About Us – The Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication

Orientation Day activities introduce incoming graduates to Elliott’s organizations and programs

By Yvonne Oh, IPDGC Program Coordinator

The Elliott School’s Orientation team put up a great welcome for incoming graduate students on Wednesday, August 23. The students heard from Dean Alyssa Ayres, met with their Program Directors, and attended sessions with academic advisors, career coaches and student panels. The day ended with a Welcome Reception where the new students met and mingled with faculty, administrators and fellow graduate students.

IPDGC had a table at the Elliott Engagement Expo and with the help of student Pablo Molina Asensi, 2^nd year in the Global Comms MA program, spoke to many students about the public diplomacy and global communications activities we organize throughout the academic year.

For 2023-2024, IPDGC will organize a cultural diplomacy program for students at the Elliott School and the Corcoran School for Arts and Design to teach the process and practical aspects of developing cultural diplomacy and engagement programming. There will be student career talks, film and book events, and presentations by our Visiting scholars. Our partnership with the Public Diplomacy Council allows us to host First Monday Forums with leaders and practitioners in US public diplomacy and international engagement. As always, the Walter Roberts Endowment will support the Annual Lecture and the Award for Congressional Leadership in Public Diplomacy for 2023-2024.

If you want to get updates about our activities, please sign up for the IPDGC newsletter.

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!

Category: About Us

Welcoming our new students

Getting ready for the new school year