Eliza Griswold, director of the Humanities Council’s Program in Journalism, has been promoted to Professor of the Practice for a term of five years, effective July 1, 2025.
The designation is “reserved for distinguished practitioners who demonstrate eminence in their field and sustained accomplishment and activity in their area of practice, such as industry, entrepreneurship, government, journalism, or the creative or performing arts,” according to the Dean of the Faculty website.
Griswold, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, translator, and poet, has been a contributing writer for The New Yorker for more than two decades, where she has extensively covered religion, politics, and the environment.
“Eliza Griswold is a powerful writer, a gifted teacher, and an empathic mentor,” said Esther Schor, chair of the Humanities Council and John J.F. Sherrerd ’52 University Professor. “She breathes new life into the program, and we’re celebrating her promotion with great hope for the future of Journalism at Princeton.”
As director, Griswold oversees the program’s undergraduate minor, develops new curricular offerings, and collaborates with campus partners in planning University-wide programs and events. This summer, she will co-lead an innovative reporting seminar based in Athens, Greece, with longtime journalist Rachel Donadio. Next year, Griswold will teach a fall Freshman Seminar titled “Why I Write.” In the spring, she will offer a course on investigative journalism.
Griswold’s latest book “Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church,” published in August 2024, explores the American evangelical landscape through the lens of a Philadelphia church in crisis. It was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction and included on “best of 2024” book lists from media outlets including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, NPR, and more.
An alumna of Princeton, Griswold earned a bachelor of arts in English from the University in 1995. She studied creative writing at Johns Hopkins University, where she earned a master’s degree. She previously taught in the Program in Journalism as a Ferris Visiting Professor in 2014-15.
Read more about the Program in Journalism.
Read a Q&A with Griswold on the Council’s Faculty Bookshelf.
