Knight Center student Kevin Duffy recently accepted a research assistantship at the University of Maine in Orono.
Duffy, a second year master’s student at Michigan State University’s School of Journalism, currently reports for the center’s Great Lakes Echo. He was a co-recipient of the Knight Center’s Don Caldwell Memorial Scholarship in Environmental Journalism in 2015.
In August, he will join an interdisciplinary research team to investigate the perceptions of aquaculture — the fresh or salt water farming of fish, shellfish or aquatic plants — and to identify the best practices for communicating aquaculture’s role in coastal economies and food systems.

Duffy will pursue his doctorate in communication and journalism as part of the SEANET – Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Network – program, which is funded by a $20-million National Science Foundation grant.
SEANET is part of a larger federal program directed at states, which have historically received less research and development funding. It’s aimed at building capacity for local, sustainable research.
As a research fellow, Duffy will join SEANET to promote the ecological well being of coastal Maine, which is highly dependent on tourism, commercial fishing and aquaculture.