PhD Symposium 2012

Media@LSE 5th PhD Symposium
Friday 15 June, 2012
Graham Wallas Room, Old Building
LSE Campus, London

Summary of Media@LSE 5th PhD Symposium
Naya Hadzipani

On Friday 15th June 2012 we celebrated the fifth Media@LSE PhD Symposium. Inspired by recent social and political events around the globe, this year's Symposium was devoted to the theme of 'Cosmopolitanism, New Media and Protests'. It brought together an impressively diverse group of research students from all over the world, including the UK, USA, France, Israel, Germany, Russia, Belgium and Denmark, from a great variety of disciplines and universities.

Professor Lilie Chouliaraki, Director of the PhD Programme at the Department of Media and Communications, opened the symposium by highlighting its interdisciplinary nature and international orientation. 'One of the key aims of this annual landmark event is to facilitate a lively intellectual conversation among members of an international PhD research community,' said Professor Chouliaraki.

In his keynote address, Dr Bart Cammaerts, Senior Lecturer at the Department, delivered a stimulating argument on 'Transnational Networks of Contention: Mediated Movement Spill-overs' which set the tone for the day. In total, the symposium included 13 papers by PhD research students which explored the mediation of protests through new media platforms, as they expand within and beyond national borders. The presentations provided original analytical frameworks and empirical data on the crucial role new media and the internet have played in recent global events, including the revolution in Egypt, the Occupy movement, social and religious protests in Israel, citizen empowerment movements in China and Russia, and anti-fascist protests in Europe.

Participants engaged in intense discussions on the challenges and opportunities of new media platforms for the constitution of cosmopolitan communities, activism and social change. At the same time, the conference reflected on the distinction between the symbolic and the material, the online and offline, and the tension between the local and the global.

Organised by the PhD students of the Department of Media and Communications, the Media@LSE PhD symposium was established in 2008 to give research students the opportunity to develop not only their academic interests but also a cluster of professional skills. Dr Cammaerts, who will take over as the new Director of the MPhil/PhD Programmes in the academic year 2012-13, said: 'The Media@LSE PhD symposium not only provides a convivial atmosphere for PhD-researchers to share their work and reflect on the symposium's theme, but also constitutes a learning experience for all those involved, in terms of how to organise an academic event, review abstracts, chair a session, as well as on how to engage and network with peers.'

The Organising Committee of the 5th Media@LSE PhD Media Symposium - 1st year PhD students Gregory Asmolov, Marina Gerner and Naya Hadzipani - would like to thank the Department of Media and Communications for this rewarding experience.