Political Science and International Relations Research Seminar

The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the practice of public diplomacy -- it has curtailed face-to-face human contacts and experiences central for public diplomacy, required flexible and fast-paced adaptability of initiatives and programmes, and fast-forwarded e-diplomacy to extend the outreach and ensure people-to-people contacts.  Cultural diplomacy, often described as a “linchpin of public diplomacy”, is perhaps among the most affected variants of diplomacy at times of the major health crisis. The presentation will overview challenges and innovations in the area of public and cultural diplomacy, focusing on the case of the European Union (EU) and it Member States, in New Zealand and around the world. The presenter, Professor Natalia Chaban, is a Team Leader of the New Zealand research team within a multinational Jean Monnet Network Reactik (cReative Economy And Culture inTernatIonal link” (2018-2021) examining EU Cultural Diplomacy.  The Network is supported by Erasmus+ of the European Commission.

Natalia Chaban is Jean Monnet Chair and Professor at the Department of Media and Communication, University of Canterbury (UC), New Zealand. Natalia focuses her interdisciplinary research on cognitive and semiotic aspects of political and media discourses, image and perceptions studies within the EU and IR contexts, political communication and public diplomacy. Director of Public Diplomacy and Political Communication Forum at UC, Vice-Leader of the Work Group “Perceptions and Communication”, COST Action EU Foreign Policy Facing New Directions (ENTER) (supported by the Europeans Commission) and Research Director of the Jean Monnet Project E-YOUTH, she leads multiple transnational research projects supported by the European Commission and NATO. In 2021, she is a Team Leader of the 13-country research on external perceptions of the EU supported by Service of the Foreign Policy Instruments of the European Commission (FPI) in collaboration with the public diplomacy division of the European External Action Service (EEAS). Her latest publications include, with Arne Niemann and Johanna Speyer, Changing Perceptions of the EU at Times of Brexit: Global Perspectives (Routledge, 2020), with Ole Elgström, The Ukraine crisis and EU Foreign Policy Roles: Images of the EU in the Context of EU-Ukraine Relations (Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2021), and with Alister Miskimmon and Ben O’Loughlin, EU Diplomacy and Conflict: Narratives and Perceptions in the Neighbourhood (Routledge, forthcoming 2021).

For further information please contact Julija Sardelić (julija.sardelic@vuw.ac.nz) Political Science and International Relations Seminar Convenor.