October 29, 2019

Brussels, Belgium

Deadline: March 15, 2019

Official website of the workshop: https://www.ecreadmm.com/iic-workshop

This year the YECREA section of International and Intercultural Communication (IIC) welcomes Dr. Kate Wright, in the context of the Digital Fortress Europe Conference, to host a workshop for doctoral researchers, working in the fields of international journalism, humanitarian communication and news production processes in and about the African continent.

The aim of the workshop is for young scholars to find their own voice and mark their urgent contributions to the fields of International and Intercultural Communication. Considering the young and interdisciplinary nature of these fields and the changing landscape of media and communication technologies, it is crucial for young researchers to situate themselves in relation to existing literature and research, as well as to explore new ways of thinking about our respective research topics. This year’s YECREA activity does not only give young scholars an opportunity to get feedback from an internationally acclaimed scholar and peers, but it also aims to provide them with a set of tools which will help to think thoroughly about their own unique contribution to the field.

Dr. Kate Wright is a Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh in the Cultural and Creative Industries. She is a former award-winning journalist, who worked at the Africa-desk for the BBC. In 2018, she published her book ‘Who’s reporting Africa now? Non-governmental organizations, journalists and multimedia’ for Peter Lang.

The workshop will take place on 29 October 2019 in Brussels, Belgium at the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB). This workshop precedes and will take place in the context of the two-day conference “Digital Fortress Europe: Exploring Boundaries between Media, Migration and Technology” (on 30 and 31 October 2019 in Brussels). Although it is recommendable to participate in both, you can also only submit for the conference or for the workshop as well. The workshop is open for ten participants. Further, the workshop does not involve any fee, and coffee and tea will be provided both during the morning and afternoon sessions.

General schedule for the day:

1. Morning session:

An introduction by Dr. Kate Wright on the biggest challenges in the field.

Five participants will have the opportunity to present their research project and get feedback from Dr. Kate Wright. Considering the theme of the workshop, the presentations are expected to focus on the main findings and the theoretical and methodological claims in relation to these. Overall, the session aims to help the researchers to identify their strengths and weaknesses, situate themselves better within the field and be more precise about the main outcome and contribution of their research.

2. Afternoon session:

Five participants will have the opportunity to present their research project and receive feedback from Dr. Kate Wright, followed by a general brainstorm/discussion moment on the most effective ways to address limitations of our research, to present our findings/analysis and to think together about how we can ensure that our research projects are relevant and distinctive.

The PhD workshop is organized by the European Communication Research & Education Association’s (ECREA) International & Intercultural Communication (IIC) section in collaboration with ECREA’s Diaspora, Migration & the Media (DMM) section.

The application process

It is required that the applicants submit a paper about their research project or about a specific study that is part of it (1000-2000 words), situated in the fields of International and/or Intercultural Communication, to Elke.Mahieu@UGent.be and David.Ongenaert@UGent.be before 15 March 2019.

Submission results are sent out via email at the end of April. Papers should be saved as a Word file, and include full name of the author, institutional and departmental affiliation and contact details (email and institutional postal address). Further, the paper should include:

• An introduction that should explain your research topic and research question(s).
• A brief summary of the methodological trajectory
• Main findings (if available) and how these are expected to contribute to the field theoretically, conceptually and/or methodologically.
• Minimum 3 questions/concerns you would like to be discussed during the workshop.

If you would have any further questions/comments, please do not hesitate to email the main organizers of this workshop on the following email addresses:

Elke Mahieu, Ghent University, ECREA IIC young scholars representative, Elke.Mahieu@UGent.be

David Ongenaert, Ghent University, ECREA IIC young scholars representative, David.Ongenaert@UGent.be​​​​​