Three-time Emmy winner and associate professor Peter W. Klein will take the helm of the University of British Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism as Acting Director, starting on July 1, 2011.
Peter Klein
In 2009 Klein created the University of British Columbia’s International Reporting Program, in which he and his colleagues take graduate students around the world to report on under-covered global stories.
The International Reporting Program’s first project, an investigation of the global electronic waste trade, took them to Ghana, India and China, and the resulting Frontline/WORLD documentary earned them the Emmy for Best Investigative Magazine Story last year, as well as the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Best Documentary.
“Professor Klein has helped to strengthen and transform the School’s approach to international investigative reporting and broadcast journalism,” wrote Dr. Gage Averill, the Dean of Arts, in his announcement of the posting.
“He bridges practice and pedagogy with a strong student focus, and he will bring to the position a clear vision of the transformations underway in media and journalism.”
UBC’s journalism school is one of only four standalone graduate journalism programs in North America, and it has earned a reputation since its founding in 1999 as a leader in digital and global journalism.
Its faculty include industry leaders like Alfred Hermida, one of the founding editors of the BBC News website; Dave Beers, the National Magazine Award-winning editor of The Tyee; Candis Callison, a leading scholar and journalist; long-time CBC host Kathryn Gretsinger; and Mary Lynn Young, a former Globe & Mail columnist.
“I’m looking forward to leading our program during this turbulent and exciting period of journalism history,” said Klein. “I am so fortunate to work with some of the top digital journalists in the world, and we’re paving the path to the future of this industry.”
The School is planning on expanding its International Reporting Program, creating a centre that will support major works of journalism, and foster new forms of digital global reporting. Prof. Klein will be leading the effort to get the new International Reporting Centre off the ground.
