Nominations sought for new Nieman curator

The Office of the Provost is seeking nominations for a new curator to lead the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. Bob Giles, who has served as Nieman curator for the past decade, plans to retire from the post in June 2011.

All nominations as well as feedback and questions about the selection process may be sent to nieman_search@harvard.edu.

The Nieman curator is responsible for managing the foundation’s midcareer fellowship program, Nieman’s journalism awards, conferences and workshops, and all Nieman programs and publications. These activities include the Nieman Journalism Lab, an innovative collaborative that identifies emerging business models and best practices in journalism in the digital media age; “Nieman Reports,” an influential quarterly written by and for journalists since 1947; Nieman Watchdog, a project that encourages journalists to monitor and hold accountable all those who exert power in public life; and Nieman Storyboard, a website that showcases exceptional narrative journalism in every medium and explores the future of nonfiction storytelling.

The Nieman Foundation administers the oldest midcareer fellowship program for journalists in the world. Each year, some two-dozen working journalists are selected to come to Harvard to study, participate in exclusive seminars and attend special events. Accomplished reporters, editors, writers, producers, filmmakers and photojournalists join together to share ideas, learn from each other and collaborate on new projects. More than 1,300 midcareer journalists from 90 countries have received Nieman Fellowships since the program was established in 1938.

Under Bob Giles’ leadership, specialized reporting fellowships have been added to the Nieman program to increase coverage of issues often overlooked by the press including global health, business, arts and culture and community journalism. Giles also has arranged refuge at the foundation for a number of international journalists who have been persecuted and threatened on the job. The sanctuary the journalists have found on the Harvard campus has given them the freedom to write and speak openly about their experiences, make important new professional contacts and find the peer support they need to continue reporting.

The Nieman Foundation was created with a bequest to Harvard from Agnes Wahl Nieman in memory of her husband Lucius, founder and longtime publisher of The Milwaukee Journal.

Nieman’s mission is to promote and elevate the standards of journalism and educate persons deemed specially qualified for journalism.