[csaa-forum] AMCAP Doctoral Spring School 2020 in Pakistan - call for participants

[nico CARPENTIER]

((apologies for cross-posting))

AMCAP Doctoral Spring School 2020
Supported by ECREA SuSo staff
(Feb 28 - March 8, 2020)

AMCAP (the Association of Media & Communication Academic Professionals) 
announces a call for participation in the 10-days ECREA (European 
Communication Research and Education Association) style Summer School. 
AMCAP Doctoral Spring School 2020 aims to strengthen the structure and 
content of Communication and Media Studies PhD research projects in 
Pakistan. ECREA Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School’s 
experts, for the first time, will join hands with the AMCAP Doctoral 
Spring School.

Venue: University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

Deadlines:

Abstract Submission: November 1, 2019
Abstract Acceptance Notification:  November 15, 2019
Research Paper Submission: January 2, 2020
Research Paper Acceptance Notification: 	January 10, 2020

Program Director:
Dr. Bushra Hameedur Rahman
Spring School Coordinators:
Dr. Abida Ashraf & Dr. Saadia Ishtiaq
Spring School Co-coordinators:
Dr. Zaeem Yasin, Mr. Fahad Mehmood, Dr. Shazia Saeed
Spring School Facilitators:
Dr. Sameera Batool, Dr. Ayesha Ashfaq, Dr. Zahid Bilal, Ms. Sabahat Afsheen
International Advisor:
Dr. Nico Carpentier

The AMCAP Doctoral Spring School 2020 brings together prominent European 
and Pakistani academics to provide structural and individuated support 
to young Pakistani and other Asian scholars in their PhD projects. The 
AMCAP Spring School is a PhD-student centered school, that will give 
participants unique opportunities to polish their scientific research 
skills in the emerging digital environment through PhD feedback panels, 
workshops, and lectures along with panel discussions. In the age of 
digital humanities and emerging ecosystem, the School will provide 
opportunities of learning pedagogies in digital ecosystems. The AMCAP 
Spring School aims to provide a supportive international setting where 
doctoral students can present their ongoing work, receive one to one 
feedback on their PhD projects from European and Pakistani academicians. 
It will also be an opportunity to establish valuable networking with 
academia of different countries.

Participants of AMCAP Spring School can apply under following two 
categories:
1.	As PhD scholars (Those who are currently enrolled in any University 
for PhD Degree)
2.	As Observers (Any aspiring PhD scholar, PhD Scholar awaiting viva, 
Faculty Member, and Early Career Media Professional)
The ‘AMCAP Spring School 2020’ has limited seats and will select only 21 
PhD scholars and 15 observers.

  The AMCAP Spring School includes:

1.	Student Feedback Panels: At the beginning of the Spring School, each 
participant will be guided to draft a poster and presentation on his/her 
research project, which will then be used during their presentations in 
the student feedback panels. In the student feedback panels, 
participants will present their research projects and will receive 
structured, multi-voiced and constructive feedback on their work from 
AMCAP Spring School staff and fellow participants. The guidance from 
eminent professors will enable participants to identify problems in 
their research, improve the quality of their academic work, and 
stimulate further research interest.

2.	Keynote Lectures:  Special seminars by leading scholars in different 
fields of communication and media studies will be delivered. The keynote 
lectures aim to demonstrate the state-of-the-art scholarship on how to 
understand and produce ‘Media and Communication Theories’. The lectures 
will include, ‘Theoretical formulations in Discourse Theory’, 
‘Participation Theory’, ‘Audiences in the age of Datafication’, 
‘Autoethnography: Digital Parenting’, ‘Fake News’, ‘Data Journalism’ and 
‘Challenges of Journalism in Digital Age.’

3.	Workshops on Research Skills: More than eight hands-on workshops are 
designed to provide examples and guidance in real research settings. 
Topics will include: How to Write an Abstract for International 
Conferences; Formulate/Define Research Questions from the Literature 
Review; Quantitative Research Methods vs. Qualitative Research Methods 
in Social Sciences Research, Critical Discourse Analysis, Semiotic 
Analysis, Data Analysis, Oral Presentation Skills; Academic Writing; Key 
Steps of Publishing Academic Papers, How to Write a Proposal for Funded 
Projects in Social Sciences, etc.

4.	Student Group Projects: Participants will be grouped into small 
teams, based on their research areas and methodological background. 
Professors will be assigned to the student teams on the basis of their 
best fit in terms of topics and methods. Both in-class and off-class 
group work will not only help the participants to understand how to 
collaborate in an academic environment but also give them more 
opportunities to engage with professors. One task will be assigned to 
the team at the beginning of the program, and the results of teamwork 
will be presented at the end of Spring School.

5.	Media Dialogues: Dialogues with media experts from media 
organizations will be arranged during the AMCAP Spring School. The 
dialogue sessions will be held on the site of the media organization 
itself, whenever possible. This will allow the participant/observer to 
personally observe the media work in practice.

6.	Panel Discussion on International Careers: The participants/observers 
will also get the opportunity to engage in discussions with the 
international team of professors on academic careers in international 
universities. They will brief participants about the challenges and 
prospects of teaching and researching at European universities. They 
will explain the procedures and provide the detailed insight into the 
European academic environment.

7.	Networking and Publishing Opportunity: The AMCAP Spring School aims 
to provide a supportive international setting for Pakistani PhD 
students. The participants can receive the feedback from international 
experts from other countries, establishing valuable contacts for the 
future. The students will also be given the opportunity to publish with 
AMCAP journals after peer-reviewing of their research work.

Observers will benefit from keynote lectures, workshops, media 
dialogues, networking, and publishing opportunities except for the 
student feedback panels.

International Faculty:

1.	Dr. Nico Carpentier, Docent at Charles University in Prague (Czech 
Republic).

2.	Dr. Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Professor in Media and 
Communication, Malmö University, Sweden.

3.	Dr. Eddy Borges Rey, Associate Professor in Journalism and Strategic 
Communication Programme, Northwestern University in Qatar, Education 
City, Qatar.

Faculty from Pakistan:

1.      Dr. Altaf Khan, Professor, Forman Christian College, Lahore
2.      Dr. Bushra Hameedur Rahman, Associate Professor, University of 
the Punjab.
3.      Dr. Abida Ashraf, Assistant Professor, University of the Punjab.
4.      Dr. Sadia Ishtiaq, Assistant Professor, Fatima Jinnah Women 
University, RWP
5.      Dr. Firasat Jabeen, Assistant Professor, Forman Christian 
College, Lahore

How to Apply:

As Participants: All participants are required to send an abstract (up 
to 500 words), a letter of motivation (up to 1000 words) to 
amcap92ss at gmail.com by November 1, 2019. The abstract should include:
1. Title
2. Research questions
3. Theoretical framework
4. Research design and methodology

All participants will be notified about the decision on their abstract 
by November 15, 2019. Only successful candidates shall be asked to 
submit a full research paper (4000 words) by January 02, 2020.

Submission of the full research paper is a requirement for participation 
in the Spring School and the formal acceptance confirmation for AMCAP 
Spring School 2020 shall be sent by January 10, 2020.
•	The 4000-word research paper on the PhD research should provide a good 
and full academic overview of candidate’s ongoing doctoral research, and 
not a conventional conference paper or a report of findings.
•	It is expected that the research paper will briefly present the focus 
of the research and then describe the key components of the research 
project, namely (1) research questions, relevance and rationale, (2) 
theoretical framework, (3) research design and methodology and (4) the 
time plan.
•	In addition, a participant may also add an appendix with a set of 
questions or problems that he would like to be discussed during the 
workshops (maximum 1 page). This one page needs to be part of the same 
Word/PDF file that also contains the research paper.
•	Based on the abstracts and titles of other participants’ papers, every 
participant is expected to reflect on three papers of other participant 
before the commencement of the workshop.
•	Each participant will bring to the AMCAP Spring School a pre-prepared 
10-minute seminar presentation, covering the main points of his/her 
work. Each participant is also expected to actively participate in 
discussions of his/her own and other participant’s work.

Observers: Observers are not required to submit any 500 words PhD 
research proposal.  However, they will be asked to submit a one-page 
document briefly introducing themselves and their field(s) of interest, 
and describing their reasons for applying for this AMCAP Spring School. 
This document needs to be emailed to amcap92ss at gmail.com by November 1, 
2019. The observers may be asked to submit the revised portfolio if some 
information is missing.

Deadlines:
Abstract Submission: November 1, 2019
Abstract Acceptance: November 15, 2019
Research Paper Submission: January 2, 2020
Research Paper Acceptance: January 10, 2020
Registration Fee payment: January 5, 2020

Fee and Payment:

Fee for summer school participant is Rs.15, 000/-, which must be paid at 
the time of submission of research paper i.e. January 2, 2020. It 
includes participation in the whole program on-site (lunch and tea 
included), media organizations’ visit(s) and Welcome and Farewell Dinners.

Fee for the foreign participants is 350 USD which includes participation 
in the whole program.

Fee for summer school observers is Rs. 10,000/- which includes 
participation in the whole program (lunch and tea included), except the 
student feedback panels, and the media organizations visit(s).

Registration fee is non-refundable. Accommodation is not included in the 
registration fee. If a Spring School Participant or Observer needs help 
with finding accommodation near the campus, he/she must inform the 
organizers at least one month before the start of AMCAP Spring School 2020.

Additional facilities provided by Spring School: Both participants and 
observers will be provided following free facilities during the Spring 
School.

•	Free WiFi
•	Tea during breaks
•	Certificates of Participation
•	Recommendation letters if and when required

More information can be found at AMCAP website:  http://www.amcap.net

Organizers:
Association of Media & Communication Academic Professionals (AMCAP)

Sponsors:
University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

Contact for Queries:
Dr. Saadia Ishtiaq.
Email: saadia_nauman at fjwu.edu.pk

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Bios of the International Speakers:

Dr. Nico Carpentier
Nico Carpentier is Docent at Charles University in Prague; he also holds 
part-time positions at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB – Free 
University of Brussels), as Associate Professor, and at Uppsala
University, as Senior Researcher. Moreover, he is a Research Fellow at 
the Cyprus University of Technology and Loughborough University. 
Earlier, he was ECREA Treasurer (2005-2012) and Vice-President 
(2008-2012), and IAMCR Treasurer (2012-2016). Currently, he is Chair of 
the Participatory Communication Research Section at IAMCR. His latest 
books are The Discursive-Material Knot: Cyprus in Conflict and Community 
Media Participation (2017, Peter Lang, New York); Cyprus and its 
Conflicts. Representations, Materialities, and Cultures (2018, 
co-edited), Critical Perspectives on Media, Power and Change (2018, 
co-edited), Respublika! Experiments in the Performance of Participation 
and Democracy (2019, edited), and Communication and Discourse Theory 
(2019, co-edited).

Dr. Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt
Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt is a Professor in Media and Communication, 
Malmö University, Sweden, since November 2016 and has previously worked 
in University of Tartu as a Professor in Media Studies (2014-2015). Her 
research interests have focused around cultural citizenship and 
participation and engagement in museums, libraries and public 
broadcasting. She has also worked internet users and social applications 
of new technologies. She has been an active member in European 
Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) and is 
currently the International Director of European Media and Communication 
Doctoral Summer School. She has been project leader on different local 
projects, among them: “Developing museum communication in the 21st 
century information environment” (2009-2013) and country coordinator for 
international projects like “Hub Websites for Youth Participation” 
(2009-2011), "Nordic Research Network on Learning Across Contexts 
(NordLAC) (2011-2014)" and FET-open, FP7 research project partner in 
“UaESMC - Usable and Efficient Secure Multiparty Computation” 
(2012-2015). These projects have had her working on new and emerging 
technologies, youth participation and museum engagement questions. She 
has published over hundred articles both in journals and as book 
chapters and has been in the team of editors for more than ten books.

Dr. Eddy Borges-Rey
Eddy Borges-Rey is an Associate Professor in Digital Journalism and 
Emerging Media at Northwestern University in Qatar, and co-director of 
the Life in Data project. He is co-editor of the forthcoming edited 
collection Data Journalism in the Global South (Palgrave), and the book 
series Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South. He holds an 
MA and PhD in Media and Communication from the University of Malaga in 
Spain. Overall, his research looks at the interplay between media, 
technology and power, particularly around issues in Data Journalism, 
Open Data, Social Computation, Critical Data, Code and Algorithm 
Studies, AI and automation, Freedom of Information, Mobile Journalism, 
Innovation, Photojournalism, and Data Literacy. He has taught Journalism 
Studies, Production and Media Studies in Venezuela, Spain, Vietnam and 
the UK, and as professional he has worked as a journalist, a broadcast 
producer and PR practitioner for almost 15 years.


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Nico Carpentier
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Web: http://nicocarpentier.net/
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New book:
RESPUBLIKA!
Experiments in the performance of participation and democracy
Download at: http://nicocarpentier.net/respublika/
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New book:
COMMUNICATION AND DISCOURSE THEORY
Collected Works of the Brussels Discourse Theory Group
https://www.intellectbooks.com/communication-and-discourse-theory
https://vimeo.com/manage/albums/5732645
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Charles University in Prague
Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism
Smetanovo nábřeží 6, 110 01 Praha 1, Czech Republic
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) - Free University of Brussels
& Uppsala University
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The Commlist
http://commlist.org/
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International Association for Media and Communication Research
Participatory Communication Research Section
http://iamcr.org/s-wg/section/pcr-section
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E-mail (CharlesU): nico.carpentier at fsv.cuni.cz
E-mail (UUppsala): nico.carpentier at im.uu.se
E-mail (VUBrussels): nico.carpentier at vub.ac.be
Room (CharlesU): Hollar building Room 105
Phone (CharlesU): +420 222 112 134
Web: http://nicocarpentier.net/
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