Twelve journalists selected as 2005-06 U.S. Knight Fellows

Twelve U.S. journalists have been awarded John S. Knight Fellowships at Stanford University for the 2005-06 academic year.

During their stay at the university, the Knight Fellows will pursue independent courses of study and participate in special seminars. The 2005-06 program marks the 40th year that Stanford has offered fellowships for professional journalists.

Financial support for the U.S. fellows comes primarily from an endowment provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The program also will include a group of International Knight Fellows. They will be announced later this month.

Following are the 2005-06 U.S. Knight Fellows and their principal areas of study:

Jo-Ann Armao, assistant managing editor/metropolitan news at the Washington Post, will study race and immigration in America.

Karen de Sá, a staff writer at the San Jose Mercury News, will study juvenile justice and the criminalization of youth.

Emily Harris, a Berlin correspondent for National Public Radio, will study Islam in contemporary politics.

Pam Maples, assistant managing editor/projects and investigations at the Dallas Morning News, will study the fragmentation of news media and the implications for its watchdog role.

Maria Martin, president of Gracias Vida Productions (Austin, Texas), will study transnational communities, the role of media in promoting democracy and power dynamics in societies undergoing demographic change.

Tom Meyer, an editorial cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle, will study the role of metaphoric language in culture and politics.

Ivan Penn, a reporter at the Baltimore Sun, will study African American entrepreneurship.

Mary Pols, a movie critic at the Contra Costa Times, will explore the role of the critic as educator, entertainer and communicator.

Janet Rae-Dupree, a freelance technology writer (San Jose), will study how corporate funding, federal funding and market considerations influence academic research and innovation.

Laura Rauch, a western regional photographer for the Associated Press, will study how and why America goes to war.

Mike Swift, a staff writer at the Hartford Courant, will study the "male code": how manhood is shaped by culture and the cost to men.

Gary Wolf, a contributing editor at Wired magazine, will study the legal and extralegal systems of justice and dispute resolution.

The U.S. fellows were chosen by the Knight Fellowships Program Committee: Eavan Boland, Stanford professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program; Robert Boyd, national science writer, Knight-Ridder; Luis Fraga, Stanford associate professor of political science; Theodore Glasser, Stanford professor of communication and director of the Graduate Journalism Program; William B. Gould IV, Stanford professor of law; Ardith Hilliard, executive editor, The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.); James Mallory, managing editor, initiatives and operations, Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Norman Naimark, Stanford professor of history; and Rita Williams, reporter, KTVU-TV, Oakland.

The Knight Fellowships program director is James R. Bettinger. Dawn E. Garcia is the deputy director.

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