MC Grimes ’28 has been selected as the 2026 Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellow for Swarthmore, and will spend three weeks in Tuvalu, a Polynesian island country in the South Pacific Ocean that is grappling with territorial loss. 

The fellowship is awarded every summer to one student through the College’s partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, sponsored by the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility. It provides fellows funding and valuable mentorship for an independent reporting project on an underreported aspect of the world.

“When I first saw the notification, I felt extremely happy and grateful,” says Grimes, of Conway, Ark. “I had been working on the application since November 2025, so it felt incredible to see many months of effort culminate into success.” 

Over the years, rising sea levels have forced the island nation of Tuvalu, the fourth-smallest country in the world, to grapple with an existential issue unfamiliar to the majority of the world: territorial extinction. In response, Tuvalu’s government launched a project in 2022 to build an exact digital replica of itself, positioning it to become the world’s first digital nation. 

“This digital transformation will allow Tuvalu to retain its identity and continue to function as a state, even after its physical land is gone,” the project’s website reads. “It will also facilitate the governance of a Tuvaluan diaspora by creating a virtual space where Tuvaluans can connect with each other, explore ancestry and culture, and access new opportunities for business and commerce in various industries.” 

Grimes first learned about the issue through a research project she completed for her Ethics and International Relations class, but it left her with various questions: “How does digital sovereignty translate on the ground? What are the complexities of experiencing territorial loss? What role are the Tuvaluan people themselves playing in this transition?” 

“Unfortunately, there is not much information out there, mostly because Tuvalu is a very small [country], and little attention has been paid to these problems by the media,” she adds. “But this motivated me to explore [the] questions further and fill this information gap through the completion of a reporting project.” 

Taking an ethnographic approach, Grimes will travel to Tuvalu and stay for about three weeks to connect and collaborate with the Tuvaluan community, exploring how individuals interact with both the real threat of territorial extinction and the developing digital landscape. She plans to conduct interviews and gather a wide scope of perspectives, ranging from citizens with limited interactions with the digital nation to government officials deeply involved with the initiative. Their stories will then inform her reporting. 

While Grimes admits feeling slightly intimidated by the responsibilities of the project, she says she is “funneling” everything into motivation and remains excited about what the fellowship opportunity has to offer.

“I am definitely excited to grow my skills as a journalist and receive guidance from the Pulitzer Center and the reporting mentor I will get matched with,” she says. “I am also eager to see how the project evolves as the months go on, especially as I embark on the reporting trip and get to work closely with inhabitants of Tuvalu.” 

The fellowship strongly encourages reporting on the underreported. This, Grimes believes, is the heart of journalism itself, as journalists have an ethical obligation to use their platforming powers responsibly and honorably. 

“Platforming certain stories and ideas, regardless of their impartiality, ultimately influences what we as readers perceive as important and what we don’t,” she says. “[There] is an inherent obligation for journalists to use this power honorably, working to diffuse a wide range of stories, ideas, and voices.” 

“Many other Small Island Developing States are facing the same threats,” she adds. “I find importance in exploring the complexities of the situation, giving a platform to Tuvaluan voices to share their experiences, and hopefully sparking larger-scale discussion about these issues.”