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When we asked academics in our network how to make media studies research more globally diverse and inclusive, thoughtful responses arrived from every continent, from senior academics, early-career scholars, and PhD students. They talked about linguistic barriers; the lack of interest in the non-west among the field's tastemakers; how a narrow understanding of theoretical rigour marginalises work on the Global South; and how performance metrics adopted by non-western universities undermines their own ability to serve their communities' needs.

Read the summary at our GlobalMediaStudies.Network website.

Thanks to all who contributed!

We also hope you'll join our in-person dialogue in Toronto:

BLUE SKY BIG IDEAS SESSION

Globalising research and teaching of media and communication studies

Panelists: Saba Bebawi, Cherian George, Silvio Waisbord, Herman Wasserman

Monday 29 May, 1:30–2:45pm, Toronto, Canada

The convenors of the Global Media Studies Network will lead a conversation at the International Communication Association Annual Conference in Toronto about diversifying, de-westernising and decolonising the field.

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Cherian George
Professor
School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist U
Kowloon Tong
Hong Kong
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Wish I could be there for the panel! Thanks for sharing the write-up, Cherian. I can make sure it is added to the set of resources we provide to international liaisons of our divisions and interest groups. To this set of issues, I'd add a few others: a big one is the intangible issue of habitus, which was written about so well in the 'Putting the I in ICA' report from ten years ago, which spotlights the fact that how we 'do' conferences- including everything to paneling, responding and governance- is highly westernized, and in ICA's case, highly Americanized (we don't have a general secretary, for example, we tend to have panel respondents, and we are still wedded to a 75-minute format). We've done quite a bit about this over the years but there is a lot that remains. 

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Shiv Ganesh
Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin TX
United States
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