Announcing the 2023-2024 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows

The Wallace House Center for Journalists and the University of Michigan are pleased to announce the 2023-2024 class of Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows. This cohort of 19 accomplished journalists marks the 50th class of Fellows in the program’s history.

Representing nine countries and a broad cross-section of the U.S., the Fellows will pursue ambitious journalism projects, audit courses at the university and participate in weekly seminars with journalism leaders, renowned scholars, media innovators and social change agents. Most seminars will take place at Wallace House, a gift from the late newsman Mike Wallace and his wife, Mary, and the program’s home base.

“These journalists and their compelling range of projects reflect the breadth of challenges journalists must understand – from the far-reaching societal impacts of climate change, to the rise of social media-fueled disinformation, to the unique challenges of reporting from countries ensnared in media crackdowns, wars or rampant violence,” said Lynette Clemetson, Director of Wallace House. “Now more than ever, the work of these and all journalists is essential to protecting and expanding democratic values. We are honored to support them.”

After a three-year pause on international news tours caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Wallace House plans to travel with this year’s cohort to South Korea in February 2024 to learn more about the country’s changing media environment and engage with its political and social landscape.

The fellowship started in 1973 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This class will be joined by alumni from several decades in September 2023 for a weekend reunion honoring the history of the fellowship and the hundreds of journalists from around the world with ties to the program.

Wallace House’s Knight-Wallace Fellowship program is funded through endowment gifts from foundations, news organizations, individuals, and ongoing contributions from funders committed to journalism’s role in fostering an informed and engaged public.

The 2023-2024 Knight-Wallace Fellows and their journalism projects:

Elizabeth Aguilera is an independent multimedia journalist focused on migration, environmental health and equity. She is an editor-at-large for Zócalo Public Square and a mentor and editor for Next Gen Radio. She will explore the impact of climate change on devastated areas of the U.S. that have already suffered from environmental racism, the disproportionate placement of hazardous materials near marginalized communities.

Roberson Alphonse is head of national news at le Nouvelliste, Haiti’s largest daily newspaper, and the director of information at Radio Magik9, where he hosts a popular daily program. He survived an assassination attempt in October of 2022 and was able to flee to Miami, where he has continued hosting his radio show. His project will focus on helping Haitian journalists navigate an increasingly volatile press environment.

Rustin Dodd is a senior reporter at The Athletic where he has written about subjects such as the impact of opioid abuse on professional baseball and the analytics revolution in Major League Baseball and the National Football League. He is the co-author of “Kingdom Quarterback: Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs, and How a Once Swingin’ Cow Town Chased the Ultimate Comeback.” He will examine the rise of legalized sports gambling in the U.S., its societal costs and its implications for sports media. 

Sharif Hassan is a former Washington Post and New York Times reporter from Afghanistan who is now working in exile in Canada following the Taliban takeover of his country. His research will take a deep dive into environmental and sustainability challenges in North America, enabling him to report on these challenges with expertise and cross-regional context.

Peter Hoffman is an independent documentary photographer who has reported on environmental and climate issues for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Bloomberg Businessweek and others. He will combine photography and narrative storytelling to explore the challenges of stewarding southeast Michigan watersheds– the primary, and often compromised, source of drinking water for numerous communities.

Yunhee Kim is the politics editor for Munhwa Ilbo, a daily newspaper in Seoul, where she has covered three presidential elections and numerous general and local elections, as well as multiple corruption scandals. She will explore how to strengthen Korean presidential election coverage in a hyper-polarized political climate.

Mila Koumpilova is a senior education reporter in Chalkbeat’s Chicago bureau, where she has reported on topics including the pandemic’s impact on vulnerable students and federal COVID-19 relief spending. She will explore how U.S. cities can strengthen programs that aim to re-engage unemployed young people who are not enrolled in high school or college — a goal that policymakers and experts see as key to fighting poverty, racial inequities and gun violence.

Efrat Lachter is an investigative correspondent for Israel’s Channel 12 News and the weekly newsmagazine “Friday Studio.” As the first female war correspondent in her newsroom, much of Efrat’s work has illuminated the lives of women in conflict zones such as Ukraine, Syria and Sudan. She will study ways to preserve journalistic integrity in unstable political contexts.

Victor Kai Shing Law is a senior reporter for AM730, a Hong Kong local newspaper. He was previously a reporter for the Apple Daily newspaper and Stand News, both of which were forced to close amid a government crackdown on independent media. His research will illuminate the vision and mission of Hong Kong’s new experimental media, the challenges they face, and strategies that could broaden their reach.

Jaime Lowe is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine and other publications, as well as the author of three books, including “Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California’s Wildfires.” Having previously embedded with the maternal-fetal medicine department at the Cleveland Clinic, Lowe will expand on this subject by reporting on evolving abortion law and the availability of reproductive healthcare in the Midwest.

Iuliia Mendel is an independent Ukrainian journalist, political commentator, and opinion writer for The Washington Post who served as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s press secretary from June 2019 to July 2021. She wrote a book about this experience, titled “The Fight of Our Lives.” Her research will seek solutions to protect and empower truth-seeking journalists in Ukraine and around the world in a climate of growing populism.

Kwan Ling Mok is a visual journalist and filmmaker who recently reported for Hong Kong’s Ming Pao Weekly and Stand News. Her film “Far from Home,” about a family’s tumultuous experience during the 2019 protest movement, was banned after she refused demands from authorities to make 14 cuts to the 25-minute film. Mok will study Hong Kong’s psychological recovery from China’s recent crackdown, historical patterns of collective trauma and how journalism, especially visual journalism, can foster individual and societal healing.

Josh Raab is the former director of Instagram and TikTok at National Geographic, where he managed teams that oversaw 40 accounts with 325M+ followers, including @NatGeo. He will explore how journalistic videos that have inherently challenging and difficult subject matter, such as climate change and conflict, can break through the algorithmic noise to reach younger audiences and combat misinformation on social platforms that often prioritize entertainment.

Tamanna Rahman is a United Kingdom-based investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker who has directed and reported for the BBC, Channel 4 and VICE. To lay the groundwork for a complex and multifaceted investigative documentary, Rahman plans to meticulously map food production and trade flows, examining the risks and long-term implications of a handful of unregulated companies and commodities traders controlling the main flows of food around the world.

Joshua Sharpe is a journalist with the San Francisco Chronicle whose reporting has helped free two innocent people from life in prison. He is writing a book for W.W. Norton and Company titled “The Man No One Believed.” While tracking multiple cases of potential wrongful conviction, he will take criminal justice courses, study post-conviction relief and examine the unseen ways that such cases damage lives.

‘Fisayo Soyombo is the former managing editor of Sahara Reporters and editor-in-chief of Nigeria’s Foundation for Investigative Journalism. He is best known for “breaking into prison.” Posing as a criminal, he spent five days in a police cell and eight days as an inmate at Ikoyi Prison in Nigeria. While writing an expanded version of his 2019 investigation of the Nigerian criminal justice system, Soyombo will simultaneously explore prison reform, restorative justice and strategies for preventing and responding to inhumane and corrupt practices within prisons.

Ben Steverman is a reporter for Bloomberg News based in New York, where he has covered the U.S.’s wide and persistent racial wealth gap, the pandemic’s effects on inequality, and the tax loopholes and philanthropic strategies deployed by the ultra-rich. His research will examine the broad social costs of the decline of American nightlife– which was struggling well before the pandemic– and what can be done to revive nightlife and help mend the country’s fraying social bonds.

Doris Truong is senior director of teaching and diversity strategies at the Poynter Institute of Media Studies. She previously worked at The Dallas Morning News and The Washington Post in roles ranging from copy editing to oversight of breaking-news operations. She will study ways to help journalists better understand their own gaps in life experience around issues including race, gender, socioeconomics, sexual orientation and stage of life, to thereby strengthen newsgathering and news judgment.

Read more about the 2023-2024 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

Ashley Bates Joins Wallace House as Associate Director

 

Wallace House Center for Journalists is excited to welcome Ashley Bates as its Associate Director.

In this position, Bates will manage the daily operations of Wallace House and the Knight-Wallace Fellowship activities and support Wallace House director Lynette Clemetson in the strategic direction and running of all organizational programs and initiatives. Bates will also be responsible for alumni engagement, outreach activities across the journalism industry, and recruitment for the Knight-Wallace Fellowships, ensuring a diverse range of program participants.

“I am honored to join the Wallace House Center for Journalists team,” said Bates. “I look forward to getting to know this community, working in creative partnership with news organizations and alumni, and offering responsive programming and individualized support to Knight-Wallace Fellows.”

Bates comes to Wallace House with both organizational leadership and journalism experience. She has a demonstrated record of administering complex programs, nurturing alumni communities, leading professional development training, recruiting underrepresented voices, and executing imaginative programming that is tailored to the needs of organizations and their participants. For the past four years, she has served as the Program Manager for the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program, a top-ranked MFA program for fiction authors and poets. Previously, Bates managed graduate student recruitment and career mentorship initiatives for the University of Michigan’s International Institute.

Bates worked as an investigative journalist in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and the United States, producing videos and long-form features for The Nation, Haaretz, Mother Jones, Huffington Post, Tikkun, Jerusalem Post Magazine, GlobalPost, and Columbia Journalism Review.

Fluent in Arabic, she served for eight years as the Program Director and then the Executive Director of an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue and social justice advocacy organization called Hands of Peace.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Amherst College and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School. Bates will start at Wallace House on May 1.

A Journalism Symposium for Covering the Next Natural Disaster

9 AM – 5 PM | Thursday, March 9, 2023
Michigan League, University of Michigan

Followed by a reception and dinner at Wallace House.

An Invitation for Specialized Training

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.

Sessions and Speakers

Tools and resources to “weather the storm”: What can newsrooms expect in the future?
Perry Sampson, Professor, Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan

The emotional and occupational stress of covering a natural disaster: What we can learn from journalists who covered Hurricane Harvey
Gretchen Hoak, Associate Professor, School of Media and Journalism, Kent State University

Keynote Lunch
Lessons from abroad: Disaster responses in South Asia
Peter Bodde, former U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Nepal and Malawi

The crucial role of HAM radio operators: How a strategic alliance and $400 radio can get your story out when the internet and power are down.
John Palmisano, co-station manager of W8UM at the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building

Breakout Workshop
Plan now for extreme weather conditions: Develop operational and editorial continuity blueprints for disaster scenarios
Facilitated by Meg Martin, editor, project manager, researcher and producer on investigations, projects, podcasts and breaking news

Tour U-M’s Extreme Weather Simulator
Low Turbulence Wind Tunnel, North Campus

Reception and dinner at Wallace House
Hosted by Lynette Clemetson, Director, Wallace House Center for Journalists

About the Hosts

María Arce is a 2023 Knight-Wallace Fellow examining local newsrooms’ emergency plans to cover natural disasters and developing proposals to classify journalists as frontline workers during these disasters. An Argentinean journalist based in Puerto Rico, she most recently worked as multiplatform director of El Vocero newspaper. Before that, she worked at Univision as a digital director and at the Buenos Aires-based newspaper Clarín as an editorial coordinator. She has also worked for KUT, Marfa Public Radio, and EFE News Agency, and has covered a range of issues including natural disasters, tragedies, politics, and sports.

Lynette Clemetson is director of the Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards.

EXPLORE MORE WALLACE HOUSE EVENTS

Remote Fellows Visit Ann Arbor

No Michigan experience would be complete without a visit to the Big House. Fellows got a behind-the-scenes peek at the stadium locker rooms, the legendary tunnel, luxury suites and the 50-yard line.

If I had to write a self-help book about the week I spent in Ann Arbor this spring with the Knight-Wallace classes of 2021 and 2022, I’d call it “Chicken Soup for the Journalist’s Soul.”

The two fellowship classes from the pandemic years called ourselves “The Virtuals” because few of us had ever met in person, although we’d all spent an academic year attending seminars and making online connections with other Fellows from our cohorts.

These had been challenging times for many of us as we navigated through the havoc the pandemic caused in our professional and personal lives. And spikes in Covid cases had forced us to cancel at least two previously planned in-person fellowship gatherings. So by the time we arrived at Wallace House in April, most of us felt overdue for the face-to-face experience Wallace House Director Lynette Clemetson and Associate Director Robert Yoon had been telling us about for months.

Jose Fermoso ’22 shared a dance with street artist David Zinn’s Gene Kelly on the downtown library’s underground parking garage wall.

As much as I had anticipated the trip, I still wasn’t prepared for the warm and loving atmosphere that awaited us. Lynette, Rob, Alexis, Patty, Jayson, Melissa, Lisa and everyone associated with Knight- Wallace showed us the highest hospitality the entire week, and for the first time I felt like more than one of 11 participants in a great and robust fellowship.

I looked at the group photos on the wall of the classes that came before mine. I saw the gifts that each of these groups left behind.

And in those moments I realized that being part of the Knight- Wallace Fellowship wasn’t a year-long program. The other Fellows and I had joined a group of journalists who’d had the privilege of spending hours together at Wallace House laughing, crying, learning, growing and recharging so they could go back out into the world as better journalists and human beings.

Although we had several great activities during our week together, our most profound moments came in the sessions where we sat in the living room at Wallace House and shared our experiences. During the fellowship, many of us had relied upon one another for support and advice. But in person, the encouragement was infinitely more profound. It was, in short, the safest place I’ve ever had to share my experiences as a journalist.

I wasn’t alone. Nichole Dobo, one of the Fellows from my cohort, told me she similarly felt the warmth of being among “people who are bringing their whole selves to work.”

“Our backgrounds are our strengths, especially when we come from underrepresented communities,” Nickie said. “We only got one week in person, but it felt like so much longer. I left feeling empowered by the idea that things other people might see as a weakness are actually our superpowers.”

Nick St. Fleur organized a selfie with classmates from the Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellowship class of 2021-22 on the porch at Wallace House.

After our graduation ceremony, instead of sitting in small groups at the tables arranged in the backyard, we pushed all the tables together because none of us wanted to be apart from the others. That night, the jokes, war stories and heartfelt moments we shared belonged to all of us.

“I left feeling empowered by the idea that things other people might see as a weakness are actually our superpowers.”

Lester Feder from the class of 2021 remembered the dance party we had that evening after we pushed the chairs to the corners of the living room where we had shared so much in the days before.

“It was a moving reminder,” he said, “of the humanity of the people who give so much of themselves to this work, which demands that we give so much of ourselves.”

Daphne Duret is a 2022 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow and recently joined The Marshall Project as a staff writer covering policing issues across the country.

This article appeared in the Fall 2022 issue of the Wallace House Journal. 

 

 

Fleeing Russia: Former Fellow Finds Solace in Ann Arbor

Novaya Gazeta headline "Russia. Bombs. Ukraine"
The front page of Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s independent newspaper, on Feb. 25, 2022, reads “Russia. Bombs. Ukraine.”
Elena Milashina video thumbnail
Elena Milashina, 2010 Knight-Wallace Fellow and investigative journalist for Novaya Gazeta. On September 5, 2022, Russian authorities revoked the newspaper’s license.

It was early January 2022. Wallace House Director Lynette Clemetson wrote to me to ask if I could convince the freshly minted Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov to come with me to Ann Arbor to give a lecture on press freedom.

“What an amazing idea,” I responded.

Muratov is my editor-in-chief, a mentor and friend under whom I have worked for a quarter century in one of the most respected newspapers in the world, Russia’s Novaya Gazeta.

When I dialed him to propose the Wallace House event, he didn’t answer at first. We were quarreling about my refusal to evacuate from Russia after the Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov, called me a “terrorist” and demanded that a criminal case be opened against me. Kadyrov’s assistant had publicly threatened to “cut off my head.”

Muratov eventually called me back. “Have you finally decided to listen to your editor and leave?” he asked.

“Only together with you, and only to Ann Arbor,” I joked.

I spent the next hour telling him about my incredible year as a Knight-Wallace Fellow more than a decade earlier, about the University of Michigan where Russian poet and fellow Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky once taught. I told him about hearing President Barack Obama give the 2010 commencement address, warning that the world and professional journalism were in danger because of changing media habits – words people didn’t fully appreciate at the time. I told him about the beauty of Detroit, the catastrophic emptiness of some parts of the great American city and what it symbolized to me about civilization and history.

“I want to see it, too!” he said, greedy for such stories.

We began to make plans for a brief visit in April. But Vladymir Putin had plans of his own. On February 24, the Russian army invaded Ukraine. Three months earlier, Muratov had warned about the danger of such a war in his Nobel speech in Oslo, a war Putin had been moving toward for years. Suddenly it was happening.

Months before the war started, Putin was working to shut down the independent press.

Novaya Gazeta responded to the invasion with a bold and shocking headline: “Russia. Bombs. Ukraine.”

Months before the war started, Putin was working to shut down the independent press. After opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s return to Russia and imprisonment, authorities closed down dozens of independent media outlets, primarily those engaged in investigative journalism. The government labeled hundreds of journalists as foreign agents, enemies of the state.

Russian journalists lived in anticipation of searches, arrests and criminal cases. I removed all paper and electronic archives from my house, hid old notebooks, laptops and voice recorders at my friends’ places. I thought about how I would behave during a search to make sure that no sensitive information about my sources fell into the hands of Russian police and security agencies.

Yet even in an environment of active intimidation, I was not prepared for the war and its consequences.

The government quickly came after the few remaining news organizations. In the first days of March, the last independent TV news channel, Dozhd, and the oldest federal radio station, Ekho Moskvy, shut down.

I cannot accept that I cannot write about this atrocity under my own name in my newspaper.

Novaya Gazeta held on for 34 days, the last remaining independent news operation in the country. But on March 28 we, too, were forced to suspend operations. Putin’s draconian laws imposing jail sentences of up to 15 years for journalists who reported anything the government deemed “fake news” – anyone who reported the truth of what was happening in Ukraine – made it impossible for news organizations to continue working.

Soon there was another message from Lynette. With the April event clearly impossible, she had a different proposition. “Why don’t you come to Ann Arbor for a residency, Elena?” she said. “You don’t have to leave Russia forever. But here you will be safe, and you can figure out how to move forward.”

Now I am back at the University of Michigan, a place I consider my alma mater! I am a visiting Fellow, sponsored by Wallace House, at the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies. I will be giving guest lectures and engaging with faculty and students. And most importantly, I will have a place to continue writing. When I arrived my suitcases were mostly full of papers, unfinished work, abruptly interrupted by war. I have much I still need to write.

More than six months into Putin’s attack on Ukraine, it seems the world is beginning to get used to war. I refuse to get used to it.

I cannot accept that my country is doing this.

I cannot accept that I cannot write about this atrocity under my own name in my newspaper.

I cannot accept that my newspaper no longer exists.

Now people all over the world know Novaya Gazeta and its journalists for our journalism and the repeated attacks against us. Now Russia has made it impossible for us to exist. But we will find a way to continue.

Novaya Gazeta literally means “new newspaper.” I remember when I went to work there 25 years ago after my first year at university. I traveled around the country introducing myself and my organization and people responded, “New newspaper? So what is it called?”

Now people all over the world know Novaya Gazeta and its journalists for our journalism and the repeated attacks against us. Now Russia has made it impossible for us to exist. But we will find a way to continue.

I arrived in Ann Arbor in July, late at night. As I entered town, it was too dark to see any of the places I so fondly remembered. I had two large suitcases full of my work. I checked into my hotel, got settled into my room and began to catch up on news from the front. It was expectedly grim. It felt unacceptable to me that I had been forced to flee my country to figure out a way to report the truth about it.

But for the first time in a very, very long time, I felt completely safe.

Elena Milashina is a 2010 Knight-Wallace Fellow. She is the inaugural WCED Freedoms Under Fire Residency Fellow in the International Institute’s Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies, a position sponsored by Wallace House.

This article appeared in the Fall 2022 issue of the Wallace House Journal. 

Get to Know Jayson Rose, Our Development Officer

Jayson Rose, our senior development officer, has introduced himself to our Knight-Wallace alumni and Wallace House community since joining us in January.

This interview appeared in the Fall 2022 issue of the Wallace House Journal. 

Jayson Rose joined Wallace House in January 2022 as our first development officer. His work is critical as we strengthen our programs and respond to new opportunities. He’s set about introducing himself to all of our former Fellows going back to the program’s founding in 1973. His exuberant outreach has been met with gratitude and great stories (we’d expect nothing less of our alums). Lynette Clemetson asked Rose to take a little break and answer a few questions.

Lynette Clemetson: You’ve had in-person visits, calls, and Zooms with dozens of former Fellows. What have you learned?

Jayson Rose: I’ve connected with over 50 alumni in recent months from the U.S., Brazil and South Korea. I’ve learned how much the fellowship changed their lives, personally and professionally. Many have told me about how their time in Ann Arbor was a pivot point in their career, a time to regroup and refocus. I’ve also been learning how meaningful the relationships established have been and how many of our alums remain in contact with each other.

Clemetson: You’ve worked in university development for years. What’s the most exciting opportunity in connecting the work of Wallace House to donors and the mission of the university?

Rose: There is a tremendous opportunity to work with our campus partners to bring more attention to our mission, the urgency of our work, and to expand our constituent base. We are uniquely positioned to help donors who care about democracy and freedom of the press make an impact. Many people don’t know there’s an entity on Michigan’s campus that aligns with those ideals. I also believe we can help donors who want to create a legacy make a lasting impact by working with them to establish endowed gifts or planned gifts via their will or trust. Our goal is to give Wallace House the ability to have an impact on journalists’ lives well into the future.

Clemetson: You grew up around journalists. Your father, Jim Rose, is a longtime anchor and sports journalist in Chicago. Did that influence your interest in Wallace House?

Rose: My father has been in broadcast journalism for 41 years at ABC in Chicago. I have vivid memories growing up of all the hard work he put into his craft and the long hours he spent covering such a passionate sports town. He was, and continues to be, so thoughtful in his work and that made me grow up with a deep appreciation for journalism. The industry is facing numerous challenges, and the work of Wallace House is incredibly important to journalists who fight to tell the stories that aren’t easy. I am honored to have the opportunity to play a role in the evolution of such an incredible organization.

Clemetson: What do you do for fun? And an essential Wallace House question, what do you like to cook?

Rose: I enjoy exercising, catching a sporting event, and going on adventures with my wife, Kim, and our three kids, Cora, Carter and Ella. I have been learning how to become Mr. Fix-it, taking on projects around the house. And I enjoy new music and finding a new album to relax to when I have downtime. My favorite thing to cook is anything grilled. I love to grill a nice cut of steak. I also make a good grilled salmon with sriracha and honey glaze. Delish!

Clemetson: What new music caught your attention this summer?

Rose: Recently I’ve been enjoying a Nigerian singer-songwriter named Tems. Her album, “For Broken Ears,” was on repeat most of the summer for me.

Clemetson: You and I have something in common – we were both DJs in our younger years. I’ve been thinking about playlists for our 50th fellowship reunion in 2023. Any recommendations for a few hundred restless reporters who haven’t seen one another in a while?

Rose: If we are talking about moving a few tables and getting people on the dance floor, I might suggest:

“September” by Earth, Wind & Fire

“Don’t Stop Believin” by Journey

“Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars

“Despacito” by Luis Fonsi

“Yeah!” by Usher

My DJ skills aren’t what they used to be, but you can’t go wrong with these.

Lynette Clemetson is the Director of Wallace House Center for Journalists, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards at the University of Michigan. She is a 2010 Knight-Wallace Fellow.

Announcing the 2022-2023 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows

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.

Read more about the 2022-2023 Knight-Wallace Fellows and their journalism projects »


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

 

The Eisendrath Symposium with Elena Milashina, Simon Ostrovsky and Ronald Suny

While the Russian invasion of Ukraine swiftly united NATO and western nations in condemning Putin, enacting sanctions and supplying defense weapons, there are growing cries for the U.S. and its NATO allies to do more militarily. Join Knight-Wallace journalists who have reported extensively from the region and a U-M policy expert as they examine Putin’s suppression of a free press, the call for direct military support, and the geopolitical, economic and humanitarian consequences of the growing conflict.

Elena Milashina is an award-winning senior investigative reporter for Novaya Gazeta, the acclaimed independent Russian news organization that recently ceased publication in response to threats of closure and imprisonment from the Putin regime. Simon Ostrovsky is a video journalist and filmmaker who reports for PBS NewsHour and The New York Times. Ronald Suny is a professor of history and political science at U-M and a senior researcher at the National Research University-Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Wallace House Director, Lynette Clemetson, will lead this discussion.

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

About the Speakers

Elena Milashina is a 2009-2010 Knight-Wallace Fellow and an investigative journalist “Novaya Gazeta,” Russia’s last remaining independent newspaper before it ceased publication in response to threats from the Putin regime. She investigates and brings to attention accounts of enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial executions, torture, and persecution of relatives of alleged insurgents, women’s rights in Chechnya and beyond. Milashina exposed a major crackdown on gay men in Chechnya in spring 2017, investigated the catastrophe of the Kursk submarine, and hostage crises in Moscow and Beslan. She has documented atrocities committed by both sides during the 2008 Russia-Georgia conflict and pressed for an end to impunity. She has repeatedly received death threats from the Chechen authorities. She is the recipient of Human Rights Watch’s Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism ad the International Women of Courage Award.

Simon Ostrovsky is a 2021-2022 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow. As a Special Correspondent for PBS NewsHour and an investigative journalist, he is best known for his coverage of the Crimea crisis and the war in eastern Ukraine for which he was nominated for two Emmys. He won a DuPont Award from Columbia University in 2015 for his “Selfie Soldiers” documentary, which tracked Russian soldiers in Ukraine through their social media posts, and an Emmy Award in 2014 as a producer of VICE on HBO. Ostrovsky has covered extensively the countries of the former Soviet Union, where he witnessed five revolutions and four wars. He has served as South Caucasus Bureau Chief for Agence France Presse and as an investigative reporter at CNN. His work also has appeared on the BBC and CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”

Ronald Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History and Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago.  The grandson of the composer and ethnomusicologist Grikor Mirzaian Suni and a graduate of Swarthmore College and Columbia University, he taught at Oberlin College (1968-1981), as visiting professor of history at the University of California, Irvine (1987), and Stanford University (1995-1996).  He also served as Senior Researcher at the National Research University, Higher School of Economics, Saint Petersburg (2014-2016).  He was the first holder of the Alex Manoogian Chair in Modern Armenian History at the University of Michigan (1981-1995), where he founded and directed the Armenian Studies Program. 

About the Moderator

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

Thank you to our co-sponsors:

Knight Foundation

Michigan Radio

Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia

Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Detroit Public Television

PBS Books

Wallace House returns to an in-person fellowship for the 2022-2023 academic year.

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.

An invitation to apply

Applications for U.S. applicants are now open and are due on February 1, 2022. We hosted a webinar on December 17 to discuss the program and application process. It’s now available to watch on-demand.

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.

 

Watch the Q&A Webinar now 

More about the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowships

How to Apply

FAQs

 

Meeting and Bonding for the First Time, Over Zoom

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.