Announcing the Pulitzer Center 2025 Persephone Miel Fellow

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The Pulitzer Center is pleased to announce the selection of our 2025 Persephone Miel Fellow. 

Nathaphob Sungkate is an independent journalist from Thailand working with HaRDstories. His reporting focuses on human trafficking and forced criminality in Southeast Asia, migration, and the rights of Indigenous peoples. He works closely with the Indigenous Media Network of Thailand to help push for the Indigenous Peoples Protection Act, which is currently under consideration.  

As a Persephone Miel Fellow, Nathaphob will be working with photojournalist and Pulitzer Center grantee Luke Duggleby on an in-depth report about three Indigenous communities in Thailand — the Lahu, Maniq, and Kuy. The project explores how these groups are grappling with threats to their cultural identity and increasing marginalization, even as Thailand are going to adopt legal protections for Indigenous peoples.

“Being selected for the Persephone Miel Fellowship is an important milestone in my career. It reminds me that there are people who value the kind of in-depth journalism I do — and that gives me the strength to keep going,” Nathaphob said.

The Persephone Miel Fellowship, overseen by the Pulitzer Center and launched in partnership with Internews, benefits journalists from outside the U.S. and Western Europe whose work is not routinely disseminated in mainstream media globally. 

A $7,500 grant and mentorship from a Pulitzer Center editor support Miel Fellows in pursuing ambitious reporting projects. The Center works with Fellowship recipients to distribute their work across international media outlets to reach the widest possible audience. 

The annual Fellowship is named in honor of Persephone Miel, the former senior adviser of Internews, a nonprofit supporting international media. She dedicated her life to advancing the work of journalists across the globe. Miel died of cancer in 2010. 

To learn more about the Fellowship and past Fellows, click here.