Latest News from ICA Headquarters

Β View Only

President Eject: Claes de Vreese "The Last Column"

  • 1.  President Eject: Claes de Vreese "The Last Column"

    Posted 07-11-2024 09:07
    Posted By Claes de Vreese, Distinguished U Professor U of Amsterdam, ICA Executive Committee 2018-2024

    The #ica24 conference in June marks the end of my 5.5 year tenure on the Executive Committee.  In this 'last column' by the President Eject I offer a few reflections and extend many heartfelt thanks.

    The Executive Committee commitment is a long gig. After election statements, an election, it was real in October 2018: onboarding on the ICA executive committee. I knew the ICA well, as a former Political Communication program planner, division chair, member and chair of committees and Editor of the ICA-APSA Political Communication journal. But this is different!

    Fast forward to June 2024. The world is a different place. Polarized politics, a pandemic has come and (almost) gone, new wars are raging. It was an 'interesting' period to be part of the leadership of an international association. One of the first tasks is to be conference program planner: 'my' conference was #ica20 in Australia. We had a fantastic program and an Open Communication theme. Early 2020 we celebrated that the program was βœ…

    The March 2020 transition to the pandemic was a rollercoaster. We canceled (technically postponed!) the physical conference, invented an online conference in weeks, fundraised and created an emergency fund for early career scholars. We managed to hold one of the first large scale international online conferences. None of this would have been possible without Laura and the formidable ICA HDQ team. It was a herculean effort.

    The 'pandemic president year' was also interesting. With the EC and HDQ we plotted strategies for regional hubs #ica21 and hybrid conferences for ICA going forward. We also continued work on open scholarship. We ramped up efforts on IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) for ICA. My 'presidential reception' was a glass of wine 🍷 at home and an online presidential address: πŸ“Ί https://lnkd.in/du3Tbg2. But it felt powerful still because we were very much an #ICACommunity during this weird time.

    The excitement for #ica22 Paris was enormous. It was like a festival. We also re-started physical #RunningWithPresidents after two online editions. It was kind of magical. And soon ICA could pick up speed again with exciting new initiatives such regional chapters of the ICA spearheaded by Noshir Contractor. And in the past year, a huge amount of work has been done on a new strategic plan for the association, a process that it has been inspiring to be part of.

    All good things come to an end. The ride has been fantastic. I am so happy that I got to be part of the ICA leadership, I learned so much, and met so many fantastic new colleagues. My gratitude is enormous: πŸ™ to Laura (doll credit; she made each of the EC members a personalized avatar) and to all of the  HDQ team. Thanks to the changing members of the EC (Paula Gardner, Terry Flew, Peng Hwa Ang Patricia Moy Peter Monge and currently Mary Beth Oliver, Noshir Contractor, Eun-Ju Lee, Silvio Waisbord, Thomas Hanitzsch and Elisia Cohen), to the task forces on open scholarship and open access ( πŸ™ Thomas Mankowski (MS, CAE)), to the resilient early career community, and to Hans Beentjes and Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) for their support from the outset.




    ------------------------------
    Tom Mankowski
    ICA
    Washington DC
    United States
    ------------------------------