Ten U.S. journalists have been awarded International Reporting Project (IRP) Fellowships to report on important global topics, including four reporting projects on global religion.
The nine-week-long reporting fellowships, which provide U.S. journalists with opportunities to do in-depth overseas stories, will begin in September and end in November. The IRP, now in its 13th year, is based in Washington D.C. at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of The Johns Hopkins University.
The fall 2011 IRP Fellows, their affiliations and the countries where they will report are:
Emily Alpert, voiceofsandiego — Bolivia
Alex Daniels, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette — Benin
David Francis, freelance — Nigeria
Alex Gallafent, PRI/BBC “The World” — Swaziland
Matt Jenkins, freelance — Taiwan
Krista Mahr, TIME Asia — South Sudan
Megan Verlee, Colorado Public Radio — Ethiopia
Andrea Wenzel, WAMU-FM — Thailand
Jennifer Willis, freelance — Ireland
Jamison York, NPR’s “On the Media” — Malaysia
Each IRP Fellow spends five weeks reporting in the destination country. This fall’s group includes four journalists – Gallafent, Verlee, Wenzel and Willis – selected as part of a grant to the IRP from the Henry Luce Foundation for coverage of international religion.
“We’re very pleased to send these four reporters to Africa, Asia and Europe to report on important topics on religion as part of our Fellows program,” said John Schidlovsky, founding director of the International Reporting Project (IRP). The group also includes one journalist, Mahr, selected to report on genocide prevention related topics under a grant provided by the Stanley Foundation.
IRP Fellows’ prizewinning stories have appeared in scores of newspapers, magazines, on television, radio and online in various media organizations with which the IRP collaborates.