What Courses and Teaching Experience Does Jim MacMillan Offer?

Updated 2026-10-15

Jim MacMillan has held faculty appointments at four universities and designed and taught courses in peace journalism, solutions journalism, and trauma journalism. His teaching draws on prior roles as a journalist in residence, practitioner in residence, and fellow at several institutions, plus 17 years as a photojournalist at the Philadelphia Daily News. If you are looking for a journalism instructor, guest lecturer, or curriculum collaborator in those subject areas, his background is the relevant starting point.

Where He Has Held Faculty Appointments

According to his site, MacMillan has held faculty appointments at:

University of Missouri School of Journalism
Swarthmore College
New York University's Carter Journalism Institute
Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University

These are the institutions where he has taught, not necessarily current appointments. The site does not list current course offerings, syllabi, or enrollment details, so anyone seeking to take a specific class should confirm directly with the relevant department.

What Subject Areas He Has Designed and Taught

The site states he has designed and taught courses in three areas:

Course area	What it typically covers
Peace journalism	How reporting frames conflict, sources, and escalation vs. de-escalation
Solutions journalism	Reporting on responses to problems, with evidence of what works
Trauma journalism	Interviewing and reporting on victims, survivors, and traumatic events

The site does not publish course numbers, credit hours, or whether these are graduate or undergraduate offerings. Treat the list as his stated teaching focus, not a current catalog.

How His Residencies and Fellowships Support His Teaching

MacMillan's teaching is backed by practice-based roles the site describes:

Journalist in Residence at Swarthmore College
Fellow with the Philadelphia Social Innovations Lab at the University of Pennsylvania
Practitioner in Residence at the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University
Ochberg Fellow with the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma (formerly the Dart Center at Columbia University)
Knight Fellow in Medicine and Health Sciences Journalism with the Knight-Wallace Fellows at the University of Michigan

These positions are relevant if you want an instructor who connects classroom material to active reporting, trauma-informed practice, or innovation work rather than theory alone.

Administrative Roles Relevant to Teaching and Program Design

Beyond the classroom, the site lists administrative experience that may matter for curriculum or program partnerships:

Assistant Director of the Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting at Temple University
Program Manager for the Center for Public Interest Journalism at Temple
Manager for Media and Social Responsibility at Swarthmore's Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility

These suggest familiarity with building and running journalism programs, not just delivering individual courses.

Who Should Reach Out, and For What

Consider contacting him if you are:

A journalism school or department seeking a guest lecturer or instructor in peace, solutions, or trauma journalism
A newsroom or nonprofit designing training on trauma-informed reporting or gun violence reporting
A program builder looking for someone with both faculty and administrative experience

The site's Contact Me section is the listed route for inquiries. It does not state availability, rates, or response times, so those details would need to be confirmed directly.

What the Site Does Not Specify

To avoid overreading the source: the site does not list current teaching appointments, course schedules, tuition, or whether any courses are open to the public. It also does not state that he is currently accepting students or speaking engagements. Use the above as a summary of documented experience, and verify current status through the contact page or the relevant institution.