Fulbright scholarship awarded; Headed to Moldova
I was thrilled and humbled to learn recently that I have been awarded a 2023-24 Fulbright Scholarship by the U.S. State Department’s presidentially-appointed board.

My Fulbright will take me to Moldova for the next academic year, where I will be working on a peace journalism and countering misinformation project. I will teach at Moldova State University in the capital Chisinau, where I will also be working with journalism organizations (MediaCor production studio) and youth organizations (Youth Media Center). My work there will begin in late August, take a break over Christmas, and then continue from January to May, 2024. During this period, I will be on sabbatical from Park University.

This is my third Fulbright Scholarship. My first two were to Moldova (2001) and Azerbaijan (2007).

I selected Moldova because I believe my work could have some impact there. Moldova houses a small Russian-backed breakaway republic, Transnistria, occupied by 1,500 Russian troops. The country has been bombarded by Russian mis and disinformation (see new study), and geographically is surrounded on three sides by Ukraine. As I wrote in my Fulbright project proposal, “This project comes at a perilous time for Moldova, a fact that has been well documented. My subject areas (peace journalism/media literacy and countering disinformation) address topics that are especially crucial for Moldova… Peace journalism will also be useful in turning down the rhetorical heat and seeking alternatives to inflammatory ‘us vs. them’ storytelling that is so prevalent.”

I look forward to the challenge, and to working once again with my Moldovan colleagues.

I will be blogging regularly about my Moldovan project, and my misadventures there, on this site beginning in August. So, stay tuned.