GRANTS AND OUTREACH

Where Are the Women? Communicative Erasure and Gendered (In)Visibility in Post-Authoritarian Bangladesh (Award: $10,000)
Principal Investigator: Mohammad Ala-Uddin, Saint Mary's College,
Notre Dame,
Additional Investigator(s)/Researcher(s): Shehreen Amin Bhuiyan, University of Dhaka

In July 2024, a student-led mass uprising in Bangladesh overthrew a fifteen-year authoritarian regime in what many observers have called the world's first Gen-Z Revolution. One of the many remarkable aspects of this movement was the wide participation of women, particularly those in hijab and niqab, who defied widespread stereotypes of passivity to serve as protesters, coordinators, and leaders. Yet this visibility proved fragile: in the post-authoritarian period, women activists faced social media trolling, media exclusion, public shaming, and political marginalization, behaviors that amounted to a systematic communicative erasure from public life. This erasure extended into formal politics. In the February 2026 elections, only seven women won among 300 directly elected parliamentary seats, and the student-led political party that emerged from the revolution elected no women to parliament.

This project investigates the communicative erasure of women activists, particularly veiled women, in post-authoritarian Bangladesh. Drawing on symbolic annihilation theory (Tuchman, 1978), muted group theory (Kramarae, 2005), and the culture-centered approach (Dutta, 2008), the study examines women’s experiences of (in)visibility and the material and discursive conditions that contributed to their communicative erasure across public spheres. The project asks: How do women activists narrate their experiences of (in)visibility during and after the revolution? What conditions, as experienced and interpreted by activists across gender, contributed to their communicative erasure? In what ways does the veil function as a site of communicative agency and/or constraint, challenging dominant narratives about veiled women’s political subjectivity?

Using a triangulated qualitative design, the study employs reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) across three data sources: semi-structured interviews (n=20), three focus groups, and analysis of women's (in)visibility in activist organizations' social media posts, guided by Stuart Hall's (1997) theory of representation. Fieldwork will be conducted in Bangladesh over 30 days. The project contributes to scholarly conversations on gender and communication, decoloniality, and social movement studies, while offering practical implications for civil society, media reform, and women’s political participation in post-authoritarian contexts.

Communicating Care and Survival: Queer African Migrants and Precarious Refuge in Transit Countries (Award: $10,000)
Principal Investigator: Godfried Asante, San Diego State University,
Additional Investigator(s)/Researcher(s): Maguette Niang

Scholarship on queer migration has largely focused on movement from the Global South to Western asylum destinations such as Europe, Canada, Australia, and the United States. Far less attention has been paid to queer African migrants who relocate within the African continent in search of comparatively safer living conditions while remaining in contexts where legal protections, social acceptance, and long-term security remain unstable. This project examines how queer African migrants navigate safety and belonging within these contexts of precarious refuge. Drawing on qualitative interviews and narrative inquiry, this study will explore the communicative practices through which queer migrants negotiate everyday survival in transit countries such as Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and Morocco. The project investigates how migrants use communication strategies, digital networks, storytelling, strategic visibility and concealment, and community-building practices to secure housing, access information, maintain social support, and navigate ongoing risks of exposure and displacement. Rather than conceptualizing migration solely as movement toward permanent asylum or citizenship, this project examines migration as an ongoing negotiation of partial safety, mobility, and uncertainty. This research contributes to communication scholarship by theorizing communication as survival infrastructure within contexts of displacement and legal precarity. It also advances scholarship in queer migration studies by shifting attention toward intra-African migration pathways that remain underexamined in existing literature. In alignment with the mission of the Waterhouse Family Institute, the project foregrounds communication’s role in shaping social justice, community resilience, and ethical responses to issues affecting vulnerable populations. Findings from the study may support advocacy organizations, migrant support networks, and community-based initiatives working with queer migrants navigating unstable refuge across the African continent.

(De)finding Territories of Life: Environmental Communication for Communitarian Governance (Award: $9,998)
Principal Investigator: José Castro-Sotomayor, California State University Channel Islands

The Comuna Puerto Cabuyal is a small fishing community located on the coast of Ecuador. Recently, the comuna has been recognized as a Territorio de Vida (Territory of Life), an internationally known designation that recognizes the community’s ancestral ties to the land they inhabit. Under this designation, the land becomes their collective territory. A central element of this land recognition is the creation of a Plan de Vida (Life Plan), a community-based programmatic document that collects the comuna’s history, traditions, ecological and cultural knowledge, and a vision for its future. The proposed research responds directly to one of the activities identified by the Comuna as essential to advance and consolidate Puerto Cabuyal’s Life Plan, the “creation of a territorial narrative.” The research will use an ecocultural framework and a territorial perspective to understand comuneros’ interpretations of lineage, the sacred, and land. The project seeks to facilitate the articulation of a territorial narrative via visual participatory methodologies, photovoice, and drawings, which will be implemented in about ten workshops organized by age and gender. These methods are not only suitable to engage groups with low literacy but also empower communities by validating their stories. By elucidating the comuna’s territorial narrative, the proposed project seeks to strengthen Puerto Cabuyal’s Plan de Vida by offering a discursive dimension that could help frame future projects of educommunication, such as the nascent youth- and women-led communitarian radio. Further, it is expected that the images –photos and drawings –become a visual archive for the Coumuna's digital presence and advocacy.

From Tool to Communication Partner: University Student-AI Interactions and the Communicative Formation of Identity
(Award: $10,000)
Principal Investigator: Rentia du Plessis, The University of the Free State,
Additional Investigator(s)/Researcher(s): Diana Breshears, The University of the Free State,
Additional Investigator(s)/Researcher(s): Luzelle Naudé, The University of the Free State

The proposed study will investigate how university students engage generative artificial intelligence (AI) as a communicative partner and how these interactions shape identity formation, relational practices, and experiences of belonging. Moving beyond current explorations of student AI use as an educational tool, the project adopts a constitutive view of communication, conceptualizing student–AI engagement as a social process through which meaning and identity are constructed. The research will take place in the South African context, where structural inequalities and uneven access to support may influence how students turn to AI as a low-risk, and immediate communicative partner. Through a qualitative design, data will be collected through in-depth interviews with students to examine how students interpret these engagements in relation to their personal, relational, and communal identities. Students will also provide anonymized transcripts of their interactions with generative AI. Reflexive thematic analysis will be used to identify themes across both datasets. This project will contribute to the current academic discussion of AI-use in higher education by shedding light on its relational and identity-formative aspects, while also contributing to more equitable and ethically grounded approaches to AI use in resource-constrained contexts. At the completion of the study, workshops will be delivered to student groups at the host institution to critically reflect on implications of AI interactions, create awareness of responsible engagement with AI, and develop skills for positive AI use.

Communicating About Identity and Diversity with Children: Examining and Supporting the Strategies of Educators and Caregivers in Children’s Third Places (Award: $10,000)
Principal Investigator: Laura Elenbaas, Purdue University

Children are more accepting and inclusive of peers they perceive as different from themselves when they have opportunities to communicate openly and honestly about identity and diversity with others. One generative context for such conversations has been classrooms, however, children’s chances to talk freely about ethnicity, disability, gender, and other identities at school are currently being restricted in many areas of the U.S. This places the youngest members of our society at elevated risk of developing prejudice and experiencing bias-based exclusion and harassment. To find new ways to foster open communication about identity and diversity with elementary-aged children, this project will highlight the perspectives, actions, and recommendations of educators and caregivers in children’s third places such as community centers, after-school programs, and summer camps who may have been previously overlooked as potential agents of positive social change. Specifically, we will use quantitative survey and qualitative interview methods to explore third place educators’ and caregivers’ (1) current approaches to communicating with children about identity, diversity, justice, and action, drawing on the Social Justice Standards from Learning for Justice and (2) recommended strategies for communicating with children about these concepts, with an emphasis on children’s literature vetted by Teaching for Change as a communication tool. This project will generate new scholarly insights and creative practical solutions to support constructive communication about identity and diversity in spaces where children can promptly apply their knowledge in positive peer interactions, highlighting new possibilities for a more just, inclusive, and equitable world for our next generation.

Communicating Menstruation at Work: Lived Experiences and Stigma Management in Kenya (Award: $8,190)
Principal Investigator: Mary Kiura, Purdue University

Menstruation experiences and stigma management at work are not well understood despite widespread understanding of menstruation as a biological natural process. Indeed, menstruation is still considered a taboo topic and private matter in many workplace settings (Grandey et al., 2020). The stigma surrounding menstruation has prompted many menstruators to conceal menstruation or manage it in secrecy while at work. The continued hiding of menstrual experiences and management not only reinforces the stigma but also hinders open communication and knowledge sharing among menstruators that could serve as sources of support and inform development of inclusive policies that address menstruators needs. Therefore, drawing on stigma management communication theory (Meisenbach, 2010), this study seeks to explore how menstruators in Kenya experience menstruation and communicatively manage menstrual stigma at work. The study uses qualitative research design because it allows for an in-depth exploration of menstruator’s lived experiences and captures the nuanced, contextual complexities of their perspectives (Tracy, 2025). Specifically, data will be collected using a combination of experience sampling methods (ESM; Gabriel et al., 2019) and semi-structured individual interviews with about 40 menstruators. Participants will be recruited using maximum variation, purposive, and snowball sampling techniques. Data will be analyzed using phronetic iterative qualitative data analysis (PIQDA; Tracy, 2025). By centering the lived experiences of menstruators at work, this study offers insights that can inform more inclusive workplace practices and policies for menstruators. Additionally, the findings have potential for theoretical implications for menstruation communication scholarship and stigma management theory, as well as practical implications for menstrual advocacy organizations and government officials.

 

More Than a Seat at the Table: Negotiating Expertise and Participation in Homelessness Policymaking (Award: $9,966)
Principal Investigator: Inbal Leibovits, Ohio University

In recent years, policymakers and scholars have increasingly emphasized the importance of integrating people with lived experience (PLE) into decision-making processes. This emphasis is particularly salient in homelessness policy, where PLE are often engaged through Continuum of Care (CoC) structures—interagency collaborations supported by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development—based on the premise that those directly affected by homelessness possess critical experiential knowledge about both problems and potential solutions. However, despite efforts to engage PLE, research consistently shows that participation often remains limited, constrained, or tokenistic. In partnership with the Homelessness Services Network (HSN), the lead agency of Central Florida’s CoC, this community-engaged, participatory research examines how formal policies of PLE engagement are enacted and negotiated in practice. The project approaches PLE engagement as an ongoing communicative process through which expertise, legitimacy, and inclusion are negotiated in everyday organizational interactions. Specifically, the study investigates how communicative practices and organizational norms shape whose voices are heard, what forms of knowledge are recognized as legitimate, and how decisions unfold within homelessness governance. To examine these dynamics, the research employs a mixed-methods approach that includes ethnographic observations of CoC committee meetings and organizational settings, semi-structured interviews with CoC participants both with and without lived experience of homelessness, and surveys examining stakeholder attitudes toward PLE engagement and participation within Central Florida’s CoC. Its participatory design includes a capacity-building training through which two PLE collaborators will join the research team and participate in data collection and analysis, integrating experiential knowledge into the research process itself. By identifying communicative barriers and enabling practices for substantive participation, this study contributes theoretical insight into how expertise and experiential knowledge are communicatively recognized and negotiated in policymaking, while also generating practical strategies for strengthening more equitable forms of participation in homelessness governance.

Negotiating Blackness in AANAPISIs/HSIs: Rhetorical Agency, Identity, and Institutional Belonging (Award: $8,100)
Principal Investigator: Lionnell Smith, San Francisco State University

Black students at Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions and Hispanic Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs/HSIs) occupy a paradoxical and underexamined structural position: they are the minority of racially minoritized students at institutions designated to serve other communities of color. At California State University (CSU) campuses designated as AANAPISIs/HSIs, Black students navigate educational environments not designed for them — and yet they persist, resist, and create. Empirical research documents this experience as one of simultaneous invisibility and hypervisibility, marked by isolation and the pressure to represent Blackness in spaces where institutional attention is organized around different communities of color. Despite the urgency of this dynamic, the rhetorical dimensions of Black student experience at AANAPISIs/HSIs remain entirely unexamined in communication and rhetorical studies.

This project aims to investigate how Black students at CSU AANAPISIs/HSIs rhetorically negotiate racial identity and construct ways of knowing, and what these negotiations reveal about Black linguistic agency, institutional belonging, and the conditions necessary for racial equity at these institutions. Drawing on the framework of rhetorical onto-epistemology — the understanding that language and discourse actively construct ways of knowing rooted in cultural and racial experience — this study treats Black students not as objects of institutional intervention but as agents and theorists of their own rhetorical self-determination.

Using rhetorical field methods, the project will conduct focus groups with Black students across two to three CSU AANAPISI/HSI campuses in northern California. Focus groups are theoretically grounded in the project's commitment to centering Black communicative norms and treating participants as co-producers of knowledge. Data will be analyzed using thematic analysis to identify recurring rhetorical strategies, patterns of resistance, and modes of identity construction.

Findings will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed journal article, a national or regional conference presentation, and a publicly accessible community forum open to students, alumni, and community members — ensuring the research reaches beyond the academy into the communities it is designed to serve.

Who Shapes Crisis Narratives Across Borders? Diasporic Elite Strategic Communication and Public Engagement in Homeland Crisis (Award: $6,950)
Principal Investigator: Weiting Tao, University of Miami,
Additional Investigator(s)/Researcher(s): Tasnia Alam, University of Miami

This study addresses a critical gap in public relations and crisis communication scholarship by examining how crisis narratives shift across borders during homeland political crises. It examines the strategic communication of the Bangladeshi diaspora during Bangladesh’s 2024 July uprising, a period marked by media censorship, authoritarian control, and disrupted domestic information flows. We argue that during homeland political crises, diasporic institutional leaders act as influential transnational communicators who shape crisis narratives and facilitate cross-border information flows to promote social justice in the homeland.

Drawing on political public relations framing theory, this study investigates how diasporic institutional leaders construct, adapt, and deploy strategic frames to define the crisis, attribute responsibility, and mobilize engagement across transnational audiences. Using qualitative in-depth interviews with Bangladeshi diasporic institutional leaders and a thematic qualitative content analysis of their public communication during June–August 2024, the study develops a typology of diasporic strategic communication that emerges in response to social injustice. Additionally, through interviews with members of the Bangladeshi diaspora in the United States, the study intends to examine how these frames influence diaspora publics.

Grounded in a Global South context, this project advances political public relations scholarship beyond Western-centric institutional frameworks by conceptualizing framing as an intentional, relational, and power-laden transnational communication process. It further reconceptualizes diaspora as a distinct category of strategic communicators who actively shape meaning, legitimacy, and mobilization contributing to the pursuit of social justice under political constraints.

This project directly advances the WFI's mission by treating communication not as a vehicle for information but as the primary mechanism through which oppressed publics resist authoritarian silencing and build transnational solidarity. The Bangladesh 2024 case reveals communication as both a site of contested power and a tool of resistance — demonstrating how diaspora actors use strategic framing to compensate for state-imposed information blackouts, keep international attention on injustice, and galvanize cross-border accountability. Findings will be shared with scholars, Bangladeshi diaspora advocacy networks, international press freedom organizations, and human rights bodies working to document and counter authoritarian communication control.

Whose Words Count? Amplification, Equalization, and the Racialized Reception of AI-Mediated Workplace Advocacy (Award: $9,600)
Principal Investigator: Mengqi (Monica) Zhan, University of Texas at Arlington,
Additional Investigator(s)/Researcher(s): Roger Gans, University of Texas at Arlington

Generative AI tools are rapidly becoming embedded in everyday workplace communication, yet the social consequences of AI-mediated messaging remain largely uninvestigated, particularly for employees from racial and ethnic minority groups. This project investigates a question at the intersection of AI-mediated communication and communication justice: does an employee’s racial identity shape how others evaluate AI-authored workplace advocacy communication? We advance two competing theoretical accounts. The amplification account, grounded in algorithmic authenticity theory (Jago, 2019; Jago et al., 2022) and research on racialized credibility work (Gunning, 2025; McCluney et al., 2021), predicts that AI authorship compounds existing credibility penalties for minority communicators by triggering differential effort attributions. The equalization account, drawing on recent findings that algorithmic assistance can increase producer credit (Jago & Carroll, 2024) and the logic that AI-generated text neutralizes linguistically triggered bias, predicts that AI authorship may reduce or eliminate the racial credibility gap. Moreover, AI authorship can become salient to evaluators through two distinct cognitive routes: bottom-up inference from textual cues, or top-down processing of explicit disclosure. Because these routes engage different cognitive mechanisms, they may interact with source race differently. We test both pathways across two complementary experiments. Together, the two studies provide evidence on whether AI-mediated workplace advocacy amplifies or reduces racialized credibility gaps, and through which cognitive pathway these effects are strongest. This project contributes to communication scholarship by framing AI as a mechanism through which communicative code-switching is both enacted and evaluated along racial lines, advancing the Waterhouse Family Institute’s mission of centering communication’s role in social change.