The UBC Graduate School of Journalism is welcoming a former editor of the Los Angeles Times as the Canwest Visiting Professor for 2009-2010.
Eric Ulken spent four years at the LA Times – the second largest daily metropolitan newspaper in the United States – as managing news editor for latimes.com and as editor of interactive technology.
Ulken led a number of in-depth journalism projects for the LA Times including the Homicide Map, an effort to illustrate demographic and geographic trends in homicides in Los Angeles, and California’s War Dead database . He was also a leader in developing new ways of collecting, organizing and presenting information through the use of database, mapping and visualization tools.
“This year’s Canwest Visiting Professor brings an expertise in database journalism and digital visualization tools – which have been described as the new photography for journalists,” said Graduate School of Journalism Director Mary Lynn Young. “This is a terrific opportunity for students to gain the most relevant professional best practices.”
In November 2008, Ulken left the LA Times to spend a year studying the effects of new technology on the practice of journalism around the world. He is currently an Arthur F. Burns fellow at Spiegel International, the English-language website of Germany’s leading newsmagazine, Der Spiegel.
Ulken has a Bachelor of Journalism in broadcast news from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a master’s degree in communication management from the University of Southern California. He is originally from New Orleans.
Ulken, who will arrive at UBC in January, will teach Integrated Journalism (iJournalism) as well as International Reporting.
View the Ulken-led California’s War Dead database at: http://projects.latimes.com/wardead/
Download photos of Ulken at www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/download .
