News Service writers Cynthia Haven, left, who covers the arts and humanities, and Lisa Trei, who covers the social sciences, were both awarded with the Milena Jesenská Fellowship for North American Journalists.
Two staff writers at the Stanford Report, Cynthia Haven and Lisa Trei, have been awarded prestigious fellowships to pursue in-depth research on a European topic of their choice. But their good fortune wasn't without a little awkwardness in the office.
The Milena Jesenská Fellowship for North American Journalists, a program of the Institute for Human Sciences at Boston University, is open to journalists working in print, broadcast and electronic media. The fellowship, established in 2005, attracts applicants nationwide from all fields of journalism—making the fact that this year's winners occupy adjoining cubicles something of a fluke.
The North American fellowship complements an existing program for European journalists based in Vienna's Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM), an independent, interdisciplinary center for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences.
Haven covers arts and humanities for the News Service and Trei covers social sciences. Haven was the first to come across the fellowship program. But when she learned of Trei's previous experience as an American journalist based in Estonia, Haven figured the fellowship would be perfect for Trei.
"I had received a few brochures about the fellowship in the mail, and after Lisa told me about her work in Estonia, I gave her one and told her she should apply," Haven said. "She said she didn't have time, so I looked at the brochure again and thought, 'Gee, why don't I apply?'"
Haven, who has written extensively about Russian and Polish 20th-century literature, said she wasn't sure that the judging committee, which included editors from the New York Times and Foreign Affairs, would award a literary journalist. However, Haven's confidence in the breadth and strength of her own freelance work motivated her to apply anyway.
Haven joined the News Service last spring after writing for the Washington Post Book World, Los Angeles Times Book Review, Times Literary Supplement and Stanford magazine. A recipient of more than a dozen literary and journalistic awards, Haven also has published several books. She is currently working on another book, Czeslaw Milosz: Memories and Reflections, which has received a Kosciuszko Foundation grant.
Prior to joining the Stanford News Service in 1997, Trei spent six years in Estonia, where she covered the breakup of the Soviet Union and the reemergence of the independent Baltic states for the Wall Street Journal Europe, Newsweek, BusinessWeek and several U.S. newspapers.
Last summer, Trei returned to Estonia to visit relatives on her father's side of the family. But just before she left, Haven handed her one of the brochures. "I looked at it and thought, 'I don't have time for this!' and stuck it in my purse," Trei said. "Then, on a four-hour bus trip through Estonia, I was fishing through my purse and found the brochure. I had nothing to do, so I started reading it and decided to apply."
Unbeknownst to each other, both ended up applying and winning. Haven and Trei will do their work during the summer, and each will receive a stipend and be provided with office space at the Vienna-based institute. The program also awards fellows with travel grants to conduct research in other countries in the region where the institute has an extensive network of contacts among intellectuals, scholars and politicians, as well as in the news media.
During her fellowship, Haven will travel in Poland while exploring the social, political and cultural context of Polish poetry in the 20th century, and its legacy in the 21st. Trei's investigation of Russia's increasingly emboldened challenges to the sovereignty of its Baltic neighbors will take her to Estonia and Belgium. "This just speaks to the quality of the folks we have here at the Stanford Report," Trei said. "They looked at our applications and approved and supported them. That's really a feather in the cap of Stanford News Service and the people they have working here."
Trei's planned research dovetails closely with her new position on campus. Starting next month, she will become the public affairs manager at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, an interdisciplinary research and training center within the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
Ashley Kamiura is an intern at the Stanford News Service.
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2008/january16/lithia-011608.html
