Mark Danner

Mark Danner

Mark Danner

Faculty – Professor

Office: B32

Website

Mark Danner has written widely on foreign affairs and politics for more than three decades. A longtime staff writer for The New Yorker and a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, Danner has covered war and political conflict in Central America, Haiti, the Balkans, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East and, most recently, the story of torture during the War on Terror. He also writes frequently on American politics, covering every presidential campaign since 2000 and focusing, since 2015, on the rise of Donald Trump. Danner holds the Class of 1961 Distinguished Chair in Undergraduate Education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches politics and foreign policy at the Graduate School of Journalism and literature and film in the Department of English. Among his books are Spiral: Trapped in the Forever War (2016), Stripping Bare the Body (2009), The Secret Way to War: The Downing Street Memo and the Iraq War’s Buried History (2006), Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror (2004), The Road to Illegitimacy: One Reporter’s Travels through the 2000 Florida Vote Recount (2004), and The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold War (1994).
Apart from The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, Danner’s writing has appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Aperture, and many other newspapers and magazines. He co-wrote and helped produce two hour-long documentaries for the ABC News program Peter Jennings Reporting, and his work has received, among other honors, a National Magazine Award, three Overseas Press Awards, an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, a Guggenheim and an Emmy. In 1999 Danner was named a MacArthur Fellow. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Century Association, the World Affairs Council, is affiliated with Institute for International Studies at Berkeley and has served for a decade as a resident curator at the Telluride Film Festival, where he helps choose and introduce films and interviews filmmakers. Danner speaks and lectures widely on foreign policy, politics and the United States’ role in the world.
His writing and speaking can be found at www.markdanner.com.
Recent articles:

AWARDS & HONORS

  • 2019: Guggenheim Fellow

    2016 – 17: Andrew Carnegie Fellow, April 2016

    2007: The Best American Essays, For “Iraq: The War of the Imagination"

    2006: Best American Political Writing, For “Taking Stock of the Forever War”

    2006: Carey McWilliams Award, American Political Science Association

    2004: Overseas Press Award: The Madeline Dane Ross Award for For Torture and Truth

    1999: MacArthur Fellow

    1998: Overseas Press Award: The Ed Cunningham Award for "Yugoslav Wars,” The New York Review of Books

    1994: Emmy Award for "While America Watched: The Bosnia Tragedy," ABC News Peter Jennings Reporting

    1994: Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Special Media Award for "The Truth of El Mozote"

    1993: Overseas Press Award: The Madeline Dane Ross Award for Best International Reporting for "The Truth of El Mozote"

    1990: National Magazine Award for Reporting: "A Reporter at Large: Beyond the Mountains," The New Yorker

TEACHING SCHEDULE:

Sec. Title Time Location
10 J294 Master’s Project Seminar – Danner
Fall 2018 		By appt. By appointment — By appointment
22 J294 Master’s Project Seminar – Danner
Spring 2019 		By appt. By appointment — By appointment
010 J294 Master’s Project Seminar – Danner
Fall 2019 		By appt. By appointment — By appointment
22 J294 Master’s Project Seminar – Danner
Spring 2019 		By appt. By appointment — By appointment
010 J294 Master’s Project Seminar – Danner
Fall 2019 		By appt. By appointment — By appointment
013 J294 Master’s Project Seminar – Danner
Fall 2021 		By appt. By appointment — By appointment
018 J294 Master’s Project Seminar – Danner
Spring 2022 		By appt. By appointment — By appointment
013 J294 Master’s Project Seminar – Danner
Fall 2022 		By appt. By appointment — By appointment
020 J298 – Hacks of the Silver Screen: Reporters on Film, Reporters in History
Spring 2022 		M 6:00 - 9:30 142 North Gate (LMC) — 142 North Gate (LMC)
033 J298 – On the Eve of a New Cold War? Reporting on America Abroad
Fall 2022 		W 1:00 - 4:00 106 North Gate (Upper News) — 106 North Gate (Upper News)
020 J298 – Present at the Apocalypse: Thinking and Writing About Our Damaged Politics
Spring 2021 		M 9:00 - 12:00 —
003 J298 – War and Data: Telling Human Rights Stories Using Open Sources
Spring 2020 		M 3:00 -6:00 108 North Gate (Lower News) — 108 North Gate (Lower News)
3 J298 – War Music: Covering Conflict in the Age of Forever War
Spring 2019 		M 3:00 - 6:00 209 North Gate (Greenhouse) — 209 North Gate (Greenhouse)
3 J298 Bang Bang Abroad: Following It, Reporting It, Writing It.
Spring 2018 		M 2:00 - 5:00 209 North Gate (Greenhouse) — 209 North Gate (Greenhouse)
3 J298 First Year Forum
Fall 2018 		M 4:30 - 7:45 142 North Gate (LMC) — 142 North Gate (LMC)
012 J298 In a Time of Emergency, Covering American Politics Now
Spring 2023 		W 1–4pm 106 North Gate (Upper News) — 106 North Gate (Upper News)
005 J298 In A Time of Emergency: Covering American Politics Now
Fall 2023 		TU 2–5pm 104 North Gate — 104 North Gate
033 J298 Reporting on America Abroad
Fall 2021 		M 9:00 - 12:00 209 North Gate (Greenhouse) — 209 North Gate (Greenhouse)
009 J298 War on the Borderlands — Conflict Reporting in Today’s World
Spring 2024 		Mon 2–5pm 104 North Gate — 104 North Gate

MEDIA PLATFORMS

Narrative Writing