Ben Taub (born January 9, 1991) is an American journalist who is a staff writer for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' magazine. He has written for the magazine about a range of subjects related to jihadism, crime, conflict, and human rights, mostly in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

Life

Taub attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

as an undergraduate student and graduated with an A.B. in philosophy in 2014. In 2012, during a year off from Princeton, he was a contestant on ''

The Voice The Voice may refer to: Fictional entities * The Voice or Presence, a fictional representation of God in DC Comics * The Voice (''Dune''), a fictional ability in the ''Dune'' universe * The Voice, a character in the American TV series ''Cleo ...

'', on

CeeLo Green Thomas DeCarlo Callaway - Burton (born May 30, 1975), known professionally as CeeLo Green (or Cee Lo Green), is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer and actor. He is known for his work in hip hop and R&B, including the Gnarls ...

's team. Six months later, he used the stipend from appearing on the show to fund his first trip to

Kilis Kilis is a city in south-central Turkey, near the border with Syria, and the administrative centre of Kilis Province. History Although there aren't any definite information related to its foundation, today's Kilis mainly developed and became ...

and the Turkish-Syrian border, to learn how to be a war correspondent. Taub's work in Kilis culminated in his 149-page long senior thesis, titled "Fools and Philosophy on the Fringe of War", completed under the supervision of

Gideon Rosen Gideon Rosen (born 1962) is an American philosopher. He is a Stuart Professor of Philosophy and the chair of the philosophy department at Princeton University, where he specializes in metaphysics, philosophy of mathematics, and ethics. Educa ...

. In 2015, he graduated from the

Columbia Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...

Awards

In 2017, Taub's work on war crimes in Syria, which was supported by the

Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is an American news media organization established in 2006 that sponsors independent reporting on global issues that other media outlets are less willing or able to undertake on their own. The center's goal ...

and published by

in both English and Arabic, was short-listed for a National Magazine Award and won the

Livingston Award The Livingston Awards at the University of Michigan are American journalism awards issued to media professionals under the age of 35 for local, national, and international reporting. They are the largest, all-media, general reporting prizes in Ame ...

for International Reporting, the

Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award The Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism is a journalism award named after Robert F. Kennedy and awarded by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. The annual awards are issued in several categories and were est ...

for International Print reporting, and the

Overseas Press Club The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain ...

Award for Investigative Reporting. Taub also received the

American Society of Magazine Editors The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) is an industry trade group for magazine journalists and editors of magazines published in the United States. ASME includes the editorial leaders of most major consumer magazine in print and digital ...

Next Award for Journalists Under 30, and was named one of the

Forbes 30 Under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists of people under 30 years old issued annually by ''Forbes'' magazine and some of its regional editions. The American lists recognize 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in twenty industries ...

in Media. In 2018, his work on a convergence of crises in the Sahel won the

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

for Magazine Reporting and the Prince Albert II of Monaco and United Nations Correspondents Association Global Prize for coverage of Climate Change. In 2019, his work on Iraq's post-ISIS campaign of revenge, which was supported by the

, won the National Magazine Award for Reporting and the

for Magazine Reporting, making him the eighth back-to-back Polk laureate, and the first in 20 years. In 2020, Taub won the

Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Journalism. It has been awarded since 1979 for a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to high lite ...

for the 2019 article "Guantanamo's Darkest Secret," about

Mohamedou Ould Salahi Mohamedou Ould Slahi () (born December 21, 1970) is a Mauritanian citizen who was detained at Guantánamo Bay detention camp without charge from 2002 until his release on October 17, 2016. Slahi traveled from his home in Germany to Afghanistan ...

, who was held at Guantanamo Bay without charge from 2002 to 2016.

Bibliography

* * Online version is titled "Lake Chad : the world's most complex humanitarian disaster". * * * * Online version is titled "How a Syrian war criminal and double agent disappeared in Europe". * Online version is titled " Paolo Pellegrin's photographic quest for the sublime". ——————— ;Notes

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taub, Ben 1991 births 21st-century American journalists Living people American investigative journalists Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Livingston Award winners for International Reporting Princeton University alumni Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing winners The New Yorker staff writers The Voice (franchise) contestants