IIJ Promoting Graduate Research in Journalism in Kazakhstan

The Institute for International Journalism in collaboration with Al-Farabi Kazakh Nation University (KazNU) has entered into research venture to work with KazNU’s Faculty of Journalism to conduct consultations and lectures from Feb. 21 through March 8. This partnership was made possible through the Study of the U.S. Institute (SUSI) on Journalism and Media post-institute activities.

IIJ Director, Dr. Yusuf Kalyango, will lead lectures and consultations, most of which last three and half hours, each weekday of the trip in the Faculty of Journalism at KazNU. Lectures and consultations will be open to faculty members, graduate students and undergraduate students.

Graduate research students will attend lessons on quantitative research, such as designing, collecting data, theorizing and publishing in American or European Academic Journals.

Kalyango’s lectures for undergraduate students will be based on a course offered at KazNU: “Role of Televised (Visual) Media and Democratization (TV News).” Their lectures and consultations include conceptualizing research ideas, formulating hypotheses, collecting, and analyzing data, or the “A to Z of Public Opinion Empirical Research.”

KazNU students and lecturers will present their findings on the last weekday of Kalyango’s visit: Friday, March 7. KazNU Rector Dr. Mutanov Galimkair Mutanovich and OU President Dr. Roderick J. McDavis last year signed a Memorandum of Understanding, a formal agreement establishing a partnership, between the two institutions.

"Developing and fostering strong partnerships with universities around the globe is an important aspect of our commitment to diversity and an important way that we enrich the student experience at Ohio University," OU President Roderick J. McDavis said in a Compass blog post.

Kalyango’s lectures and consultations at KazNU will be part of the IIJ-SUSI post-Institute program events. The SUSI summer institute is funded by an annual renewable grant from the U.S. Department of State’s Study of the U.S. Branch in the Office of Academic Exchange Programs. Scholars from all over the world come to the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University to be exposed to journalism practice and media institutions in the United States, according to a previous Institute for International Journalism post.

At last year’s academic trip, Kalyango’s lectures revolved around topics such as global news coverage and reporting conflicts, and the consultations were related to a course: Higher Education, Professional Development and Research Opportunities in the USA. He also held a workshop called Teaching and Grading with Multimedia Online Tools in Classrooms and Seminars, on his final day in Kazakhstan.

Between lectures, consultations and workshops, Kalyango also experienced the Kazakh culture by traveling around the country with an alumna of the 2012 Study of the U.S. Institute at Ohio University, indulging in traditional foods and attending shows at locally significant theaters.