Marguerite Holloway ('88 M.S.), a professor of professional practice at Columbia Journalism School and the co-director of the Master of Arts Program's Science Concentration, has been publishing important multimedia stories in The New York Times and The New Yorker about how climate change is impacting life across the United States. Recently, she wrote a story about how tree doctors are dealing with the damage that climate change has done to the health of New England's forests. She also published a story about how the extreme heat in Phoenix, Arizona has caused many of the city's residents to stay indoors until after sunset. In 2018, she reported on how climate change is drastically changing the ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park.
As co-director, with Professor Jonathan Weiner, of the Master of Arts Program's Science Concentration, Professor Holloway teaches Master of Arts students how to write more deeply and engagingly about climate change and a wide range of other scientific, medical, health, and environmental topics. Providing an understanding of the culture and practice of science, the M.A. Science Concentration's core seminar gives experienced journalists the skills to interpret and report about peer-reviewed studies and complex scientific research. Professor Holloway and Professor Weiner place particular emphasis on writing creatively and compellingly, whether in a short news story or in a long piece of narrative nonfiction.
The winner of Columbia University's Presidential Teaching Award, Professor Holloway also teaches in the Master of Science Program, in which she has offered such classes as "Writing About the Environment," "Covering Climate: Story and Animation," and "Storytelling About the Environment." When teaching, Professor Holloway has often teamed with another Columbia faculty member skilled in filmmaking or animation to provide students with instruction not only in rigorous science reporting, but also in cutting-edge multimedia storytelling. "I think that there is a lot of richness in bringing together professors who work in slightly different areas, and creating new courses that are very collaborative and innovative," she said.
Professor Holloway has written about science—including natural history, environmental issues, public health, physics, neuroscience and women in science—for publications including the New York Times, Discover, Natural History, Wired and Scientific American, where she was a long-time writer and editor. She is the author of the W.W. Norton book The Measure of Manhattan, the story of John Randel Jr., the surveyor and inventor who laid the grid plan on New York City, and of the researchers who use his data today.
Professor Holloway first became interested in science journalism when she entered Columbia Journalism School as a Master of Science Program student. "Coming to the Journalism School seemed to be a way learn to report more deeply, to engage with people - which is something that I love - and to bring rigor to my writing," she explained. "I came here expecting, because of my background in comparative literature, to focus on the arts. I was completely surprised to find myself drawn to public health stories, environmental stories, science stories. I found my true calling."
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