With research reshaping how scholars understand journalism, mental health and global communication, Dr. Sayyed Fawad Ali Shah of Auburn’s School of Communication and Journalism will be honored on November 18 as one of two recipients of the university’s 2025 Emerging Creative Research and Scholarship Award.
Dr. Sayyed Fawad Ali Shah
Created last year, the Emerging Creative Research and Scholarship Awards honor early-career faculty whose work shows exceptional momentum and real-world impact. Shah’s scholarship reflects that mission clearly. His research centers on a unifying question: how people communicate in environments shaped by pressure, conflict and limited resources.
That focus is most visible in his work with journalists in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where censorship, intimidation and political instability shape the realities of daily reporting. Through fieldwork, sensitive interviews and careful analysis, Shah brings overdue attention to the conditions that influence how news is produced across much of the world.
That same focus on communication under strain also informs his public health research. Shah examines vaccine hesitancy, infectious disease messaging and community-based interventions in the Pakistan–Afghanistan border region, the world’s last remaining polio-endemic zone. He has also contributed to studies addressing health disparities in African American communities in the United States. Together, these projects deepen understanding of how communication builds trust and resilience in communities navigating structural challenges—work that has not gone unnoticed by fellow scholars.
“His research has provided a guiding light for us to understand how best to meet the needs of journalists,” said Dr. Vincent Filak, distinguished professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. “It would not surprise me if Dr. Shah becomes one of the most important scholars in these areas in the next several years.”
Comments like these reflect the strength of Shah’s theoretical and methodological grounding. Reviewers frequently highlight his Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly article “Journalism in Chains” as one of the clearest applications of Bourdieu’s Field Theory in journalism studies. His work in emerging areas, such as “mob censorship,” demonstrates similar innovation, including a Journalism Studies article analyzing online hostility toward journalists in Pakistan. Many of these projects require extensive fieldwork, manual coding of large datasets and interviews in unstable regions—evidence of the persistence and rigor that define his approach.
Since completing his doctorate in 2018, Shah has built a rapidly expanding body of work. He has published 26 peer-reviewed articles, co-edited two books, written four book chapters and delivered more than 40 conference papers, invited talks and research reports. His scholarship appears in leading journals including Journalism, Digital Journalism, Health Communication, Vaccine and Journalism Studies.
The influence of his research also extends beyond academic circles. Shah’s findings have informed newsroom training workshops in Alabama and South Asia, strengthened mental health support for journalists and shaped community health communication strategies. His work has been cited in three United Nations policy papers, underscoring its global significance and practical value.
For Shah, this broad engagement reflects how he sees his work contributing to Auburn’s mission. “One of Auburn’s core missions is to serve communities in Alabama, the nation and globally. My research aligns with that,” he said. “Last December, I received a fellowship from the Heidelberg Academy of Humanities and Sciences to train students in Germany on communicating science with diverse cultural groups. I am also collaborating with a colleague in Thailand on a project.”
His contributions have earned competitive funding from the National Communication Association, the Alabama Press Association and the prestigious Athena Fellowship from the Heidelberg Academy. Through workshops and collaborative projects, he has engaged more than 75 journalists across Pakistan, Afghanistan, Alabama and Germany.
Shah’s Alabama-based research, supported by two Alabama Press Association grants, further reflects Auburn’s land-grant mission by helping local newsrooms understand structural barriers and strengthen mental health resources for rural journalists. Through this work, he advances both public health communication and the resilience of local news ecosystems.
To learn more about Shah and this year’s other recipients, visit the Faculty Awards website.
