Liliana Bakhtiari
PULITZER CENTER ALUM
Liliana Bakhtiari is in the final semester of her dual degree program at Georgia State University in Atlanta, where she has been studying Anthropology and Journalism, with a minor in Political Science. During her time at GSU, Liliana had the opportunity to travel abroad to 17 different countries while practicing freelance journalism. After pursuing paleoanthropology in Kenya, and post-genocidal studies in Cambodia, Liliana realized that her true passion lied in narrative story telling. While backpacking through Southeast Asia and Australia, she began documenting the stories of different survivors that she had met along the way. From genocide survivors, to politically radical monks, to mothers and kangaroo lovers, each story Liliana came across began to reinforce the idea that every person she met had a unique story to tell that was relative to everyone. Each story painted a diverse and colorful picture of the world in a brand new way.
Upon returning from her travels, Liliana used her final years in college to begin a non-profit organization called Barefoot Gypsy that is focused on telling the different stories of survivors from all over the world through the mediums of film, writing, and photography. Liliana is focused on utilizing journalism as a tool to help people the world over tell their stories with their own voice. Liliana could not be happier to be working with an organization that is dedicated to covering a variety of under-reported topics from all over the globe.