The Visiting Fellows Program for Communication and Media Research

Relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China will shape the 21st century. Standing as the world’s two largest economies, marshaling the most imposing armies on Earth, holding enormous stockpiles of nuclear weapons, consuming a majority share of the planet’s natural resources, and serving as the media generators and health care providers for billions of consumers around the globe, the two nations are positioned to influence notions of democracy, nationalism, citizenship, human rights, environmental priorities, and public health for the foreseeable future. These broad issues all fundamentally amount to questions about communication; about how our two nations envision each other and how our interlinked imaginaries create both opportunities and obstacles for greater understanding and strengthened relations. Acknowledging this context—and the crucial importance of communication between, about, and in the United States and China—the Visiting Fellows Program for Communication and Media Research (VFP) will provide a unique space for collaboration, wherein NCA members and our Chinese colleagues will work alongside, study with, and learn from one another, thus providing a wonderful opportunity for communication scholars to begin their journey toward international understanding and collaboration.

The VFP will be hosted on the campus of the Communication University of China (hereafter CUC). CUC is one of the top-ranked universities in China, is a national leader in the study of communication and the training of leaders in a wide array of media industries, and, over the past three years, partnered with NCA in co-hosting the biennial summer conferences on “Communication, Media, and Governance in the Age of Globalization.” The CUC campus is tucked into a leafy neighborhood on the east side of Beijing and offers a unique vantage point for studying communication in the age of globalization.

Fellows will serve one-semester appointments-in-residence. Fall Fellows will serve September1 through the end of December; Spring Fellows will serve February 1 through the end of May. During this one-semester residency, Fellows will not teach. Fellows will conduct research on their proposed projects in line with the VFP’s annual theme (see section on theme below), and they will be responsible for delivering four public talks, workshops, or other scholarly programs meant to advance NCA’s mission, the broad goals of the VFP, and the interests of intercultural collaboration. NCA and CUC will each select one Fellow for each academic term, so the VFP will consist of two Fellows each term (or four per academic year). Fellows will be guided in their work by the NCA’s “Credo for Ethical Communication,” which offers robust support for free speech, intellectual inquiry, and intercultural sensitivity. CUC endorses this document’s values and norms.

NCA will provide each Fellow with a travel-support package of up to $2,000 to cover one roundtrip ticket from his or her home to Beijing and back, and other incidental transportation costs (this may include the costs of securing a visa or passport, or other such costs). NCA will not pay Fellows any salary.

 

Each Fellow will receive free housing from CUC, which will host each Fellow in its on-campus housing (similar to a U.S.-style International House, where the Fellow will have a small apartment with bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living area). Each Fellow will be provided with an office on the CUC campus and will enjoy full library privileges, along with the other support needed to be productive. All Fellows are expected to actively participate in the scholarly life of the CUC campus. All publications produced via the VFP will be flagged as such.

For our second class of Fellows, the research theme is “Global Environmental Communication in the Age of Crises.” So that colleagues may plan ahead, the 2020–21 theme will be “New Media, New Markets, and Netizens.”