U-M Names Knight Wallace Journalism Fellows

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University of Michigan News Service • May 8, 2012

The Knight-Wallace Fellows program at the University of Michigan has named 12 American and seven international journalists for the academic year 2012-2013. The group is the 39th to be offered fellowships by the university.

“This is a remarkable group,” said Fellowship Director Charles R. Eisendrath, a former TIME correspondent in Washington, London, Paris, and Buenos Aires. “Each year we look not only for people with distinguished records, but above all for people who will use this special opportunity to grow professionally and personally. We think those things go together.”

While on leave from regular duties, Knight-Wallace Fellows pursue customized sabbatical studies and attend twice-weekly seminars at Wallace House, a gift from the late newsman Mike Wallace and his wife Mary. The program also includes training in narrative writing, multi-platform journalism and entrepreneurial enterprise. News tours for the KWF group to Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and Istanbul are arranged by host news organizations.

Knight-Wallace Fellows receive a stipend of $70,000 for the eight-month academic year plus full tuition and healthcare insurance. The program is entirely funded through endowment gifts by foundations, news organizations and individuals committed to improving the quality of information reaching the public.

Fellows and their study projects are:

  • Kate Brooks, photographer (The New Yorker, Smithsonian); Ecological preservation in an overpopulated world with diminishing resources
  • Silvio Cioffi, travel editor, Folha de Sao Paulo; E-publishing
  • Nigel Doran, senior broadcast journalist, BBC World Service; South Korea’s soft power ambitions
  • Rachel Dry, deputy editor of Outlook, The Washington Post; Women and the leadership gap
  • Shai Gal, correspondent, Channel 2 (Tel Aviv); Do extremists control our lives?
  • Joanne Gerstner, sports writer (The New York Times, ESPN); Concussions in athletes
  • Suzette Hackney, staff writer, Detroit Free Press; Enhancing traditional journalism with technology
  • Amy Haimerl, editor-in-chief, USAA Magazine; Abandoned places and the American dream
  • Markian Hawryluk, health reporter, The Bulletin (Bend, OR); Artificial hearts and their medical, economic and ethical ramifications
  • Donovan Hohn, features editor, GQ Magazine; The Russo-Polish War seen through literary eyes
  • Sam Hudzik, political reporter, WBEZ-FM (Chicago); Breaking through to distracted audiences
  • Jong-Seok Kim, assistant editor/Sports and Leisure, DongA Ilbo (Seoul); Sports business and the Winter Olympics
  • Tristram Korten, writer (The Atlantic, Fast Company); An economic model for sustainable healthcare
  • Justin Maiman, supervising producer, Bloomberg TV; The next financial crisis
  • Tracie McMillan, writer (The New York Times, Saveur.com); Education and social change
  • Federico Monjeau, music critic, Clarin (Buenos Aires); American Music in the 20th century
  • Josh Neufeld, cartoonist (SMITH Magazine, Cartoon Movement); Bahrain’s Pearl Movement
  • Amir Paivar, business reporter, BBC Persian TV; Are economic sanctions an effective foreign policy tool?
  • Sabine Righetti, science and health reporter, Folha de Sao Paulo; The methodologies of university rankings

Fellows were selected by Charles Eisendrath, John Costa (editor-in-chief, Western Communications (OR), and Editor, The Bulletin (Bend, OR), Ford Fessenden (graphics editor, The New York Times), Bobbi Low (professor, School of Natural Resources and Environment, U-M), Birgit Rieck (assistant director, Knight-Wallace Fellows), Sarah Robbins (Knight-Wallace Fellow ’12; senior producer, BBC World News America), Carl Simon (professor, Mathematics and Complex Systems, U-M), and Ellen Soeteber (chair, Advisory Board at the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships and former editor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch).

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