Announcing the 2021-2022 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows

The University of Michigan announced today the Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows for the 2021-2022 academic year. A cohort of 11 journalists from a range of backgrounds and experiences will participate in a remote fellowship to pursue and publish in-depth reporting projects during this unique year of transition and reopening. 

Created in 2020 to support ambitious journalism and respond to the remote needs of Covid-19, the Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowships provide an academic year of support and collaborative learning. Fellows undertake projects examining pressing public challenges including social shifts precipitated by the pandemic, the nation’s deep economic and political divisions, and persistent social justice issues surrounding race, ethnicity and inequality.

“We are proud to welcome this new group of fellows and to provide them with the resources to report and write about complex and timely issues,” said Lynette Clemetson, director of Wallace House. “The depth and range of the proposals we received this year is a testament to journalists’ ongoing commitment to illuminating people’s lived experience and the structures that shape our society.” 

Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows will remain where they live while participating in weekly remote workshops, professional development sessions and seminars with University of Michigan faculty and experts. Two one-week Fellowship Cohort sessions at Wallace House on the University of Michigan campus are planned for the 2021-2022 academic year, subject to public health guidance.

The Reporting Fellowship is designed to benefit both working journalists and U.S. newsrooms. Each Reporting Fellow will pair with a local or national news organization to develop and publish their reporting project. The support of the fellowship allows news organizations to pursue ambitious journalism that they may not have the staff or funding to support independently.

Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows will receive a stipend of $70,000 for the academic year plus an additional $10,000 in supplemental support to cover extra costs including health insurance, reporting equipment and supplemental travel-related expenses.

This adapted fellowship takes the place of the traditional, residential Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year.

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows and their reporting projects:

Assia Boundaoui, independent journalist, Chicago, Illinois
Redacted Stories: Reexamining FBI Surveillance Records of a Muslim-American Community

Nichole Dobo, Writer and Senior Editor for Audience Engagement, The Hechinger Report, Wilmington, Delaware
A Reckoning: Higher Education and Rural America
for The Hechinger Report

Daphne Duret, investigative reporter, USA Today, Lakeworth, Florida
Breaking Silence: The Plight of the Police Whistleblower
for USA Today

Jose Fermoso, Contributing Senior Reporter, The Oaklandside, Oakland, California
Oakland’s Deadly Roadways: Reckoning with Inequities in Urban Design
for The Oaklandside

Andrea González-Ramírez, independent journalist, New York City
A Watershed Moment for Addressing Sexual Violence in the U.S. Military

Erika Hayasaki, independent journalist, Southern California
History, Hate Crimes and Police Brutality: A Tale of Black and Asian American Lives in Two Cities
for The New Yorker

Jaeah Lee, independent journalist, San Francisco, California
Medical Fact vs. Fiction in Fatal Police Encounters

Surya Mattu, Investigative Data Journalist and Senior Data Engineer, The Markup, New York City
Watching the Watchers: Investigating How Smartphone Apps Are Used to Track Us
for The Markup

Simon Ostrovsky, Special Correspondent, PBS NewsHour, New York City
Modern Mythology: How Disinformation Bends Reality and How to Stop It
for PBS NewsHour

Elizabeth Scheltens, Senior Editorial Producer, Vox Media, Columbus, Ohio
Climate Resilience in the Great Lakes Region
for Vox

Kat Stafford, National Investigative Writer, Race and Ethnicity, The Associated Press, Detroit Michigan
From Birth to Death: How Generations of Black Americans Have Faced a Lifetime of Disparities
for The Associated Press

More about the Reporting Fellows and their reporting projects »

Announcing the Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship for 2021-2022

An Academic Year to Produce Ambitious Reporting on our Most Pressing Issues

Each year the Knight-Wallace Fellowships at the University of Michigan summon journalists to think boldly about their craft and enhance their skills to meet the needs of a changing industry. As the U.S. continues to grapple with a global pandemic and continuing economic, social, and political upheaval, ambitious reporting on efforts to move forward is essential.

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowships will remain remote for the 2021-22 academic year, to respond to this unique period of transition. Applications are now open and are due on May 3. We held a Q&A Webinars on February 19 and April 1, to discuss the application process for interested applicants and newsroom editors.

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship will provide a $70,000 stipend over eight months plus $10,000 to support supplemental costs for reporting projects to be produced during the period of the fellowship. Our Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows will participate in professional development and digital seminars with researchers and experts tackling challenges across a range ofields and disciplines. Fellows will have remote access to the world-class resources of the University of Michigan and regular opportunities for engagement with faculty and students.

We’ll select a cohort of ten accomplished journalists with different backgrounds and experiences to pursue in-depth reporting projects that require time and resources. Selected Fellows will not be required to leave their place of work.

We’re looking for proposals that step back from breaking and incremental coverage. Reporting projects may examine any issue or facet of society but should be timely and should involve capturing how the country and communities are grappling with change and moving toward solutions.

If in-person gatherings become possible and we can ensure a safe experience, we will host Fellows for two one-week sessions at Wallace House in Ann Arbor: one in the fall and one in the winter, culminating in an on-site symposium at the end of the academic year to highlight the reporting work produced during the fellowship.

A Focus on In-Depth Reporting

Published or produced work is a requirement of the fellowship. Applicants must submit a detailed reporting proposal related to the seismic challenges we now face. The output should match the proposed project and form of journalism. For instance, a documentary filmmaker might complete one film during the period of the fellowship; a long-form magazine writer might produce one or two published pieces; a community-based or enterprise reporter might produce a project that appears weekly or monthly.

Areas of focus can include but are not limited to science and medicine, the economy, law and justice, business, race and ethnicity, education, inequality, technology, the environment, and entertainment and recreation. Areas of coverage can be local, national or global.

The fellowship is not intended to support daily beat reporting that would be produced regardless of fellowship support. It is also not intended for book writing.

All work produced during the fellowship will be owned by the media organization for which it is produced and will carry an agreed-upon acknowledgment of support by the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists at the University of Michigan.  

The program is open to staff, freelance and contract journalists. All applicants must have at least five years of reporting experience and be either a U.S. resident or hold a U.S. passport. Uncertainty around international travel and visa restrictions makes it difficult to sponsor non-U.S. residents at this time.

 

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship for the 2021-22 academic year is a working fellowship featuring

  • An eight-month program focused on supporting ambitious, in-depth, innovative journalism projects examining our most pressing public challenges including but not limited to social shifts precipitated by the pandemic, the nation’s deep political divisions and persistent social justice issues surrounding race, ethnicity and inequality
  • A remote structure that allows reporters to remain where they live
  • A cohort of ten Fellows selected from a pool of experienced journalists from a variety of beats and expertise 
  • A $70,000 stipend to support reporting and fellowship participation dispersed monthly from September 2021 through April 2022
  • An additional $10,000 in supplemental support to cover extra costs including health insurance, reporting equipment and travel-related reporting expenses
  • Weekly remote seminars with University of Michigan faculty and subject matter experts from a wide range of fields
  • Professional development and supplemental skills workshops
  • Subject to public health guidance, two one-week Fellowship Cohort sessions held at Wallace House on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor with travel, lodging and hosting expenses covered by the program
  • A year-end symposium at the University of Michigan highlighting work produced during the fellowship 

Application Deadline is May 3

Applications are now open. The deadline to apply is at 11:59 pm ET on Monday, May 3. 

The Reporting Fellowship offers will be extended at the end of June.

 

An Invitation to Learn More

For more information on the fellowship and how to apply, Wallace House Director Lynette Clemetson, and Associate Director Robert Yoon held a Q&A webinar at 12:30 pm ET on Friday, February 19. Interested applicants were invited to join and ask questions. Newsroom editors who would like to know more about this opportunity for reporters on their team were also welcome to join. You can view the recording of the webinar on-demand here. 

A Q&A webinar for editors was held on April 1 at 12:30 PM ET. You can watch the recording of the webinar here. 

View the Q&A Webinar

View the Q&A Webinar for Editors

More About the Reporting Fellowship

Who Should Apply

How to Apply

Application Timeline

FAQs

Join our 2021 Virtual Awards Ceremony

Celebrating our 2021 Livingston Winners Together Online

 

Join us online from 12:30 to 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 10 for a virtual event to meet the Livingston winners in local, national and international reporting, honor their work in the pursuit of truth and celebrate the future of journalism. 

2021 marks 40 years of the Livingston Awards identifying exceptional young journalists and the next generation of newsroom leaders. This year’s fully virtual ceremony will feature all of the celebrity, young talent and inspiring journalism of our annual celebration in an online and safe environment.

We’ll miss gathering with our Livingston supporters and friends in person at our award luncheon in New York City, but we look forward to the participation of those from across the country and the world who can not regularly join us.  We look forward to celebrating with you on June 10.

Watch the ceremony on our Virtual Event page »

Get to Know Our New Associate Director, Robert Yoon

By Robert Yoon

What a year, right?

With unprecedented crises and tragedies unfolding around the globe, it’s tempting to sweep everything under the 2020 rug and write them off as the products of twelve particularly cursed pages from history’s calendar. But 2020 serves as an uncomfortable reminder of the old saw told in newsrooms for generations: the news never sleeps. Sometimes the news is so big in scope and so unrelenting that it finds you without having to look for it – as is the case with the coronavirus pandemic, the death of George Floyd and the outrage and worldwide conversation it sparked about social and racial injustices, the devastating wildfires in the American West, and of course the ongoing presidential campaign. But more often than not, important stories are hidden from view and need to be discovered. Sometimes they’re locked away in the first-hand accounts and recollections of the people who lived them, and sometimes they’re literally locked away in the file cabinets and computer hard drives of government officials.

Now more than ever, there is an acute need to tell these stories.

That’s why I’m excited to return to Wallace House this year at the launch of a new reporting fellowship program that takes our long-standing mission of supporting quality journalism and customizes it to meet the needs and realities of our current environment. Our inaugural Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows are seasoned journalists from around the country who are digging into unexplored aspects of some of the biggest and most intractable issues of the day.

As a former Knight-Wallace Fellow, I benefited greatly from the support Wallace House gave me as I looked into ways to improve news coverage of the voting process in presidential elections, a topic I knew well from my 17 years covering elections at CNN. What I hadn’t necessarily expected was that the fellowship experience would help me find new ways to practice and appreciate journalism. I created and hosted a radio show about journalism on a local station and interviewed other journalists about their craft. And my conversations and interactions with the other Fellows in my cohort, particularly the international Fellows, inspired and shaped an undergraduate course that I created and taught at the University of Michigan  — “Journalism Under Siege,” which explored the challenges facing journalists in the U.S. and around the world. None of this would have been possible without Wallace House’s unique and valuable approach to its fellowship programs: identify and explore a topic of great importance to you, but also leave yourself open to the opportunities and ideas you encounter along the way.

As Associate Director, I hope to provide future classes of Fellows the same guidance, support, and flexibility that helped me thrive in the program and beyond. I’ll also work closely with journalists and with news and journalism organizations around the country to identify future Fellows with important stories to tell, especially from areas and communities that often get overlooked in today’s media environment. And I’ll be reaching out to our vast network of alumni Fellows dating back almost 50 years to find ways to keep them connected and engaged with the program and with each other.

The events of 2020 have shown how important it is to have a vital and active press around the world. But it’s important to remember that there’s a need for robust journalism not just during the times when everyone is paying attention, but also during the times when no one is paying attention. There were plenty of important stories that needed to be told prior to this year, and that will still be the case long after 2020 is in the history books. As it has for almost half a century, Wallace House will continue to support journalists who tell these stories. 

Robert Yoon joined Wallace House in July as Associate Director. He is a 2018 Knight-Wallace Fellow.

University of Michigan Announces the 2020-2021 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows

 

The University of Michigan announced today the Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows for the 2020-2021 academic year. A cohort of 11 journalists from a range of backgrounds and experiences will participate in the newly created working fellowship, a reimagined Wallace House program designed to support ambitious reporting projects and adapted to the remote needs of Covid-19.

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowships will provide an academic year of support and collaborative learning for journalists to pursue and publish rigorous projects examining pressing public challenges ranging from the responses to the prolonged pandemic to persistent social justice issues surrounding race, ethnicity and inequality. Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows will remain where they live while participating in weekly remote workshops, professional development sessions and seminars with University of Michigan faculty and experts.

“Finding a meaningful way to adapt our fellowship to meet this moment was essential. Directing our experience and resources toward direct support for journalists allows us to have an immediate impact in a moment when substantive reporting is of vital importance,” said Lynette Clemetson, Director of Wallace House. “The robust response we received to this newly structured Reporting Fellowship is a testament to the desire of reporters to serve the public and help move society forward.” 

The Reporting Fellowship is designed to benefit both working journalists and U.S. newsrooms. Each Reporting Fellow will pair with a local or national news organization to develop and publish their reporting project. The support of the fellowship allows news organizations to pursue ambitious journalism that they may not have the staff or funding to support independently.

“We are in an unprecedented time,” said LaSharah S. Bunting, Director of Journalism at Knight Foundation, a supporter of the fellowship programs. “These Reporting Fellowships allow individual journalists and news organizations to offer in-depth reporting to their communities on the critical issues of the day.”

Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows will receive a stipend of $70,000 for the academic year plus an additional $10,000 in supplemental support to cover extra costs including health insurance, reporting equipment and supplemental travel-related expenses.

This adapted fellowship takes the place of the traditional, residential Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship for the 2020-2021 academic year.

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows and their reporting projects:

Lisa Armstrong, multimedia journalist and associate professor, New York City
Reporting Project: Covid-19 in Correctional Facilities
for The Marshall Project

Sindya Bhanoo, independent reporter, Austin, Texas
Reporting Project: Distance Learning and Inequality in Public Schools
for Mission Local

Valeria Collazo Cañizares, investigative journalist, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Reporting Project: Waterless Island: Converging Crises and the Water Shortage in Puerto Rico
for Telemundo

J. Lester Feder, independent journalist, Ypsilanti, Michigan
Reporting Project: Inequality and the Transformation of the Cities and Suburbs of the Midwest

Alissa Figueroa, senior editor and producer, Baltimore, Maryland
Reporting Project: Police Reform Five Years After the Death of Freddie Gray
for Type Investigations

Mya Frazier, independent business reporter, Columbus, Ohio 
Reporting Project: Private Power: The Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Working Poor
for Bloomberg Businessweek

Ted Genoways, independent writer and producer, Lincoln, Nebraska
Reporting Project: Food Security and Worker Safety on the Front Lines of the Pandemic

Mario Koran, contributing reporter, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Reporting Project: Barriers to Learning in Three Marginalized School Districts Upended by the Pandemic
for The Guardian US

Chris Outcalt, independent magazine writer, Denver, Colorado  
Reporting Project: The Powerful Forces Behind Medical Fraud

Nicholas St. Fleur, independent science reporter, Palo Alto, California 
Reporting Project: Racial Bias in Science, Health, and Medicine
for STAT

Mazin Sidahmed, co-executive director of Documented, New York City 
Reporting Project: The Role of Local Police in Federal Immigration Enforcement
for Documented

More about the Reporting Fellows and their reporting projects »

Read the Reporting Fellowship news announcement »

About Wallace House

Wallace House 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, 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.

About Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit kf.org.

In Support of Maria Ressa and Rey Santos Jr.

Wallace House stands with journalism organizations around the world in condemning the conviction of journalist Maria Ressa, CEO and executive editor of Rappler, an independent news organization in the Philippines.  Ressa, an award-winning international journalist and U.S. citizen, was found guilty today of “cyber libel” under the Philippine Cybercrime Prevention Act. Ressa and a former Rappler reporter, Reynoldo Santos Jr., could face up to six years in prison.

“This conviction represents a threat to global press freedom and ultimately to democracy,” said Wallace House director Lynette Clemetson. “This injustice in the Philippines, once one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies, is part of a dangerous pattern worldwide to intimidate and silence the press. Organizations that support journalists must make our voices heard in condemning this outcome.”

The case against Ressa stems from a 2012 Rappler story alleging a businessman’s ties to illegal drugs and human trafficking. A former CNN journalist and Time Person of the Year, Ressa has been repeatedly targeted by the Philippine government for Rappler’s critical coverage of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs and other punitive policies. Under Duterte’s rule, the Philippines has become increasingly dangerous for journalists. The Philippines ranks 136th out of 180 countries on the 2020 World Press Freedom Index. The United States, which has dropped dramatically in recent years, ranks 45.

Announcing the Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship

Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship

A Working Fellowship for Ambitious Journalism on an Evolving Future

 

Each year the Knight-Wallace Fellowships at the University of Michigan summon journalists from around the world to think boldly about their craft and enhance their skills to meet the needs of a changing industry. Alongside the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, lingering inequality and social strife are fueling calls for systemic change. The need for rigorous, in-depth journalism is ever more critical. In response, Wallace House is redirecting our resources to fuel ambitious journalism on these converging forces and efforts toward a reimagined world.

For the coming academic year, we are turning our Knight-Wallace Fellowship model outward, to fund long-term reporting projects examining momentous challenges and responses in this year of converging crises. We’ll select a cohort of ten accomplished journalists with different backgrounds and experience for a working fellowship to report on our most pressing issues, from social shifts precipitated by the pandemic to persistent social justice issues surrounding race, ethnicity and inequality.

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship will take the place of our traditional, residential Knight-Wallace Fellowship for the 2020-21 academic year in response to continued uncertainty about close gathering and in-person instruction. Selected Fellows will not be required to leave their news organizations or places of work. This adapted fellowship will maintain our multidisciplinary approach and cohort-based philosophy.

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship will provide a $70,000 stipend over eight months plus $10,000 to support supplemental costs for reporting projects to be produced during the period of the fellowship. Our ten Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellows will also receive professional development and digital seminars with researchers and experts tackling challenges across a range of fields and disciplines. Fellows will have remote access to research and resources at the University of Michigan and regular opportunities for engagement with faculty and students.

We want to encourage ambitious reporting projects that step back from breaking and incremental coverage. As the world grapples with huge questions and complex solutions, we need journalists to investigate, scrutinize, analyze and explain the process and outcomes. 

When in-person gathering becomes possible and we can ensure a safe experience for our Fellows, we will host one-week Fellowship Cohort sessions in Ann Arbor at Wallace House and a final symposium on campus at the University of Michigan, highlighting the reporting work produced during the fellowship.

Applications must be submitted by July 7. Reporting Fellowship offers will be extended on July 31.

 

A Focus on In-Depth Reporting

Published or produced work is a requirement of the fellowship. Applicants must submit a detailed reporting proposal related to the seismic challenges we now face. The output should match the proposed project and form of journalism. For instance, a documentary filmmaker might complete one film during the period of the fellowship; a long-form magazine writer might produce one or two published pieces; a community-based or enterprise reporter might produce a project that appears weekly or monthly. 

Areas of focus can include but are not limited to science and medicine, the economy, law and justice, business, race and ethnicity, education, inequality, technology, the environment, and entertainment and recreation. Areas of coverage can be local, national or global.

The fellowship is not intended to support daily beat reporting that would be produced regardless of fellowship support. It is also not intended for book writing.

All work produced during the fellowship will be owned by the media organization for which it is produced and will carry an agreed-upon acknowledgment of support by the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists at the University of Michigan.  

The program is open to staff, freelance and contract journalists. All applicants must have at least five years of reporting experience and be either a U.S. resident or hold a U.S. passport.  

 

The Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship for the 2020-2021 academic year is a working fellowship featuring

  • An eight-month program focused on supporting ambitious, in-depth, innovative journalism projects examining our most pressing public challenges from social shifts precipitated by the pandemic to persistent social justice issues surrounding race, ethnicity and inequality
  • A remote structure that allows staff reporters to remain with their news organizations and freelancers to remain in their place of work
  • A cohort of ten Fellows selected from a pool of experienced journalists from a variety of beats and expertise 
  • A $70,000 stipend to support reporting and fellowship participation dispersed monthly from September 2020 through April 2021
  • An additional $10,000 in supplemental support to cover extra costs including health insurance, reporting equipment and travel-related reporting expenses
  • Weekly remote seminars with University of Michigan faculty and subject matter experts from a wide range of fields
  • Professional development and supplemental skills workshops
  • Subject to public-health guidance, one-week Fellowship Cohort sessions held at Wallace House on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor with travel, lodging and hosting expenses covered by the program
  • A year-end symposium at the University of Michigan highlighting work produced during the fellowship 

Application Deadline is July 7, 2020.

Applications are now open. The deadline to apply is at 11:59 pm ET on Tuesday, July 7. 

The Reporting Fellowship offers will be extended on Friday, July 31.

 

An Invitation to Learn More

For more information on the fellowship and how to apply, Wallace House Director Lynette Clemetson, and Associate Director Robert Yoon will hold a Q&A webinar at 12:30 pm ET on June 19.  We encourage interested applicants to join the call and ask questions. Newsroom editors who would like to know more about this opportunity for reporters on their team are also invited to join.

RSVP for Q&A webinar

Join Q&A webinar

Submit Questions for Q&A webinar

More About the Reporting Fellowship

Who Should Apply

How to Apply

Application Timeline

FAQs

Announcing 2020 Livingston Winners

2020 Livingston Award winners (counter-clockwise from top: Caroline Chen, Assia Boundaoui and Brett Murphy)

In the midst of a seismic social movement and a lingering pandemic, it is pivotal to our democracy to support and recognize reporting that advances the cause of truth and justice. Today the Livingston Awards honor stories that represent the best in local, national and international reporting by journalists under age 35. The stories highlight a New Jersey hospital that prolonged life support to boost its transplant survival rate; the FBI’s decades-long surveillance of a tight-knit Muslim community outside of Chicago; and the U.S. military’s devastating raid on its own security forces in Azizabad, Afghanistan. The $10,000 prizes are for work released in 2019.

Livingston Awards national judges John Harris, co-founder of Politico, Ken Auletta of The New Yorker and Christiane Amanpour of CNNi and PBS congratulate the winners above in a video tribute. This year’s Livingston Award winners will be honored in person in June 2021, when we hope to return to our traditional awards luncheon.

“As we honor our Livingston Award winners, we are consumed by unrest and uncertainty.  2019 seems like a lifetime ago, and we wonder what difference an award can make when we are torn by grief, anger and weariness,” said Livingston Awards Director Lynette Clemetson. “But the reporting we recognize today, reporting that scrutinizes accepted narratives and brings transparency to hidden tactics and actions, reminds us of the power of journalism to move us beyond the breaking news cycle. It reminds us that it will be journalists who, months and years from now, help us to more fully understand all that we are struggling through and pushing toward now.” 

Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the University of Michigan to support the vital role of a free and independent press, the awards bolster the work of young reporters, create the next generation of journalism leaders and mentors, and advance civic engagement around powerful storytelling. Other sponsors include the Indian Trial Charitable Foundation, the Mollie Parnis Livingston Foundation, Christiane Amanpour, and Dr. Gil Omenn and Martha Darling.

The 2020 winners for work released in 2019 are:

LOCAL REPORTING

Caroline Chen for the ProPublica series “Heartless Hospital,” co-published with New Jersey Advance Media and WNYC, an investigation of a hospital transplant team’s efforts to keep a vegetative patient on life support and mislead federal regulators, while failing to consult with the patient’s family on treatment decisions.

“I recall being swept away by the power of Caroline Chen’s series ‘Heartless Hospital.’ It exposed an outrageous reality. Imagine doctors keeping a heart transplant patient with no hope of survival alive in a vegetative state in order to bolster their one-year survival statistics and keep federal funding. There’s not any doubt that’s what happened at Newark Beth Israel Hospital. Caroline Chen had it on tape. Her story led to public investigations and reforms that will help future patients.” – John Harris

NATIONAL REPORTING

Assia Boundaoui for PBS’s POV “The Feeling of Being Watched,” a deeply personal, riveting documentary uncovering a two-decade FBI probe on more than 600 Muslim American mosques, businesses, charities, and private individuals across the U.S. and examining the corrosive impact of perpetual surveillance on the community of Bridgeview, Illinois that Boundaoui’s Algerian-American family has long called home.

“When I clicked on Assia Boundaoui’s video ‘The Feeling of Being Watched,’ the journalist cop in me was wary. Feelings. Journalists should deal in facts. Yet as I watched, I realized the feelings, in fact, did matter. The humanity she dared share, showed the story more powerfully than a keep your distance reporter could. We watched her interview her mother, brother, and members of the Muslim community. We learned that the FBI was indeed watching them. She filed freedom of information requests. She asked tough questions to government officials who lied to her. She grew before our eyes into a truthteller. She revealed that for more than 20 years the Chicago FBI profiled a Muslim community, tracked them, and gathered information on an entire community. I say it made us all watch and feel – really feel.” – Ken Auletta

INTERNATIONAL REPORTING

Brett Murphy of USA TODAY for “Show of Force,” a searing investigation of a 2008 U.S. military attack on its own security forces in Azizabad, Afghanistan, killing dozens of civilians, including as many as 60 children, and the subsequent attempts by the U.S. Defense Department to downplay the tragedy.

“I congratulate Brett Murphy for deciding to go back and go through the evidence that had been kept away from public consumption – from going to Afghanistan, to getting thousands of pages of military records that had not been made public, to doing the leg work in the United States, and to talking to soldiers who had been involved. Of course, the Pentagon didn’t want to talk about this. Of course, they wanted it to be kept secret, but Brett uncovered it and did an extraordinary job. It’s not only the stories of the day that are important, but it’s the stories that you go back to look at and come out with a different truth – the truth that wasn’t known at the time – that are important. We absolutely need that now.” – Christiane Amanpour

In addition to Harris, Auletta and Amanpour, the Livingston national judging panel includes; Dean Baquet of The New York Times; Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune; Anna Quindlen author;  María Elena Salinas, CBS News contributor; Bret Stephens of The New York Times; and Kara Swisher of Recode.

More on the winners here.

About the Livingston Awards

The Livingston Awards for Young Journalists are the most prestigious honor for professional journalists under the age of 35 and are the largest all-media, general reporting prizes in American journalism. Entries from print, online, visual and audio storytelling are judged against one another, as technology blurs distinctions between traditional platforms. The $10,000 prizes are awarded annually for local, national and international reporting. The Livingston Awards are a program of Wallace House at the University of Michigan, home to the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Wallace House Presents event series. Learn more at wallacehouse.umich.edu/Livingston-awards.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit:  knightfoundation.org.

Jason Beaubien “Planes and Pestilence: Emerging Epidemics in a Globalized World”

Jason Beaubien event page30th Graham Hovey Lecture with Jason Beaubien, Knight-Wallace Fellow ’07

The annual Graham Hovey Lecture honors a Knight-Wallace journalist whose career exemplifies the benefits of a fellowship at the University of Michigan and whose ensuing work is at the forefront of national conversation.

“Planes and Pestilence: Emerging Epidemics in a Globalized World”
September 10, 2015
Wallace House

View video »

 
 

Watch the Lecture

Jason Beaubien, global health and development correspondent for NPR and Knight-Wallace alum, returned to Wallace House in September 2015 to deliver the 30th Graham Hovey Lecture. Drawing from his reporting on HIV/AIDS, MERS, SARS and the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Beaubien examined the rapid spread of disease in a globalized economy, anticipated the coming of an ambitious virus that “transmits easily, bides its time and its host before making that host sick, and manages to spread all over the world,” then asked if the world was ready for the next pandemic.

From our archives is his talk “Planes and Pestilence: Emerging Epidemics in a Globalized World.”

 

About the Speaker

Jason Beaubien is the global health and development correspondent for NPR, where he was part of a team of reporters that won a Peabody Award in 2015 for their extensive coverage of the West Africa Ebola outbreak. He reports on a range of health issues across the globe. He’s covered the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, mass cataract surgeries in Ethiopia, abortion in El Salvador, poisonous gold mines in Nigeria, drug-resistant malaria in Myanmar and tuberculosis in Tajikistan.

Prior to becoming NPR’s global health and development correspondent in 2012, Beaubien spent four years based in Mexico City covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. He served as a foreign correspondent in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2002 to 2006 visiting 27 countries on the continent. Beaubien was one of the first journalists to report on the mass exodus of people out of Sudan’s Darfur region into Chad.

Beaubien earned a B.A. in English from San Francisco State University. As a Knight-Wallace Fellow at Michigan (2006-2007), he studied the intersection of the First and Third World.
 

About the Graham Hovey Lecture

The annual Graham Hovey Lecture recognizes a Knight-Wallace journalist whose career exemplifies the benefits of a fellowship at the University of Michigan and whose ensuing work is at the forefront of national conversation. The event is named for the late Graham Hovey, director of the fellowship program from 1980 to 1986 and a distinguished journalist for The New York Times.

COVID-19 and Updates from Wallace House

 

Due to the current public health emergency and in accordance with national, state and University of Michigan directives, all Wallace House Presents events have been canceled for the remainder of the semester and regular fellowship activities have been suspended.

Our staff is working remotely and remains available to our fellows, applicants, alumni and partners as we adapt our programs to address critical concerns on public health and safety.

Please contact us if you have any questions about our programs.