Rachel L. Swarns of New York University wins
2023 Bingham Fellowship Award

Rachel L. Swarns, a journalist, author and associate professor of journalism at New York University, is the 2023 recipient of the Barry Bingham Sr. Fellowship, awarded by the News Leaders Association.

The $1,000 award is given in recognition of an educator’s outstanding efforts to encourage students of color in the field of journalism. 

The News Leaders Association empowers journalists at all levels with the training, support and networks they need to lead and transform diverse, sustainable newsrooms.

The Bingham Fellowship selection committee, led by “Journal-isms“ columnist Richard Prince, was impressed by Swarns' dedication to using journalism to illuminate the nation's racial history, to setting an example for her students and her actions to support and empower them.

In nominating Swarns, her former NYU colleague Yvonne Latty, now director of the Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting at Temple University, recalled the police murder of George Floyd in 2020 and its aftermath of pain and national introspection. "Rachel and I talked almost every day. We were so driven by our pain and the demand of the times to DO SOMETHING.”

"We were constantly working on what we could bring to our students that would help. We held a zoom meeting just for our BIPOC students to vent, we did an event focused on trauma. Rachel led conversations that centered on reporting as a person of color. We raised money and worked hard to engage students. We held each other up when the national rhetoric of hate weakened us. Rachel’s response to hate was always what more can we do. Rachel worked tirelessly to bring anti-racist values and education into our white centered department."

Professor Latty added, "Together we developed and fundraised for 'The Big Read,' which brings our entire school community together under one critical topic. Our first year we did Isabel Wilkerson’s book, 'Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent.' We led small, thoughtful processing workshops for students. But the highlight was that we hosted Wilkerson who was in conversation with Rachel. Over 500 students, staff and faculty tuned in.”

"Last year Rachel led the department in a conversation about schools and the backlash in teaching African American history. She did a 'Big Listen' and students engaged in the podcast 'Southlake,' the Peabody-award winning podcast which explores the backlash to an inclusive curriculum in a Texas school district. . . ."

Swarns, who spent 22 years as a reporter and correspondent for The New York Times, currently serves as a contributing writer for the paper. Her articles about Georgetown University’s roots in slavery touched off a national conversation about American universities and their ties to this painful period of history. This month, Random House is publishing her "The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church."

Swarns also directs "Hidden Legacies: Slavery, Race and the Making of 21st Century America," a new initiative of NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. The initiative includes a lecture series and research projects, and intends "to deepen Americans’ understanding of the connections between slavery and contemporary institutions, and bring journalists, scholars, students and communities together to promote and produce research and reporting that illuminates the experiences of people of color in the United States."

"I am thrilled and honored to receive this award," Swarns said in learning of her selection. "It is such a privilege working with students, both inside and outside of NYU, to help prepare the next generation of journalists to hold power to account and to reflect the diverse voices around us and the complexity of the times we’re living in.''

The News Leaders Association is proud to award Professor Swarns with this year’s Barry Bingham Sr. Fellowship Award, and looks forward to seeing how she continues to encourage students of color to grow and develop in the field of journalism.

The NLA Awards are among the most prestigious in journalism and continue the long traditions of the previous ASNE and APME Awards. ASNE and APME began awarding the fellowship in 2016, after a merger with the Association of Opinion Journalists (AOJ).