Wallace House, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships, the Livingston Awards and the Wallace House Presents event series, is now Wallace House Center for Journalists, a new name to reflect our expanding vision.
For nearly 50 years, Wallace House programs have been committed to fostering excellence in journalism. Starting with a grant in 1972 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to give accomplished journalists access to learning and research at the University of Michigan, we’ve grown into an internationally recognized organization that supports and develops the careers of journalists, advocates for press freedom issues, and promotes informed civic engagement.
It’s now time to adapt our name to reflect our ever-growing work and core mission to support journalism by supporting journalists.
As press freedom is under attack and democracy is threatened around the world and at home, Wallace House Center for Journalists will continue to expand our reach and ambitions. We’re providing emergency support for reporters under siege, adapting our fellowship to address challenges facing the journalism industry and supporting journalists with resources to develop journalism ventures.
You can still find us on these pages and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram under the username @UMWallaceHouse. We look forward to sharing our growing vision with you.
About Wallace House Center for Journalists
Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan is committed to fostering excellence in journalism. We are home to programs that recognize, sustain and elevate the careers of journalists to address the challenges of journalism today, foster civic engagement and uphold the role of a free press in a democratic society. We believe in the fundamental mission of journalism to document, interpret, analyze and investigate the forces shaping society.
Elena Milashina returns to Wallace House after leaving Russia amid death threats and Putin’s shutdown of “Novaya Gazeta,” Russia’s last remaining independent news outlet.
Supporting Journalists at Risk
After facing death threats for her reporting on human rights abuses in Chechnya and Russia, Elena Milashina, an award-winning Russian journalist and 2010 Knight-Wallace Fellow returned to the University of Michigan. Milashina is an investigative journalist for Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s last remaining independent newspaper before it ceased publication in March in response to threats from the Putin regime following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sponsored by Wallace House, Milashina joins the International Institute’s Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies as the inaugural WCED Freedoms Under Fire Residency Fellow. The new fellowship brings prominent and courageous activists, journalists, and scholars from across the globe to WCED as a way both of evading persecution in their home countries and sharing their unique personal insights with the U-M community and broader public on how dictatorships and eroding democracies repress vital individual freedoms.
“Wallace House is committed to advancing the freedom and safety of journalists around the world. When we can provide for the safety of one journalist, we are safeguarding their journalism, their voice and the public’s right to the truth,” said Lynette Clemetson, director of Wallace House.
In February of this year, Milashina went into hiding after numerous threats from Kremlin-backed Chechen leaders and continued to report on human rights abuses from an undisclosed location. Since 2000, Novaya Gazeta, whose editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, has seen six of its journalists and contributors killed.
“I am very grateful to Wallace House and the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies for this opportunity,” said Milashina. “The University of Michigan for me is not just a safe place to continue my work. Without exaggeration, this is one of the best places to exchange experiences and learn things, which very often a journalist simply does not have time for.”
Milashina’s reporting has uncovered enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial executions, torture, and persecution of relatives of alleged insurgents in Chechnya and beyond. She came to the university in September 2009 as a Knight-Wallace Fellow, where she studied ethnic and religious conflicts in the North Caucasus. Following her fellowship, she exposed Chechnya’s crackdown on gay men, which caused Muslim clerics in Chechnya to deliver a sermon calling for “retribution” against her and other journalists. She is the recipient of Human Rights Watch’s Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism and the International Women of Courage Award.
“Journalists are in the crosshairs of democratic backsliding all around the world, not least in Putin’s Russia,” said Dan Slater, director of WCED. “Our new Freedoms Under Fire fellowship is designed to invite some of the world’s most courageous and principled opponents of authoritarian practices to Michigan’s campus. Elena Milashina is an ideal first recipient of this fellowship, and we are privileged to host her. Elena’s remarkable story should remind us all that Putin’s victims reside in Russia as well as Ukraine, and that the global struggle for full democratic freedoms must never be limited or defined by national boundaries.”
Last March, Milashina spoke with us on camera from an undisclosed location and discussed the demise of a free press under Putin’s regime and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Then as now, she remains determined to continue championing the truth. As a WCED Freedoms Under Fire Residency Fellow, Milashina will give guest lectures, engage with students and faculty, and continue her writing to report the truth about what is happening in Ukraine, Russia, and the region.
Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan is committed to fostering excellence in journalism. We are home to programs that recognize, sustain and elevate the careers of journalists to address the challenges of journalism today, foster civic engagement and uphold the role of a free press in a democratic society. We believe in the fundamental mission of journalism to document, interpret, analyze and investigate the forces shaping society.
The Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies at the University of Michigan’s International Institute promotes scholarship to better understand the conditions and policies fostering transformations from authoritarian rule to democracy. WCED’s mission will evolve as the world changes, but its core commitment to understanding the conditions for democracy and freedom will remain the guiding principle.
Welcome remarks by Tabbye Chavous, Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer
In 2013, longtime China correspondent Scott Tong came to the Knight-Wallace Fellowships to research China’s on-again, off-again ties with the global community and how it connected with his own family. The resulting book, “A Village with My Name: A Family History of China’s Opening to the World,” examines nationalism and globalization through the stories of five generations of Tongs.
Now a co-host of “Here and Now,” Tong returns to Wallace House to discuss Beijing’s increasing authoritarianism and international aggression and what it means for its future and that of globalization.
This is an in-person event and will not be live-streamed. A video recording will be available on our website after the event.
An evening with Anna Quindlen in conversation with Anne Curzan
“Write for Your Life” 6 PM | Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022
An in-person event at Rackham Auditorium 915 Washington Street
Free and open to the public
Best-selling author Anna Quindlen says recording our daily lives in an enduring form is more important than ever, urging all of us to pick up a pen and find ourselves. Join Anna Quindlen and Anne Curzan, LSA Dean and English Professor, for an in-person discussion about Quindlen’s book “Write for Your Life,” and learn how anyone can write and why everyone should.
Co-sponsors: College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Department of English Language and Literature Detroit Public Television Literati Bookstore Michigan Radio
Ira Shapiro with Chris Marquette
“The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America” 6 PM ET | Monday, Oct. 24, 2022
An in-person event at Weill Hall, Betty Ford Auditorium, Room 1110 725 S. State Street
Join Ira Shapiro, author and former Hill staffer, and Chris Marquette, Knight-Wallace Fellow and congressional reporter, for a discussion on Shapiro’s new book, “The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America,” our current political climate, and the state of democracy in these fractious times.
Hosted by: Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Co-sponsors: Alumni Association of the University of Michigan Democracy & Debate
Special Screening of the feature film “She Said,” and conversation with Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey
In October 2017, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of The New York Times broke the story of Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexual abuse allegations and ignited the #metoo movement. Meet the reporters behind the groundbreaking expose and watch the feature film, “She Said,” based on their book of the same name. The conversation with Kantor and Twohey will follow the movie screening.
This event will not be live-streamed. Wallace House and its co-sponsors will not receive any proceeds from ticket sales.
Co-sponsors: College of Engineering College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
An MLK Symposium Event with Linda Villarosa
“Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation”
4:30 PM | Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023
An in-person event Annenberg Auditorium, Ford School
Wallace House Presents Linda Villarosa, journalist, educator and writer for The New York Times Magazine, as she examines racial inequities and bias in U.S. medical care and the devastating consequences on the health and well-being of Black Americans.
Wallace House Presents journalist and scholar Jelani Cobb,in conversation with Ford School Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes, as part of the continuing series: “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.” Watch Cobb, dean of Columbia Journalism School and staff writer for The New Yorker, as he examines race, historic challenges to democracy, the impact of the media, and how these inform our current moment.
February 24 marks one year since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian-born retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, former Director for European Affairs for the United States National Security Council examines the current state of the war and its impacts on the Ukrainian people, the implications for global security, and prospects for peace and rebuilding.
Discussion moderated by Geneviève Zubrzycki, professor of sociology and WCEE Director, and John Ciorciari, professor of public policy and director of the Ford School’s Weiser Diplomacy Center.
Featuring a special performance by members of the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America.
The event will conclude with a candlelight vigil on the Diag.
This evening is organized by the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia in partnership with the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies; Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures; Ukrainian Club at U-M; Weiser Diplomacy Center; and Wallace House Center for Journalists.
An Evening with CNN Anchor Chris Wallace and Governor Gretchen Whitmer
6 pm | Wednesday, March 8
An in-person event at Rackham Auditorium 915 E Washington Street
This is a free and ticketed event Tickets are required to attend
Wallace House Presents CNN AnchorChris Wallace and Governor Gretchen Whitmer as part of the continuing series: “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.” Join this hour-long special event with Mr. Wallace and Governor Whitmer as they discuss politics, public service, the media, and the state of our democracy, with opening remarks by the University of Michigan PresidentSanta Ono.
As natural disasters become more frequent and devastating, how can newsrooms better prepare for the reporting and operations challenges posed by these emergencies?
Covering Natural Disasters is a one-day symposium developed by current Knight-Wallace Fellow María Arce to bring together journalists, extreme weather experts, and emergency managers in a small group to discuss best practices for covering disasters and solutions to working with limited resources amid the destruction and tragedy of these events.
This symposium is an opportunity for editors, staff reporters, and freelancers to learn, connect and be better prepared to cover the next natural disaster with new skills and trauma-informed practices
The Eisendrath Symposium with Fred de Sam Lazaro of PBS NewsHour
“Under-Told Stories: Keeping International Stories in the News”
Wallace House Presents Fred de Sam Lazaro,executive director of the Under-Told Stories Project and correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, as he takes a critical look at the world’s underreported events and awakens us to understand the daily concerns of faraway people who increasingly affect our lives. A 1989 Michigan Journalism Fellow (later named the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship), de Sam Lazaro founded Under-Told Stories a journalism project focused on the consequences of poverty and the work of change agents addressing them telling stories about the world’s biggest challenges including climate, food and water, and human rights.
Today the University of Michigan named the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows for the 2022-2023 academic year. After rewarding experiences with two remote fellowship classes, Wallace House will welcome a cohort of 15 journalists to the University of Michigan campus for the return of our in-person fellowship starting in the fall semester.
The Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowships offer an academic year of study, collaborative learning and access to the resources of the University of Michigan for journalists to pursue ambitious journalism projects.
“Journalists responded to the challenges of the past two years with resilience and resolve. Wallace House, too, met the moment with creativity and commitment to support journalists in new and nimble ways,” said Lynette Clemetson, director of Wallace House. “In addition to tackling in-depth reporting and research during the fellowship, this talented cohort of journalists will pursue solutions to help newsrooms evolve. We look forward to the truths they will uncover, the voices they will amplify, and the paths they will forge.”
Fellowship support includes a $75,000 stipend over eight months, the opportunity to audit courses across the university, professional development workshops and private seminars with journalism leaders and world-renowned experts. Fellows will reside in the Ann Arbor area and enjoy gatherings and activities in the comfort of Wallace House, a gift from the late newsman Mike Wallace and his wife, Mary.
The return to the residential program includes a focus on individual journalism projects. The 2022-2023 Fellows’ pursuits range from investigating pressing global crises including forced migration, the constraints of nationhood, attacks on press freedom and climate change to persistent domestic issues including inequitable policing, broken mental health systems and the exploitation of private information in the digital marketplace.
This is the 49th class of journalism fellows at the University of Michigan. The program is funded through endowment gifts by foundations, news organizations and individuals committed to journalism’s role in fostering an informed and engaged public.
The 2022-2023 Knight-Wallace Fellows and their journalism projects:
Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, an independent journalist who grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, has written and edited extensively about globalization and nationalism for publications including The Nation and The New York Times. She will explore how concepts outside of nationhood are remaking our world.
María Arce, an Argentinian journalist and multi-platform director for El Vocero in Puerto Rico, has covered hurricanes, earthquakes and major storms for over a decade. She will explore methods to strengthen emergency coverage plans for small newsrooms and proposals to classify journalists as frontline workers.
Elaine Cromie, a Shimanchu and Puerto Rican photojournalist based in Detroit, is a contributor to publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. She will use multimedia storytelling to document efforts to save the indigenous languages of the Shimanchu and Uchinaanchu people native to the islands now called Okinawa.
Mary Cuddehe, an independent journalist and magazine writer based in Ann Arbor, has reported from Mexico and worked as a mitigation investigator on death penalty cases in the U.S. She will study the systemic vulnerabilities of storing and sharing medical information in the digital age.
Orlando de Guzman, is a video journalist and filmmaker based in Ann Arbor whose work has ranged from coverage in the Central African Republic, Brazil and Venezuela to documenting white nationalists converging in Charlottesville in 2017. He will research how sheriffs and county prosecutors participate in criminalization of the poor in the rural Midwest.
Makeda Easter, is a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles where she has covered the intersection of arts and identity. She will build an independent arts media platform dedicated to telling the stories of artists-activists creating change in underreported communities.
Jarrad Henderson, is an independent filmmaker, educator, and visual journalist based in Washington, D.C., whose compelling storytelling on a variety of social issues at USA Today has won industry accolades. He will focus on taking an innovative and entrepreneurial approach to increasing diversity and equity in visual journalism.
Lindsay Kalter, is an independent health journalist based in Ann Arbor whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, Boston Globe Magazine and POLITICO. Using a blend of hard data analysis and compelling personal portraits, she will investigate the abuse and corruption in facilities meant to treat teens in need of mental health support but end up only further traumatizing them.
Chris Marquette, a congressional ethics and accountability reporter for CQ Roll Call based in Washington D.C., has reported extensively on the U.S. Capitol Police, from its lack of transparency to allegations of misconduct leveled against it. He will research trends in the department’s policing practices and explore areas for reform.
Meg Martin, is a freelance editor and a former managing editor for regional news at Minnesota Public Radio. Her work on the “74 Seconds” podcast on the 2016 killing of Philando Castile won her and her colleagues Livingston, Peabody, and Third Coast awards. She will explore how to revamp small and medium-sized news organizations to better support and connect their editors and team leaders to build more agile, sustainable, and equitable newsrooms.
KyeongRak Min, is a media strategy reporter for Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, where he has covered the economy, finance, social affairs and North Korea. He will build on his extensive reporting on Korea’s high suicide rate and use a narrative journalism approach to examine the issue as a social phenomenon, including the role Korean media have played in exacerbating the problem.
Antoni Slodkowski, is a Polish journalist based in Tokyo for the Financial Times. He previously spent four years in Myanmar for Reuters as part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya. His colleagues Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were imprisoned by the government as a result of that reporting. He will explore how refugees are using traditional and social media to tell their stories and document the mass migrations of recent years.
Alexandra Talty, is a multi-media journalist and former Middle East correspondent now based in Southampton, New York. Her reporting on the environment, waterways and climate change has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Outside Magazine, and The Daily Beast, among others. She will examine how the seafood industry, fisheries, and coastal communities are using regenerative practices to supplant lost income and food sources as a result of the climate crisis.
Asadullah Timory, is an Afghan reporter who worked for The New York Times in western Afghanistan. He was evacuated from the country after it fell to the Taliban in August 2021. He will research the collapse of press freedom in Afghanistan and what awaits displaced Afghan journalists seeking to continue their work in exile.
Masrat Zahra, is an independent photojournalist and documentary photographer from Indian-administered Kashmir, whose images of human rights violations and everyday hardship have won her international acclaim as well as made her a target of the Indian government. In 2020 she was charged under an anti-terrorism law for posting her photographs on social media. She will research the persecution of Muslims and other minorities in India and the role of the government in violence and polarization.
About Wallace House 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
Elena Milashina, a 2010 Knight-Wallace Fellow, faces death threats for her fierce reporting on human rights abuses in Chechnya and Russia. Wallace House is working to bring Milashina to safety. Watch Milashina discuss the demise of a free press under Putin’s regime.
Taking Action to Support Journalists and Uphold Democracy
For more than three decades, Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan has provided support for journalists at risk. This World Press Freedom Day, we remain steadfast in our mission and ask for your support to help journalists under siege around the world.
Every year, through the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists, we provide an academic year of support, serving as a life-saving bridge for journalists who face crises in their home countries. Wallace House has created a safe haven for journalists from a wide range of countries, including Rwanda, Mexico, India, Russia and Afghanistan.
With autocracies on the rise around the world, more journalists are in need of emergency support.
Some appeals come from here in the U.S., as in the case of Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez Soto who came to Ann Arbor from an ICE detention facility in El Paso, Texas. He joined the 2018-2019 Knight-Wallace Fellowship class as a Senior Press Freedom Fellow. Gutiérrez is seeking asylum in the United States following death threats in his home country related to his reporting. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more than 150 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000.
Emilio Gutiérrez-Soto, with his son, Oscar, after being released from an ICE detention center. Gutiérrez-Soto joined the 2018-2019 Knight-Wallace Fellowship class as a Senior Press Freedom Fellow.
Jawad Sukhanyar, an Afghan journalist and 2019 Knight-Wallace Fellow, returned to Wallace House and the University of Michigan on October 4, 2021, after fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan with his family in August.
The need for urgent assistance also comes from international reporters like Jawad Sukhanyar, a 2019 Knight-Wallace Fellow targeted by the Taliban for his work with The New York Times. Escaping chaos and gunfire at the Kabul airport and hiding in the city for several days, Sukhanyar and his family were evacuated out of Afghanistan in August 2021 through an extraordinary effort led by The New York Times. He returned to the university as a journalist-in-residence with the Donia Human Rights Center and the International Institute, a position sponsored by Wallace House. Next fall, Sukhanyar will join the university’s Department of Communications as the Marsh Visiting Professor of Journalism. He will teach courses on global threats to press freedom and the media’s role in the rise and fall of democracies.
Elena Milashina is a 2010 Knight-Wallace Fellow and investigative reporter for “Novaya Gazeta,” Russia’s last remaining independent news outlet before it ceased publication in response to threats of imprisonment from the Putin regime. Facing death threats for her fierce reporting on human rights abuses in Chechnya and Russia, Milashina discusses the demise of a free press under Putin’s government in the video above. Now a journalist without an outlet to publish her reporting, she’s currently working on three projects and remains determined to continue championing the truth. Wallace House is committed to helping Milashina work from a place of safety.
Beyond individual support to journalists under siege, our Knight-Wallace Fellowships provide journalists access to resources and world renown authorities to develop expertise or create new ventures addressing press safety.
During his time as a Knight-Wallace Fellow, Laurent Richard created Forbidden Stories, a nonprofit newsroom to continue and publish the work of other journalists facing threats, prison or murder. Now an award-winning news collaboration, his organization secretly brought together 60 reporters from 18 countries to complete the reporting of slain journalist Regina Martinez and expose a global network of Mexican drug cartels and their political connections worldwide.
Elodie Vialle spent her Knight-Wallace Fellowship designing a training curriculum and consulting with experts to develop solutions to counter online harassment against journalists. Now recognized as an international expert on this subject, she has trained more than 400 journalists worldwide on how they can protect themselves online and is a consultant for PEN America’s Online Abuse Defense Program.
Play a role in protecting the lives of journalists.
Today, your support will help us defend the role of a free and independent press by extending a lifeline to journalists around the world. Donate now.
To learn more about how to make a major gift in support of these efforts, please contact Jayson Rose, senior development officer, at [email protected].
After a rewarding experience with two remote fellowship classes producing innovative work and in-depth journalism on the most pressing issues of the day, Wallace House is delighted to announce the return to in-person Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowships at the University of Michigan for the 2022-2023 academic year.
The Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowships will offer an academic year of study, collaborative learning and access to the resources of the University of Michigan for selected journalists to pursue ambitious journalism projects. Fellowship support includes a $75,000 stipend over eight months, the opportunity to audit courses across the university, professional development workshops and private seminars with journalism leaders and world-renowned experts. Fellows will reside in Ann Arbor and enjoy gatherings and activities in the comfort of Wallace House.
The fellowship is open to a range of journalists, including reporters, editors, data experts, visual journalists, engagement specialists, designers and developers, entrepreneurs and organizational change agents.
Staff, freelance and contract journalists are welcome to apply. All applicants must have at least five years of reporting experience and hold a U.S. passport. Our international fellowships for the 2022-2023 academic year have already been awarded to international journalists who previously committed to the program and could not participate due to the pandemic. We plan to open international applications for the 2023-2024 academic year next fall.
An academic year to pursue an ambitious journalism project
The possibilities of what a journalist can do as a Knight-Wallace Fellow are as varied as the people we accept. We’re looking for bold journalism projects demonstrating an eagerness for growth and a commitment to the field. Areas of focus can include, but are not limited to, sharpening professional skills, addressing a challenge facing your newsroom, digging into research and data for a long-term reporting project or developing a journalism venture.
The Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship for the 2022-2023 academic year is an in-person fellowship featuring:
Eight-month program of immersive study away from daily deadlines
$75,000 stipend for living expenses in Ann Arbor. Costs for auditing courses and participating in required workshops and fellowship activities are paid for by Wallace House.
Support for individual journalism projects designed to develop new skills, research a topic for long-form reporting, address a newsroom challenge or explore a journalism venture.
Specialized resources and access to faculty at the University of Michigan
Private seminars with newsroom innovators and world-renowned experts for candid, off-the-record conversations
Workshops to sharpen skills and leadership ability
Application Deadline is Feburary 1, 2022
Applications are now open. The deadline to apply is at 11:59 pm ET on Tuesday, February 1, 2022.
Offers for Knight-Wallace Fellowships for U.S. applicants will be extended in early May 2022.
The 2022-2023 academic year begins Monday, August 29, 2022. Fellows are expected to arrive in Ann Arbor at least one week prior for fellowship orientation.
Watch the Q&A Webinar
For more information on the fellowship and how to apply, Wallace House Director Lynette Clemetson and Associate Director Robert Yoon hosted a Q&A webinar that is now available to view on-demand.
Wallace House applauds today’s announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia, courageous reporters who have risked their lives to expose abuses of power and the oppressive government regimes in control in their countries.
With authoritarianism on the rise around the world, the prize underscores the importance of protecting a free and independent press. The recognition bestowed on Ressa and Muratov is an inspiration to journalists everywhere to continue to dig, question and expose the truth.
“Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov remind all of us who believe in a free and independent press to keep fighting against the forces that work to silence and marginalize journalists,” said Wallace House director, Lynette Clemetson.
Wallace House is grateful for the opportunities in past years for our Knight-Wallace Fellows to meet with these two journalists and learn from their fearless example.
Jawad Sukhanyar, an Afghan journalist and Knight-Wallace alum, returned to Ann Arbor.
Jawad Sukhanyar, an Afghan journalist and 2019 Knight-Wallace Fellow, returned to Wallace House and the University of Michigan on October 4, 2021, after fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan with his family in August.
Sukhanyar will join the university as a journalist-in-residence with the Donia Human Rights Center and the International Institute. The research fellowship, sponsored by Wallace House, will commence once Sukhanyar receives full clearance from U.S. resettlement and immigration officials.
“Among the tens of thousands of Afghans now beginning the difficult process of resettling in communities across the U.S., many are journalists and support workers who faced persecution and death in their home country for being employed by American news organizations,” said Lynette Clemetson, Director of Wallace House. “It is imperative that we come together to support these journalists, and it is a privilege to be able to provide a safe and welcoming community for this family at such a critical moment.”
Sukhanyar was a reporter for The New York Times in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2019. At the time, he was the longest-serving reporter in the organization’s Kabul bureau. He came to the university in September 2018 as a Knight-Wallace Fellow, where he studied issues related to women’s rights in Afghanistan. A target of the Taliban for his reporting and his affiliation with a U.S. media outlet, Sukhanyar, and his family faced grave danger from the extremist group.
“Being in Ann Arbor brings a sigh of relief for all of us. We have so many good memories of living here. But this time it is a bittersweet experience. None of us wanted to leave Afghanistan. We built our home there. We were forced to leave, and there is no hope that we can return,” said Sukhanyar. “When we were in Ann Arbor before, I was here learning so I could take it all back to my country. Now we are here to survive.”
In July, Wallace House invited Sukhanyar to return to the university as a journalist-in-residence. Unable to secure a visa to leave Afghanistan before the collapse of its capital to the Taliban, Sukhanyar and his family escaped chaos and gunfire at the Kabul airport and hid in the city for several days before being successfully evacuated out of their home country to safety.
The evacuation, led by The New York Times, was part of an extraordinary effort to save the lives of the Afghan staff who aided their journalism over the past 20 years. In an arduous journey reported by The Times, the group of more than 100 Afghans transited through Qatar and Mexico before entering the U.S. in Houston at the end of August.
“I feel safe now. I was five years old when I lost my father in the early days of the Afghan civil war,” remembers Sukhanyar. “What I went through as a child, what I have seen in my country, I don’t want my children to experience that.”
Once immigration officials approve him to begin his fellowship at the university, Sukhanyar will study the implications of the U.S. departure from Afghanistan and new rule under the Taliban. Through his affiliation with the Donia Human Rights Center, he will engage with faculty, students, and community members interested in learning about his role as a journalist covering U.S. and Taliban influence in his home country.
“The Donia Center is honored and delighted to welcome Jawad as a journalist-in-residence. His expertise on human rights in Afghanistan, gained from years of on-the-ground reporting, will prove an extraordinary asset to students and faculty interested in human rights work,” said Steven Ratner, U-M Profesor of Law and Director of the Donia Human Rights Center. “We look forward to connecting Jawad with people throughout the university who will be eager to hear from him.”
After several agonizing months, the return to Ann Arbor is a homecoming of sorts for the Sukhanyar, his wife, and their four children. Now they look forward to starting school and settling into a stable routine with new friends.
Kicking off the Reporting Fellowship à la Wallace House style. Reporting Fellow, Jaeah Lee introduces herself to her fellow Fellows with a presentation about her life and journalism career.
First Impressions. Deep Connections.
My first assignment as a Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow arrived in my inbox, and I immediately dreaded it. Each Fellow was to prepare a presentation about ourselves and our journey into journalism, to give one another a sense of who we are beneath the titles, bylines, and accolades. “We’d like to hear about your personal interests and what motivates you,” the email read. We’d do this over Zoom and each get 20 minutes. Twenty minutes! Just the thought of it made me shrivel.
As journalists, we often ask people to be vulnerable with us. to share their darkest memories, their innermost selves. I knew I was pretty bad at doing this myself, to be on the receiving end of probing personal questions. The last time I opened up to a group of journalists I barely knew, I broke into tears unexpectedly, and no, it was not the pretty kind but the sort of awkward, heaving, ugly cry that only gets worse when you try to stop it.
Couldn’t we just do a little virtual happy hour and keep things safely superficial?
Lynette Clemetson, Wallace House director, and Robert Yoon, associate director, opened the Fellowship’s first week with their own intros. They blew me away, which, of course, only made me more nervous. They each prepared a polished slideshow complete with archival family photos, decades-old clips, witty headlines about their careers, and spoke candidly about some of their most vulnerable moments—the times they questioned whether they should leave the industry, the doubts and anxieties they faced in between milestones. They were honest and heartfelt and inspiring in a way I wasn’t entirely prepared for. They set the tone for the rest of us.
As each Fellow took their turn, they took us inside their family histories, the reporting experiences that changed their lives, their career highs and lows, the insecurities and challenges that lingered. Many moments took me by surprise. Several Fellows shed a tear or two while sharing some of the hardships they experienced, and I cried with them, not just because I was moved, but also because I saw pieces of myself in their stories. While watching another Fellow speak—someone I met years earlier, whom I deeply admired and considered a friend—I realized that there were so many things about her life that never came up during our many phone calls catching up and talking shop. It dawned on me then that this wasn’t your average week of introductions.
By the time I presented, I felt like I already knew the group in this strangely, beautifully, intimate way.
My 20 minutes went by in a flash. By the end of the week, I even wished we had more time. We would have stayed out talking late into the night if only we could gather in person. The feeling reminded me of these dinners I used to have with a group of girlfriends during my twenties when we’d meet at someone’s apartment and take turns sharing stories about relationships, family, work, marriage, motherhood. We called it girl church.
On the second week of the Fellowship, a Fellow joked with me that she wondered if we had all unknowingly joined an eight-month journalism therapy program. We laughed. And the truth was, whether it was going to be like therapy or church, I couldn’t wait for what was ahead.
Jaeah Lee is a 2022 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow and an independent journalist based in San Fransisco. Her feature stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The California Sunday Magazine, Vice News, Topic, Columbia Journalism Review, and Mother Jones.
Wallace House created the Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship in 2020 to address the remote needs of Covid-19. We challenged journalists to report on significant issues in a moment of great difficulty and change. Our expectations were high, and the first class of Reporting Fellows exceeded them. Teaming with organizations across the U.S., the Reporting Fellows’ work ranged from long-form pieces to creating a new beat for a news organization to developing innovative forms of storytelling. Here is some of the work produced and published by our 2021 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows.
Ana Galvañ for The Marshall Project
Lisa Armstrong, “Lost Opportunity, Lost Lives,” The Marshall Project in partnership with Mother Jones, June 29, 2021
A feature story on Covid-19 and the failure of prisons to prevent sickness and death among older inmate populations. Despite state Governors’ approval of early release for nonviolent offenders to reduce crowds in correctional facilities, Lisa Armstrong found older people – those most vulnerable to Covid-19 and least likely to reoffend – remained incarcerated.
When schools across the nation turned to distance-learning methods, Sindya Bhanoo reported on the large swaths of students left behind. She published a series for Texas Monthly on students without broadband access and bus drivers-turned-relief-workers delivering meals to the hungry in their communities. Her six-month multimedia project for Mission Local layered audio storytelling and illustration to examine the challenges faced by children during the public health crisis.
In the aftermath of the racial justice protests against police brutality, injured protesters filed lawsuits in cities across the country. J. Lester Feder reports on the case against the City of Columbus, the violent video evidence, and the ruling condemning biased policing.
Mya Frazer’s deeply reported story sheds light on credit bureaus and the permanent credit underclass in the U.S. Stained by low credit scores and rejected by rental companies, thousands of Americans resort to extended-stay motels as a last – and very expensive – refuge.
Partnering with The Guardian US, Mario Koran published a series of stories on barriers to learning in Wisconsin’s marginalized schools upended by the pandemic. From a struggling public school in Milwaukee to the state’s only Objiwe immersion school, Koran reported on the long-reaching consequences of in-person school closings and what it means for those communities.
For decades, the debate on healthcare in the U.S. has focused on affordability and accessibility with little talk about the millions of unnecessary surgeries performed annually. Chris Outcalt reveals the story behind a cardiologist who carried out thousands of avoidable heart surgeries, a whistle-blower, and why doctors get away with unnecessary procedures.
Nicholas St. Fleur partnered with STAT News to create a new beat on the intersection of race, medicine, and the life sciences. He published a series of stories on the vaccine rollout and how Covid-19 disproportionately affects minority communities. St. Fleur’s fellowship partnership led to a permanent staff position at STAT News, where he is now is a general assignment reporter and associate editorial director of events.
