News from Wallace House
University of Michigan Names Knight-Wallace Fellows for 2014-2015
The Knight-Wallace Fellows program at the University of Michigan has named 12 American and eight international journalists for the 2014-2015 academic year. The group is the 41st 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.
2014-2015 Fellows and their study projects are:
Gregory Anderson, editorial director, Yahoo. Long-form journalism and digital storytelling
Divya Arya, editor, BBC Hindi Service. Reporting sexual violence in India
Christophe Ayad, deputy editor, international affairs, Le Monde (Paris) Social media and war coverage
Ali ihsan Aydin, executive editor, Euronews Turkish. Media in emerging democracies
Jason Fagone, freelance writer (Wired, Men’s Journal, NewYorker.com). The future of urban mobility
Kim Gamel, Middle East news editor, AP. Digital journalism training models
Eduardo Augusto Geraque, reporter, Folha de Sao Paulo. Unsustainable cities
Tracy Jan, reporter, Boston Globe. Morality and money in medicine
Samantha Henry, reporter, AP. Attracting immigrant entrepreneurs to revitalize cities
Larry Lage, sports writer, AP. The race to be first: Breaking news – past, present, future
Jason Margolis, reporter, The World (Public Radio International). Infrastructure innovations to deal with climate change
Helen Maynard, weekend manager, NewsOne, ABC News. Adjusting metro reporting to population loss
Gerald Mullany, Asia editor, nytimes.com. Asian history and culture
Maria Natalia Ortega, editorial director, Carvajal Publications (Bogota). Vertical publications: Opportunities for Latin American journalism
Hae-young Park, senior business reporter, The Korea Economic Daily. America’s manufacturing renaissance
Sergio Rangel, sports reporter, Folha de Sao Paulo. Betting and match-fixing in sports
Steffanie Riess, producer, ZDF German Television (Washington, DC). Understanding trends in media consumption
Daniel Steinvorth, foreign desk editor, Der Spiegel (Hamburg). Zero problems or zero friends? Revisiting Turkey’s foreign policy
Eric Strauss, producer 20/20, ABC. Giving voice to the voiceless through digital storytelling
Abbie Swanson, freelance radio reporter. More meat: nvironmental impacts of growing global demand
Robert Wildeboer, crime reporter, WBEZ (Chicago). American criminal justice
Joanne Will, freelance journalist, (The Globe and Mail, The Tyee, Vancouver Magazine). The responsibilities of fossil-fuel exporting jurisdictions
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), Laura Holson (Knight-Wallace Fellow ’13; staff writer, The New York Times), Bobbi Low (professor, School of Natural Resources and Environment, UM), Birgit Rieck (assistant director, Knight-Wallace Fellows),, 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).
