Olga Loginova, '19 M.A. Science, Named 2024 Joan Konner Program in the Journalism of Ideas Fellow

Columbia Journalism School congratulates Olga Loginova, '19 M.A. Science, who has been awarded a fellowship in the Joan Konner Program in the Journalism of Ideas. This fellowship supports reporting in areas that depart from traditional journalism beats, focusing on ideas and beliefs.

The program honors the late Joan Konner, dean emerita of the school and producer of groundbreaking broadcast programs that explored the most compelling ideas of her time.

Loginova works as a producer, reporter and host on the nonfiction narrative podcast “Leaving the Island,” which investigates the first federally funded climate change-driven community resettlement in the U.S., focusing on members of the Jean Charles Chocktaw Nation. 

The tribe has seen its ancestral land on Louisiana’s Isle de Jean Charles swallowed up by hurricanes and floods in the Gulf of Mexico. The Joan Konner Fellowship will support the production of the final episode of the podcast. The project is a result of the collaborative investigation "Leaving the Island: The messy, contentious reality of climate relocation," which Loginova worked on as a 2021 Columbia Journalism Investigations' reporting fellow, in partnership with the Center for Public Integrity and Type Investigations.

In her continued reporting on the conflicts and complexities of the tribe as a Konner fellow, Loginova intends to explore the idea of community amid displacement. 

Loginova is a Belarusian-American multimedia journalist and filmmaker. She graduated from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 2019 with an M.A. in science, health and environmental reporting. She received the 2023 Amnesty International Media Award for a long-form feature about crimes against humanity in Belarus. 

Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Center for Public Integrity, Type Investigations, Yahoo! News, PopSci and others. Her documentaries have been published by VICE News, Eurasianet and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Loginova also holds an M.A. in broadcast and cinematic arts from Central Michigan University (2010).

Established through a bequest from the Konner estate and with generous support from the M & T Weiner Foundation, the program provides fellows like Loginova $10,000 and faculty mentorship on work in any medium and on any subject exploring the intellectual foundations and significant questions arising from the world of ideas.

The fellowship is named for Konner, ‘61 M.S., a broadcast news producer, documentarian, television executive and author who served as Dean from 1988 to 1997. Konner brought many innovations to the School, establishing both the part-time Masters of Science and Ph.D. programs and modernizing the curriculum.

Konner also served as a trustee of Columbia University. After her term as Columbia Journalism School dean, she was the publisher and later a member of the Board of Overseers for the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR). She lent her philanthropic support to CJR and the school by establishing an endowed scholarship, creating a graduation prize in her name, and restoring the school’s lobby. Her family has continued to support this legacy through the establishment of a visiting professorship and this endowed fellowship, both in her name. The fellowship is open to graduates of CJS master's programs from the last six years and Ph.D. students who have completed their coursework.