We are honored to present CUNY Adjunct Incubator work. Please read about Desislava Zagorcheva’s (LaGuardia Community College) public scholarship and its impact below. Her research on foreign disinformation campaigns was featured in Foreign Policy.
This opportunity has been instrumental in advancing my professional development, expanding my academic network, and allowing me to pursue a number of initiatives that align closely with the goals I outlined in my grant application. Thanks to the award, I was able to conduct the research and organizational groundwork necessary to launch and co-facilitate a Faculty Seminar on Media Literacy Skills in the Digital Age.
This interdisciplinary seminar brings together faculty members from across the university to discuss pressing issues such as disinformation, information overload, and the skills students need to become critical consumers and producers of information. The Seminar aims to assist faculty members in their efforts to equip students with skills to navigate the complex digital world and cut through fake news and information chaos.
In addition to a brief intro to current literature on misinformation’s impact on democracy, seminar participants explore pedagogical approaches that work across disciplines to foster media literacy.
Currently, we are developing class activities and assignments that can be integrated into CUNY courses to help students assess the credibility of information sources, make fact-based decisions, and become critical consumers of media messages. Through our discussions, Seminar participants are collaboratively designing classroom activities aimed at enhancing students’ critical thinking and media literacy competencies.
The grant also facilitated connections with guest speakers and experts invited to the Faculty Seminar. These interactions have sparked new ideas and collaborations, including the development of a media literacy website for the City University of New York (CUNY) community. This platform will serve as a freely accessible repository of resources designed to help faculty and students engage more effectively with issues of disinformation, critical thinking, and responsible information consumption. We are also planning a Showcase (open to students as well) in the Spring semester, during which faculty will present the media literacy projects they are currently working on.
Another highlight of the year was my participation in a workshop for higher education professionals at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Following the workshop, I was honored to be selected as a Higher Education Ambassador for the CFR. This position will enable me to continue contributing to the advancement of global literacy and media literacy education. Through this initiative, I plan to devote time to creating free educational resources for students, further expanding the impact of my grant-supported work. I will be a speaker at the CFR webinar “Teaching in the AI Era: Understanding Global Trends and Developing Critical Thinkers” in December.
In addition to the Faculty seminar on Media Literacy, I presented at two academic conferences on how authoritarian actors use disinformation to harm democracies. These events were invaluable in allowing me to share my work, receive feedback from peers, and meet other scholars engaged in similar research. I am pleased to report that these encounters have already led to new collaborative projects that will continue beyond the fellowship period.
Overall, the CUNY Adjunct Incubator Grant has supported a transformative experience, allowing me to accomplish the projects for which I initially sought support and also to embark on new professional activities that will continue to shape my teaching, research, and outreach in the future.
Desislava Zagorcheva
Desislava Zagorcheva (Dessie) is an author and educator with a Ph.D. in International Relations from Columbia University. She teaches courses in Global Politics and American Government and Politics at CUNY. Her research focuses on global challenges to democracy. She is passionate about using her expertise to educate and inspire students to engage more actively in politics.
