On March 28, the Humanities Council’s Program in Journalism named Eliza Griswold ’95 its new director. This is the first change in leadership for the program since current director Joe Stephens founded the program in 2018.
Griswold graduated from Princeton in 1995 with an A.B. in English. She is a contributing writer for The New Yorker, and covers a diverse range of issues, including war, politics, and the environment. Most recently, she wrote about children who have lost their limbs in Gaza, and in 2019, her book “Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America” won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
In an interview with The Daily Princetonian, Griswold discussed the importance of bridging the divide between different ideologies.
“I strongly believe and know from my experience, both abroad and in America, that journalism really requires crossing lines of difference … which is really going to be at the heart of what I’m bringing to the program,” she said.
As part of this effort, Griswold will be teaching The Media in America: Witnessing History (JRN260) in the fall.
“We’re going to be covering the election as a virtual newsroom,” she explained, adding that the class will be working with a nonprofit news organization “to learn how to cover an election beyond horse race politics. Too often as journalists, we come in in an election year … and ask, ‘Who are you voting for?’”
Griswold also plans to cover the election for The New Yorker as much as she can, “so the students will be seeing me do that firsthand and learning how I myself try to look for stories and people to write about who defy our easy expectations of what, of how, people vote,” she said.
For University Professor of English Esther Schor, who chairs the Humanities Council, “all the stars aligned” for Griswold’s selection.
“She’s the kind of distinguished journalist that we try to hire even for one semester here,” said Schor in an interview with the ‘Prince.’
“She writes incisively and deeply about religion, about war, about underserved communities, about fracking and extraction resources,” Schor said. “She does immersive reporting, and comes out with extraordinary pieces.”
Schor also emphasized that Griswold “has a humanistic background and a devotion to the humanities” beyond journalism. In 2010, Griswold received the Rome Prize for her poetry, and she has translated Pashto poems by female Afghan poets into English.
Stephens also expressed his excitement about Griswold’s leadership in an interview with the ‘Prince.’
“I know she will bring creativity and energy to her new role, and I really expect to learn a lot from her,” he said.
The director position has a term of six years, meaning it was time for Stephens to step down. However, he plans to continue teaching courses in the program.
“Helping found and direct the formal program in journalism really has been the privilege of a lifetime,” he said. “I’ve learned so much, and had so much fun. And alongside my colleagues and the students, we've made real progress in so many areas.”
Stephens also discussed the efforts the program has made to increase diversity and inclusion in terms of faculty, course offerings, and curriculum, saying, “Our team has organized and hosted scores of high-profile panels and lunch talks, where leading journalists and academics wrestled with vexing issues in the field. Our aim has been to weave journalism into the fabric of traditional academic life.”
“It’s been a heck of a six years and all of that has only been a prologue — there’s more yet to come,” Stephens said.
Griswold also said she hopes to enhance the interdisciplinary nature of the Program in Journalism, noting, “The skills of journalism apply across the board in sociology and religion, in environmental students, in history.”
“I’m really looking forward to collaborating with different departments within the University so that students who might not see themselves as becoming journalists can find a path to the journalism department to gather skills that they want for [any] career,” she added.
Most of all, Griswold is excited to teach Princeton students. “If you told me I'd be coming back to do this, I don't think I would have believed it because it would have felt too good to be true,” she said.
Olivia Sanchez is an associate News editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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