Application Deadline: October 11 2013
What: Ochberg Fellowship is a unique seminar program for senior and mid-career journalists who want to deepen their knowledge of emotional trauma and psychological injury, and improve reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy.
Who: Fellowships are open to print, broadcast and online reporters, photographers, editors and producers with no fewer than five years’ full-time journalism experience. Dart Center Ochberg Fellowships are open to outstanding mid-career journalists working across all media.
Value: The Ochberg Fellowship covers all travel, accommodations and other expenses directly related to program participation. The program does not cover costs related to health insurance or ground transportation in fellows’ home cities.
The Dart Center Ochberg Fellowship is a unique seminar program for senior and mid-career journalists who want to deepen their knowledge of emotional trauma and psychological injury, and improve reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy.
Reporting responsibly and credibly on violence or traumatic events — on street crime and family violence, natural disasters and accidents, war and genocide — is a great challenge. Since 1999 the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, has offered the annual Ochberg Fellowships to outstanding journalists interested in exploring these critical issues.
Fellows attend an intensive weeklong program of seminars and discussions held at Columbia University in New York City. Program activities include briefings by prominent interdisciplinary experts in the trauma and mental health fields; conversations with journalist colleagues on issues of ethics, craft and other aspects of professional practice; and a host of other opportunities for intellectual engagement and peer learning.
The Fellowship is led by a core faculty of prominent journalists and mental health professionals associated with the Dart Center, along with a wide range of visiting faculty. Recent visiting Fellowship faculty have included:
- Judith Lewis Herman, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and author of Trauma and Recovery.
- Jonathan Shay, M.D. Ph.D., Clinical Psychiatrist, MacArthur Fellow and author of Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus in America.
- Chicago “violence interrupter” Eddie Bocanegra with Alex Kotlowitz, producer of the documentary film “The Interrupters” and author, There Are No Children Here.
- Karestan Koenen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
- Jessica Stern, author of Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill and Denial: A Memoir of Terror.
- Steven Southwick, M.D., Glenn H. Greenberg Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine and co-author, Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges.
The Fellowship was established in 1999 by the Dart Center in partnership with the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.The fellowship is named in honor of psychiatrist Frank Ochberg, M.D., a pioneer in trauma study.
The Ochberg Fellowship covers all travel, accommodations and other expenses directly related to program participation. The program does not cover costs related to health insurance or ground transportation in fellows’ home cities.
ELIGIBILITY
Dart Center Ochberg Fellowships are open to outstanding mid-career journalists working across all media.
Past Fellows have ranged from small-town and regional general-assignment and crime reporters to war photographers and foreign correspondents for international news organizations. Applicants’ work must demonstrate journalistic excellence and a strong track record of covering violence and its impact on individuals, families or communities.
Fellowships are open to print, broadcast and online reporters, photographers, editors and producers with no fewer than five years’ full-time journalism experience. Approximately half of the Fellowship participants are based in North America, with the balance drawn from Central and South America, Europe, the Asia Pacific region, Africa and the Mideast.
All fellowship seminars are conducted in English. Fellows must be fluent in spoken English to participate in the program.
APPLICATION DEADLINE AND DETAILS
This 2013 online application deadline is October 11, 2013.
The Fellowship program will be held January, 20-25, 2014 at Columbia University in New York City.
Click here to apply now.
SELECTION CRITERIA
Applicants are reviewed by a judging committee comprised of Dart Center staff, Fellowship core faculty and past Fellows. Selection is not based on any single factor. Among judges’ considerations are whether applicants:
- demonstrate consistent and thoughtful journalistic engagement with issues of violence, conflict, tragedy and their aftermath;
- have demonstrated journalistic excellence and leadership;
- will likely benefit personally and professionally from the Fellowship experience and contribute meaningfully to the program.
Other considerations may include geographic and other diversity, and overall group composition.
The judging committee will review applications and select 10-15 fellows for 2013. Selected fellows will be notified by phone and email in mid-November.
PAST OCHBERG FELLOWS
A list of all Fellows since 1999 can be found here.
QUESTIONS
Please direct any queries to Kate Black.
For More Information:
Visit the Dart Center Ochberg Fellowship Official Webpage
Apply Online Now for the 2013 Ochberg Fellowship for Journslists