Announcing the 2026–2027 Rosa Luxemburg Journalism Fellow

The Daniel Singer Foundation is proud to announce that Eleni Schirmer is the inaugural Rosa Luxemburg Journalism Fellow. 

The $30,000 fellowship was created to support an early- to mid-career journalist with a history of progressive writing who lacks institutional backing, and is designed to support the ongoing work of the fellow over the coming year. 

We received over 200 applications from social justice oriented journalists from around the world. Schirmer’s work stood out among her peers, and she was chosen by an independent jury over a months-long process.

Eleni Schirmer, who is based in Montréal, writes about debt and economic inequality in the US from unexpected angles. Her groundbreaking reporting on aging student debtors includes people in their nineties still paying off student loans, and connects individuals grappling with student debt to the debt crisis facing public institutions at all levels.

What distinguishes Schirmer’s work is its grounding in organizing. Her previous reporting, which appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Nation, In These Times, and elsewhere, introduces readers to labor organizers, to mobile home park residents who collectivized in the face of the housing crisis, and to debtors’ collective struggles. 

Schirmer’s writing gives readers real insight into people's lives, rigorously supports their stories with empirical evidence, and situates them within a broader political and economic context. Hers is a descriptive, analytical, and accessible style of journalism that captures the spirit of Daniel Singer’s work, and that the fellowship was created to honor.