2019 Ochberg Fellowship

The Ochberg Fellowship, now in its 20th year, is the Dart Center's flagship program for senior and mid-career journalists who wish to deepen their knowledge of emotional trauma and psychological injury, and improve reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy. The next fellowship will take place July 22-27, 2019. The application deadline has passed.

Reporting responsibly and credibly on violence or traumatic events — on street crime and family violence, natural disasters and accidents, humanitarian crises, war and genocide — is a major challenge. The Ochberg Fellowship enables 12-14 outstanding journalists from around the globe to explore these critical issues during a week of seminars held at Columbia University in New York City. Program includes briefings by prominent interdisciplinary experts in the trauma and mental health fields; conversations with journalist colleagues on journalism ethics, craft, and practice; and various other opportunities for intellectual engagement and peer learning.

The Fellowship is led by a core faculty of journalists and mental health professionals from the Dart Center, along with a visiting faculty. Past fellowship faculty have included:

The 2018 Dart Center Ochberg Fellows pose for a group photo in front of Columbia Journalism School.

  • Jelani Cobb, Professor of Journalism, Columbia Journalism School, and Staff Writer, The New Yorker
  • Judith Lewis Herman, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and author of Trauma and Recovery
  • Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here and The Other Side of the River
  • Karestan Koenen, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology, Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health
  • Jessica Stern, author of Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill and Denial: A Memoir of Terror.
  • Jonathan Shay, M.D. Ph.D., Clinical Psychiatrist, MacArthur Fellow and author of Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus in America
  • Steven Southwick, M.D., Glenn H. Greenberg Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine and co-author, Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges.

The fellowship is named in honor of Frank Ochberg, M.D., a pioneer in the study of trauma.

The program will be held July 22-27, 2019 at Columbia University in New York City.

The deadline to apply -- February 13, 2019 at 5:00 pm EST -- has passed. Click here for application guidelines.

Click here for testimonials from recent fellows.

And click here to learn about last year's fellows, and here to see all past fellows.