The deadline is approaching for applications to this year’s Dart Center Ochberg Fellowships in Journalism and Trauma.

Each year, the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma provides six or more expense-paid fellowships to mid-career journalists who want to apply knowledge of emotional trauma to improving coverage of violent events. Fellowships are open to print and broadcast reporters, photographers, editors and producers with at least five years of journalism experience.

The week-long Ochberg Fellowship Program offers a unique opportunity to learn from leading experts in the many dimensions of trauma, and to forge relationships with colleagues who share those interests. Fellows attend several days of seminars, then have access to all events and speakers in the annual conference of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (istss.org). This year’s program takes place in Hollywood, California, from November 2-7 2006.

Dart Ochberg Fellows come from a wide range of journalistic backgrounds: cops-and-courts reporters; investigative journalists; photographers; war correspondents; science journalists; and more. Fellows represent small-circulation local publications, some of the largest news organizations, and everything in between, and include freelancers.

The Fellowship fosters conversations between journalists whose beats might under normal circumstances never intersect, yet who share the conviction that reporting responsibly and credibly on violence and traumatic events count among the greatest challenges. In the words of Elaine Silvestrini of the Tampa Tribune, the Fellowship “links international war correspondents with community reporters, all with one ideal: fostering humanity in journalism.”

The application deadline for the 2006 Dart Center Ochberg Fellowships is July 14. For details go to: http://www.dartcenter.org/fellowships, or phone the Dart Center at (206) 616-3223.