Author Archives: Barb Miller

Environmental communication symposium and workshop hosting Latin American scholars ends in collaboration

BY ANNA BARNES, SHEALYN PAULIS

Symposium participants

From Mon. March 31, to Wed. April 2, 2025, Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) hosted the Counter-Hegemonic Environmental Discourses in Latin American Contexts Symposium and Workshop. The event featured a full day of panels where visiting Latin American scholars representing eight countries presented their research on environmental communication.

Latin American perspectives are often marginalized from international academic spaces. Systematic barriers prevent researchers from being included in global conversations, such as language, translation difficulties and emphasis on work produced in the Global North. Additionally, the availability of funding is a stark contrast for academics in the Global South compared to their northern counterparts. These barriers have made scientific inclusion and cooperation between the Global North and South challenging.

The event highlighted research and scholarship from Latin America, with discussions centered on the communication of environmental health issues, sustainability, environmental journalism, and hegemonic perspectives. It also explored the audiences and sources of environmental communication, with particular attention to Indigenous and marginalized communities. Continue reading

University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum Presentations

Five Knight Center undergraduate assistants have presented their year-long research at MSU’s annual University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum at the Breslin Center.

 

Shealyn Paulis and Anna Barnes

Shealyn Paulis and Anna Barnes, who worked with Knight Center research director Bruno Takahashi, presented their project “Environmental Communication in Latin American Context.”

Patrick Ferrino and Katherine Dyal

 

Katherine Dyal and Patrick Ferrino, who worked with Knight Center director Eric Freedman, presented their project “The Lived Experience of Journalists in Exile.”

 

Clara Lincolnhol

Clara Lincolnhol, who worked with Great Lakes Echo editor Jeff Brooks-Gilles, presented her project “Experience as a Great Lakes Echo Environmental Reporter.”

 

Counter-Hegemonic Environmental Discourses in Latin American Contexts Symposium and Workshop

From Monday, March 31, to Wednesday, April 2, Michigan State University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) and the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism will host the Counter-Hegemonic Environmental Discourses in Latin American Contexts Symposium and Workshop. The event invites researchers, staff and students to join as 14 scholars representing eight Latin American countries discuss their research in environmental communication.

The symposium and workshop will allow scholars to share their perspectives from a critical and decolonial perspective, one rarely highlighted in western publications. The symposium aims to explore the obstacles researchers face in their fields, such as language barriers, hegemonic perspectives and paywalls.

Faculty, staff and students are invited to attend the full-day symposium where they will gain valuable insights from diverse, multicultural perspectives and have the opportunity to engage with international scholars. By fostering these connections, the MSU community can broaden its academic sourcing and open students to new, underrepresented ideas.

Among the featured presenters is Ana Claudia Nepote, a researcher and full-time professor based out of the city of Morelia in México. Nepote focuses on issues related to science-society interactions, environmental communication and communication for environmental sustainability. Her panel will be discussing cultural diversity in sustainability communication . Continue reading

Paid summer reporting internships available for MSU students at five Michigan news organizations

Michigan State University students with diverse backgrounds and life experiences are eligible for five paid internships this summer at major multi-media Michigan news organizations.

These internships through MSU’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism meet the MSU J-School’s internship requirement. Environmental expertise or particular interest is not required. But you’ll gain both.

The application deadline is 10 p.m. on March 26, 2025

Four internships are with members of the Great Lakes News Collaborative, a group of independent and multi-media news organizations. They are:

  • Bridge Michigan, Michigan’s largest nonprofit news service
  • Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, a monthly magazine-style television program with online daily reports
  • Circle of Blue, a Traverse City-based news service reporting on worldwide water challenges
  • Michigan Public – Michigan’s largest NPR news outlet.

A fifth internship is at Planet Detroit, an independent nonprofit local news organization that reports on the environment and public health in Detroit and Southeast Michigan.

FAQ

Q: Who is eligible?

A: Michigan State University students with diverse backgrounds and life experiences. That includes students graduating at the end of spring semester 2025 or later. It includes students who major in journalism, digital storytelling and other relevant majors. Continue reading