2017 Year in Review

This year, New America’s current and former National Fellows authored seven books and released two films on topics such as the 2008 financial crisis, climate change, Obama’s foreign policy, jihadist extremism, as well as the threat of big tech.

Souad Mekhennet’s I Was Told to Come Alone was one of the Washington Post’s “Best Books of 2017” and books by Jeff Goodell and Meredith Wadman were listed as notable works of nonfiction for 2017. Franklin Foer’s AWorld Without Mind was named on the New York Times’ “100 Notable Books of 2017” list.

The following books were reviewed by the New York Times in 2017: Alexis Okeowo's A Moonless, Starless Sky (also listed on Vogue's Best Books List), Jeff Goodell's The Water Will Come, Jesse Eisinger's The Chickenshit Club, Frank Foer's A World Without Mind, and Souad Mekhennet's I Was Told to Come Alone.

Legion of Brothers, a film directed by Greg Barker, ASU Future of War Fellow, and produced by Peter Bergen, premiered at Sundance and aired on CNN. In addition, Magnolia Pictures acquired worldwide rights to Barker’s upcoming film, The Final Yearwhich premiered at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival and will release in theaters in January 2018.

After 18 months of deep reporting on the ground in Iraq, Azmat Khan, ASU Future of War Fellow, and Anand Gopal, ISP Fellow, co-wrote a groundbreaking cover story, "The Uncounted," for the New York Times Magazine’s November 2017 issue. The story uncovered new information about civilian casualties caused by coalition airstrikes.

For the New York Times Magazine, Gideon Lewis-Kraus’ December 2016, "The Great A.I. Awakening," cover story explored the future of Artificial Intelligence and garnered nearly two million views.

For the New York Times Magazine’s September 2017 education issue, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Emerson Fellow, wrote the cover story, “The Resegregation of Jefferson County.” Mosi Secret, Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fellow, wrote “The Way to Survive It Was to Make ‘A’s” for that same issue, and the story was featured on This American Life.

Throughout 2017, Joshua Yaffa, National Fellow and the New Yorker’s Moscow Correspondent, published a series of articles focused on U.S-Russia relations. He, along with David Remnick and Evan Osnos, co-wrote the February 2017 cover story, “Trump, Putin, and the New Cold War.”

Mara Hvistendahl, National Fellow, published the January 2018 cover story for WIRED, "Inside China's Vast New Experiment in Social Ranking," on the development of a social-credit ranking system in China.

Matthew Davis wrote a feature piece, "'America's Deaf Team' Tackles Identity Politics," for the May 2017 issue of the Atlanticabout Gallaudet University's deaf football team.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, Emerson Fellow, was selected for the MacArthur ‘Genius’ grant, making her the second fellow from that class to receive the award, following Lauren Redniss’ selection in 2016.

Chris Leonard's forthcoming book Kochlandwon the 2017 J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award. The Lukas Prizes are given by the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Jude Joffe-Block, New Arizona Fellow, was named Best Radio Investigative Reporter by Phoenix Magazine for her coverage of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

This year, we received 532 applications for the 2018 New America National Fellowship, the most since launching the program. The competitive selection process is reflected in the immense talent of the 13 National Fellows who earned a spot in this class, as well as the 23 fellows that were renewed.

On December 1, Awista Ayub was promoted from Deputy Director to Director of the Fellows Program. Peter Bergen, VP & Director of ISP, stepped down as Director of the program, a role he held since 2014. He will remain a Senior Advisor to the program.