PD-PCF UC team submits Final Report to FPI and EEAS
As a part of the Core Team of the international 13-country project on perceptions of the EU commissioned by the FPI of the European Commission and Public Diplomacy division of the EEAS, PD-PCF UC team submitted Final Report to the FPI and EEAS.
PD-PCF Director Professor Natalia Chaban organised and led the virtual panel “External perceptions of the EU as times of global crises: Continuity and Change?” within the programme of the COST Action ENTER Research Week. The panel featuring 22 scholars from 16 countries includes these is organised within the COST ENTER Work Package 2 “Perceptions and Communication” co-led by Professor Chaban. For the programme of the event see here.
In engagement with diplomatic stakeholders posted to New Zealand, Professor Natalia Chaban, PD-PCF Director, presented its main findings of the Jean Monnet Network REACTIK (cReative Economy And Culture inTernatIonal link, EU Cultural Diplomacy) and policy recommendations at the Victoria University of Wellington in May 2021 (attended by academic, students and diplomats), and, following invitation, briefed the EU Delegation to New Zealand in the dedicated meeting with the Head of the Delegation and the EU Delegation staff in July 2021.
Panel discusses external perceptions of the EU in times of global crisis
Professor Natalia Chaban, PD-PCF Director and Vice-Leader of the Work Package 2 “Perceptions and Communication” within COST Action ENTER “EU Foreign Policy Facing New Directions”, organised and chaired COST Virtual Panel Penultimate Programme “External perceptions of the EU as times of global crises: Continuity and Change?” on October 5. The panel featured 22 scholars from around the worlds – North and South America, Africa, Europe, Russia and the Indo-Pacific. Among these scholars were PD-PCF members Ole Elgström, Michele Knodt, Babak Bahador, Iana Sabatovych and Pauline Heinrichs.
PPMI launches new project "Study of External Perceptions of the EU: 13 countries"
The Public Policy and Management Institute (PPMI) starts a new study in 2021, focused on the perception of the EU in 13 nations over the last 10 years. Called "Study of External Perceptions of the EU: 13 countries", the project is an update of the 2015 EU Strategic Partner Study, focused on assessing the perceptions of the EU and its policies in 10 countries: Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and the USA. The new study adds three new countries to the list: Colombia, Indonesia and Nigeria. Through media and social media analysis, interviews and public opinion poll, the project aims to understand the current perception of the EU in those countries considering key themes such as economy, science, energy, development and politics, among others. As a result, the study will provide a set of recommendations on ways the EU Public Diplomacy may promote the EU's new image of being progressive, responsible and flexible, and a list of potential partner organisations.
The assignment involves a team of experts led by Dr. Irma Budginaitė-Mačkinė (PPMI) and UC Professor Dr. Natalia Chaban. The core research group includes Dr. Haroldas Brožaitis, Dr. Iana Sabatovych, Dr. Pauline Heinrichs, Dr. Elizabete Vizgunova-Vikmane and Justinas Didika. The project is supported by the Service of Foreign Policy Instruments of the European Commission in collaboration with the European External Action Service, and will be carried out using the knowledge of 22other researchers that form the team of quality assurance and country experts.
October 2020: Media and Communication Student Research Hub Wins a Grant from the French Embassy in New Zealand
A team of students at the Department of Media and Communication, led by Professor Natalia Chaban and Dr Gabriel Weibl, won a competitive grant administered by the French Embassy in New Zealand and the New Caledonia Delegation in New Zealand. A cross-generational multinational Student Research Hub “Digital Diplomacy” features a PhD student Zahra Emamzadeh, Masters of Strategic Communication students Amy Norris-Hibbert, Ian Blythe and Catherine Joshua Jeyakumar, BA Honours student Davide Garello and Bachelor of Communication Shaylee Bright. This Student Research Hub is a part of the Public Diplomacy and Political Communication Forum (PD-PCF) platform initiated and led by Professor Natalia Chaban, PD-PCF Director.
The grant – awarded by the Embassy to only four selected projects in New Zealand – supports student associations on organising projects with a French connection. Students of the Research Hub will conduct the project “French Digital Diplomacy towards New Zealand”. They will also present the findings to the French diplomats in Wellington upon the project completion and at the Post-Graduate Conference at the Department of Media and Communication.
Advancing International Research Collaboration: Professor Natalia Chaban publishes her co-edited volume with Routledge featuring researchers from 17 countries
PD-PCF Director Professor Natalia Chaban, together with Professor Arne Niemann and Johanna Speyer of Mainz University (Germany), co-edited and published with Routledge volume “Changing Perceptions of the EU at Times of Brexit: Global Perspectives”. This volume brings together 26 contributors from 17 countries. They conceptualize and measure EU perceptions in the strategic regions around the world in the aftermath of the UK referendum. In focus are reflections from the Wide Atlantic (the US, Canada, Brazil and Mexico), the Middle East and Africa (MENA region and South Africa), the Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, India, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia), EU neighbours to the east and south (Turkey, Russia and Ukraine) and the UK. Informed by political communication and political psychology theorisations of images and perceptions in International Relations, contributors assess the evolution of EU perceptions in each location and discuss how their findings contribute to crafting foreign policy options for the “EU-27”, the UK, and their international partners. Based on a solid theoretical foundation and empirically rich data, this volume constitutes an innovative and timely addition to the evolving debate on Brexit and its consequences.
This volume is a result of a two-year collaboration across time zones and oceans. It started with a creative two-day workshop at the University of Mainz in summer 2018. The workshop, led by Natalia, Arne and Johanna, was sponsored by the Thyssen Foundation, the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES), the EU’s Jean Monnet Programme and the University of Mainz. During the two-year work on the volume, Natalia, Arne and Johanna organised several panels at the leading international conferences in 2018 and 2019 involving contributors and testing the case-studies. Following the publication of the volume in July 2020, Natalia, Arne and Johanna are now working on the follow up publications collaborating with each other and the contributors to the volume.
PD-PCF International Research Symposia in Political Communication field
Extending international research collaborations in Political Communication and Public Diplomacy, PD-PCF Director Professor Natalia Chaban of Media and Communication organised and chaired two two-day e-symposia involving international scholars - leading experts and early-career academics. E-symposia took place on 15-16 June and 5-6 July, 2020. Both events focused on perceptions, images and narratives in international relations and their potential for the evolving practices of public diplomacy and international political communication.
These international symposia are a part of a large international research framework – COST Action “EU Foreign Policy Facing New Directions” (ENTER) supported by the European Commission. In this trans-national framework, Professor Chaban is a Vice-Leader of the Work Group 2 “Perceptions and Communication”. In November 2019, Natalia designed and ran the COST Winter Research School “Images of Europe at Times of Global Challenges: Perceptions of EU (foreign) policy making inside and outside Europe” at the University of Aarhus, Denmark bringing together scholars from 19 countries. Research cases developed in the Research Winter School have become contributions to the e-symposia and two peer-reviewed journals that will result from the two events.
The first symposium and the resulting Special Issue focus on perceptions and narratives of the changing EU in the changing world in the eyes of EU member states. The second symposium and the resulting Special Issue examine images and perceptions of the EU in the Union’s neighbourhoods to the east and south. Natalia is co-editing both Special Issues with colleagues from Czechia and the UK as well as New Zealand. She also contributes her own articles. The Special Issues are scheduled to be published at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 respectively. Active international research networking, symposia and publications contribute to the stream of Political Communication and Public Diplomacy at the Department of Media and Communication and the College of Arts.
Key notes
Chaban, N. (2019) “Political Communication in International Relations: EU perceptions and narratives in Ukraine post-Maidan”, 15 November, Workshop “At the EU Doorstep: External Perceptions of the EU by Candidate and Eastern Partnership Countries”, Jagellonian University, Krakow, Poland
Workshops and Symposia
The COST Winter Research School “Images of Europe at Times of Global Challenges: Perceptions of EU (foreign) policy making inside and outside Europe” at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, supported by COST Action ENTER, November 2019 (scholars from 19 countries).
Organiser and facilitator: Professor Chaban Vice-Leader of the COST ENTER Work Group 2 “Perceptions and Communication”, with co-facilitators: Professor Ole Elgström (Lund University, Sweden), Professor Berndt Schlipphak (Munster University, Germany), Dr Veronika Zapletalová (Masaryk University, Czech Republic), Pauline Hienrichs (Royal Holloway, UK).
The E-YOUTH International Virtual Symposium “The EU Baltic States, Russia and Ukraine: Mutual narratives and perceptions” dedicated to the Special Issue (guest edited by Chaban, Mondry and Pavlov) with New Zealand Slavonic Journal 25-26 May 2020
Organised by Professor Natalia Chaban (UC, NZ) and co-chaired by Professor Natalia Chaban (UC, NZ), Professor Henrietta Mondry (UC, NZ), Associate Professor Evgeny Pavlov (UC, NZ)
COST International Virtual Symposium “Narratives and perceptions of the EU: Images of the EU in the EU” dedicated to the Special Issue (guest edited by Chaban, Osicka, Zapletalova and Heinrichs) with Australian and New Zealand Journal of European Studies, 15-16 June 2020
Organised by Professor Natalia Chaban (UC, NZ); co-chaired by Professor Natalia Chaban (UC, NZ), Dr Jan Osička (Masaryk University, Czech Republic), Dr Veronika Zapletalová (Masaryk University, Czech Republic), Pauline Heinrichs (Royal Holloway, UK)
COST International Virtual Symposium “Changing Europe in the Changing World: The EU in the Eyes of EU Neighbours” dedicated to the Special Issue (guest edited by Chaban and Headley) with Croatian International Relations Review, 5-6 July 2020
Organised by Professor Natalia Chaban (UC, NZ); co-chaired by Professor Natalia Chaban (UC, NZ) and Associate Professor James Headley (Otago University, NZ)
Symposium “New Opportunities for the EU-Canada Strategic Partnership”, supported by Jean Monnet Network EU-Canada Relations: The EU and Canada in Dialogue, 18 November 2019, Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence “EU in Global Dialogue” (CEDI), TU Darmstadt, Germany (SI with Australian and NZ Journal of European Studies, 2019)
Organised by Professor Michele Knodt (TUD, Germany); co-chaired by Professor
Stakeholder events
Stakeholder event within the framework of Jean Monnet Project E-YOUTH” (Vilnius, Lithuania, 28 August 2019) , Vilnius Institute of Policy Analysis, Lithuania
Audience: members of diplomatic corps, media, NGOs, MFA Lithuanian, members of Lithuanian and European Parliament, academics advising on youth policy, members of think tanks, E-YOUTH researchers
Topics: political communication, perceptions/political psychology, formulation, projection and reception of narratives, media framing for public diplomacy
Presenters: Professor Natalia Chaban (UC, NZ), Professor Šarūnas Liekis (VMU, Lithuania), Professor Ben O’Loughlin (Royal Holloway, UK), Professor Alister Miskimmon (Queen’s University Belfast, UK)
Conference panels
A panel “Youth Narratives and Perceptions of the EU and EU-Ukraine Relations in Ukraine and three Baltic States”, UACES, Lisbon, Portugal, 1-4 September 2019
Presenters: Professor Natalia Chaban (UC, NZ), Professor Ben O’Loughlin (Royal Holloway, UK), Professor Alister Miskimmon (Queen’s University Belfast, UK), Professor Patrick Müller (Vienna University, Austria)
A panel “Political Communication in International Relations: EU perceptions and narratives in the world”, NZPSAA, Christchurch, New Zealand, 27-29 November 2019
Presenters: Professor Natalia Chaban (UC, NZ), Professor Linda Jean Kenix (UC, NZ), Associate Professor Donald Matheson (UC, NZ), Sam Brett (UC, NZ), Alexander Makov (UC, NZ)
