From a compelling idea to ICA 2025: Building Global Scholarship Through Friendship and Research

A heartfelt shoutout to my amazing collaborator and friend Dren Gërguri, who took the lead in presenting our co-authored paper “Hybrid Populism in the Global East: Evidence from Visual Campaigning on Facebook in the Era of COVID-19” at the 2025 convention of the International Communication Association (ICA) in Denver.

This project was born three years ago when Dren first reached out with a compelling idea to study the visual manifestation of populism in the Balkans during tumultuous COVID times. That initial spark turned into an incredible journey of collaboration. I encouraged him to apply for a Fulbright visiting scholar position at the University of Houston — to buy out teaching time from his home University of Prishtina and have the luxury to fully immerse himself in this intellectual journey. This move gave us the space and time to build something meaningful together. We spent many hours (over many cups of coffee) bouncing ideas, analyzing the data, editing, and revising each other's work, producing a paper that is more than just a piece of research—it’s a testament to what’s possible when scholars from different corners of the world come together with curiosity and mutual respect.

Finding best practices and models to support this kind of genuine collaboration between scholars in Western and majority-world institutions was the central focus of the preconference (a.k.a., unconference) "Invisible Labor: Recentering the Future of Journalism From the Global Periphery" at #ICA25. We tackled some tough but necessary conversations. The central theme? This kind of partnership isn’t about charity—it’s about the transformative potential of good, collaborative science across global regions. And we left feeling hopeful.

In other news, I presented our ongoing research project titled “Principles Underpinning Innovation in Global Data Journalism Practices”, co-authored with my graduate school friends and long-term collaborators Jason Martin and Gerry Lanosga.