WPLN news director Emily Siner has been selected to participate in the Fulbright U.S. Scholar program. Most applicants to the prestigious program are PhD-level faculty.
This particular Fulbright program bases awards on self-designed study and research projects. Siner’s proposal could not be more on point for this moment in America: how journalists cover abortion, with Ireland as her case study.
Siner received a three-month Fulbright grant for teaching and research, starting late August. The teaching element will be at Maynooth University, a socioeconomically diverse college outside Dublin. She will present journalism lectures and work with an academic adviser, Anne O’Brien, who does journalism research around gender issues. The other portion of Siner’s time will go toward interviewing reporters and editors about their work on abortion coverage. Siner hopes to create a whitepaper on what American journalists can learn from the Irish abortion debate as well as publish a few articles on Nieman Lab or Poynter. This will also inform and strengthen WPLN’s abortion coverage.
Siner will be on leave for three months, starting in late August. Senior editor Chas Sisk will serve as interim news director.