[Commlist] "Narrating Cold Wars" – Call for Proposals

*Conference will interrogate the legacy of Cold War narratives
*
Proposals: Due 1 July 2021 <https://narratingcoldwars.wixsite.com/hkbu>
Conference dates: 11–12 November 2021

In an age of intensifying rivalry between the United States and China, 
an interdisciplinary conference at Hong Kong Baptist University 
will look critically at “Cold War” narratives, both historically and as 
a construct for understanding contemporary developments.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the original Cold War, the 
half-century of US-Soviet superpower rivalry that left few 
societies untouched. The HKBU conference, to be held on 11–12 November 
2021 (in Hong Kong, if possible), will interrogate dominant frames of 
Cold War thinking, examining how these frames are constructed, 
circulated, mobilised and contested through media and culture. The 
organisers are currently inviting proposals 
<https://narratingcoldwars.wixsite.com/hkbu>, which are due by 1 July.

The event is organised by HKBU’s new Global Communication and Power 
cluster (GCAP), comprising scholars in media, communication and 
film studies at the School of Communication, in partnership with 
political scientists at the Department of Government and International 
Studies (GIS).

“Time is more than ripe for a reappraisal of the Cold War and its 
historical legacy,” said Ying Zhu of the Academy of Film. 
“Particularly amidst the jostling for global influence of competing 
ideologies between established and emerging superpowers, which confines 
smaller nations and alliances in the global pecking order. We are 
clearly nowhere near the end of history.”

The conference is the brainchild of Daya Thussu of the Department 
of Journalism. “As we enter the third decade of the 
twenty-first century, Cold War 2.0 has become arguably one of the most 
contested and controversial geopolitical discourses,” he says. The 
concept demands critical analysis, he adds: “Does its adoption as the 
dominant narrative by the global media indicate insight or a failure of 
imagination in a multipolar world?”

Thussu and Zhu are the editors of, respectively, Global Media 
and Communication and Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving 
Images and aim to invite conference presenters to contribute to special 
themed sections in the two journals.

The conference theme aligns with what has been called the “narrative 
turn” in political science, referring to how facts are constructed and 
woven together to make sense of political realities, notes Alistair 
Cole, head of GIS. “This is a timely opportunity to revisit past Cold 
War narratives, and to map contemporary and competing efforts to use 
discourse to address the challenges of cooperation and conflict in the 
emerging world order,” he says.

Jean-Pierre Cabestan, also of GIS, points out that many international 
relations experts are focused on the apparent emergence of a new Cold 
War between the West and China, making it a timely occasion to revisit 
the original Cold War. “This will help us to better comprehend the 
intriguing similarities — geostrategic rivalry, technological and 
ideological competition — and the profound differences — economic 
globalisation and interdependence — between the past, the present… and 
probably the future,” he says.

Kenneth Paul Tan, who joined GCAP this year under HKBU’s Talent 100 
scheme and heads the conference programme committee, observes that in 
some respects the Cold War never really ended. “Today, so much of how 
we understand who we are and the world we live in, as well as the ways 
that we represent and communicate these things, is made possible but 
also constrained by Cold War categories, modes, and styles of thinking,” 
he notes.

“We are therefore very excited in this conference to critique from 
various disciplinary vantage points the limitations of Cold 
War thinking, while acknowledging its continued ability to generate new 
meaning, self-reflexivity, and creative expression.”

The conference reflects HKBU’s strong belief in cross-faculty 
collaboration, says Cherian George, the School of 
Communication’s associate dean for research and a GCAP cluster member. 
“We expect the conference to generate conversations on topics of 
transdisciplinary interest, such as state propaganda 
and hypernationalism,” he says. “The diverse make-up of our organising 
committee reflects our openness to investigate our chosen theme from 
multiple perspectives. We look forward to receiving proposals 
that surprise us with fresh ways to make sense of Cold War narratives.”



View the Call for Proposals 
<https://narratingcoldwars.wixsite.com/hkbu> at 
https://narratingcoldwars.wixsite.com/hkbu 
<https://narratingcoldwars.wixsite.com/hkbu>


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