Tribune News Network
Doha
Northwestern University in Qatar will lead scholarly engagement on the Global South at the 74th annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), the largest of its kind, gathering more than 4,000 scholars from around the world.
Ten faculty and researchers from the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South will be featured at the conference, contributing to a total of 13 sessions and securing 17 individual slots with their selected works. Their presentations will revolve around the conference theme Communication and Global Human Rights and focus on Global South media histories, politics, and other issues, including revolutionary Arab media and youth and digital infrastructure in Africa.
As part of the conference, the university will organise a panel examining digital life, tools, and experiences across InterAsia, contributing to current debates on “Southern Digitalities,” a research theme for #IAS_NUQ. It will also co-sponsor two pre-conferences: “Repressed Histories of Communication and Media Studies” and “Arab Communications Studies: Towards A Renewed Research Agenda.”
Two student researchers, Abenezer Bekele and In’utu Imbuwa, are among the delegation. They will present their #IAS_NUQ undergraduate fellowship projects, “Exploring the Factors That Affect the Adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI)” and “Watermelon Politics and Chitenge in Zambia,” respectively.
Publications from #IAS_NUQ Press will also be featured in the #IAS_NUQ booth, where visitors can learn about the Institute’s vision and mission and the programmes available for scholars.
In addition, as chair of ICA fellows, Northwestern Qatar Dean and CEO Marwan M. Kraidy will preside over new fellows induction, fellows’ panels, and fellows’ breakfast. He will also present his paper “Democracy Dies in Dazzlement.”
“The ICA conference is a platform for global knowledge sharing and, most importantly, for Northwestern Qatar, an opportunity to amplify the Global South perspective in media and communication studies, a field that has been historically dominated by Western paradigms,” said Kraidy. “We are pleased our faculty, researchers, and students will make a substantive scholarly contribution, including our two promising undergraduate students, Abenezer and In’utu, demonstrating the high level of scholarly acumen and creativity that we nurture.”
ICA aims to advance the scholarly study of human communication by encouraging and facilitating excellence in academic research worldwide. This year’s ICA conference will be held in Gold Coast, Australia, between June 20 – 24, 2024.
