Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Surviving 9/11

By Robert Jay Lifton, M.D. and Charles B. Strozier

This tenth anniversary of the attacks on 9/11, for all its potential to reawaken a painful past, also moves personal loss into collective historical memory. That can be a painful process but also offers a moment for reflection and the creation of new meanings.

Beyond Bloody Sunday

In the wake of a landmark report about Bloody Sunday, one journalist's reflections on Northern Ireland's past and future.

After Katrina: The Gulf Carries On

By John Pope

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf Coast faces another disaster–the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. A staff writer for The New Orleans Times-Picayune reflects on how lessons from the storm shape coverage of the latest crisis.

Black Saturday: One Year Later

By Cait McMahon

As the anniversary of Australia's worst peacetime disaster approaches, expert guidance on how to reflect without retraumatising.

The Story Behind a 2010 Dart Award Winner

By Sheri Fink

In a Katrina-flooded hospital, doctors injected patients with painkillers and sedatives. Were they easing their pain or speeding their deaths? In a 2009 interview, ProPublica reporter Sheri Fink, winner of the 2010 Dart Award, explains how she pursued the story.

Covering School Shootings

Student journalists and advisers from Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University show how they reported on mass-casualty attacks on their campuses. Video, timelines and tip sheets for student journalists and educators.

Revisiting Matthew Shepard's Murder

By Kerry Drake

An editor at the Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune offers a look behind the scenes at reporting the murder of Matthew Shepard and covering its tenth anniversary.

Reporter's Notebook: Reliving the Day

By Beth Fertig

The press release arrived in my email one day in early August. It was from the Fire Department of New York, announcing that—in compliance with a lawsuit brought by the New York Times—the department would be releasing the recordings of its dispatch tapes from September 11, 2001.

Hurricane Opens Trauma Wounds

By Frank Ochberg

Now that a major storm has struck the same regions that were battered last year, people face something called re-traumatization. What does that mean and what can we do about it?

10 Years Later: Reflecting in Oklahoma

By Joe Hight

Another early morning. Another day of getting ready for work. Another radio news show blasting loudly in the house.