Jill Abramson joining Harvard as visiting lecturer

Jill Abramson, former New York Times editor, will teach undergraduate courses on narrative nonfiction in the fall and spring semesters, the school said.

|
Nell Redmond/AP/File
Jill Abramson, former executive editor of The New York Times, speaks at the commencement ceremony at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., May 19, 2014.

Former New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson is joining Harvard University as a visiting lecturer this coming school year, the university announced Thursday.

Abramson will teach undergraduate courses on narrative nonfiction in the fall and spring semesters, the school said.

Abramson was executive editor for the Times more than two years, and was the first woman to hold the post, before her abrupt dismissal in May. Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said at the time that Abramson's newsroom management style was the reason for her ouster. He strongly denied suggestions from critics that her gender played a role.

The Times elevated managing editor Dean Baquet to succeed Abramson.

Abramson, a 1976 Harvard graduate, said in a statement that she is excited to be returning to her alma mater.

"Narrative non-fiction journalism is more important than ever," she said. "Its traditions and how it is changing in the digital transition are fascinating areas of study."

Besides executive director, Abramson was an investigative reporter, Washington bureau chief, and managing editor for the Times during her years there, beginning in 1997. She previously was an investigative reporter and deputy Washington bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal and editor of Legal Times.

Abramson also has taught at Yale and Princeton and is author of several books, including "Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas" with Jane Mayer.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Jill Abramson joining Harvard as visiting lecturer
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0612/Jill-Abramson-joining-Harvard-as-visiting-lecturer
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe