Meet the CPD Research Fellows for 2015-2017

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Oct 30, 2015

The USC Center on Public Diplomacy is pleased to introduce its new CPD Research Fellows for 2015-2017: Ali Fisher, Barbora Maronkova, and Emily Metzgar.

Selected from a competitive pool of international applicants by an independent faculty review committee, Fisher, Maronkova, and Metzgar will each oversee a substantive research project that will yield at least two outputs, including one publication for the Center’s publication series, CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacy, during their two-year terms. USC graduate students will be recruited to assist with certain projects in the coming months.

About the 2015-2017 CPD Research Fellows

Ali Fisher is a strategic adviser and author who specializes in delivering insight into complex information ecosystems through innovative approaches, network analysis, and big data. Fisher's CPD research project, "Netwar in Cyberia: Decoding the Media Mujahedeen and the Jihadist Swarmcast," will examine Jihadist media strategy using the military concept of Netwar and assess whether Jihadist strategy has extended beyond Netwar to embrace the potential of collective and emergent behaviors within complex information systems. Through a strategic assessment of the information dissemination systems, "Netwar in Cyberia" will identify factors which could influence the success of public diplomacy responses to Jihadist online content.

Barbora Maronkova is the Program Manager at NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division in Brussels, Belgium. As of 2012, she co-leads the Evaluation and Assessment program for the Division. Maronkova's research project, "From Crawling to Walking: Progress in Evaluating the Effectiveness of Public Diplomacy. Lessons learned from NATO" will share with the wider public diplomacy community the work undertaken by NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division over the past three years in setting up its own measurement and evaluation processes. It will also offer recommendations to other international organizations and national institutions for creating more effective measurement and evaluation. 

Emily Metzgar is an associate professor in the Department of Journalism at Indiana University. Her CPD Research project, "Journalism with Purpose: Foreign Policy, Domestic Politics and U.S. International Broadcasting," examines the legislative and policy history behind the establishment of U.S. international broadcasting as both a journalistic undertaking and a foreign policy endeavor and in doing so, sheds light on contemporary debates about the future of U.S. international broadcasting.

About the CPD Research Fellowship Program

In August 2009, the Center launched the research fellowship program designed to support and publicize the work of scholars and practitioners of public diplomacy. Every year, the Center selects three non-resident fellows, each serving a two-year term.

For a full list of current CPD Research Fellows, click here.