Isabella Kurkowski 

Isabella Kurkowski is an international expert on media development and has been Institute Manager of the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism at the Technical University of Dortmund since August 2024. She has supported the implementation of institutions for media self-regulation in several countries. From 2014 to 2019, Kurkowski was DW Akademie's country representative in Myanmar and established a media development program there. From 2007 to 2013, she supported the national development of the Press Council in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a media consultant seconded by GIZ. Prior to that, from 2003 to 2007, she worked as a media consultant for the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe as part of the EU Media Task Force and coordinated around 300 different media development projects in 11 Western Balkan countries for the Federal Foreign Office at the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations.

Kurkowski advises organizations such as the OSCE, UNESCO, the European Commission and the Council of Europe on issues of media responsibility and media development.

Publications 

• Author and editor of the COPE e-book publication Fengler et al. (2024). COPE - Covering Cohesion Policy in Europe - Training materials for students of European journalism. TU Dortmund University. 
• Co-author of the UNESCO publication Fengler, S., Lengauer, M. & Zappe, A.-C. (eds.) (2021). Reporting on migrants and refugees. Handbook for Journalism Educators. Paris: UNESCO.
• Editor of the publication Fengler, S., Kurkowski, I. & Lengauer, M. (2021). Media responsibility in the MENA region. TU Dortmund University. DOI: 10.17877/EN290R-21921
• Co-author of Fengler, S., Eberwein, T. & Karmasin, M. (eds.) (2022). The Global Handbook of Media Responsibility. Oxfordshire: Routledge.
• Author: Kurkowski, I. (2016). Responsibility in times of democratic transformation. Communicatio Socialis, 49(4), 399-403. 

Seminars 

• “Medienfinanzierung und Medienpluralismus in Nachkriegsstaaten”, guest lecture at MEDAS 21 for doctoral students, Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism, Dortmund, August 29, 2019.
• “Introduction: Media Accountability in a Global Perspective - Focus MENA Region”, guest lecture: ‘Building Structures for Media Accountability in Transitory Media Systems’, Dortmund University of Technology, Institute of Journalism, November 20, 2020.
• “Die Realität der Arbeit als Medienentwicklungsexpertin”, together with Michel Leroy, Dortmund University of Technology, Institute of Journalism, November 26, 2020.
• Seminar Foreign Reporting: “Journalism and COVID-19”, International Journalism Studies, 25% position as researcher and lecturer at the Technical University of Dortmund, August 12, 2021 to April 23, 2022.
• Since 2020 to 2024 regular guest lectures at the University of Passau as part of the lecture series on “Journalism and PR in the present and future”. Main topics: Media development in post-war regions and media responsibility