Hal Conte

University of Warwick Postgraduate Award - Journalism

Hal graduated with a journalism degree from Temple University in 2020. He didn’t expect to go into communications, having gone to high school to study automotive collision repair, but given both his father and grandfather worked in the newspaper industry, perhaps this was inevitable. Hal’s Fulbright research, to be conducted as a student at University of Warwick’s Global Media and Communications programme, will consider the potential of mass media, especially mass newspapers, compared to social media, to advance and anticipate social change. He aims to advance his research afterwards with a PhD. As a journalist at USA TODAY Network, Hal has brought a solutions-oriented approach to social divisions in Pennsylvania, including environmentalists at loggerheads with foresters and Asian-Americans facing coronavirus-related bigotry. Cross-cultural cooperation is one of the things that appealed to Hal about Fulbright in the first place. As an undergraduate, he wrote for Freely Magazine, a publication aiming to unite international students with the rest of the university community. He’s eager to return to the UK after studying in London during summer 2019 and participate in student media and international student groups. When not writing, Hal likes to run and visit libraries and art museums.