We are excited to announce the Cline Center’s 2026 Schroeder Fellows: Jaeyoung Lee and Shuyan (Michael) Huang. This summer, both fellows will pursue innovative research on how foreign aid is framed, interpreted, and debated across different contexts.
Jaeyoung Lee’s project examines the relationship between elite media framing and foreign aid policy at a time when major donors such as the United States and the United Kingdom are reassessing aid priorities. Drawing on the Cline Center’s Global News Index, the project analyzes decades of New York Times and BBC coverage to identify when foreign aid is framed as a moral obligation versus a national strategy. The research evaluates whether shifts in media narratives precede policy change or follow institutional transformations, highlighting the role of news coverage in shaping political consensus.
Michael Huang’s project examines how foreign aid has been narrated in Pakistan from the Cold War to the present, focusing on recipient-country media perspectives. Using Urdu newspaper archives, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, the BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, and the Cline Center’s Global News Index, the project analyzes how aid has been framed as partnership, dependence, strategic bargaining, development assistance, debt burden, or external interference across donors and geopolitical moments. The research traces how these narratives shape public trust in donors and explain variation in the political meaning of foreign assistance.
We look forward to supporting Michael and Jaeyoung this summer and to sharing insights from their work.