NYU Journalism Department Renamed the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute

By James Devitt

NYU’s Faculty of Arts and Science recently re-designated its Department of Journalism as the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, in recognition of Arthur Carter’s long-time support of journalism education at the University.
    Carter, founder of the New York Observer and the Litchfield County Times, has previously supported the department with fellowships, scholarships, and sponsored lectures. He also has taught as an adjunct professor of philosophy and journalism at NYU. Carter, who is also an accomplished artist, gave two of his works to the institute, which have been installed at the facility: Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue (2006), a large-scale, acrylic-on-canvas painting formed of bold, geometric lines and angles; and Psyche (2000), a sculpture of seven interlocking, angular stainless steel shapes.
    “In a world where the best have no conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity, as William Butler Yeats so eloquently said, it is only the Fourth Estate that can inspire the best and expose the worst,” Carter said at an October reception celebrating the re-designation. “We expect that the new journalism institute will embody the rigorous didactics that have existed and will become a formidable institution in the years to come.”
    The Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, which will remain in NYU’s Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS), culminates a major effort to rethink and reinvigorate university-level journalism education. It reflects the faculty’s long-held belief that journalism is best taught in a strong liberal arts environment where acquiring specific knowledge matters as much if not more than learning skills. To that end, graduate students study together in small, distinct units, each with a tailored curriculum that varies in subject matter and emphasis. Undergraduates must complete a second full major within NYU’s College of Arts and Science.
    “The journalism program at NYU emphasizes exemplary professional skills within the context of a rich liberal arts education, fostering a broad intellectual outlook and a critical perspective on the media’s role in society,” said Richard Foley, FAS dean.
    Foley appointed Brooke Kroeger as the institute’s first director. She has been department chair since the spring of 2005, during which time the department revamped its undergraduate curriculum and implemented its new graduate construct. It moved to a new facility at 20 Cooper Square whose design mirrors the curriculum’s emphasis on eliminating any lingering distinctions among old, new, digital, print, and broadcast media.
    Sixteen new members have joined the faculty the past three years, among them winners and recipients of the Pulitzer, National Book Critics Circle, George Polk, Lannan Literary, MacArthur, Guggenheim, and Dupont awards.
    For fall 2009, the institute is accepting applications for two new graduate study opportunities: “Literary Reportage,” which blends journalism’s emphasis on rigorous reporting and research with traditional academic disciplines in teaching long-form nonfiction, and “Studio 20,” in which students will learn to develop innovative video, audio, and experimental Web-based journalism intended for a live public beyond campus.
    For more on the institute, go to http://journalism.nyu.edu.

Arthur L. Carter, pictured above, is founder of the New York Observer and the Litchfield County Times.