Dunham trades 24/7 news cycle for academia in China
As he sets off on his new professional adventure in international academia after Labor Day, Rick Dunham will miss the crab cakes at the National Press Club, Burma restaurant in Washington’s Chinatown and his wife Pam, who will remain at her job with the Washington Post — not particularly in that order.
He’ll also leave behind lunch with his close friends at the Club, Friday night tacos and NHL hockey. The list includes NFL football, too, but only for about the first two weeks he’s abroad.
Dunham, a longtime Club member, former Club president (2005) and former president of the board of the Club's National Journalism Institute, will trade the D.C. suit-and-tie life for tweed professor jackets, as he begins teaching at Tsinghua University in China.
He will be co-director of the prestigious school’s Global Business Journalism graduate program - and try to master Mandarin – during a year overseas. He’s set to return to Washington in July 2014.
After decades working in daily journalism, Dunham decided it was time for a new challenge.
“I’d been thinking about it for the past year,” Dunham said.
He knew he wanted to take a bold next step in which he could use the skills he’s acquired over the years at the Houston Chronicle, where he’s served as Washington bureau chief since 2007, and in teaching Journalism Institute classes.
Dunham fostered the Chronicle’s intern program and quickly fell in love with the mentoring aspect.
“I’ve gotten more joy in working with the interns than anything else in recent years,” Dunham said. “I realized I was committed to shaping the next generation of journalists, and that sort of led me to this kind of thing. Then, when the opportunity came up through the International Center for Journalists to go teach in China, I thought of the importance of China in the world and also of the rapid changes that are taking place. And to me, it just seemed like a great opportunity.”
Half of his Tsinghua students will be Chinese, the other half will be international students across a range of ages. Dunham will bring to the classroom his deep experience in traditional journalism and knowledge of online and multimedia reporting developed through his work baby, "Texas on the Potomac," the widely read political blog he founded in 2007.
Imparting what he’s learned during his own journalism journey will help prepare his students for the fast-changing profession. His new role also will come with some pressure because Tsinghua is considered “the MIT of China,” Dunham said.
Working in the classroom will provide a different pace from the constant demands of the around-the-clock news cycle.
“I’m also looking forward to the give and take of rigorous academic life and in that way the change in my body’s biorhythms from the 24/7 news world to one where I may get a little time for my own life,” Dunham said.
Although he’s traveled extensively in other regions of the world, Dunham accepted the Tsinghua position without ever having visited China. He knows he has a lot to learn about how the country deals with the media before he considers himself an expert.
“I don’t know what to expect [in terms of China’s press freedom], and before I teach it, I have to figure out what the situation is,” Dunham said. “I know I can teach anything I want. I will have to be a reporter before I can be a teacher.”
Dunham is enjoying designing his grad school curriculum, as it serves as a refresher in re-examining the basics of journalism. He’s hoping for and expecting an intellectually stimulating environment in which he learns as much from his students as they do from him.
“I always like to challenge myself,” Dunham noted. “That’s how I keep on going.”