Deadline: 21 April 2024
What is the Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship?
The Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship is a unique, transformative learning opportunity open to women and nonbinary journalists from every country around the world. Since 2005, the IWMF has selected one Neuffer Fellow each year to complete a six-month Fellowship focused on human rights and social justice issues. 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.
Those selected for the Fellowship spend a semester at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and The Boston Globe. During their time in Cambridge, Neuffer Fellows audit a variety of classes, attend seminars and events, pursue independent research and gain newsroom experience. Neuffer Fellows are also able to audit classes at other local universities including Harvard. After the semester, those selected for the Fellowship spend two months in New York City interning for the The New York Times. With the knowledge they gain from these academic and professional opportunities, fellows return to work as journalists in their home countries where they advance Elizabeth Neuffer’s work in the fields of human rights and social justice.
What is the timeline for the Neuffer Fellowship? And, where will the Neuffer Fellowship take place?
The Neuffer Fellowship will begin in February and conclude in July. Previously, the Fellowship began in the fall and concluded in the spring every year.
Neuffer Fellows are based at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts from February to May. Working with the IWMF, they design a program that will enable them to pursue academic research while improving their ability to cover human rights and social justice issues.
Following the spring semester, Neuffer Fellows are based in New York City where they complete a full-time internship at The New York Times from June to July.
Fellows must complete the entire six-month program.
What courses can I take?
During the spring semester, Neuffer Fellows have the opportunity to audit a variety of classes at MIT and other local universities. Neuffer Fellows work with the Center for International Studies to design their academic schedules, and each fellow decides how many classes they want to audit, as well as how much time they want to spend in The Boston Globe newsroom. Applicants may visit the website for the Center for International Studies to learn more, as well as browse MIT’s course listings here.
Am I eligible?
The Neuffer Fellowship is open to women, nonbinary, 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.
Applicants nominate themselves for the Neuffer Fellowship by submitting an application and supplementary materials via Submittable.
What is the application and selection timeline?
The application for the 2025 Neuffer Fellowship opens on March 4 and will close on April 21, 2024. 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 application information, visit their website here.
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