Columbia Journalism School Announces the Establishment of the Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights

The Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University announced today the establishment of The Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights which will, among other activities, award fellowships for journalists pursuing important work related to these subjects.

The center, to be directed by Jelani Cobb, the Ira A. Lipman professor of journalism, will begin awarding two annual fellowships in 2018. The fellowship is intended to produce a significant piece of reportage concerning civil and human rights in the United States. The fellows will be known as The Ira A. Lipman Fellows in Journalism and Civil and Human Rights.

“With contentious debates around immigration, religious freedom, voter suppression, crime and police accountability, we need journalism that can inform and shape our understanding of race, gender, diversity, and the evolution of civil rights,” said Dean Steve Coll in announcing the Center. “We are fortunate that we have in Ira A. Lipman a champion of both public interest journalism and equal rights for all Americans.”  

The activities of the center will include informing the public, convening leaders of journalism and civil rights, conducting research, designing curricula and developing student activities inspired and informed by the center’s work.

The center’s director, Jelani Cobb, will select those journalists to be awarded an Ira A. Lipman Fellowship. They will be of the highest caliber, whether established in their careers, poised to make a significant contribution, or closer to the start of promising careers.

“Our objective in all of our work is to help shape the discourse around a fraught subject that continues to undergird a great deal of American life,” said Jelani Cobb.  “We hope to support a cohort of reporters who bring the depth of knowledge and perspective to the coverage of race that we routinely expect of journalists who cover the economy, politics and foreign policy. To do so would be a service to the profession, and to the public.”