The Program in Journalism at Princeton University has named seven renowned journalists as visiting professors for the 2022-2023 academic year. The Humanities Council, home of the journalism program, will host this slate of celebrated reporters and authors, each of whom will teach an intensive seminar for one semester.
The visiting faculty will join the program’s Ferris Professors of Journalism in Residence: Joe Stephens, founding director of the program and former investigative reporter for The Washington Post; John McPhee, staff writer for The New Yorker since 1965 and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of more than 30 books; and Deborah Amos, award-winning correspondent for NPR News.
“We’re proud to welcome to campus some of the world’s most accomplished and admired journalists, continuing a long tradition of excellence,” Stephens said. “These writers and reporters exemplify dedication and perseverance, and a fierce dedication to digging out facts and conveying them to the world.”
Journalism’s visiting professors for Fall 2022:
—Kushanava Choudhury is a veteran journalist and an author whose work has appeared in leading newspapers in the U.S. and in India. In his second stint as a visiting Ferris Professor, he will teach The Literature of Fact: The World and the City, which will explore urban life and global migration to cities through narrative nonfiction.
—Steve Fainaru is an investigative reporter at ESPN and a co-author of the best-selling “League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth.” His awards include an Emmy, a Peabody and a Pulitzer Prize. In The McGraw Seminar in Writing: What Sports Tell Us about Our World, he will teach students to craft compelling stories that reveal how sports shape and reflect our world.
—Tara McKelvey is a Washington-based political correspondent for the BBC and a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review. In her course on Audio Journalism: Storytelling for Radio, Podcasts and Beyond, students will learn to write and produce stories using sound, images, and other elements of multi-platform journalism.
In Spring 2023 the Program in Journalism will welcome:
—Neil Bedi is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at ProPublica who focuses on investigating federal government agencies and policies in Washington. He will teach a seminar on what is now a foundational piece of investigative journalism: accountability reporting with data. He will teach students to acquire, vet, analyze and present data in various media.
—Nadja Drost is a Pulitzer Prize- and Emmy Award-winning journalist who often files as a special correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. She will teach a course on international news, exploring how reporting on social upheaval shapes public understanding of the world beyond our borders, with a particular emphasis on Latin America.
—Pallavi Gogoi is chief business editor at NPR and an award-winning editor, reporter and writer with more than 25 years of experience in journalism. She will teach a seminar on writing about the economy and economic justice in a “post-pandemic” world and examining how race, class, gender and immigration factor into economic decision-making.
—Channing Joseph is a journalist with two decades of international experience and a contributor to The Nation. He is also an award-winning scholar of Black queer history. His course on the media and social issues will focus on writing about racial justice in the U.S. and the long history of major news outlets excluding and maligning minority groups.
The visiting professors’ seminars will complement those regularly led by the Program in Journalism’s professors in residence. In the fall, Stephens will offer Investigative Journalism: In-depth Reporting, while Amos will teach International News: Migration Reporting, which will include a fall-break reporting trip to Berlin. In the spring, Stephens will teach his course about media literacy in the digital age as a Freshman Seminar.
Princeton’s journalism seminars were inaugurated in 1957 by a bequest from former New York Herald journalist Edwin F. Ferris. They have since become one of the nation’s most respected programs of journalism courses—as well as some of the University’s most highly rated classes. Gifts from other generous alumni and their families have expanded the program’s offerings.
