July 15-24, 2019

Beijing, China

Deadline: May 1, 2019

Inspired by the European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School (SuSo), the Europe-China Dialogue: Media and Communication Studies Summer School (ECDSS) has been successfully organized for 5 years, taking place in Beijing (China), Lugano (Switzerland), and Brussels (Belgium). The China Media Observatory (CMO) of Università dellaSvizzera Italiana (USI) in cooperation with School of Journalism and Communication of Peking University (PKU), will hold the 6th Summer School at PKU in 15-24 July 2019.

The 2019 programme will have a new format and emphasis that focus more on “scientific training” – the provision of theoretical and methodological guidance for PhD students, postdocs and graduate students who are eager to engage in research at the early stage of their academic career. It aims to bring together scholars from different cultures to shed light on contemporary issues in (and not limited to) media, communication, political economy and cultural studies. As the fast-changing world is reshaped by the digitalization of the media sphere, scholars in Europe and China are facing the same challenges posed by the new information world that is full of misinformation, radical emotions, fragmented knowledge and deep uncertainties. The Summer School wishes to provide a platform linking scholars from the two great civilizations in order to foster the generation of new ideas or solutions for a better global communication exchange under the framework of Europe-China Dialogue.

Specifically, the Summer School aims to provide the student-participants with the opportunity to present their research projects and receive in-depth feedback on them, to listen to inspiring keynote speeches and practical guides on research by renowned scholars and experts from Europe and China, and to learn from experienced researchers when producing a team project proposal. To the students, the Summer School represents a highly supportive international setting where they can present their current and future projects, exchange ideas with international experts, and establish connections with academics and fellow students from around the world.

The main learning format of the summer school includes:

1. Student Panels: Participant-students will present their research projects and receive structured and multi-voiced feedback on their work from Summer School lecturers and students. They will enable students to identify problems in their own research, improve the quality of their academic work, and stimulate further research interest. In the beginning of the Summer School, each participant-student will be guided to draft a poster on their research project, which will then be used during their presentations in the student panels.

2. Keynotes: Special seminars (90 mins) by leading scholars in different fields of media and communication studies, and consulting experts for projects that engage European and Chinese stakeholders. The keynote speeches are meant to demonstrate the state-of-the-art scholarship on how research can be done in a given area.

3. Workshops on Research Practice: workshops (30-60 mins) with invited speakers. These workshops are designed to provide hands-on examples or guidance in real research settings. Topics will include: how to write an abstract; how to define research questions from the literature review; quantitative research methods v.s. qualitative research methods in social science research; oral presentation skills; academic writing; key steps of publishing academic paper, etc.

4. Student Group Projects: students will be grouped into different teams based on their research area and methodological background. Professors will be assigned to the different student team with the best fit in terms of topic and methods. Both in-class and off-class group work will not only help the students to understand how to collaborate in an academic environment, but also give them more opportunities to engage with professors. One task will be assigned to the team in the beginning of the programme, and the results of the team work will be presented at the end of Summer School.

5. Media Dialogues: Dialogues with media experts from media organizations will be arranged during the Summer School. The Dialogue will be held on the site of the media organization itself, whenever possible. This will allow the participant-students to personally observe the media work in practice.

Confirmed Teaching Faculty is composed by:

International Faculty

• Dr. Nico Carpentier, Docent at Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic).
• Dr. Giuseppe Richeri, Emeritus Professor at Universitàdella Svizzera Italiana (Switzerland).
• Dr. Paola Catenaccio, Full Professor at University of Milan (Italy).
• Dr. Zhenyi Li, Full Professor at Royal Roads University (Canada).
• Dr. Gabriele Balbi, Associate Professor at Universitàdella Svizzera Italiana(Switzerland).
• Dr. Florence Padovani, Associate Professor at Paris1-Sorbonne University (France), director of the Sino-French Social Sciences Research Centre at Tsinghua University (China).
• Dr. Bettina Mottura, Associate Professor at University of Milan (Italy).
• Dr. Massimo Ragnedda, senior lecturer at North-Umbria University (UK).
• Dr. Shaohai Jiang, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore (Singapore).
• Dr. Zhan Zhang, research fellow at Universitàdella Svizzera Italiana (Switzerland).
• Dr. Gianluigi Negro, research fellow at Universitàdella Svizzera Italiana (Switzerland).
• Mr. Douwe van den Oever, Founder and Managing Director DomainShift AG (Switzerland).

Chinese Faculty

• Dr. Anbin Shi, Full Professor, Vice Dean at School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University.
• Dr. Shaoyang Lu, Full Professor, Dean at the School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University
• Dr. Jing Wu, Full Professor at Peking University.
• Dr. Jing Xu, Full Professor at Peking University.
• Dr. Lun Zhang, Associate Professor at Beijing Normal University.
• Dr. Kui Zhou, Associate Professor at Communication University of China.
• Dr. Dianlin Huang, Associate Professor at Communication University of China.
• Dr. Chenyu Dong, lecturer at Renmin University of China.
• Dr. Hongzhe Wang, Assistant Professor at Peking University
• Dr. Xinchuan Liu, Assistant Professor at Peking University.

The Summer School will enrol 30 participants. It is open to students from China, Europe and other parts of the world. 3 ECTs will be granted to those students who complete the whole program.

To apply:

All participants are required to send an abstract (up to 500 words) of their research projects before 01/05/2019 to chinamediaobservatory@gmail.com.

The confirmation of acceptance will be sent by 15/05/2019, and the full-draft of research project should be sent before 30/06/2019.

Admission fee and payment:

The admission fee of the summer school is 400 CHF (without accommodation), which includes the participation of the whole program, media visit(s) and the farewell dinner. If student needs the accommodation during their stay near the campus, you should inform the organizers before 01/05/2019 (the price will be about 40CHF/night, in a shared double-room).

The Summer School Scientific Committee will recommend the best students to the Swiss-Excellence Scholarship 2019-2020.

More information can be found at: http://www.euchinamediadialoguesummerschool.usi.ch/home

Organizers:

China Media Observatory at USI: http://www.chinamediaobs.org/

School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University: http://sjc.pku.edu.cn/English.aspx

Sponsor:

• Blue Future
• Institutional Contributors:
• European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School (SuSo)
• UK-China Media and Cultural Studies Association (UCMeCSA)
• Sino-French Social Sciences Research Centre (CEFC)
• Department of Language Mediation & Intercultural Communication and the Confucius Institute, University of Milan.

Contact:

• Dr. Zhan Zhang, international director of the programme: zhan.zhang@usi.ch
• Prof. Xu Jing, co-director of the programme in Greater China: xujing@pku.edu.cn