Faculty in Focus: Collaborative Stories
CJS faculty are building powerful partnerships, on campus and off, through ambitious reporting and boundary-pushing investigations.
Audio Storytelling in Action
Sally Herships and Daniel Alarcón teamed up for the 2025 Radio Race, helping judge entries and facilitating the fast-paced weekend competition where participants produced standout audio stories. Their partnership highlights Columbia’s commitment to fostering high-impact, hands-on audio journalism.
Learn more about audio storytelling opportunities.
Indigenous Land and U.S. Militarization
Fallout, a striking visual project about U.S. missile installations on Indigenous territories, brought together Dean of Academic Affairs Duy Linh Tu, Professor Nina Berman and Adjunct Professor Sebastian Tuinder. Through documentary photography and on-the-ground reporting, the team captured the environmental and cultural toll of militarization on tribal lands.
Exploring Voter Suppression Through Film
Dean Jelani Cobb and Professor June Cross co-directed the PBS documentary Whose Vote Counts examining the erosion of U.S. voting rights, barriers to participation and voter suppression and the ongoing fight for equal ballot access.
Watch the documentary.
Student and Professor Report Venezuela’s Political Crisis
While pursuing her M.S. degree, Mariana Hernández Ampudia, ’25 M.S., worked closely with Aida Alami, James Madison Visiting Professor on First Amendment Issues, to report on Venezuela’s deepening political turmoil under Nicolás Maduro. Their story, published by PassBlue, reveals how authoritarian power is reshaping everyday life and governance in the country.
Read the full story.
Explore more Collaborations:
Research-Driven Journalism at the Tow Center
At the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, faculty are working with Columbia Journalism Review to report on how newsrooms are responding to AI, platform shifts and declining public trust. Recent collaborations have included deep dives into automated news production, editorial transparency and the limits of algorithmic accountability.
Explore recent Tow and CJR investigations.