Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship

Application Deadline: April 15th, 2022

The Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship provides academic and professional opportunities to advance the reporting skills of women and nonbinary journalists who focus on human rights and social justice. The Fellowship was created in memory of The Boston Globe correspondent and IWMF Courage in Journalism Award (1998) winner Elizabeth Neuffer, who died while reporting in Iraq on May 9, 2003. In collaboration with Neuffer’s family and friends, the IWMF started this program to honor Neuffer’s legacy while advancing her work in the fields of human rights and social justice.

The Neuffer Fellowship is designed for women, nonbinary, or gender non-conforming journalists with at least three years of professional experience in journalism working in print, broadcast, or digital media, either as a staff journalist or as a freelancer. All nationalities are welcome to apply but non-native English speakers must have excellent written and verbal English skills in order to fully participate in and benefit from the program.

The Fellow will complete research and coursework at MIT’s Center for International Studies and journalism internships at The Boston Globe and The New York Times. The flexible structure of the program will provide the fellow with opportunities to pursue academic research and hone her reporting skills. Past fellows have taken advantage of opportunities to publish work under their byline through various media outlets.

Requirements

• The Neuffer Fellowship is open to women, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming journalists whose work focuses on human rights and social justice issues. 
• All applicants for the Neuffer Fellowship must be working journalists with at least three years of full-time, professional journalism experience. Internships and journalism-related work completed as a university student do not count as professional experience. Applicants may be staff or freelance journalists.
• Journalists from any country around the world are eligible to apply. However, applicants must speak, read and write English fluently in order to fully participate in and benefit from the Fellowship.

Benefits

• Neuffer Fellows receive a fixed monthly stipend to cover their living costs. The IWMF also arranges and covers the cost of housing in Cambridge and New York City for the fellow.
• The IWMF purchases round-trip economy airfare from the fellow’s place of residence to Washington, D.C., as well as transportation between the Fellowship cities.
• The fellow receives health insurance during the program.
• The Fellowship does not include a salary.
• For fellows residing outside of the United States, the Fellowship also covers the costs of applying for and obtaining a U.S. visa. The fellow is fully responsible for any additional incidental expenses and other costs.

Application Procedure

A complete application will include the following information:

• Biography
• Current résumé or CV
• Statement of interest
• Fellowship goals
• Two work samples covering human rights or social justice issues (links preferred)
  • If work samples are not in English, applicants must upload their own translations along with a professional translator’s assessment of their accuracy. Alternatively, applicants may have their work samples translated professionally.
• Two letters of recommendation (in English)

• The application for the 2023 Neuffer Fellowship opens on March 1 and will close on April 15. To receive application notifications, sign up for the IWMF’s mailing list on our home page or follow our social media channels.
• The selection process concludes in June. All applicants are notified of their application status shortly thereafter. The press release announcing the Fellow is posted in July.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship 2022/2023