Faith and Conflict in Janine di Giovanni’s new book, “The Vanishing”

On October 15th, the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents' Benjamin Tetteh spoke with Janine di Giovanni on her new book, “The Vanishing,” which explores the downward trajectory of minority Christian communities in the Middle East, an area that was once the religion’s very own homeland. Di Giovanni is a writer and journalist who won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019 ​​and was awarded the Blake Dodd Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2020. Over the course of the hour-long conversation, she recounts her personal and academic motivations for exploring the topic, as well as the challenges of writing this book during the chaos of the COVID pandemic. Through probing questions from Tetteh and the audience, di Giovanni examines this difficult topic with equal amounts of lighthearted candor and deep personal reflection. There are several key takeaways from the event.

Academic writing can be enhanced with personal experiences

There is a notion within the writing world, of which the journalism community is a part, that personally meaningful writing is generally kept separate from academic writing. Di Giovanni breaks these conventions with her book that weaves personal accounts into information gained through research. She describes how, in fact, the book started out as a journalistic and academic work, but then quickly morphed into a personal book involving her own faith. She talks about her own religious upbringing and the role of religion in her life today, stating that while she is not devoutly religious, her own version of faith plays an important role in her life. In this way, her academic writing is made more nuanced by personal anecdotes that can appeal to the reader’s emotions.

The sociology and history of religion is a broad and ever-changing field for journalistic research

In her book, di Giovanni traces the roots of small communities that were able to withstand hardship. When questioned on how they were able to do this, she answers without hesitation: faith. An unrelenting belief can allow a group of people to survive some of the greatest challenges a society can endure, and the possibilities for investigating these beliefs on the ground are endless. The sheer amount of diversity of stories and experiences is numerous and incredible.

Journalists have a responsibility to help each other, as well as those around them

The importance of journalism is that it tells stories. And these are stories that matter, of people, places, events, and ideas. Oftentimes, these stories are not widely known, such as the shrinking Christian communities in the Middle East. It is the role of journalists to explore even the most unknown and unexplored topics and make the information available to the public. Their responsibility extends to their own kind as well. Journalism is often seen as a cutthroat field, with writers constantly battling to break a story first. The reality is that more needs to be done to create a culture of collaboration within the field. Di Giovanni explains how journalists in cities such as New York need to actively engage with fellow journalists in less resource-rich locations (such as Gaza) and help them work on their craft. In this way, more stories will be told, and the public will be more aware of events happening around the globe.