Dr. Vandana Pednekar-Magal is a 2020 Fulbright Specialist Program at the Communication department in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Diponegoro (UNDIP).

From August 22 to September 30, 2022, Dr. Vandana Pednekar-Magal and the Department of Communication at the University of Diponegoro successfully carried out a short-term capacity-building project on Emerging Research Methods on Digital Media and Platforms.

Dr. Pednekar-Magal arrived in Semarang, Indonesia, in late August 2022. It was the tail-end of the pandemic because health risks were fairly contained with widespread vaccine availability. Universities held in-person classes for the first time in two years. As a Fulbright Specialist, she was excited to be amidst students and faculty on campus at Universitas Diponegoro (UNDIP). Her assignment was introducing faculty to emerging research methods and topics related to digital media and platforms. In other words, to help strengthen their capacity to produce publishable research that would also inform their teaching. A culminating experience of this project was near completion of a research paper with a group of faculty members.

Overall, the Fulbright Project was structured in the form of workshops, lectures, and discussions with faculty groups and local media professionals. Faculty groups from several departments, including Communications and Business Administration participated in the workshops. She also taught classes as a guest lecturer. This was particularly useful as it enabled lively interaction with UNDIP students. She was happy to visit local media organizations such as RRI Semarang (FM Radio Station) and Kompas TV. A lively discussion about significant topics, such as media convergence, younger audiences, challenges due to competition, and others, ensued during these visits.

Late August is still the ‘dry season in the lush mountainous region of Central Java. Roads out of the city are flanked with terraced fields, papaya, plantain groves, or thick sun-dappled forest. The countryside is spectacular. Just a couple of hours of driving distance, there are some prominent cultural sights in the mountains. Borobudur, an ancient Mahayana Buddhist temple built in the 9th century, Prambanan, an ancient Hindu temple built during the same period, and the Musolahs or small Masjids dotting the rural landscape offers an insight into the entrenched multicultural aspect of Indonesia. A significant part of her time in Indonesia was to experience this mosaic of the cultural landscape. On all her day trips out of Semarang, one or two faculty members or students would accompany her.

Conversations during these road trips were an invaluable part of her Fulbright experience. She gathered many insights into the country’s culture, social structures, and linguistic groups and broadened her perspectives about teaching, learning, and conducting research in diverse cultures.

As she was getting ready to leave Indonesia in the first week of October, she knew she would come back for future collaborations in terms of research, student, and/or faculty exchange possibilities. Of course, other collaborative educational exchanges, such as online courses with her home institutions (Georgia State University, as well as Grand Valley State University) – are valuable remnants of the pandemic time.