Call for participation and grant project proposals for grad students! Join a FREE virtual workshop on Global North-South collaborations in journalism research, and you'll be eligible for funding to conduct a collaborative research project. Deadline is May 9 for proposals, but it's a simple application process. Workshop is May 30. See details below, and email me (summer.harlow@austin.utexas.edu) with questions:
Call for Participation and Grant Proposals:
2025 Global North-South Student Collaborative Research Workshop and Funding
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. (CDT) Friday, May 9, 2025
Overview
The PIs for the Global South Journalism Research Collaborative Lab (Summer Harlow, UT- Austin, and Ruth Moon, LSU; see end for more details about the lab) seek proposals from graduate students interested in learning about collaborative research by participating in a workshop and undertaking a research project with the goal of publication. The free, virtual workshop, aimed at facilitating ethical research collaborations between the Global North and South, is open to any graduate journalism or communications students based at LSU, UT-Austin, or universities in the Global South. Students who participate in the workshop are eligible to receive project funding of $500 per team. Interested teams* must submit a proposal for a research project by 11:59 p.m. (CDT) May 9 and commit to attending the online workshop, scheduled from 9 a.m.–12 p.m. CDT May 30.
* See the Proposal Preparation section below for more details about how the teams should be comprised. Individuals who have not yet identified collaborators also may submit proposals with the caveat that after the workshop they will revise the proposal to include a co-PI.
Workshop Schedule (tentative):
9 a.m.: Expert perspectives on cross-regional collaborative journalism research (panelists TBA) 10 a.m.: Practical tips and best practices for conducting ethical and effective collaborative research (panelists: Summer Harlow and Ruth Moon)
11 a.m.: breakout groups to meet collaborators and discuss projects
Research Proposal Requirements:
We seek to support student-led collaborative research projects that aim to uncover challenges and answer pressing research questions facing communities of journalism scholars and practitioners centered in the Global South.
We seek proposals for research projects that illuminate the work of contemporary journalism by focusing on the lived realities of journalism communities in the Global South or Global East, with a preference for research centered in geographies that are currently underrepresented in communication research. (For instance, we will not fund projects that examine journalism in the U.S., Canada, or Western Europe; we are eager to fund research that focuses on countries in sub- Saharan Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, or Southeast Asia.) In addition to the insights provided at the May 30 workshop, award recipients will receive up to $500 toward data-gathering and other research activities and will benefit from mentorship by Drs. Moon and Harlow throughout the research and manuscript-drafting process.
Projects could focus on topics such as (but not limited to) the following:
• The role of AI in the everyday work of Global South journalism
• Innovations in Global South newsrooms that present solutions to global challenges
• The ways North-South-East-West (& other) power dynamics manifest in newswork
• Physical and digital security challenges and their effects on journalism work
• The effects of policy and political environments on news production and other aspects of
journalistic labor
We will only fund proposals that can be carried out by a team that includes a graduate student at
the Manship School and a student currently based at a university in a country outside the West. However, your team may include more than these two, and we will not disqualify proposals without partnerships - instead, we encourage you to apply and attend the May 30 workshop, where we will provide an opportunity for you to meet and brainstorm with students at other universities.
The selected proposals will be funded by a sub-award from the Manship School and Reilly Center Pilot Grant provided to establish the Global South Journalism Research Collaborative Lab. We will consider proposal quality, the availability of funds and the needs of proposed projects in setting the number of awards and amounts of awards funded.
Proposal Preparation
Proposals must be submitted to Global South Journalism Research Collaborative Lab co-PIs Ruth Moon (rmoonmari1@lsu.edu) and Summer Harlow (summer.harlow@austin.utexas.edu) no later than 11:59 p.m. (CDT) on Friday, May 9, 2025. This committee will evaluate the proposals and use them to format the May 30 workshop; we will announce funding decisions following the workshop.
Proposals should be written without academic jargon and should be no more than five pages, inclusive of all requirements unless otherwise noted below. Please number and single-space all pages. Use a 12-point font and 1-inch margins on all sides. Properly cite any material from sources using APA or an alternative standard format.
The proposal(s) should include the following:
• Coversheet (not included in page limit): Include the project title, name(s) and contact
information of investigator(s).
• Project narrative that explains what is to be achieved and includes the following components:
(a) research overview that identifies the research project and overarching research questions or objectives; (b) methods that describe how you plan to collect and analyze data; and (c) broader impacts that explain why the project is important, and discuss impacts or intangible benefits that the project can bring to the discipline and society.
• Timeline: This timeline should present the various tasks necessary for the successful completion of the project. Please include expected date of completion for each component.
• Budget: Provide a budget summary using the template at the end of this call. Be sure that budget totals sum accurately and follow budget guidelines.
• Budget narrative: Please provide a detailed explanation for each budget item.
• Curriculum vitae(s) (not included in page limit): Attach a curriculum vitae or resume for each
investigator.
• Indication of Global South-North collaboration (if already secured; not included in page limit): If you already have identified one or more collaborators, please include a letter of intent summarizing what each of you expects to contribute to the project. Keep in mind that all funded collaborations must include an LSU Manship investigator.
• If you have not already identified a collaborator, don't worry! You can still apply for funding and attend the workshop, and we will use the workshop to try to match you with research partners according to your interests. At the end of the workshop, proposals must be updated to include a letter of intent from all collaborators summarizing what each expects to contribute to the project.
Budgeting Guidelines
• Proposed budgets may not exceed $500 and the funds should be used to support data acquisition and analysis.
• Travel: Investigators may use these funds for research-related travel (i.e., travel to conduct interviews, visit archives/institutes, etc.). Please do not include conference travel in the proposal.
• Participant Compensation: These funds may be used to support participant compensation. Compensation can be in the form of gift cards, payment through Lucid or Qualtrics Panels, Amazon Mechanical Turk, raffles, etc. LSU requires researchers who wish to disperse compensation items in-person to complete the AS549 Acknowledgement of Cash Incentive Payment form. The Manship School will cover compensation costs in the form of reimbursement to the researcher.
Items that will NOT be funded include (a) salaries, student fees or tuition; (b) conference travel; (c) equipment purchases, including computers, computer parts and accessories; and (d) reimbursement for research-related activities that began before receiving the award.
Conditions of the Award
By submitting a proposal, research teams agree to the following:
• All funds must be spent and a report submitted to the Global South Journalism Research
Collaborative Lab PIs (Summer Harlow and Ruth Moon) no later than December 20, 2025. The report should be a one-page (single-spaced) summary of research progress and plans for completion.
• If funded, the research team will provide regular progress reports and attend mentorship check-in meetings with Drs. Moon and Harlow through the manuscript publication process.
• For each funded proposal, the LSU investigator will provide the PI team with a copy of the final manuscript upon submission to a journal. The manuscript must be submitted by May 15, 2026.
Selection Criteria
The selection committee will evaluate and select proposals based on the overall quality of the written proposal, expected significance and broader impacts, and conceptual and methodological rigor of the proposed project. Below are specific criteria.
• Indication of a collaborative team comprised of an LSU Manship student and a student from
a university in the Global South. Teams can also include students from other universities. Proposals should include a summary of what each co-PI expects to contribute to the project.
• Coversheet (5%): The cover page has all required information.
• Project plan (60%): The proposal provides a clear and strong justification and context for the
project, discusses relevant literature and research questions in a clear and coherent manner, and clearly describes the methodology and research plan that will be used to complete the project.
• Significance and broader impacts (15%): The proposal clearly explains the project's potential contribution to our understanding of journalism practice and/or theory in the Global South.
• Budget and budget narrative (10%): The budget template is complete and appropriate for the project.
• Quality of writing (10%): The proposal is written clearly, logically and intelligibly, with no errors in spelling or grammar.
Budget Template
Please adapt this template as necessary. Provide details in a brief budget justification that explains exactly how the funds will be spent.
About Us
The Global South Journalism Research Collaborative Lab is a joint initiative that aims to cultivate a network of scholars and practitioners who can work together across geographic boundaries to increase our understanding of the myriad factors that contribute to the ability of journalism in the Global South to effectively fulfill its democratic responsibility. The lab's co- leaders are Summer Harlow and Ruth Moon.
Summer Harlow (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is the associate director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and a visiting associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin. A former journalist, her research examines the challenges and opportunities for alternative media, independent journalism, and activism brought on by emerging technologies, particularly in Latin America and the Global South. She has written two books: Digital Native News and the Remaking of Latin American Mainstream and Alternative Journalism (Routledge, 2023), which won the Kappa Tau Alpha Frank Luther Mott book award for best journalism and mass communication research and the AEJMC-Knudson Latin America book prize, and Liberation Technology in El Salvador: Re-appropriating Social Media among Alternative Media Projects (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017), which also won the Knudson prize. Currently, she is the primary investigator for El Salvador in the Worlds of Journalism Study and the Journalistic Role Performance Project. She also is an associate editor for the Journalism Studies journal.
Ruth Moon (PhD, University of Washington) is an assistant professor of media and public affairs at Louisiana State University. She studies power relationships and knowledge production with a focus on journalism practice in authoritarian contexts in the Global South; her research is informed by more than 10 years' professional journalism experience. She has published research in Digital Journalism, Journalism Studies, Journalism, Information, Communication & Society, African Journalism Studies, International Journal of Communication, and other journals. Her first book, Authoritarian Journalism: Controlling the Press in Post-Conflict Rwanda (Oxford University Press), was published in 2023. She is also on the editorial board for African Journalism Studies.
www.summerharlow.com | summer.harlow@austin.utexas.edu | 512-471-1990