The Program in Journalism at Princeton
Princeton University’s popular journalism seminars draw on the world’s most distinguished journalists as faculty. They guide students as they explore nonfiction storytelling and produce deep, serious journalism in a variety of media, traditional and emerging.
Journalism students have gone on to write for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, National Public Radio, and other esteemed organizations, and to enjoy successful careers as nonfiction authors. Others use the critical thinking skills honed in the intensive seminars to inform and broaden their work in other disciplines.
Seminars are intimate to maximize personal interaction with the journalists who lead them. Many include excursions to newsrooms at organizations as diverse as NPR, ProPublica, and BuzzFeed. One path-breaking summer course takes students to Athens and the island of Lesbos in Greece to report on the refugee crisis and related developments.
The courses are internationally recognized for their success at conveying how top reporters use sophisticated reporting and researching techniques to produce compelling, in-depth news pieces that bring positive change to society. The work is in keeping with the University’s informal motto, “Princeton in the nation’s service and the service of humanity.”
The seminars also explore the opportunities and challenges posed as journalism moves beyond traditional media companies into new models of reporting that encompass digital media, big data, podcasting, and social media.
In addition to a revolving roster of visiting professors fresh from the field, the journalism seminars rely on the expertise of accomplished Ferris Professors in Residence: Deborah Amos is an award-winning international correspondent for NPR News and the author of two books on the Middle East. Renowned author John McPhee is a staff writer with The New Yorker and a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and the Award in Literature from the Academy of Arts and Letters. Joe Stephens is a veteran investigative reporter, most recently at The Washington Post, whose work has won three George Polk Memorial Awards and who has on three occasions been named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Stephens also serves as founding director of the Program in Journalism.
Princeton’s journalism courses were inaugurated in 1957 by a bequest from former New York Herald journalist Edwin F. Ferris. Gifts from other generous alumni and their families have expanded the program’s offerings.
