Ahmed Zayeef

Ahmed Zayeef is a PhD candidate (ABD) in the Information and Media doctoral program at Michigan State University's School of Journalism, where he is advised by Dr. Tim P. Vos. His research examines journalism as a negotiated practice: how journalists reconcile professional roles, norms, and values under competing institutional and social pressures. A second strand of his research addresses press freedom and investigative practice in authoritarian and transitional media environments. 

 

His work has been published in Journalism Studies. His scholarship has been recognized with a Top Paper Award (third place, faculty category) from AEJMC's Cultural and Critical Studies Division for co-authored work (2026), the Best Student Paper Award from AEJMC's Community Journalism Interest Group (2025), and a Top Student Paper Runner-Up from ICA's Mass Communication Division (2025). He is a 2026–27 AEJMC-MSCD Diversity and Inclusion Career Development Fellow. He has presented research at AEJMC, ICA, IAMCR, and the World Social Science Association, and he serves as instructor of record for JRN 200 (News Reporting and Writing) and JRN 345 (Images and Messages) at MSU.

 

Zayeef holds a Master of Science in Journalism and Media Communication from Colorado State University and a Master of Social Science in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University of Dhaka.

 

He worked as an investigative journalist in Bangladesh before he entered academia, most recently at The Daily Prothom Alo, the country's largest-circulation daily. His reporting covered human rights abuses, political violence, militancy, and corruption. It earned Best Investigative Report from Bangladesh awards from the Global Investigative Journalism Network (2019, 2020) and national awards from Transparency International Bangladesh, the Crime Reporters Association of Bangladesh, and Prothom Alo. He was awarded the Chevening South Asia Journalism Program Fellowship (University of Westminster) and a U.S. State Department International Visitor Leadership Program Fellowship through the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists.