Student Workshop | Fact Checking 101
Carolyn Kormann, The New Yorker; Journalism; Rozina Ali, The New York Times Magazine; Journalism
October 31, 2025 · 10:00 am—1:00 pm ·
Humanities Council's Program in Journalism; Princeton Humanities Initiative
In a time when truth feels subjective, why should we care about facts? Led by Ferris Visiting Professors Rozina Ali of The New York Times Magazine and Carolyn Kormann of The New Yorker, this workshop will cover fundamentals and best practices when fact-checking news stories and magazine features. Drawing from their experiences as former fact-checkers, Professor Ali and Professor Kormann will equip students with essential tools for identifying reputable sources and verifying information to ensure accuracy in their own reporting. They will also discuss the immense value of working as checkers themselves, and the opportunities the job can yield.
Open to journalism students; space is limited. Register by October 24.
About our facilitators:
Rozina Ali is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, who writes about conflict, the Middle East and South Asia, Islamophobia, and immigration in the United States. She was awarded the 2023 National Magazine Award in Reporting and was a 2022-2023 fellow at the New York Public Library Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, as well as a fellow at Yale University’s Whitney Humanities Center. She is currently writing a book about the rise of Islamophobia in the U.S. This fall, she will be teaching a course called, “The Media and Social Issues: Challenging the Narrative on Race,” which will explore how the media can reinforce or dispel stereotypes about minority groups.
Carolyn Kormann is an award-winning journalist and author who has covered the environment, climate change, and biodiversity from all over the world. As a staff writer for The New Yorker, she’s published stories about a hurricane-weary meteorologist, survivors of the Maui wildfires, extreme-heat victims, an Oglala Lakota chef, an unusual Bolivian restaurant, lost-species hunters, virus hunters, the pandemic, thawing Siberian permafrost, giant icebergs, climate refugees, Fukushima and the future of nuclear power, plastic pollution, inventors, farmers, striking coal workers, carbon traders, energy politics, a sinking island, a Hollywood trailer director, solar eclipses, honeyguides, swimmers, artists, time, and mules. Previously, she spent years on The New Yorker’s editorial staff, as a web editor and a deputy head of fact-checking. Kormann is the author of the forthcoming book, “How to Be a Bat,” a work of natural history, scientific inquiry, and reportage, which tells the stories of Earth’s only flying mammals, their surprising impact on history, and what they reveal about our future.
