Announcing the 2026-2027 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows

Wallace House Center for Journalists and the University of Michigan today announced the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows for the 2026-2027 academic year. This cohort of 19 accomplished journalists — from eight countries and across the United States — represents the 53rd class of Fellows in our program’s history.

Over the course of the academic year, the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows will pursue ambitious projects exploring pressing issues, including sustainable models for rural and hyperlocal news, the collapse of institutional trust, the future of media innovation and AI, and newsroom culture and censorship. In addition to their individual research, they will participate in biweekly seminars and workshops with scholars, innovators, journalism leaders and social changemakers. 

“One of the most exciting aspects of our work each year is creating the space for accomplished journalists to learn from and with one another,” said Lynette Clemetson, director of Wallace House. “In a time fraught with challenges to the independence, safety and sustainability of the press, it is a privilege to provide this group of leaders and changemakers the time and resources to expand their skills and pursue ambitious work.”

In addition to the academic and intellectual resources provided, Fellows receive a $90,000 stipend, health insurance and relocation and logistical support to enable them to participate in the residential program and prioritize their fellowship research for the academic year. Fellows will reside in the Ann Arbor area and enjoy collaborative workshops and skills training at Wallace House, a gift from the late newsman Mike Wallace and his wife, Mary and the program’s home base.

Among the 2026-2027 class are four journalists selected for fellowships created more recently to expand our longstanding program. These newer specialized fellowships are designed to revitalize local news in the Great Lakes region, strengthen reporting tied to data and social science research, and support arts journalism and criticism. The journalists awarded these fellowships are Matt Fuchs, the James S. House and Wendy Fisher House Social Science Fellow; Clare Roth and Reid Williams, Great Lakes Local News Fellows; and Mankaprr Conteh, the Knight-Wallace Arts Journalism Fellow.

Wallace House’s Knight-Wallace Fellowship program is sustained through endowment gifts from foundations, institutional and individual donors, as well as annual and ongoing contributions from funders committed to journalism’s role in fostering an informed and engaged public.

The 2026-2027 Knight-Wallace Fellows and Their Journalism Projects:

Tanzil Asif, founder of Main Media, will build sustainable models for rural, hyperlocal journalism in India.

Ana Brakus, executive director of Faktograf, will research survival strategies from newsrooms in repressive environments around the world.

Anastasiia Carrier, public health and safety reporter for Charlottesville Tomorrow, will examine accountability gaps in U.S. medical malpractice oversight.

Libby Casey, visual and audio journalist, will explore the power of social media content creators to build journalism’s future in newsrooms. 

Mankaprr Conteh, arts and culture journalist, will trace the history, future and impact of global pop music in mainstream America. Conteh is the Arts Journalism Fellow in partnership with the University of Michigan Arts Initiative.

Allister D’Souza, documentary producer and multimedia journalist, will examine the rise of self-censorship in democratic newsrooms.

Lev Facher, addiction reporter for STAT, will investigate sports betting as America’s next addiction crisis.

Kristin Fraser, multi-platform storyteller, will explore frameworks for archiving past and present television news coverage to preserve the history of TV news.

Matt Fuchs, science and health journalist, will study how science is reshaping our understanding of middle age. Fuchs is the James S. House and Wendy Fisher House Social Science Fellow.

Erica Hellerstein, immigration and labor reporter for El Tímpano, will explore and document America’s battles over history as a window into the country’s unresolved struggle over national identity, memory and belonging.

Van Le, investigative journalist and filmmaker, will examine war trauma and reconciliation among Vietnamese people today, both inside the country and across the diaspora. 

Shan Li, South Asia correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, will explore how economic discontent is fueling Gen Z revolutions across Asia and the U.S.

Nokuthula Manyathi, newsroom manager and digital publishing strategist, will develop recommendations for fostering more empowering newsroom cultures. 

Yongha Park, reporter for The Kyunghyang Shinmun, will explore how AI-powered content can innovate legacy media.

Clare Roth, managing editor of The Ohio Newsroom, will build a collaborative rural news model to sustain reporters who serve news deserts. Roth is a Great Lakes Local News Fellow.

LaCrai Scott, producer for the CBS Evening News, will study the mechanics of building a media company in today’s fragmenting media landscape. 

Luke Vander Ploeg, audio journalist for The New York Times, will explore the continued rise of homeschooling in America as a lens into the collapse of institutional trust.

Rachel Weiner, transportation reporter, will investigate the root causes of traffic deaths in the United States and the efforts to reduce them.

Reid Williams, co-director of the Local Journalism Foundation of Kalamazoo County, will build the case for civic programming in newsrooms. Williams is a Great Lakes Local News Fellow.

Read more about the 2026-2027 Knight-Wallace Fellows and their journalism projects »


About Wallace House Center for Journalists
Committed to fostering excellence in journalism, Wallace House at the University of Michigan is home to the Knight-Wallace Fellowships, the Livingston Awards and the Wallace House Presents event series, programs that recognize exceptional journalists for their work, leadership and potential.
wallacehouse.umich.edu

Wallace House Presents Our 2025-2026 Events

Wallace House Presents our 2025-2026 lineup of live events with Andrea Hsu, Kara Swisher, Pete Buttigieg, Karen Hao and more. Please mark your calendars for the events below and join us.

Past 2026 EVENTS

Information Sick: How Journalism’s Decline and Misinformation’s Rise Are Harming Our Health and What We Can Do About It

Panel discussion with the authors

Thursday, April 16 | 3:30 PM

Institute for Social Research | 1430
426 Thompson St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

An award-winning journalist, Joanne Kenen, and a public health expert, Joshua Sharfstein, discuss their book “Information Sick” on the pollution of our information environment, its implications for health, and what can be done.

More about this event.

Co-Sponsors:
Institute for Social Research
School of Public Health

The Eisendrath Symposium and WCEE Panel Event

Covering Migration in Europe: Displacement, Trauma and Reporting on Vulnerable Sources

Thursday, March 19 | 4:30 PM
Rackham Amphitheater | 4th Floor

Free and Open to the public

Across Europe, governments are tightening migration policies and backing EU proposals to send asylum seekers to third countries. Human rights groups warn that these measures are pushing people onto more dangerous routes and increasing the risk of abuse and trauma. How can journalists move beyond political debate to more responsibly cover Europe’s changing migration landscape and the lives most affected by it?

More information about this event.

The Eisendrath Symposium honors Charles R. Eisendrath, former director of Wallace House, and his lifelong commitment to international journalism.

Co-Sponsor:
Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia
Copernicus Center for Polish Studies

The Civility Project

Creating constructive dialogue across differences

Wednesday, March 18 | 5 PM
Weill Hall Annenberg Auditorium | Room 1120

A Reception following event.

Americans are at their best when they can talk with another, disagree, even argue, but agree to keep the dialogue going. Unfortunately, too many people today feel like they can’t do that, and they have to avoid even speaking to people with whom they disagree. The Civility Project aims changing that. Co-founders of the Project, journalists Nolan Finley and Stephen Henderson, explain how to create an environment of respectful exchange. 

They will also discuss their book, The Civility Book, which aims to be “A Guide to Building Bridges Across the Political Divide.” (Books will be available for purchase.)

More about this event.

Co-Sponsors:
Talking Maize & Blue
Access and Opportunity
Life-Changing Education
Wallace House Center for Journalists

Migration as Imagination

Monday, March 16 | 5:30 PM

University of Michigan Museum of Art
525 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Helmut Stern Auditorium

Join Ismail Einashe, award-winning British-Somali writer and 2025-2026 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow, for a deeply personal presentation exploring how art can reclaim the humanity of migrants and their stories, too often lost in the headlines of global displacement.

More about this event.

Co-Sponsors
UMMA
Penny Stamps
Arts Initiative

TEDxUofM
2024-2025 Knight-Wallace Fellow Baktygul Chynybaeva

Saturday, March 14 | 3 PM
Power Center for Performing Arts

Ticketed Event.

2024-2025 Knight-Wallace Fellow Baktygul Chynybaeva will share her experiences reporting from the Kyrgyzstan region of Central Asia. Her reporting has significantly influenced public dialogue and policy. The theme of TEDxUofM: Radiance is to reflect on what it means to shine in moments of both triumph and adversity. Through stories of resilience, creativity, and discovery.

More information about this event.

“Privacy for Populations at Risk: Supporting Journalists Facing Attacks in the Digital Age”

Elodie Vialle, Knight-Wallace Fellow ’20

Wednesday, January 28 | 3 PM

Watch the webinar here.

Free and open to the public.

As part of the Privacy@Michigan event series, Elodie Vialle, an international journalist and human rights activist, will discuss how journalists—particularly women journalists and journalists from marginalized communities—are increasingly targeted in online spaces, from coordinated harassment to surveillance and AI-amplified attacks. Drawing on real-world cases, the session will explore practical responses to mitigate harm while safeguarding journalistic work and freedom of expression.

Wallace House Director Lynette Clemetson will moderate the discussion.

More about this event.

Host
ITS Privacy Office

An MLK Symposium Event with Caitlin Dickerson of The Atlantic

DEPORTATION NATION
Chronicling Our Current Chapter in America’s Long History of Exclusion

Tuesday, January 20 | 4:30 PM
Rackham Amphitheatre
915 Washington Street, 4th Floor

Watch video of the event.

The Trump administration’s deportation campaign is profoundly affecting U.S. institutions and has cemented immigration enforcement as a key civil rights issue. Yet the system behind mass deportations has existed for decades, and many headline-grabbing issues — from overcrowded detention centers to family separations and lack of due process — are nothing new. In this conversation, Dickerson will debunk common misconceptions about how the immigration system actually works and discuss the nation’s complex history of race-based fear and the recurring backlash toward immigrant groups.

More about this event.

Co-Sponsors:
Center for Racial Justice
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Center for Social Solutions
Latina/o Studies

2025 EVENTS AND WEBINARS

Webinar for Knight-Wallace Fellowship Applicants with Ally Jarmanning

Wednesday, December 10, 2025 | Noon to 1:15 p.m. ET

Wallace House Center for Journalists invites all interested Knight-Wallace Fellowship applicants to a conversational webinar.

Meet Ally Jarmanning and discover how her year in Ann Arbor, access to a world-class university’s resources, and dedicated time for a journalism project broadened her perspectives and advanced her career. They’ll answer your questions and share insights about the Knight-Wallace Fellowship experience.

More information about this event and our alumni speakers.

Webinar for Knight-Wallace Fellowship Applicants with Maria Arce

Friday, November 21, 2025 | Noon to 1:15 p.m. ET

Wallace House Center for Journalists invites all interested Knight-Wallace Fellowship applicants to a conversational webinar.

Meet Maria Arce and discover how her year in Ann Arbor, access to a world-class university’s resources, and dedicated time for a journalism project broadened her perspectives and advanced her career. They’ll answer your questions and share insights about the Knight-Wallace Fellowship experience.

More information about this event and our alumni speakers.

Evening with Jake Tapper: Race Against Terror

6:30 PM | Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025

Annenberg Auditorium | Gerald R. Ford School
735 S State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Watch video of the event.

Join Jake Tapper in conversation with Javed Ali as they discuss Tapper’s newly released nonfiction thriller, “Race Against Terror: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War.” Hear how prosecutors, soldiers, and intelligence agents worked across continents — and what this case reveals about the threats we still face today.

More about this event.

Co-Sponsors:
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Weiser Diplomacy Center

The Ann Arbor premiere of “Savage Art” and a post-screening discussion with the filmmaker and special guests

Sunday, November 16, 2025 | 3 PM


Watch the trailer.

A SAVAGE ART: THE LIFE & CARTOONS OF PAT OLIPHANT chronicles the life and career of Australian-born Oliphant, whose tenure as a political cartoonist spanned five decades and ten U.S. Presidents. 

Following the film, director Bill Banowsky will be joined by moderator Lynette Clemetson, Charles R. Eisendrath, and Mike Thompson.

More about this event.

Webinar for Knight-Wallace Fellowship Applicants with Delece Smith-Barrow

Monday, October 27, 2025 | Noon to 1:15 p.m. ET

Wallace House Center for Journalists invites all interested Knight-Wallace Fellowship applicants to a conversational webinar.

Meet Delece Smith-Barrow and discover how her year in Ann Arbor, access to a world-class university’s resources, and dedicated time for a journalism project broadened her perspectives and advanced her career. They’ll answer your questions and share insights about the Knight-Wallace Fellowship experience.

More information about this event and our alumni speakers.

Journalist and author, Karen Hao, “Empire of AI”

Monday, October 20, 2025 | 5 p.m.

Rackham Auditorium
915 E Washington St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109

This event is free and open to the public

Join award-winning journalist Karen Hao and Patrick Barry, clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan Law School, for an eye-opening discussion on Hao’s best-selling book, “Empire of AI.” Drawing on reporting from inside OpenAI and across five continents, Hao sheds light on the hidden impacts of AI —  from the exploitation of data workers in the Global South to the immense environmental costs of its energy and water consumption.

More about this event.

Co-Sponsors:
Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) Program
U-M School of Information
Dissonance Event Series
Information and Technology Services
Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC)

Systems of Secrecy: Journalism, Power and the Policy Gaps that Enable Corruption

Monday, October 20, 2025 | 11:45 a.m.

Weill Hall | Betty Ford classroom 1110
725 South State St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109

From the Panama Papers to China Targets, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gerard Ryle has overseen investigations that exposed how the powerful exploit opaque systems across borders — from tax havens and shell companies to international law enforcement mechanisms. Ryle, executive director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and a 2006 Knight-Wallace fellow, will examine what global investigative journalism reveals about the limits of public policy and regulations when laws fall short, enforcement fails, and bad actors innovate faster than the system meant to stop them.

More about this event.

Co-Sponsors:
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Weiser Diplomacy Center

Unpacking U.S. Immigration Policy: What’s at Stake for Our Communities?

Thursday, October 9, 2025 | 11:45 a.m.

Trotter Multicultural Center, large meeting room
428 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Join William Lopez, Kristina Fullerton Rico, and 2026 Knight-Wallace Fellow Irene Romulo as they discuss how the information ecosystem can feel overwhelming, especially when it comes to understanding policy issues that shape our lives. Let’s Unpack That is an engaging series of lunchtime teach-ins where U-M leading experts break down the policy issues of the day in a clear, approachable way. Each session will give you the tools to make sense of complex debates and explore why they matter for you, your community, and the world. 

More about this event.

Co-Sponsor:
Center for Racial Justice at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

LSI SciComm Series: Author Kate Zernike
The Exceptions: The Past, Present and Future of Women in Science

Thursday, October 9, 2025 | 10 a.m.

Rackham Auditorium Amphitheater
915 E Washington St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Book-signing following the event

Kate Zernike, author of “The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins and the Fight for Women in Science,” will talk about how Hopkins was emblematic of her generation, and the next generation of scientists can learn from the experience of the women at MIT.

More about this event.

Co-Sponsor:
Institute for Social Research

The Hazards of Human Rights Reporting:
Reporting from the Field

Donia Human Rights Panel

Wednesday, October 1 | Noon

Michigan League
Koessler Room | Floor 3
911 N University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Join 2026 Knight-Wallace Fellows Clavel Rangel Jimenez and Tenzin Pema as they discuss the challenges of reporting on human rights abuses by governments and other actors. They will share comparative insights from their field experiences to help understand violations occurring beyond our borders. This discussion will be moderated by Lynette Clemetson, director of Wallace Center for Journalists.

More about this event.

Co-Sponsors:
Donia Human Rights Center
Liberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Pete Buttigieg joins the “On with Kara Swisher” Podcast

Wednesday, September 17, 2025 | 4:30 p.m.

Rackham Auditorium
915 E Washington St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109

This is a Ticketed Event

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joins award-winning journalist Kara Swisher for a discussion on the state of U.S. democracy, politics, and more, at this live taping of the “On with Kara Swisher” podcast.

Watch live from this page.

Ford School event, co-sponsored by Wallace House

The 38th Annual Hovey Lecture with NPR’s Andrea Hsu
“Inside the Firings and the Future of the Federal Workforce”

Thursday, September 11, 2025 | 5 p.m.
Recpetion following lecture

Wallace House Garden, 620 Oxford Road
An in-person outdoor event

Watch video of the event.

Join Andrea Hsu, 2012 Knight-Wallace Fellow and NPR’s labor and workplace correspondent, for a discussion on what she’s hearing from those still inside the government and those recently pushed out, and what this transformation could mean for how Americans experience and rely on their government.

This is an in-person event and will not be live-streamed. However, a recording of the lecture will be available on our website following the event.

More information about this event.

CREES Distinguished Lecture: “Putin’s Eternal War” with Jill Doughterty

Tuesday, September 9, 2025 | 5:30 p.m.

Weiser Hall | Floor 10
500 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Free and open to the public

Jill Dougherty is a CNN contributor on Russia and an adjunct professor of Eurasian, Russian, and Eastern European Studies at Georgetown University.

More about this event.

Co-Sponsors:
Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia
International Policy Center

Announcing the 2026 Livingston Awards Finalists

Wallace House Center for Journalists and the University of Michigan today announced the 2026 Livingston Awards finalists in local, national, and international reporting. The awards support young journalists and honor the best reporting and storytelling by journalists under 35 across all forms of journalism. The finalist selections were chosen for work published in 2025.

This year’s winners will be announced on June 9, 2026, at an awards ceremony in New York City hosted by María Elena Salinas, former co-anchor of Univision’s flagship daily newscast, “Noticiero Univision.”

“The work of this year’s Livingston Awards finalists serves as a reminder of the most consequential issues of the past year, and the ambitious work of journalists to tackle those issues with urgency, depth and nuance,” said Lynette Clemetson, director of the awards and the Wallace House Center for Journalists. “We applaud the tenacity of these committed reporters and are proud to extend the reach of their work.”

Now in its 45th year, the awards continue to bolster the work of young reporters, encourage the next generation of journalism leaders and mentors, and foster civic engagement around powerful storytelling.

The Livingston Awards regional judges read all qualifying entries to select the finalists in local, national and international reporting. The regional judging panel includes Molly Ball, political reporter, analyst, commentator and author; Meghna Chakrabarti, host and editor, “On Point,” WBUR; Stella Chávez, independent journalist, formerly KERA and The Texas Newsroom; Jodi Cohen, reporter and senior editor, ProPublica; Adam Ganucheau, executive editor and chief content officer, Deep South Today; David Greene, co-founder, Fearless Media; and Amna Nawaz, co-anchor, PBS “NewsHour.”

A panel of national judges reviews all finalist entries and selects the winners. The national judges are Raney Aronson-Rath, executive producer, “FRONTLINE”; Sally Buzbee, news editor for the United States and Canada, Reuters; Sewell Chan, senior fellow, USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy; Stephen Henderson, host, Detroit Public Television; Matt Murray, executive editor, The Washington Post; Evan Osnos, staff writer, The New Yorker; Lydia Polgreen, opinion columnist, The New York Times; Bret Stephens, opinion columnist, The New York Times; and Kara Swisher, podcast host, Vox Media.

The Livingston Awards are made possible with support from generous sponsors, including Knight Foundation, the Indian Trail Charitable Foundation, the Mollie Parnis Livingston Foundation and the Hochman and Allard Families, The New York Times, The Joyce Foundation, Collective Media and The Briefing Room, Christiane Amanpour, Laura McTaggart and Tom Nolan, Dr. Gil Omenn and Martha Darling, and the Judy and Fred Wilpon Foundation.

We present the 2026 Livingston Awards finalists

You can find their submitted work here.

Local Reporting

  • Curtis Brodner, Oishika Neogi and Willow Higgins, New York Focus and Columbia Journalism Investigations
  • Rebecca Cadenhead, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism
  • Lauren Caruba and Marin Wolf, The Dallas Morning News
  • Jana Cholakovska, NJ Advance Media
  • Shirsho Dasgupta, Miami Herald
  • Rebecca Ellis, Los Angeles Times
  • Chris Gelardi, New York Focus
  • Dana Gerber, The Boston Globe
  • Katie Hyson, KPBS Public Media
  • David Leffler, Savanna Strott and Salina Arredondo, Public Health Watch
  • Wyatt Massey and Charlotte Keith, Spotlight PA
  • Brittny Mejia, Los Angeles Times
  • Hallie Miller, Giacomo Bologna, Sahana Jayaraman and Krishna Sharma, The Baltimore Banner
  • Lauren Peace, Tampa Bay Times
  • Laura Rodriguez Presa, Chicago Tribune
  • Dylan Segelbaum, The Baltimore Banner
  • Allen Siegler, Mississippi Today
  • William Skipworth, The New Hampshire Bulletin
  • Jessie Smith, The Oklahoman
  • Sammy Sussman, The New York Times and New York Focus
  • Alexa York, Toledo Blade

 National Reporting

  • Akbar Shahid Ahmed, HuffPost
  • Ethan Bauer, Deseret Magazine
  • Emily Baumgaertner Nunn, The New York Times
  • Natasha Bertrand, CNN
  • Nicole Foy, ProPublica
  • Carlos Garcia, NPR
  • Joshua Kaplan, ProPublica
  • Benjamin Katz, The Wall Street Journal
  • Ava Kofman, The New Yorker
  • Nat Lash, ProPublica
  • Mel Leonor Barclay and Shefali Luthra, The 19th
  • Morgan Lieberman, Long Lead
  • Jason Mast, STAT
  • Matt Nadel, The New Yorker
  • Hannah Natanson, The Washington Post
  • Aneri Pattani, KFF Health News
  • Katie Thornton, WNYC’s “On the Media,” with support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism
  • Lauren Weber and Caitlin Gilbert, The Washington Post
  • David Yaffe-Bellany, The New York Times

 International Reporting

  • Hanna Arhirova, Illia Novikov and Vasilisa Stepanenko, The Associated Press
  • Anas Baba, NPR
  • Gregory Barber, MIT Technology Review
  • Rachel Chason, The Washington Post
  • Anna Conkling, Business Insider
  • Gerardo del Valle, Alejandro Bonilla Suárez and Edwin Corona Ramos, ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, Alianza Rebelde Investiga, and Cazadores de Fake News
  • Nadia Hamdan, Reveal
  • Mohammed Mhawish, New York Magazine in partnership with the Palestine Reporting Lab
  • Eren Orbey, The New Yorker
  • Casey Quackenbush, POLITICO Europe
  • Marcelo Rochabrun, Bloomberg News
  • Ari Schneider, Mountain Gazette
  • Liam Scott, The Nation
  • Rebecca Tan, The Washington Post

More on the finalists’ work and links to watch, listen and read here.

An Evening with Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch lll

America at 250: History, Memory and Truth

This event is canceled and will be rescheduled at a later date.

Rackham Auditorium
915 East Washington Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Presented by the Institute for the Humanities in partnership with Wallace House

Museums are the classrooms of our country. They play a crucial role in helping us understand the nation’s complex past. Join us for a dynamic conversation with Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and Lynette Clemetson, director of Wallace House Center for Journalists, as they reflect on the significance of the 250th anniversary of the United States. At a moment in which discussions about our shared past and collective future feel especially urgent, this event offers an opportunity to learn from a leader who has devoted his career to informing and inspiring Americans to strive for the public good.

Q&A will follow, and copies of Secretary Bunch’s book, A Fool’s Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump, will be available for purchase.

About Speaker

Lonnie G. Bunch III is the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian. He assumed his position June 16, 2019. As Secretary, he oversees 21 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centers, and several education units and centers. Two new museums—the National Museum of the American Latino and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum—are in development. Bunch was the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Bunch chronicled the creation of the museum in his book, A Fool’s Errand: Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama and Trump, and is the first historian to be Secretary of the Institution. Since 2024, Bunch has been Honorary Professor of Practice at Queen’s University Belfast. A member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Bunch received France’s highest award, The Legion of Honor, in 2021.

About the Moderator

Lynette Clemetson is the Charles R. Eisendrath Director of Wallace House Center for Journalists, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists at the University of Michigan.

Co-Sponsors
Institute for Humanities
Democracy and Civic Empowerment

EXPLORE MORE WALLACE HOUSE EVENTS

The Eisendrath Symposium: Covering Migration in Europe

Wallace House Presents a WCEE Panel and Eisendrath Symposium Event

With Ismail Einashe, Jedrzej Slodkowski, and Sarah Souli
Moderated by Lynette Clemetson
Welcome by Doug Northrop, Interim Director of WCEE

4:30 PM | Thursday, March 19, 2026
Rackham Amphitheater, Fourth Floor

Reception following the discussion

Watch the video of the event.

Free and open to the public.
This is a non-ticketed event.

Covering Migration in Europe: Displacement, Trauma and Reporting on Vulnerable Sources

Across Europe, governments on the right, left, and center are rolling back protections for migrants and supporting new European Union proposals that would allow asylum seekers to be sent to third countries. Even as border crossings have dropped significantly in recent years, human rights groups warn that deterrence-focused policies and sealed borders are pushing people onto more dangerous routes, increasing the risk of abuse, displacement and trauma.

European media coverage of migration has largely centered on political debate, often leaving people’s lives and experiences out of the reporting. What does this imbalance mean for public understanding, and how can we responsibly cover Europe’s shifting migration politics, while ethically reporting on trauma and engaging vulnerable sources whose stories are too often overlooked?

The Eisendrath Symposium honors Charles R. Eisendrath, former director of Wallace House, and his lifelong commitment to international journalism.

About the Speakers

Ismail Einashe, 2025-2026 Knight-Wallace Fellow, is a London-based journalist and author whose work on migration and refugee issues has appeared in numerous publications – including Foreign Policy, The Guardian, BBC News, The Nation, The Sunday Times and ArtReview. He is the author of “Strangers” (2023), a book by Tate Publishing that explores migration through the lens of art, and he co-edited “Lost in Media: Migrant Perspectives and the Public Sphere” (2019), a collection of critical essays examining how migrants are represented in European media. Einashe is also part of a team of journalists working on a cross-border journalism collaborative called Lost in Europe, which investigates the disappearance of child migrants.

Jedrzej Slodkowski, 2025-2026 Knight-Wallace Fellow, is a reporter, editor and current deputy head of the culture section of “Gazeta Wyborcza,” Poland’s largest newspaper. He started his professional journalism career as a music critic 20 years ago. He now specializes in interviews with the most interesting figures in Polish culture. Recently, Słodkowski has focused on migration and refugee issues, editing an annual special edition of “Gazeta Wyborcza” authored by refugees themselves. He has also covered topics such as child slavery in Ghana, Kyiv’s music scene during the war and Nepalese mercenaries hired by Russia to fight in Ukraine.

Sarah Souli, 2025-2026 Knight-Wallace Fellow, has been living and reporting across the Mediterranean for more than a decade. Raised in the U.S. by a French mother and Tunisian father, her multicultural and multilingual background has deeply informed her perspective and work. She is most interested in how behemoth political structures intersect with the resilient and textured lived experiences of people. Her stories, including a multi-year investigation of a triple femicide on the Greek-Turkish border, have appeared in The Atavist, The Economist, POLITICO, The Guardian, Vice Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler and others. Prior to her work as an independent journalist, she was a staff writer for COLORS Magazine.

About the Moderator

Lynette Clemetson is the Charles R. Eisendrath Director of Wallace House Center for Journalists, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists at the University of Michigan.

Co-sponsors:
Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia
Copernicus Center for Polish Studies

Migration as Imagination, a personal exploration with Ismail Einashe

Monday, March 16 | 5:30 PM

University of Michigan Museum of Art
525 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Helmut Stern Auditorium

Free and open to the public

Register Here.

Join Ismail Einashe, award-winning British-Somali writer and 2025-2026 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow, for a deeply personal presentation exploring how art can reclaim the humanity of migrants and their stories, too often lost in the headlines of global displacement.

Drawing on a decade of reporting on migration, his recent book “Strangers” by Tate Publishing, and his own journey from Somalia to Britain, alongside work from the likes of Mona Hatoum, Arshile Gorky, Tania Bruguera and more, Einashe will blend art, poetry, music and tales of a lost home—both humorous and harrowing, into an experience that is part artistic presentation, part storytelling session.  

As he traces threads between artistic disciplines and his own experiences, he will recontextualise the migrant experience as an act of imagination, showing how art has the ability to challenge our dominant cultural narratives and bring us closer to the struggles and humanity of people we too easily categorise as ‘strangers’.

About Ismail Einashe

Ismail Einashe is a London-based journalist and author whose work on migration and refugee issues has appeared in numerous publications – including Foreign Policy, The Guardian, BBC News, The Nation, The Sunday Times and ArtReview. He is the author of “Strangers” (2023), a book by Tate Publishing that explores migration through the lens of art, and he co-edited “Lost in Media: Migrant Perspectives and the Public Sphere” (2019), a collection of critical essays examining how migrants are represented in European media. Einashe is also part of a team of journalists working on a cross-border journalism collaborative called Lost in Europe, which investigates the disappearance of child migrants.

Co-Sponosors
UMMA
Penny Stamp Speaker Series

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Wallace House Presents “Deportation Nation” with Caitlin Dickerson of The Atlantic

4:30 PM | Tuesday, January 20

Rackham Amphitheatre
915 Washington Street. Fouth Floor

Watch video of the event.

DEPORTATION NATION
Chronicling Our Current Chapter in America’s Long History of Exclusion

An MLK Symposium Event

The Trump administration’s deportation campaign is having a profound impact on American institutions, from local governments and businesses to churches and schools, and has helped to cement immigration enforcement as one of the key civil rights issues of our time. But the system through which these mass deportations are being carried out has been in place for decades, and many of the issues drawing headlines — from overcrowded detention centers, to family separations, and deportations without due process — are nothing new.

In this conversation, Dickerson will debunk common misconceptions about how the American immigration system works and how it doesn’t. She will also discuss the United States’ complex history with immigrants, which includes a deeply ingrained, race-based fear that, for centuries, has been directed toward virtually every group of American immigrants, fuelling moments of intense backlash like the one we are in now.

Opening remarks by William Lopez, Clinical Associate Professor, School of Public Health.

About the speaker

Caitlin Dickerson has been a staff writer at The Atlantic since 2021. In 2023, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting and the Livingston Award for National Reporting for “We Need to Take Away Children,” an in-depth examination of the U.S. government’s child separation policy during the first Trump administration. Before joining The Atlantic, Dickerson spent five years as a reporter for The New York Times and five years as a producer and reporter for NPR. Her investigative reporting and long-form feature writing have also been recognized with a Peabody, an Edward R. Murrow award, and two National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence awards.

About the moderator

Lynette Clemetson is the Charles R. Eisendrath Director of Wallace House Center for Journalists, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists at the University of Michigan.

Co-Sponsor
Center for Racial Justice
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Center for Social Solutions
Latina/o Studies

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Wallace House Welcomes Three Acclaimed Journalists as Livingston Awards Judges

Evan Osnos, Stephen Henderson and Jodi Cohen Join the Livingston Awards Judges

Wallace House Center for Journalists welcomes three acclaimed journalists as judges for the Livingston Awards. They join our esteemed regional and national judges tasked with identifying the best reporting and storytelling by journalists under the age of 35.

Joining our national judges are Evan Osnos, staff writer for The New Yorker and Stephen Henderson, founder and executive advisor to BridgeDetroit and host of “American Black Journal” on Detroit Public Television. Henderson served as a regional judge for the Livingston Awards since 2015. The national judges read all final entries and meet to select the Livingston winners in local, national and international reporting, as well as the Richard M. Clurman Award, which honors a senior journalist for on-the-job mentoring.

The national judges includes Raney Aronson-Rath, editor in chief, “Frontline,” PBS; Sally Buzbee, news editor for the United States and Canada, Reuters; Sewell Chan, senior fellow, USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy; Matt Murray, executive editor, The Washington Post; Lydia Polgreen, opinion columnist, The New York Times; Bret Stephens, opinion columnist, The New York Times; and Kara Swisher podcast host, Vox Media.

Joining our regional judges is Jodi Cohen, investigative reporter and senior editor at ProPublica. The regional judges, selected for their knowledge of journalism in specific regions around the country, read all qualifying entries and select the finalists in local, national, and international reporting categories. She will serve as regional judge for the Great Lakes states, the position previously held by Henderson.

This regional judging group includes Molly Ball, political reporter and author; Meghna Chakrabarti, host and editor, “On Point,” WBUR; Stella M. Chávez, independent journalist; Adam Ganucheau, executive editor, Deep South Today; David Greene, co-founder, Fearless Media; and Amna Nawaz, co-anchor, “PBS NewsHour.”

Osnos, a writer at The New Yorker since 2008, is co-host of The New Yorker’s Political Scene podcast. He is also a senior nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of four books, including the “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China,” which won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent book, “The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich,” was a New York Times bestseller in 2025. He previously worked as the Beijing bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune, where he won the Livingston Award in 2006 and was on teams that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 and in 2008.

Henderson, who founded BridgeDetroit, a nonprofit news and engagement organization, is also a contributor to “One Detroit” on Detroit Public Television. Previously, he was the editorial page editor and a columnist for the Detroit Free Press, where he received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2014. Henderson worked as a reporter, editorial writer and editor at The Baltimore Sun, the Chicago Tribune, the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau, where he covered the U.S. Supreme Court from 2003 to 2007. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a former editorial page editor of The Michigan Daily.

Cohen joined ProPublica in 2017 after 14 years at the Chicago Tribune. Her investigations have led to changes in state laws and policies and contributed to the release of a teenager from detention. Her work has been recognized with many national honors, including the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism, the Education Writers Association Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize, the Investigative Reporters & Editors Award, the ONA Award for Investigative Data Journalism and the Studs Terkel Award, which recognizes journalists whose careers have been driven by service and connection to their communities. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a former managing editor of The Michigan Daily.

Now Accepting Entries

The Livingston Awards are now accepting entries for work published in 2025. The entry deadline is February 1, 2026.

About the Livingston Awards


Livingston Awards honor journalists under the age of 35 for outstanding achievement in local, national and international reporting across all forms of journalism. The awards bolster the work of young reporters, create the next generation of journalism leaders and mentors, and advance civic engagement around powerful storytelling. The Livingston Awards are a program of Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan, home to the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Wallace House Presents event series.

Reflections From Our Fellows Trip to the Balkans

Joseph Sywenkyj is an American photographer of Ukrainian descent who has lived and worked in Ukraine for 20 years.

I arrived in Ann Arbor from Ukraine with my family in August 2024 to begin my Knight-Wallace Fellowship. Air raid sirens wailed as our train pulled out of Kyiv. Days later, I was attending a seminar on Michigan politics and wondering, “What am I doing here?”

By spring 2025, when my cohort set off for three countries of the former Yugoslavia — Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia — I had mostly adapted to life without war. I was looking forward to learning how other war-torn European societies had attempted the difficult transition to peace and democracy.

We began our trip in the Croatian coastal city of Dubrovnik, where we were welcomed by our guide, Bosnian photojournalist Ziyah Gafic. We toured a hilltop museum that chronicled the 1991 siege of Dubrovnik and visited photographer Wade Goddard, who ran a gallery dedicated to war photography. I had studied images of the Balkan wars as a young photographer, but to view them well into Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine was something entirely new. My wife wept as I fought tears and tried to comfort her. It was like looking in a mirror.

Politicians, journalists, activists and religious leaders in Sarajevo helped us understand how selective memory, language and old animosities are harnessed to spark violence and war. Many guest speakers had warnings to share. Aida Čerkez, who was the Sarajevo bureau chief for the Associated Press during
the war, recounted the mass denial before the Serbs began their 1992 attack. She cautioned: “Try to resist the denial, so you can recognize it in time to react. … You cannot save the world. But what you can do, privately and professionally, is position yourself toward the problem.”

The most haunting part of our trip was visiting Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb forces murdered more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, most of them men and boys, while United Nations peacekeepers failed to act. We toured the cemetery and memorial center with curator Azir Osmanović, who survived the 1995 genocide at age 13. He told us more Bosnian Serbs deny the genocide today than they did in the 1990s. As a Ukrainian, I took note of the work we must do to commemorate the victims of Russia’s war against us in the years ahead.

We then traveled to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, where I was surprised to feel a sense of hope. Our guide, Serbian photojournalist Marko Drobnjakovic, introduced us to courageous investigative reporters and election observers. And we observed peaceful, student-led protests against corruption,
which had spread throughout the country. We were witnessing history in action.

I remain inspired by the people we met, working tirelessly to heal wounds of war and develop more open, accountable and democratic societies.

Swift Action for the Hardest Hit

Rachel Rohr is vice president of program development at Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities.

Like the Knight-Wallace Fellowships, Report for America runs on a tight programmatic cycle. We had selected our 2025-26 corps members and our program year had started when Congress voted to rescind funding for public media in July. About 20% of the local newsrooms Report for America has supported since 2018 are public media stations. We reached out across our network to find out who was hardest hit.

In Alaska, one of our alumni at Alaska Public Media helped direct us to two urgent situations.

KRBD, a station in the southeast city of Ketchikan, was about to hire reporter Hunter Morrison when 37% of its budget evaporated. The small newsroom typically has a news director and one reporter covering a region that includes a busy tourist and fishing community as well as Alaska’s only Native American reservation. Not being able to fill the vacant reporter position would leave 20,000 people without essential local news coverage.

At KOTZ, a one-person newsroom above the Arctic Circle in Kotzebue, the station’s board and leadership told the news director, Desiree Hagen, that they would have to close the radio station within a year. In addition to serving as the news director, Hagen is the only reporter at KOTZ, which receives 41% of its funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Shuttering the newsroom would cut off the primary local news source and safety information for approximately 10,000 people, most of whom are Alaska Natives.

Most of the stories Hagen covers involve weather alerts, Indigenous cultural programming, and news
on issues such as road closures, subsistence meetings, and essential hunting and fishing information —
updates vital for a community where 60% to 80% of the diet depends on harvested wild food. Shuttering
the newsroom would cut off the primary local news source and safety information for approximately 10,000 people, most of whom are Alaska Natives.

Report for America corps members from across the country.

We accepted Hagen and Morrison as corps members. Instead of our usual grants that cover 50% of reporters’ salaries in the first year, we’ll cover 100% of the reporters’ salaries and benefits in the first year — something we’ve never done before.

We’ll also assist the newsrooms with funding and sustainability strategy. And the reporters will be able to enjoy all the perks of being corps members. That includes mentorship, training, professional memberships and — perhaps best of all for reporters in rural and remote places — a supportive peer network of Report for America corps members and alumni.

As Desiree Hagen, who is deeply committed to continuing her work as news director and reporter, told us, “The funding prevents the voices of rural Alaska and the Arctic from going silent.”

This article is part of Rising to Meet the Moment, a series from the Fall 2025 issue of the Wallace House Journal, featuring reflections from Knight-Wallace alumni, Wallace House board members and the Livingston Awards community on meeting today’s challenges with focus, resilience and resolve. Read more stories from our series:

Christopher Baxter, “Unexpected hope“

Lynette Clemetson, “Stepping up with focus and resolve“

Hayes Ferguson, “Nurturing innovation, adaptability and purpose“

Stephen Henderson, “Choosing Civility“

Samantha Henry, “The future of our profession: student journalism“

Tracy Jan, “News deserts and fewer watchdogs“

Margaret Low, “Game Over? Not a chance“

Peggy Lowe, “Defunded, but not defeated“

Amy Maestas, “Building trust through community collaborations“

Kunal Majumder, “Defending the right to report“

Seema Mehta, “Why we keep reporting“

Rachel Rohr, “Swift action for the hardest hit“

Gerard Ryle, “We will not retreat“

Laura Santhanam, “Preserving knowledge“

Mazin Sidahmed and Maria Arce, “Training newsrooms to serve immigrant communities“

Celeste Watkins-Hayes, “Bending without breaking: resilience in academia“

Thomas Zurbuchen, “Never let a good challenge go to waste“