear that Northwestern rejects the call to boycott Israel.[27]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Childs, Jeremy. "Oxnard native Steven Thrasher writes book on 'The Viral Underclass'". Ventura County Star. Archived from the original on August 6, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  2. ^ "Steven Thrasher". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on September 11, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  3. ^ a b "Steven W Thrasher". The Guardian. October 28, 2014. Archived from the original on August 12, 2016. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  4. ^ Thrasher, Steven W. (February 10, 2022). "There Is Nothing Normal about One Million People Dead from COVID". Scientific American. Archived from the original on July 28, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
  5. ^ Steven W. Thrasher (April 8, 2009). "Iowa's Family Values". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 22, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  6. ^ "Steven Thrasher (steventhrasher) on BuzzFeed". Buzzfeed.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2016. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  7. ^ "NLGJA Awards Recognize Steven W. Thrasher, Chris Geidner, Anderson Cooper and More". Glaad.org. July 10, 2012. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  8. ^ Bach Polakowski. "Steven W. Thrasher NLGJA Journalist of the Year". NLGJA. Archived from the original on June 16, 2016. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  9. ^ Wes Young. "Steven W. Thrasher - 2012 Winner". NLGJA. Archived from the original on August 17, 2016. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  10. ^ "Journalist of the Year Archives". NLGJA. Archived from the original on August 17, 2016. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  11. ^ Bach Polakowski. "Recognizes 2015 Excellence in Journalism Award Winners". NLGJA. Archived from the original on July 30, 2016. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  12. ^ "Steven Thrasher - Medill - Northwestern University". www.medill.northwestern.edu. Archived from the original on August 6, 2022. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
  13. ^ sqd3967 (July 24, 2020). "Steven Thrasher Awarded Ford Foundation Creativity and Free Expression Grant". ISGMH. Archived from the original on July 11, 2022. Retrieved July 11, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ "The Viral Underclass". Celadon Books. January 14, 2022. Archived from the original on August 6, 2022. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
  15. ^ Rueb, Emily S. (July 14, 2019). "He Emerged From Prison a Potent Symbol of H.I.V. Criminalization". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
  16. ^ "These Out100 Honorees Are Doing the Work to End the HIV Epidemic". www.out.com. November 23, 2019. Archived from the original on July 11, 2022. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
  17. ^ Rueb, Emily S. (July 14, 2019). "He Emerged From Prison a Potent Symbol of H.I.V. Criminalization". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
  18. ^ "Why protecting the 'viral underclass' can keep us all healthy : It's Been a Minute". NPR.org. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  19. ^ "The Tie Between Inequality and Illness Is Starker Than Ever". Them. August 2, 2022. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  20. ^ Rosen, Charlotte (August 6, 2022). "Steven Thrasher on "The Viral Underclass"". ISSN 0027-8378. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  21. ^ "The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide by Steven W Thrasher". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  22. ^ a b ROSSELLA TERCATIN. "DOCTORAL GRADUATE PRAISES BDS AT NYU CONVOCATION CEREMONY". jpost.com. Archived from the original on May 24, 2019. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
  23. ^ Aaron Bandler (May 23, 2019). "NYU President Calls BDS-Supporting Graduation Speech 'Quite Objectionable'". Jewish Journal. Archived from the original on May 23, 2019. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
  24. ^ Bandler. "NYU President ‘Shocked’ At Grad Speaker’s Anti-Semitic Tweets." Archived May 24, 2019, at the Wayback Machine Jewish Journal. 24 May 2019. 24 May 2019.

    "New York University (NYU) President Andrew Hamilton told the Journal that he was 'shocked at NYU Doctoral Graduate and soon-to-be Northwestern University Professor Steven Thrasher’s recently unearthed anti-Semitic tweets and that Thrasher shouldn’t have spoken at the May 20 Graduate School of Art and Sciences (GSAS) convocation ceremony.'"
  25. ^ Weiss, Bari (2019). How to Fight Anti-Semitism (First ed.). New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 9780593136058.
  26. ^ Bandler, Aaron. "NYU President 'Shocked' At Grad Speaker's Anti-Semitic Tweets". Jewish Journal. Tribe Media Corp. Archived from the original on May 24, 2019. Retrieved March 14, 2020.
  27. ^ Bandler. "NYU Dean of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences ‘Disappointed’ in Grad Speaker’s Remarks." Archived May 24, 2019, at the Wayback Machine Jewish Journal. 24 May 2019. 24 May 2019.
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