ARC Cultural Research Network > Activities> State of the Field Symposium

The state of the field symposium 2009

Chinese Media and Cultural Studies Group

September 4th-5th 2009
Mills Lecture Room 209
R.C. Mills Building (A26),
University of Sydney

A call for papers for publication is now open

This symposium invites CRN members with a confirmed and demonstrated interest in the field to present their ‘state of Chinese media and cultural studies’, with a special focus on their own areas of achievement, interest and projected development. We include all areas of media and culture where Chinese language is dominant or relevant (China PRC; Hong Kong SAR; Taiwan; and migrant ‘mediaspheres’ globally, or communities in the region). It is envisaged that the symposium will result in a clarification of what we think we do, where we have fault-lines or disciplinary differences (which may well be necessary and productive), and how we might characterise the field at this particular juncture – ie specifically as the CRN seeks to be re-funded or to continue in other ways.

In order to focus the discussion and to develop existing themes in the palette of CRN expertise, we suggest that the symposium is open to all members of the CRN who are interested in the relationship between area studies and cultural research, and who may also have immediate colleagues or students who would benefit or contribute to the discussion.

The structure of the symposium is given below and entails an articulation of why location matters in thinking through culture, but also invites debate on why recent significant paradigms of engagement with culture are not necessarily or usefully confined to pre-formulated ideas of geo-political and cultural space. We will therefore foreground innovative approaches to research in culture as well as re-visiting the long learning approach that underscores the importance of fieldwork, and especially ethnographic or anthropological engagement with place.

PROCESS AND STRUCTURE

CRN members and associates issued an open invitation to offer short papers on the relationship between area studies, cultural research and the possible futures of location/ place-based analysis.

Up to 8 presenters with various perspectives on the ‘China question’ selected to speak on day one, with the second day dedicated to open discussion, in theme groups led by key theoretical innovators in cultural research in Australia and the region.

Programme

Friday 4 September 2009

10.00am Morning tea and coffee

10.00am - 10.25am Welcome and opening remarks: Stephanie Hemelryk Donald and Haiqing Yu

10.30am - 11.00am Thinking about Chinese Media Studies: Speaker: Ying Zhu – Discussant: Wanning Sun

11.00am - 12.30pm Interventions

11.00am - 11.20am Olivia Khoo: Discussant: Elspeth Probyn

11.20am - 11.40am Michael Keane: Discussant: Penelope O’Donnell

11.40am – 11.50pm Haiqing Yu

11.50pm - 12.00pm Sue Turnbull

12.00pm - 12.30pm Feedback from Ying Zhu and open discussion with the audience

12.30pm Walk to the Video Conference Room VC 323, Arts Digital, Brennan MacCallum Building (A18), Level 3

12.45pm Lunch (at the Video Conference Room)

1.00pm - 2.30pm Video-link with Professor Lijun Zhang

2.30pm Walk back to Mills Building

3.00pm Open discussion with the audience

6.00pm Dinner ($35)
Venue: Spicy Sichuan Restaurant,
1-9 Glebe Point Road

Saturday 5 September 2009

10.00am Morning tea and coffee

10.15am - 11.00am Position papers: Larissa Hjorth, Jocelyn Chey, Jessica Davis: Discussant: Joyce Nip

11.00am - 12.30pm Open discussion and feedback: Chairs: Haiqing Yu and Stephanie H Donald

Call for Papers for special issue of Media International Australia:

Chinese media studies: The state of the field

This special issue invites papers to reflect on the state, scope, and prospects of a still relatively young and interdisciplinary field that we call ‘Chinese Media Studies’. The special issue will: (1) provide a snapshot of the state of the field from the perspective of both well established and emerging scholars; (2) define the meaning and scope of area studies in media and cultural research; (3) evaluate the value of work done to date by global scholars; and (4) suggest new directions and productive foci for future research.

We seek contributors from all areas in humanities and social sciences, who interrogate media and communications where Chinese language is dominant or relevant (China PRC, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan, and Chinese migrant ‘mediaspheres’ or Chinese-speaking communities). We are interested in, among other issues, the following topics:

the interrogation of ‘Chinese media studies’ as a field within the broader context of media studies as a discipline in the Western academia and its relation with area studies (most obviously, Asian studies and Chinese studies);
the changing status of Chinese media studies and its contingency with non-traditional forms of media and communications, in both thematic matters and methodological concerns;
the implications of the evolving field of Chinese media studies for higher education, and its relationship with training, industry and government;
the reflection of researchers on the role of China in contemporary media and communications research, whether or not they have the prefix of ‘Chinese’ in media studies, on their roles as educators and experts, individually and collectively.

Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent to the editors by January 31, 2010 for advice on whether a full paper is required for the reviewing process. Full contributions of 4000-6000 words, prepared in MIA style, will then be required. Please contact the joint editors, Stephanie Hemelryk Donald and Haiqing Yu (h.yu@unsw.edu.au), by 30 April 2010.

Please note that MIA has a rigorous reviewing system and we would expect that only a small proportion of papers sent for review will be published.