School of Information Professor Dr. Nancy Everhart was awarded a China-U.S. Scholars Program Grant for Conference Participation and Research Travel. She will use the grant to present her research, “Mobile Information Seeking and Use in China: Is America Ready for WeChat?” at the 8th World Conference on the Future of Education at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom this December.
“Presenting at the prestigious Cambridge University will enhance my professional profile and credibility within my academic and professional community,” Everhart said. “It will enable me to receive feedback and critique from peers which can help me refine my research methods, strengthen arguments, and improve the quality of my work.”
The China-U.S. Scholars Program is a competitive fund to support travel by scholars and students to conferences and research sites.
Since her Fulbright to China in 2019, Everhart has taken on the role of informal ambassador to support international education and cultural understanding of digital information in China. “The World Conference on Future of Education holds profound significance to continue this role as it gives me the ability to go outside my immediate field of information studies to present to a wide range of scholars,” Everhart said. This conference will bring together scholars from diverse backgrounds including the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
“I hope that audience members will learn how one can function successfully in China and remove some misperceptions,” Everhart said. She has found that foreign visitors in China are concerned about the challenges of navigating the information landscape, so her presentation will expand on ways in which an information professional can seek and consume information while in China, particularly through WeChat.