Ford School of Public Policy hosts "The AR-15: The Gun that Divides a Nation"

Washington Post journalists in conversation with Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes

WARNING: Some of the images in this livestream may be disturbing.

The Washington Post has examined both the devastation caused by AR-15 assault rifles as well as its allure for segments of American society in a 13-part series.

Photo editor Kainaz Amaria, series editor Peter Wallsten, and reporter Silvia Foster-Frau will speak about their reporting on “The gun that divides a nation – revered as a modern-day musket; reviled as a tool for mass killers.”

These Washington Post journalists sit down for a conversation with University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes.

About the Speakers:

Kainaz Amaria, Photo Editor, Washington Post

Washington Post photo editor Kainaz Amaria Kainaz Amaria oversees immersive, visual-first stories for the National desk at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, Kainaz was Vox’s first-ever visuals editor. And before that she was an editor on NPR’s Visual Team, where she had multiple roles in NPR’s “Planet Money Makes a T-shirt” project, including managing producer, photographer and videographer.

The project won NPR numerous awards, including a News and Documentary Emmy. In 2010, she was a Fulbright Scholar and completed a short film on the Parsi Zoroastrian community in Mumbai.

In 2020, Amaria was honored with the John Long Ethics Award by the National Press Photographers Association for her writing and criticism on the photojournalism industry and visual language. Kainaz began her career as a local newspaper photographer.

Peter Wallsten, Senior National Investigations Reporter, Washington Post

Washington Post editor Peter Wallsten Peter Wallsten is the senior national investigations editor. He has led or helped oversee four Pulitzer Prize-winning lines of coverage as an editor on The Washington Post’s National staff. Most recently, he shepherded The Post’s abortion coverage in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that struck down Roe v Wade, which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting.

He has served as The Post’s senior politics editor, leading political coverage during the Trump administration, and was the founding editor of the paper’s Politics Investigations and Enterprise team.

Before becoming an editor in 2013, Wallsten was a White House correspondent for The Post and a political reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, where he was editor of The Daily Tar Heel.

Silvia Foster-Frau, National Investigative Reporter, Washington Post

Washington Post National Investigative Reporter Silvia Foster-Frau Silvia Foster-Frau is a national investigative reporter for The Washington Post who explores the impacts of America’s changing racial, ethnic and cultural demographics. She also has covered several mass shootings, including in Sutherland Springs, Atlanta, Uvalde, Nashville and Allen, among others.

Silvia won the National Association of Hispanic Journalist’s Elaine Rivera Civil Rights and Social Justice award in 2022 for her work on the largely untold crisis of police violence against Latinos.

She joined The Post in February 2021 from the San Antonio Express-News, where she covered immigration and border security, winning Texas APME Star Reporter of the Year in 2019. Silvia is vice president of NAHJ’s D.C. Chapter.

Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan

Celeste Watkins-Hayes is an internationally recognized scholar and expert on HIV/AIDS; urban poverty; social policy; and racial, class, and gender inequality. Her work illuminates social problems of great interest to scholars, communities, and policymakers.

She works at the intersection of sociology, African American Studies, and public policy. Her work analyzes the impact of the HIV epidemic on women and the growth of the HIV safety net.

Watkins-Hayes serves as the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy; the Director for the Center for Racial Justice; a Jean E. Fairfax Collegiate Professor of Public Policy; a university diversity and social transformation professor; a professor of sociology; a research and community impact fellow involved in an anti-racism collaborative.