CALL-FOR-PARTICIPANTS: the 6th Europe-China Dialogue: Media and Communication Studies Summer School

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CALL-FOR-PARTICIPANTS: the 6th Europe-China Dialogue: Media and 
Communication Studies Summer School

Beijing, China, 15-24 July 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 
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. 
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: 
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Prof. Xu Jing, co-director of the programme in Greater China: 
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>

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