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Ryan Schuessler

Ryan Schuessler is a Chicago-based journalist who has filed stories from across the US and the world.

Ryan Schuessler is a Chicago-based journalist who has filed stories from across the US (Alaska, Missouri, Idaho and Wisconsin) and the world (Poland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montserrat, Peru). He's written for outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera and National Geographic News. He writes at the intersection of diasporas, religion, social justice, the environment and identity.

A sunset with the silhouette of a mosque and man approaching

How 16 Americans found family, faith and their immigrant roots — generations after their parents left their homelands

Immigration Rewind

Through war and Islamophobia, a generation thought they might have lost their histories and faith in Eastern Europe. But, unexpectedly, they found it again.

Jewish man prays at altar with pews behind him, USA flag in background

A gift from small-town Iowa brings light to Paraguay’s capital

Religion
Man looking across rows of tins

A fading Missouri monastery finds new life — in Vietnam

Religion
A group of people heading to a demonstration are going up a stairway in downtown Chicago.

Rohingya in Chicago make an emotional plea to the US: ‘Help our people’

Conflict
tree with etchings in it, sun streaming through leaves

Climate change is claiming aspen groves — and the history of Basque immigrants in America

Culture
Beth Haim cemetery in Curaçao is believed to be the oldest Jewish cemetery in the Western Hemisphere.

Pollution is destroying probably the oldest Jewish cemetery in the Western Hemisphere

Religion

Founded in 1659, Beth Haim cemetery in the Caribbean nation of Curaçao is being eroded beyond recognition.

Woman at front of room in mosque

They gave her the keys to the mosque — and now she wants to open its doors to the neighborhood

Religion

Alyssa Haughwout became the caretaker of Brooklyn’s historic Tatar mosque a year ago. She’s now charting the near-empty building’s future.

Portrait of man, outdoors

Muslim refugees of another era could put Missouri in play for Clinton

Election 2016

If Missouri’s race is as close as recent polls suggest, some observers think it could be St. Louis’ “Bosnian vote” that gives the state’s 10 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton.