Collaborating for the Global Good

Seven Royster Society of Fellows doctoral graduate students from UNC-Chapel Hill traveled to Germany for the 2022 Royster Global Conference, an initiative of The Graduate School designed to increase awareness and understanding of graduate education across international borders.

The sixth annual conference focused on the theme of mis- and disinformation, or how information spreads in a rapidly, increasingly global, communications landscape.

Tori Ekstrand ’03 (PhD), associate professor in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and the Dr. Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster Distinguished Professor for Graduate Education at Carolina, led the trip.

“Both mis- and disinformation have implications in academia,” Ekstrand said, explaining that both mis- and disinformation can include discounting and backlash of expertise — putting it at odds with expertise found in academia.

“I’m hopeful that our time in Germany will help these young scholars understand that as they enter the academy — they also have tremendous opportunity and agency.”

Royster Global included 17 student participants, with eight from Universität Tübingen and two from King’s College London. Royster Global launched in 2017 between UNC-Chapel Hill and King’s College London. Since then, it has expanded to include the participation of graduate students from three additional institutions: the National University of Singapore, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and the Universität Tübingen.

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