The Global Media Ethnography Lab (GMEL) held its first student fellow community meeting in the Jack McLeod Room on the fifth floor of Vilas Hall on Sept 18, 2026.
The room quickly filled with conversation, introductions, and new ideas. Popcorn and cupcakes were passed around the table as fellows talked about what they hoped GMEL could become: a space for experimentation, collaboration, and learning together.
The meeting marked the beginning of several student-led initiatives for the semester.
One of the first is a shared GMEL Zotero Library. The library will serve as a collective resource where fellows can gather readings, add notes, exchange ideas, and build a common intellectual foundation for future projects.
Students also began organizing two working groups for October.
The Digital Ethnography group will explore key readings and approaches to digital ethnographic research. Members will work toward a preliminary methodological toolkit that can be shared and developed across the lab.
A second group will focus on ethnographic writing styles. Fellows will read across different forms of ethnographic and multimodal work, reflect on their own writing practices, and experiment with new ways of presenting ethnographic research. Conversations may also extend to technology-assisted writing, including the opportunities and concerns raised by AI.
The meeting also sparked a new student-led podcast initiative. GMEL fellow Linwei Ding will take the lead on developing an initial proposal, with Caroline Anipah and Chenjie Zheng already expressing interest in joining the project.
More broadly, the gathering reflected the experimental spirit GMEL hopes to cultivate this semester. Fellows will explore shared methodological questions, possible research collaborations, and new ways of building community around ethnographic approaches to communication studies.
There was no shortage of ideas, and no shortage of snacks.
The first meeting offered a warm beginning to what GMEL hopes will become an active, generous, and collaborative community. We look forward to seeing where these conversations lead.
