Looking forward to Fall 2023
By Yvonne Oh, IPDGC Program Coordinator
We are excited about welcoming our students back to the GW campus in a few of weeks. IPDGC and the MA Global Communication program have prepared a slate of activities for the fall semester, and look forward to engaging with everyone at these events. Meanwhile, here is a recap of the events from last academic year.
With the support of the Walter Roberts Endowment, IPDGC organized the Annual Lecture featuring Jodie Ginsberg, president of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Her presentation on “Defending Press Freedom: Protecting Journalists Around the World” was a grim reminder that threats to the media community remained, in a world struggling through a pandemic, global recession, and autocratic regimes.
U.S. Senator James Risch of Idaho was the 2023 Award for Congressional Leadership in Public Diplomacy recipient. IPDGC also announced a grant of $5,000 from the Walter Roberts Endowment to the non-profit organization Global Ties Idaho for a public diplomacy program that serves its community.
IPDGC co-hosted a panel with recipients of the 2023 Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award. We were honored to be able to interview Doris Rios of Costa Rica and Yuliia Paievska of Ukraine about their work and exceptional courage, strength, and leadership to improve the lives of others.
Our Visiting Scholar program welcomed five international scholars, including a Fulbrighter, covering diverse research topics: public diplomacy in Northeast Asia; soft power in museum diplomacy; the role of civil society in international governance; the changing temporality of journalism; and the possibilities of peace journalism in the Ukraine-Russia war.
In our graduate program, 12 students graduated with their MA in Global Communication. The Walter Roberts Endowment awarded two students, Brandon Bell and Sherilyn Harrington, with the Public Diplomacy Studies Award, recognizing their excellent academic work in public diplomacy. We wish all of them the best in their future endeavors!
And we’ll see the rest of you in the new year!