At the Centre for Journalism, we’re delighted to announce we’ve appointed award-winning multi-media journalist and author Dhruti Shah as an Honorary Fellow (Practitioner).
Dhruti has a wealth of experience in creating and covering a wide range of conversation-generating stories in the UK and overseas for BBC News and before that, in newspapers. She is the co-author of a book which simplifies business terms and jargon called ‘Bear Markets and Beyond’, with illustrator Dominic Bailey.
Passionate about social mobility and about supporting people from all backgrounds in journalism, Dhruti is a trustee of the John Schofield Trust and also supports the work of the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma, a project of Columbia University in New York. She is also an international Elevate scholar focusing on newsroom leadership with the International News Media Association. This year she was also highlighted as one of the 40 digital women to watch by the Digital Women Awards.
Dhruti inspired Kent Journalism students with a talk earlier this year. Next year she will return to meet them again when she delivers a masterclass called ‘Journalism stripped back – the art of telling a good story’.
She will also meet the new BBC graduate apprentices, who will join the Centre for Journalism in January, for training geared towards helping them pass senior professional qualifications from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ).
Dhruti, who left the BBC in November following a jam-packed 14-year career, said she was delighted and honoured to be involved with the university’s Centre for Journalism.
She said: ‘I feel lucky to have been asked to come onboard as the Centre is one of the best places in the UK for young journalists to train. To be affiliated with it during a new chapter in my own journalism practice is exciting. I can’t wait to meet the students and apprentices and not just talk to them about my craft but hear their stories too.’
The Centre for Journalism was set up in 2008, with the aim of helping people from all backgrounds get the skills they need to flourish in the competitive world of journalism. Ian Reeves, our Head of Centre, said: ‘Dhruti’s track record in innovative storytelling, her fascinating work in different forms of journalism and her passion for diversifying newsrooms make her a great fit with our own aims. Staff and students at the Centre for Journalism will learn a lot from her, and we’re all very much looking forward to the collaboration.’
Image credit: Neil Drake