Jill Carroll Taking Leave For Harvard Fellowship

By: Joe Strupp During the past year, Jill Carroll of the Christian Science Monitor has gone from barely-known freelancer to abducted journalist to author of the paper's most popular series ever.

So what's next? Harvard University fellow.

Starting Monday, Sept. 11, Carroll will become one of four fellows at the Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard. Her fellowship will run for the entire fall semester, as she takes a leave of absence from the Monitor.

She will spend her time there researching an issue that is likely close to her heart, the decline of foreign bureaus in the newspaper industry, according to the Shorenstein Web site.

Carroll, who has declined most interviews since her release, did not return requests for comment from E&P.

"She wanted to take a leave of absence," said Monitor Managing Editor Marshall Ingwerson, about the fellowship. Shorenstein Center director Alex Jones could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But his assistant, Jenn Goodman, confirmed the fellowship.

"It is a supported research project," Goodman said. She added that Carroll would receive a stipend for her work, which all fellows receive, but did not provide specifics. The other three Shorenstein fellows for the fall semester are Garance Franke-Ruta of The American Prospect; William Powers of National Journal; and Allan Siegal, formerly of The New York Times.

Monitor Spokesman Jay Jostyn said Carroll is expected to return to the newspaper upon completion of the fellowship in December. But he said her next assignment has yet to be determined. In recent weeks, as the popular 11-part series on her 82-day abduction in Iraq earlier this year was edited and published, Carroll had been editing stories in the Monitor newsroom.

The series, which recounted her ordeal at the hands of Iraqi kidnappers, ran in the newspaper and on its Web site from Aug. 14 to Aug. 28. It also included parts of a video interview with Carroll, as well as responses and questions from readers.

The Christian Science Monitor News Service, which has 162 regular clients reaching 14 million people, has revealed that the series was the most popular syndicated item among non-regular clients of the news service since the paper began operating the syndicate in January 2002.

Ingwerson said Carroll could return to foreign news reporting after the fellowship, but said all of the paper's overseas bureaus were filled. She had been a freelancer for the paper in Iraq at the time of her kidnapping on Jan. 7. She was promoted to full-time staffer during her captivity, which ended with her release on March 30.

"We would have a hard time seeing her back in Iraq," said Ingwerson. He added that the paper currently has no correspondents in that country, but is expected to have veteran Baghdad bureau reporters Scott Peterson and Dan Murphy return soon.