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Underwood wins 2011 Dart Academic Fellowship
May 23, 2011
Professor Doug Underwood’s interest in the impacts of trauma, violence and emotional distress on journalists and their writing has shifted during his professional and academic career. Over the past few years, Underwood has taken the teachings of the Dart Center West, at the UW, and incorporated what he has learned into his research and journalism courses. He was recently chosen as a recipient of the 2011 Dart Academic Fellowship Program.
The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, based at Columbia University in New York, is a global network of journalists, journalism educators and health professionals dedicated to improving media coverage of trauma, conflict and tragedy. Dart Center West is a satellite office.
“Any time you get an opportunity to go to a training program and work with people who have a strong background and interest in something that you yourself are deeply exploring, it’s comforting to know that you can go back and share your experiences with others,” Underwood said.
The Dart Academic Fellowship Program, a three-day gathering of 14 journalism educators from North America, Australia and Great Britain, will take place in mid-June at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Fellows will receive in-depth training that will give them the skills to develop curricula that will better educate students on newsgathering, storytelling and self-care when reporting on human tragedy.
Underwood teaches two courses that give students insight into the dark concept of trauma in journalism. “Trauma, News and Narrative,” teaches the role that traumatic stories and life events have played in the writing careers of prominent figures. His narrative journalism course asks students to incorporate themes of trauma into their writing, oftentimes drawing from their own traumatic life experiences.
Underwood says that these courses serve as learning experiences, not only for his students, but for him, as well. “I’m getting a lot from the students because I’m learning how to share and talk about traumatic experiences,” he said. He recently wrote an addendum to his COM 495 class syllabus because he learned that when students talk about their own traumatic experiences in class, it can produce secondary traumatic effects — especially when others cannot relate. “We can’t always reduce everything to intellectual ideas. We need to be respectful of people’s emotions and their real experiences.”
Making connections with others who are deeply involved in the area of trauma in journalism is one of Underwood’s biggest goals for his time in the program. Learning how other fellows are managing this topic in the classroom will have a profound impact on the way Underwood continues his lessons.
“I’m hopeful that the Dart program will both give me insights and contacts with others who are wrestling with the same dilemmas. I want to talk to people about the kind of teaching they’re doing in trauma, how they’re doing it, and anything that could be helpful for me,” he said.
Underwood would like to learn how others are incorporating research on the effects of trauma on journalistic writers and the audience into their courses. His most recent book, Chronicling Trauma: Journalists and Writers on Violence and Loss, examines the role that trauma has played in the lives of more than 100 famous writers, like Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway and Dorothy Parker. He uses his book, along with the original works of such authors, as stepping-off points in his courses.
Although Underwood is entrenched in the study of trauma in journalism today, he was not always involved in the topic. Before coming to the University of Washington, he worked for 13 years as a journalist, writing only a handful of stories on traumatic events.
“I had what I would consider to be the classic low-level traumatic experiences,” he said. In his time as a journalist working for the Lansing State Journal (1974-1976), and Gannett News Service’s Washington, D.C., bureau (1976-1981), Underwood recalls two instances in which the events were traumatic for those experiencing them — but not traumatic for Underwood himself.
On December 28, 1978, Underwood was sent to cover the story of United Airlines flight 173 that had crashed in Portland, Ore., at the foot of the runway, killing ten of the 189 on board. He remembers seeing a little boy and his father, passengers of the downed flight, being ushered to the buses that were being sent to the hospital. With his son clinging to him, afraid of what would happen next, the father comforted him saying, “No, no, no, we’re not going to have to go on an airplane again right now.”
In 1977, Underwood covered the Hanafi Siege, led by 12 militants who took over three buildings in Washington, D.C. — buildings that happened to be across the street from Underwood’s office. During the 39-hour standoff, 149 hostages were taken and two were killed. “That would probably be the closest I came to being in a situation where a journalist could face trauma,” Underwood said.
In 1981, he began working as the Olympia legislative bureau chief and the chief political writer for The Seattle Times. Working in “a fairly antiseptic kind of world” as a political reporter, the tendencies of facing trauma were even less so. “You’re not dealing directly with the emotions of trauma, but sometimes indirectly as you’re covering international affairs that have overtones of trauma,” Underwood said.
In 1987, Underwood joined the faculty of the School of Communications, as it was then called, and began teaching in the areas of media ethics, media and religion, journalism and literature, and media management and economics. It wasn’t until later that he discovered his interest in trauma in journalism, awakened by two events — the introduction of the Dart Center at the UW, and his marriage to Susanne Kromberg in 1997.
Underwood met Kromberg at a Quaker seminary while on sabbatical when he was researching religion in journalism. In the nearly 14 years they’ve been married, Kromberg, who works as a hospital chaplain, has been a great source of knowledge for him when it comes to understanding the impacts of trauma.
“Every night around the dinner table we talk about the traumatic issues she’s had to deal with throughout the day. My wife has taught me that there’s a lot more wisdom to be gained. That’s really kept me sensitized,” Underwood said.
Underwood describes his former journalist-self as a “stereotypical hard outer-shell tough guy,” who carried the mindset of, “Don’t tell me all your issues and your problems. Let’s just do the job.” He admits, now, that time has changed him.
“I’ve been sensitized in my years here. Every new event presents you with something that you aren’t prepared for,” he said. “The reason I came here and left journalism is I wanted to be in an environment where I could grow as a person, writer and teacher.”
When he returns from the Dart fellowship, Underwood will share what he's learned with his students. He said, “What makes this research institution really work is when your research is really giving you the opportunity to give your students a chance to share in what you’re discovering.”
