Student Work | Columbia Journalism School

Student Work

illustration of man wearing facial mask running from facility

Marco Dalla Stella, '21 M.S., reported his master's thesis on conditions in Italy's privatized migrant detention centers. It was published by Frontiere News.

Forgotten in a Detention Center for Migrants in Italy

Students in Ari Goldman's Covering Religion seminar traveled to Israel and Palestine for a Spring Break reporting trip. Their many stories are featured on the course website:

Covering Religion

Father in athletic gear and son in Hunter College t-shirt

Wufei Yu, '19 M.S., reports on a Queens plumber who left behind life as a martial arts champion in his native Uzbekistan and his current role coaching his son's athletic career.

Wrestling with past and present: Uzbek father and son cope with life’s takedowns

Protest with Spanish sign; in foreground: Man with chain prop around mouth

For the Spring 2018 session of Reporting in Conflict Zones, Clara Wend McMichael, '18 M.S., wrote an analysis for Global Comment on the high-cost U.S. "kingpin strategy" of capturing or killing the heads of Mexican criminal organizations.

Mexico’s kingpin strategy: A costly failure

Girls in beauty pageant, one with San Salvador sash, from Documented story

Eileen Grench, '18 M.S., reported her master's project on the Trump Administration's decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans living in the U.S. She continued reporting on the issue after graduation and published this story with Documented.

On Long Island, Salvadorans Brace for Impact

Man standing in street with I Voted sticker, from Documented NY story

On primary election day September 2018, students in the Reporting section taught by Profs. Ann Cooper and Samir Patel spoke with immigrant voters across New York City. Their street reporting was published by Documented, a site devoted to immigration issues in New York founded by CJS '16 alums.

For his master's project, Darkhan Omirbek, '19 M.S., profiled a 102-year-old Kazakh woman living in Virginia after fleeing her homeland during the Soviet collectivization project in the 1920s and then fleeing Soviet power again after the Soviet Union's military intervention in Afghanistan in 1979.

Wufei Yu, '19 M.S., reported on the struggles of Nepali immigrants facing deportation after the Trump administration announced an end to Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Nepalis this summer as an assignment for professor Dale Maharidge's Reporting class. The article was published in the Kathmandu Post, one of the largest English language papers in Nepal.

For his Master’s Project, '16 M.A., student Hassan Ghedi Santur traveled to Calais, France, over Winter Break to report on migrants in the notorious “Calais Camp.” Warscapes published his "Calais Jungle": Lives in Limbo based on that reporting, and a longer project that began with the Calais story became the e-book Maps of Exile.

Since the Covering Religion class began in 2001, classes have gone to Russia, India, Jordan and Palestine, Italy, Israel, and Ireland and Northern Ireland. The trips build on reporting students have done in New York. Multimedia work done by the class of 2017 appears at Sangam: Reporting on the religions of India. The Covering Religion class of 2018 traveled to Israel, and its reporting can be found at Godland.

For Prof. Howard French’s China Seminar, Kelsey Ables, '18 M.S., wrote about the rising tech costs for Chinese who want to jump the Great Firewall that their government uses to restrict Internet access. The Diplomat published her story.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, some celebrities and ordinary citizens vowed to move to Canada if Trump were elected. Three months after Trump took office, The Guardian published Kristin Schwab’s, '17 M.S., Master’s Project on Canada's history as a political and social haven for Americans.