Zanger captures inaugural CBGJ faculty research grant
Prof. Maggy Zanger traveled last summer to Iraqi Kurdistan, meeting with students and faculty at the American University of Iraq in Sulaimani, and presenting a workshop for independent journalists on online journalism and copyright issues.
The Center for Border & Global Journalism has awarded its 2017 inaugural faculty research grant to Professor Maggy Zanger of the School of Journalism.
Prof. Maggy Zanger traveled last summer to Iraqi Kurdistan, meeting with students and faculty at the American University of Iraq in Sulaimani, and presenting a workshop for independent journalists on online journalism and copyright issues.
Professor Zanger’s proposal to explore the impact of violence, economic crisis and the expansion of extremist religious ideology on Iraqi Kurdistan's journalists was chosen by a three-member outside review committee, chaired by Professor Paulette Kurzer of the School of Government and Public Policy.
Zanger’s proposal was one of three submissions for the grant, which the Center offered for the first time this spring to faculty researchers on the campus of the University of Arizona.
The grant — which will be offered annually — seeks to advance academic study and research involving freedom of expression.
William Schmidt, the co-director of the Center and a professor in the School of Journalism, said Zanger’s research will help illuminate the difficult challenges that Kurdish journalists face, in their efforts to establish an independent press in one of the world’s more volatile regions.
“The Center established this award to encourage research into the importance of press freedom everywhere," Schmidt said. “Journalism is more necessary than ever to help us make sense of a world that has grown increasingly complex and perilous.”
The grant will provide up to $1,500 in funds on behalf of research inside the U.S. or abroad during the balance of 2017.
"I am thrilled to have support in this research," Zanger said, which "will go a long way toward making it high quality."
Kurzer said reviewers favored Zanger’s proposal because the research — scheduled to be done on the ground this fall inside Kurdistan — will build on earlier studies conducted with journalists in the region by Zanger and Professor Jeannine Relly, another member of the School of Journalism faculty.
Zanger also taught a workshop for independent journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan last summer on online journalism and copyright issues.
The other two faculty members of the review committee were Professors Jane Bambauer and Derek Bambauer of the James E. Rogers College of Law.
Prof. Zanger held a workshop for independent journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan, including Asos Hardi (second to right of Zanger, back row), who is the publisher of Awene news and spoke to UA students on a visit to Tucson in mid-October.