UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and award-winning ethics researcher will present a free public lecture about embodying empathy at 1:15 p.m. Oct. 31 in Carnegie Cinema (113 Carnegie Building) on the University Park campus.
Lisa Krantz, an assistant professor at the University of Montana, earned the 2025 Penn State Davis Ethics Award for her dissertation titled “Embodying an Ethic of Empathy: Journalism’s Intersection with Victims’ Families, Survivors, and Community Members Impacted by the Mass Shooting in Uvalde, Texas.”
The Penn State Davis Ethics Award annually recognizes the best ethics-related dissertation successfully defended each year in the fields of communication and media. The award includes the opportunity to present a lecture at the University.
Krantz’s research explores the intersection of journalism and trauma, particularly how journalists cover mass shootings, a topic she began studying as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and an Ochberg Fellow with the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma.
Krantz spent 24 years as a newspaper photographer before pursuing a doctorate at the University of Missouri. Her research stems from her experiences as a photojournalist and includes perspectives of victims' families, survivors and journalists. She was part of a team from the Washington Post that won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for the series “American Icon.” She is also a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature photography.