Diane Winston is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, author, and columnist.

Winston has authored and edited numerous books on the connection between religion, media, American history, and politics. They include Red-Hot and Righteous: The Urban Religion of the Salvation Army (1999), Faith in the Market: Religion and the Rise of Urban Commercial Culture (2002), Small Screen, Big Picture: Television and Lived Religion (2009), The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the News Media (2012), and Religion and Reality TV: Faith in Late Capitalism (2018).

Her latest book – Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan’s Evangelical Vision (2023) — reveals how the Reagan presidency utilized news media to spread a new religious vision of American identity, one which continues to influence politics, including the rise of Trumpism and Christian nationalism.

As Knight Chair, Winston has hosted and moderated numerous discussion panels on topics ranging from reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to American right-wing religious identities, to the Vatican’s public diplomacy, to developments at the intersection of religion, media, and gender. She’s organized conferences on Arab Spring, religion and television, and reimagining religion reporting. She’s also a popular speaker on public scholarship, the rightward, political turn under Reagan, and the Salvation Army’s hidden religious identity.

Between 1983 and 1995, Winston covered religion for the Raleigh News and Observer, Dallas Times Herald, and Baltimore Sun, during which time she was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize three times. Her contributions have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Alta, and many more. 

Winston holds a Master of Theological Studies from the Harvard Divinity School, an MS in Journalism from Columbia University, and a PhD in Religion from Princeton University. 

Awards and honors: 

Visions and Voices award, “Waging Peace in Vietnam,” Photography Exhibit and Panel Discussion, 2021
Visions and Voices award, “Last of the Polish Jews,” Film and Panel Discussion, 2018
Visions and Voices award, “Dead Man Walking the Journey Continues,” keynote by Sr. Helen Prejean, and “Windows on Death Row” art exhibition, 2015
Advisory Board, International Consultation on Media, Religion, and Culture, 2014