Susan M Knight

Biography

Susan M. Knight is an associate professor of practice in the School of Journalism at the University of Arizona, where she has taught in various capacities since 1992. She also serves as the Faculty Mentor and Director of Undergraduate Studies.

 

Knight teaches Feature Writing, Reporting Public Affairs, Principles of Journalism, and Honors Research Methods.  She has also taught Beginning News Writing, Advanced Reporting, Editing, Media Ethics, The Journalist in American Film, and other courses. Working with a former student who became an assistant city editor, Knight designed an apprenticeship program, often called “the internship on steroids.” As part of that program Knight developed a curriculum module on grief, loss, and trauma.

 

Knight has nearly 20 years experience as a reporter and editor, earning more that two dozen writing awards from state and national press groups and education associations.  Her area of concentration was in public affairs reporting, primarily education coverage. She served on the national board of directors of the Education Writers Association. Her work has appeared in the Arizona Daily Star, the Arizona Republic, Education Week and the Chronicle of Higher Education. She has also worked on two alternative weeklies, The Willamette Valley Observer and the Tucson Weekly. Her editing work has included a variety of publications, including “Shelter,” a book for the University of Arizona Press on a man’s journey out of homelessness.

 

Knight earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Arizona in journalism, nearly 20 years apart. In 1986-87 she was a Kellogg Fellow in the University of Michigan’s Journalism Fellows Program, where she focused on the intersection of public policy-making and public affairs reporting.

 

In 2019, Knight completed a Writer in Residence at Wellspring House, Ashland Massachusetts, and a fellowship in social media at C-SPAN in Washington D.C.

 

 

 

Degrees

• M.A. Journalism
• University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States
• Electronic Mail and Public Records: Legal and Ethical Considerations for Journalists and Government Officials in Cyberspace
• B.A. Journalism
• University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States
• NA. Note: Work completed in 1978; due to bookkeeping error at UA, degree not granted until 1987.