Trauma has become a part of our everyday lives with the pandemic, mass shootings, police brutality, etc. What is the role of researchers, reporters, filmmakers, and museum workers in mitigating the effects of trauma on individuals and communities? Throughout this course, students will learn how to conduct trauma informed interviews, interpret, and present their findings in a safe and respectful way that can facilitate healing rather than increase the pain. By the end of the course, students will be expected to develop their own interview-based research project.

The most powerful journalism transports readers into foreign terrain with depth, nuance and intimate knowledge, allowing them to steep in the worlds of other people. This is the product of immersive reporting, a high-wire act of journalism that is as challenging as it is rewarding. In this course, we will explore both the virtues and limits of immersion, tackling questions about the purpose, ethics and practice of deep reportage. Students will learn first-hand how to immerse, building skills in observation, interviewing tactics, and story structure, while producing a final work of narrative nonfiction.

As the economy shifts, who wins and who loses? This class, taught by a top NPR editor, will dive deep into how to find and tell compelling stories about real people affected by changes in the economy, depending on their race, gender or class. We will use sophisticated journalism techniques to identify and unlock patterns in data about money and spending, and write captivating tales that put a human face on inequality. We will learn how to find stories and characters, how to interview, and storytelling techniques used by top journalists and popular podcasters. Curious minds will discover how an economy works. Economics knowledge not required.

The next generation of investigative journalists needs to know how to report with data. Virtually every news beat now has publicly available datasets containing troves of information, and the new bar for high-end investigations requires thorough, quantified reporting. This seminar centers around building investigations with an eye for data-driven accountability stories. Students will learn how to approach data reporting, even without technical expertise. You will develop the ability to acquire, vet and analyze data; identify patterns and explain investigative findings; and present data reporting through written, visual and interactive media.

Major U.S. news outlets have a long history of excluding, misrepresenting and maligning Black, Latinx, Indigenous and Asian communities. In fact, a significant portion of America's news business was built on the publication of ads for the sale and capture of enslaved people. In this course, we will explore the ways that journalists have succeeded and failed in covering marginalized racial communities, both in the distant and the more recent past. Students will study many examples of excellent reporting on race and take on their own original enterprise assignment, learning to find, pitch, report and write a polished, newsworthy feature story.

How journalists report on social upheaval shapes the public's understanding of the world beyond our borders. The global migration and refugee crises of this century can be traced, in part, to violence and conflicts that demand our understanding, and therefore, deep, nuanced reporting. With an emphasis on Latin America, this course will interrogate how we can cover different kinds of conflict, and the mass human displacements that follow, through a variety of lenses. Students will build practical journalistic skills and varied approaches to reporting in print, audio, and TV/documentary to produce stories on complex topics in another country.

This is a class on podcast production for aspiring humanists, as opposed to aspiring journalists, open to undergraduates and graduates. In this class, you will learn how to produce narrative-driven audio, like short segments, episodes, or series, on a humanistic subject matter, but tailored for a non-academic audience. We will cover the technical basics, such as working on a DAW, editing, and sound designing, and we will cover the craft of finding stories, interviewing, creating narrative arcs, tracking, and using archival tape. We will also have industry professionals guest lecture in the class. Projects will be completely audio-based.

In this hands-on seminar in non-fiction film, we work at the intersection of investigation and portraiture to explore how Central American migration has shaped two small cities: Trenton NJ and Salcajá, Guatemala. Our tool of inquiry is documentary film, which brings students in direct contact with intimate stories of real lives. Readings, screenings, and discussions focus on the topics of migration, reverse migration, remittances, and immigration policy, as well as the ethics and craft of film. Students will collaborate--with each other, subjects, and filmmakers in Guatemala--to produce and edit stories told from both sides of the border.