Photo by Leanora Benkato.
Amanda J. Crawford is a writer and journalism professor at the University of Connecticut. She is a 2020-21 fellow at the UConn Humanities Institute, writing her first book on the fight against misinformation in the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
In February 2020, the Chronicle of Higher Education published "The Professor of Denial," Crawford's in-depth look at a mass shooting denier and a Sandy Hook father's successful defamation lawsuit against him. Slate's critic-at-large called Crawford's article "a remarkable piece of reporting. "It’s a horrifying piece of writing, brilliantly executed." Read "The Professor of Denial."
Crawford's current project is informed by her experience as journalist, scholar and creative writer. Like many reporters of her generation, she has covered several mass shootings -- the first targeted at someone she knew as an Arizona political reporter, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She has also written extensively about gun laws in a career dedicated to exploring the human impact of public policy. (She even went undercover to a gun show to buy assault weapons.)
As a scholar and professor, Crawford studies and teaches journalism ethics and media law. She's concerned about the future of truth in public discourse and the role of journalists in a democracy. Among her areas of research inquiry, she has examined how eroding trust in journalists, the treatment of victims' families and survivors, and errors in breaking news coverage have perpetuated false narratives around mass shootings.
Crawford's work exists at the intersection of journalism and literature. She is also a creative writer, who applies literary journalism and creative nonfiction techniques to her investigative reporting to produce writing that engages as it elucidates.
Crawford joined the faculty of the University of Connecticut in August 2018 as an assistant professor of journalism. She was awarded a 2019 Scholarship and Collaboration in Humanities & Arts Research Project grant and a 2020-21 Humanities Institute fellowship. Crawford was previously an assistant professor at Western Kentucky University's School of Media and a lecturer at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. At WKU, she coordinated the school's First Amendment Studies Program and led student projects that helped the school place first overall in the 2018 Hearst college journalism contests.
Before she was a professor, Crawford was a political reporter, investigative journalist and narrative writer for major media outlets. She worked as a reporter for Bloomberg News, The Arizona Republic and The Baltimore Sun. Her writing has been widely published by other news outlets including Businessweek, People, National Geographic, Ms. Magazine, High Times, and Phoenix Magazine. Her creative nonfiction and memoir writing has been published by literary journals including Hippocampus, Full Grown People and Creative Nonfiction.
Professor Crawford is a first-generation college student who graduated with honors from the University of Maryland in 1998. She earned a master of mass communication degree from Arizona State University in 2010. She is also a singer, flutist and songwriter who has performed internationally with her husband, songwriter and musician Robert Tobias, A Former Friend.
In February 2020, the Chronicle of Higher Education published "The Professor of Denial," Crawford's in-depth look at a mass shooting denier and a Sandy Hook father's successful defamation lawsuit against him. Slate's critic-at-large called Crawford's article "a remarkable piece of reporting. "It’s a horrifying piece of writing, brilliantly executed." Read "The Professor of Denial."
Crawford's current project is informed by her experience as journalist, scholar and creative writer. Like many reporters of her generation, she has covered several mass shootings -- the first targeted at someone she knew as an Arizona political reporter, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She has also written extensively about gun laws in a career dedicated to exploring the human impact of public policy. (She even went undercover to a gun show to buy assault weapons.)
As a scholar and professor, Crawford studies and teaches journalism ethics and media law. She's concerned about the future of truth in public discourse and the role of journalists in a democracy. Among her areas of research inquiry, she has examined how eroding trust in journalists, the treatment of victims' families and survivors, and errors in breaking news coverage have perpetuated false narratives around mass shootings.
Crawford's work exists at the intersection of journalism and literature. She is also a creative writer, who applies literary journalism and creative nonfiction techniques to her investigative reporting to produce writing that engages as it elucidates.
Crawford joined the faculty of the University of Connecticut in August 2018 as an assistant professor of journalism. She was awarded a 2019 Scholarship and Collaboration in Humanities & Arts Research Project grant and a 2020-21 Humanities Institute fellowship. Crawford was previously an assistant professor at Western Kentucky University's School of Media and a lecturer at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. At WKU, she coordinated the school's First Amendment Studies Program and led student projects that helped the school place first overall in the 2018 Hearst college journalism contests.
Before she was a professor, Crawford was a political reporter, investigative journalist and narrative writer for major media outlets. She worked as a reporter for Bloomberg News, The Arizona Republic and The Baltimore Sun. Her writing has been widely published by other news outlets including Businessweek, People, National Geographic, Ms. Magazine, High Times, and Phoenix Magazine. Her creative nonfiction and memoir writing has been published by literary journals including Hippocampus, Full Grown People and Creative Nonfiction.
Professor Crawford is a first-generation college student who graduated with honors from the University of Maryland in 1998. She earned a master of mass communication degree from Arizona State University in 2010. She is also a singer, flutist and songwriter who has performed internationally with her husband, songwriter and musician Robert Tobias, A Former Friend.