2005-04-29T17:06:00.004-04:00

A reporter with The Boston Globe and an adjunct professor of journalism at Boston University and Emerson College, David Abel has traveled throughout the States, Latin America, and Europe, covering everything from dissident movements in Cuba to war in the former Yugoslavia.

When Abel first moved to Boston in 1999, he covered academia in the region, writing stories about topics such as Cornel West's messy departure from Harvard and Kurt Vonnegut's taxing year at Smith College. Later, he launched a new beat at the Globe covering poverty issues, writing about the homeless who refuse to stay in shelters on the coldest nights, the mentally ill evicted from their apartments without due process, and immigrants swindled by sham law firms. He spent a year as co-editor of the Globe's old City Weekly section, which covered the characters and issues that color Boston. Over the years, he has covered features and breaking news and contributed to the Travel section with narratives from the glaciers of Iceland to the deserts of Namibia. He now covers the environment for the paper's Metro section.

Before moving to New England, Abel spent a year in Washington, D.C., where he wrote for the Globe and other papers, including a weekly journal covering the military. During that time, he traveled to the former Yugoslavia to cover the war in Kosovo.

Previously, Abel lived in Cuba, where he worked as a stringer for more than a dozen papers, including the Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Miami Herald, and San Francisco Chronicle. Abel was deported on Christmas Eve in 1998, after rankling authorities with unflattering stories about the revolution.

Before moving to Cuba, Abel spent a year covering the police beat and occasionally reviewing classical music for The Palm Beach Post. He moved to Florida after a brief stint running a pepper farm in the rural highlands of the Dominican Republic, but that's a long story.

Abel's career started in Mexico City, where he wrote for a local daily covering the nation's social movements and economic woes. He also spent a year in San Francisco, writing poetry, fiction, and articles for the Haight Ashbury Free Press.

Born and raised in New York, Abel studied political science and philosophy at the University of Michigan and has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

Email: dabel@globe.com
Twitter: @davabel

David Schwab Abel