Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Applications Open for Inaugural Academic Fellowships

Journalism educators seeking to improve coverage of violent events are invited to apply by March 26 for the inaugural Dart Center Academic Fellowship program.

What 'Precious' Means for Clinicians

By Tanya Paperny

The 82nd annual Academy Awards are coming up on March 7, and one of the films in the running, nominated for six Oscars, is "Precious."  It's the story of a 16-year-old African-American girl living in Harlem who suffers physical, sexual and emotional abuse and is pregnant by her own father. It's the first film directed by an African-American to ever be nominated for best picture. It's also the first film in a long time to bring the issue of child sexual abuse to the forefront of the Academy Awards ceremony and the American imagination. More »

Challenging Conventional Wisdom About PTSD

By Stan Alcorn

Conventional wisdom about the psychological impact of war on soldiers turns out to be not very wise at all.  While public awareness of post-traumatic stress disorder has increased dramatically in recent years, in the minds of many it represents everything bad that combat can do to the mind and spirit. And the very term "disorder" implies a permanent condition from which there is little hope for recovery. More »

When Veterans Come Home

By Stan Alcorn

A soldier can leave the battlefield, but coming home doesn't mean the war is over. Men and women in the military are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan only to face a new set of struggles, as they carry physical and psychological wounds into a society that doesn't fully understand their experience or their sacrifice. To help them through the challenges of reintegration, the public needs to hear their stories, told with effective, ethical and sensitive reporting. More »

Shock and Resilience in Samoa

By Jon Stephenson

Mata’afa Kene Lesa woke up in heaven Sept. 19 and found himself in hell. When a tsunami struck Upolu, one of Western Samoa’s two main islands, Lesa – the editor of Samoa Observer – was one of the first local journalists to respond, racing to the affected area to be met by scenes of death and devastation. More »

Workshop on Veterans

A call for applications for a three-day workshop on the practical challenges of covering veterans and their communities Jan. 7 to Jan. 9, 2010.

Reckoning with the Khmer Rouge

By Ung Bun Y

Journalists covering the Khmer Rouge tribunal are learning how to confront painful and seldom discussed memories of the atrocities that devastated all of Cambodia.

Gaza: Where There is No Escape

By Gavin Rees

If there is one constant in the political history of Gaza over the 61 years since the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, it is that whenever it is thought that the situation can’t get any worse, it usually does. The Israeli-Hamas war that ended three months ago left many hundreds dead, thousands of others robbed of their livlihoods and the political divisions within Palestinian society just as deeply fissured as before. More »

Training: Reporting Trauma

 In Canberra, Dart Centre Australasia conducts its third annual two-day training session for regional journalists.

Briefing: Managing Haiti Coverage

At the National Press Club in Washington D.C., a briefing for news managers about helping newsrooms stay resilient.