R.S. Zaharna & CPD Sponsor Doctoral, Post-Doctoral ICA Presenters

CPD Faculty Fellow, R.S. Zaharna has pledged a grant to support 12 presenters at the doctoral and post-doctoral pre-conference at the 68th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference. Titled “Emerging Research and Trends in Public Diplomacy and Nation Branding,” the pre-conference will be held on May 24 at the Hilton Prague, Czech Republic.

Zaharna, who is a professor of communication at American University in Washington, D.C. served as a CPD Research Fellow from 2011-13 and has been a longtime contributor and supporter of CPD and student research. "CPD has been doing excellent work raising the PhD level of PD scholarship and I wanted to strongly support that outreach by enticing those on a limited budget to submit their papers to this pre-conference," said Zaharna.

"Rhonda's generous contribution to CPD to support emerging PD scholars not only benefits this nascent community, but reinforces our commitment to provide opportunities to students of public diplomacy at all levels," said CPD director Jay Wang. "It is for this reason that we've supplemented our annual contribution to the ICA pre-conference with matching support to Rhonda's gift, allowing ICA to waive registration fees for all doctoral and post-doctoral students whose papers have been selected this year."

Since 2014, CPD has provided dissertation grants to recognize and support international scholars engaged in cutting-edge research and in 2016 inaugurated an annual commitment to doctoral conferences as an important platform for scholars to present their research and engage with a network of academics and practitioners.

The May pre-conference, sponsored by the ICA Public Diplomacy Interest Group together with CPD, Lund University, Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group, and Syracuse University, is designed as a forum for doctoral and postdoctoral scholars to present and discuss their ongoing work on public diplomacy and nation branding.

A call for papers continues through January 31. For more information about the CFP and the pre-conference, click here. 

To read more about CPD's outreach to students, visit our Students@CPD page.