News from Wallace House
University of Michigan Names Knight-Wallace Fellows for 2013-2014
The Knight-Wallace Fellows program at the University of Michigan has named 12 American and seven international journalists for the 2013-2014 academic year. The group is the 40th to be offered fellowships by the University.
"This is a remarkable group," said Fellowship Director Charles R. Eisendrath, a former TIME correspondent in Washington, London, Paris and Buenos Aires. "Each year we look not only for people with distinguished records, but above all for people who will use this special opportunity to grow professionally and personally. We think those things go together."
While on leave from regular duties, Knight-Wallace Fellows pursue customized sabbatical studies and attend twice-weekly seminars at Wallace House, a gift from the late newsman Mike Wallace and his wife Mary. The program also includes training in narrative writing, multi-platform journalism and entrepreneurial enterprise. News tours for the KWF group to Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and Istanbul are arranged by host news organizations.
Knight-Wallace Fellows receive a stipend of $70,000 for the eight-month academic year plus full tuition and healthcare insurance. Funding is entirely from endowment gifts by foundations, news organizations and individuals committed to improving the quality of information reaching the public.
2013-2014 Fellows and their study projects are:
Petra Bartosiewicz, writer (Harper’s, LA Magazine, The New York Times); The institutionalization of the War on Terror
Jenny Baxter, head of production, BBC News; How can large news organizations adapt for the ongoing digital media revolution?
Martin Bidegaray, business reporter, Clarin (Buenos Aires); Dynasties: Families and the newspapers they own
Sylvia Colombo, Buenos Aires correspondent, Folha de Sao Paulo; The final years of the Brazilian Monarchy
Patrick Coolican, columnist, Las Vegas Sun; Sports and gambling
Ilja Herb, photographer (National Geographic (DE), Canadian Geographic), Enbridge and its transport of bitumen and documentary filming
Laura Holson, staff writer, The New York Times; Creation and promotion of digital storytelling
Michael Innes, senior journalist, BBC World Service; The use of Syrian citizen journalists by international media outlets
Si-haeng Jeong, staff writer, World News Desk, Chosun Ilbo (Seoul); Women’s leadership in Korean and international politics
Bonney Kapp, producer, CBS News; The impact of the proliferation of news outlets on presidential politics
Ruhullah Khapalwak,correspondent (CNN, The New York Times, Al Jazeera English); The effects of the digital revolution on journalism in the developing world
Louisa Lim, Beijing Correspondent, NPR; China’s post-Tiananmen political development: can its political system survive?
Curt Nickisch, reporter, WBUR (Boston); Can technological education stop displacing American middle-class jobs?
Marcia Pledger, columnist, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland); Business Etiquette writer
Cynthia Rodriguez, reporter, WNYC (New York Public Radio); The connection between poverty and mental illness in the US and abroad
Megha Satyanarayana, reporter, Detroit Free Press; Genetically modified foods: the fact and fiction of what we eat
Toni Sciaretta, senior financial journalist, Folha de Sao Paulo; Brazil’s financial infrastructure
Laura Starecheski, radio producer, State of the Re-Union; American perpetrators and media coverage of violence
Alex Stone, writer and author (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR); The science of addiction
Scott Tong, correspondent, Market Place Public Radio; Comparative innovation eco-systems and innovation history in China
James Wellford, photo editor (formerly Newsweek); A news platform focused on words and experiences of photojournalists
Fellows were selected by Charles Eisendrath, John Costa (editor-in-chief, Western Communications (OR), and Editor, The (Bend, OR) Bulletin), Ford Fessenden (graphics editor, The New York Times), Bobbi Low (professor, School of Natural Resources and Environment, UM), Birgit Rieck (assistant director, Knight-Wallace Fellows), Sarah Robbins (Knight-Wallace Fellow ’12; senior producer, BBC World News America), Carl Simon (professor, Mathematics and Complex Systems, UM), and Ellen Soeteber (chair, Advisory Board at the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships and former editor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch).
