Friday, 13 September 2024, 12:00pm HKT at CVA 1022
We live in modern times – but the past is always co-present. The relationship between political transformation and modernity, culture and historical tradition is a complicated one. We are currently witnessing the spread of backward and often antagonistic ethnic, nationalist, religious-fundamentalist and racist trends worldwide. In the US and Europe as well as in many Asian and African countries, backlash politics is news of the day: right-wing populism, Islamic or Hindu fundamentalism examples are manifold. To this day, there is too little international research on the relationship between political transformation and culture. And there is literally no academic state of the art about the role of media and communication in backlash politics. The speech will compare performances of journalistic and social media in Europe and the Muslim world. And it will widen the scope of analysis to non-mediated forms of social communication in social movements and lifeworld encounters. In what sense is a comprehensive communication ecological analysis more suited to understand the complex relations between transformation, modernity, and culture?
This talk also serves as an invitation to scholars from HKBU to debate and share their views on Asian and global perspectives on the issue at stake. The meeting is meant to identify potential common research and talk about modes of future collaboration.
KAI HAFEZ is a Chair Professor of International and Comparative Media and Communication Research, University of Erfurt, Germany; former Visiting Professor at the Universities of Oxford, Bern and the American University of Cairo; founding director of MA Global Communication: Politics & Society (University of Erfurt); frequent advisor to German governments; author of many books and articles, among them: The Myth of Media Globalization (Polity), Foundations of Global Communication (with A. Grüne, Routledge), Arab Media: Power and Weakness (Continuum), Radicalism and Political Reform in the Islamic and Western Worlds (Cambridge UP), Media and Transformation in Germany and Indonesia (with co-editors, Frank & Timme).
ANNE GRÜNE is senior lecturer and researcher of Global Comparative Communication and Cultural Studies and coordinator of the international master’s program “Global Communication: Politics and Society”, University of Erfurt; spokesperson of the International and Intercultural Division of the German Association of Communication; collaborative academic projects at the University of Cairo (Egypt) and the Universitas Padjadjaran UNPAD Bandung (Indonesia); publications include Foundations of Global Communication (with Kai Hafez, Routledge), Media and Transformation in Germany and Indonesia (with co-editors, Frank & Timme) and Formatted World Culture? On the Theory and Practice of Global Entertainment Television (in German, Transcript).
To attend in person, please click here to register:
To attend on Zoom, please click here to register:
For enquiries: cmcr@hkbu.edu.hk
Organised by:
- Centre for Media and Communication Research (CMCR), School of Communication
- David C. Lam Institute for East-West Study (LEWI), Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
