On November 21, Bette Dam will publicly defend her PhD 'Certain Things Not Known To Those Who Eat With Forks: A Journey Through 100 Years of Media Elites and Whiteness, Case Afghanistan', a project that has reshaped how she sees journalism, power, and the stories we tell about the world.
This journey began in Afghanistan in 2006, where I set out to understand a country too often reduced to the single narrative of “terrorism.”
Out of those years came two books. In 2009, I published the story of the epic rise of Afghanistan’s first U.S.-backed president, Hamid Karzai — already tracing a different narrative, in which his early allies would later become America’s enemies. It was the first time I began to question who, in fact, was considered the enemy in Afghanistan. My second book,a biography slash travelogue of the life of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, not only led me to his hiding place but revealed something deeper: that for years, these men were far more powerful in the media’s imagination than they ever were on the battlefield.
From there, leaving Afghanistan with a growing concern about media coverage, her gaze turned inward, toward her own profession. In this PhD, she brought the same investigative depth once used in Kabul to our own media institutions: The New York Times, The Associated Press, and her own body of work.
What emerged is a long view of journalism itself, a field that, for more than a century, has been produced by a select few and written for a select few. As the title suggests, such journalism was never meant to survive.
In its final chapter, Imagination, she proposes a new concept of journalism, one that could, even if only in part, become the kind of professionalism we all desire from this beautiful and unique craft we call journalism.
One jury member said:
“For me, it’s one of the most critical pieces of Journalism Studies, one of the sturdiest that’s been written. That notion, to read your dissertation, how did you do it! Such a critical appraisal is so needed and so necessary. I could talk about it the whole day.”
Many people have been part of this journey, in ways big and small: the friends, colleagues, and journalists who have stimulated, challenged, and supported me; the assistants who have counted endless lists of sources; the students who have helped and inspired me; and, most importantly, the interviewees who have shared their trust and their stories with me. This work lives on thanks to them.
For those who are interested in the research or would like to report on it, a press or research copy of the thesis can be provided upon request.
For those who wish to attend in person, please contact Bette Dam
More about her research
- Bette Dam - Researchportal.vub.be
- Learning from Western news media's mistakes in Afghanistan — Making Peace Visible Podcast (24/06/2025)
- "Unheard: Using large language models to conduct source audits of the news" (18/02/2025) in Columbia Journalism Review
- "Looking for the enemy" her journalistic investigation, for which she received the Loep Award for Investigative Journalism in 2019
