About the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists
The Knight-Wallace Fellowships provide accomplished journalists an academic year of study, collaborative learning and access to the resources of the University of Michigan to pursue ambitious journalism projects, tackle challenges facing the journalism industry and participate in weekly private seminars with journalism leaders, renowned scholars, media innovators and social change agents. This cohort marks the 52nd class of Fellows in the program’s history.
Tim Alberta
Tim Alberta is a journalist, author and staff writer for The Atlantic. He formerly served as chief political correspondent for POLITICO. In 2019 he published “American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump,” which debuted at No. 2 on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2023 he published, “The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism,” which spent 11 weeks on the Times bestseller list. Other career highlights include co-moderating a 2020 presidential debate and winning the National Magazine Award for his profile of then-CNN Worldwide chairman Chris Licht. Alberta is a proud graduate of Michigan State University.
Analyzing the Erosion of Americans’ Trust
Decades of polling and research document the rate at which Americans have lost confidence in their country’s most essential institutions: the federal government, public education, law enforcement, the ballot box, Wall Street, organized religion, the health-care system, and of course, news media. As a joint Social Science Fellow with the university’s Institute for Social Research, Alberta will set out to make sense of the cynicism, misinformation and mad-as-hell populism that have, over a period of decades, combined to usher in this new, post-trust society.
Tim Alberta is the James S. House and Wendy Fisher House Social Science Fellow.
Ismail Einashe
Ismail Einashe is a London-based journalist and author whose work on migration and refugee issues has appeared in numerous publications – including Foreign Policy, The Guardian, BBC News, The Nation, The Sunday Times and ArtReview. He is the author of “Strangers” (2023), a book by Tate Publishing that explores migration through the lens of art, and he co-edited “Lost in Media: Migrant Perspectives and the Public Sphere” (2019), a collection of critical essays examining how migrants are represented in European media. Einashe is also part of a team of journalists working on a cross-border journalism collaborative called Lost in Europe, which investigates the disappearance of child migrants.
Reimagining Migration Reporting Through the Lens of Art and Trauma
Einashe will examine migration reporting by studying the intersection of the science of trauma and the various creative forms that journalists can use in their storytelling. In particular, he will explore the role art can play in going beyond the headlines to reclaim the humanity and dignity of those affected by global displacement.
David de Jong
avid de Jong is a journalist and author who currently works as a Middle East correspondent for Het Financieele Dagblad, the Netherlands’s premier business newspaper. His stories are known for holding the rich and powerful accountable. De Jong’s first book, “Nazi Billionaires: the Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties,” was published in 2022 by HarperCollins and has since been translated from English into more than twenty languages. De Jong previously reported for Bloomberg News, covering European banking and finance from Amsterdam and hidden wealth and billionaires from New York. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair and Bloomberg Businessweek, among other publications. De Jong hails from Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Investigating the Education Policy Influence of Michigan’s Dutch Business Dynasties
De Jong will investigate how Michigan’s Dutch-American business dynasties are influencing U.S. education policy. These business leaders, who have built wealth and influence in western Michigan, consistently lobby for school choice, voucher programs, privatization, subsidized religious education and other major changes to public education.