Amanda J. Crawford is a veteran political reporter and literary journalist who joined the faculty of the University of Connecticut in 2018.
Prof. Crawford’s research areas include journalism ethics, media law, misinformation, mass shooting denial, and the role of journalists in a democracy. As an investigative reporter and creative nonfiction writer, her work lies at the intersection of literature and reportage.
Prof. Crawford is writing her first book examining the dual crises of gun violence and misinformation. Her articles about the fight for truth after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and the trials of disinformation purveyor Alex Jones and other conspiracy theorists have been published by major media outlets including The Boston Globe, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Conversation and CNN. “Truth for the Dead,” a 14,000-word narrative on a Sandy Hook family’s decade-long fight against hoaxers, was the cover story of Boston Globe Magazine in August 2022. Prof. Crawford was a 2020-21 fellow at the UConn Humanities Institute and was awarded a SCHARP award from the university in 2019 in support of this project.
Prof. Crawford has a deep background covering gun policy as well as mass casualty and other gun violence. She is a research affiliate of the UConn ARMS Center and the Rockefeller Institute’s Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium.
Prof. Crawford also serves on the national board of directors of the Journalism & Women Symposium (JAWS) and is co-chair of the professional organization’s membership committee.
Prior to coming to UConn, Prof. Crawford held faculty appointments in the School of Journalism & Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University (assistant professor, 2014-18) and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication at Arizona State University (lecturer, 2008-10).
She previously worked as a reporter for Bloomberg News, The Arizona Republic, The Baltimore Sun and People Magazine. Her work has been published by many other publications including Businessweek, National Geographic, Talking Points Memo, Nieman Journalism Lab, Nieman Reports, The Miami Herald, The Hartford Courant, Ms. Magazine, Huffington Post, Phoenix Magazine and High Times. She has also published in literary journals including Creative Nonfiction, Hippocampus Magazine and Full Grown People. Prof. Crawford was a 2007 finalist for the national Livingston Award for Young Journalists and has won numerous regional journalism and FOI awards. In 2018, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in nonfiction.
Prof. Crawford holds a Master of Mass Communication degree from Arizona State University. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, where she studied journalism and creative writing and was named the Outstanding News-Editorial Graduate. Raised in Appalachian Maryland, Prof. Crawford was the first person in her family to attend college and wants to help other first-generation college students and those from underrepresented communities succeed in academia.
Recent work:
- “Truth is Dead. Long Live Truth.” UCONN Magazine, Spring 2023.
- “Opinion: Sandy Hook was the start of misinformation running amok,” CNN, Dec. 14, 2022.
- “10 years after the Sandy Hook shooting, Alex Jones is being held accountable for spreading conspiracy theories — but those sort of lies now plague the US,” The Conversation, updated Dec. 11, 2022.
- “The epic story of a Sandy Hook family fighting Alex Jones and the rise of conspiracy theories: When 26 people were murdered at the school in Newtown, Conn. in 2012, the ugliness of social media collided with parents’ grief in a way the world had never seen,” The Boston Globe, August 17, 2022.
- In print: “Truth for the Dead: A horrific mass shooting. A heinous conspiracy theory. And grieving parents’ 10-year quest after Sandy Hook,” Globe Magazine cover story, August 21, 2022.
- “Sarah Palin, The New York Times and the Limits of Political Messaging,” Nieman Reports (Nieman Foundation at Harvard), March 2022.
- “American support for conspiracy theories and armed rebellion isn’t new – we just didn’t believe it before the Capitol insurrection,” The Conversation, January 2022. Also published by Salon, Talking Points Memo, UPI and other outlets.
- “How Conspiracy theories in the US became more personal, more cruel, and more mainstream after the Sandy Hook shootings,” The Conversation, December 2021. Also published by Nieman Journalism Lab, The Miami Herald, Talking Points Memo and other outlets.
- “The Professor of Denial: How a prolific academic became an advocate for some of the most odious ideas of our time.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 2020.
- UConn Humanities Institute Fellow’s Talk: “Misinformation & The Media: Lessons from the Sandy Hook Shooting.”
Classes: The Press in America, Journalism Law, Journalism Ethics, Newswriting I
Twitter: @amandajcrawford
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amandacrawford