Lugano – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

The European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) in partnership with USI Università della Svizzera italiana call for proposals to be presented at the 7th European Communication Conference, to be held in Lugano, Switzerland, from 31 October to 3 November 2018. The Conference has chosen the key theme of “Centres and Peripheries: Communication, Research, Translation.” Deadline: 28 February 2018.

First, the conference examines the issues of “core” and “margins”, inviting scholars to stretch the boundaries of media and communication research as an academic discipline. We welcome presentation of research that seeks to take communication and media studies to new territories and new fields of application.

Second, the key conference theme of centres and peripheries means reconsidering geographical, cultural and linguistic borders or boundaries. Many areas of media and communication research have been dominated by American and European scholarship, but these traditions can learn methodological and theoretical insights coming, for example, from Asian, South American and African research.

Open Position Announcement:
Research Assistant / Doctorate in Intercultural Communication

The Institute for Public Communication (IPC), Faculty of Communication Sciences, at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano, Switzerland,, announces a call for a Research Assistant / Doctorate in Intercultural Communication.

The candidate will join the research team of Prof. Jolanta Drzewiecka at the IPC . He/she will assist Prof. Drzewiecka in her research and teaching duties, and some associated administration (including conference organization, M.A. theses supervision, grant proposal preparation) (50%) and must develop and carry forward a doctoral project in the area of intercultural communication (50%). Prof Drzewiecka’s research focuses on public memories, media representations of migration, and belonging. The assistant will pursue his/her doctoral projects in these or related areas.

Required qualification: a master’s degree in communication sciences, linguistics, cultural studies, sociology or related disciplines; knowledge of critical and/or cultural studies theories and qualitative research methods; fluency in written and spoken English. Desirable qualification: knowledge of one or more Swiss national languages.

The ideal candidate will take ownership of a project and is both a team player and independent. He/she must be flexible, entrepreneurial and dynamic. He/she must enjoy working in a multilingual and multidisciplinary environment.

The position is renewable for up to 5 years based on satisfactory performance. During this period, the appointee will undertake doctoral studies and will have the opportunity to interact with an international network of scholars in the field and become a credible member of the academic community. The research activities will be carried out at USI, where the candidate should be present 4 days a week.

Contact
Please send your application, incl. a letter of motivation (describing qualifications and doctoral project ideas), detailed CV (with names and contact information for 2 references), university transcripts, and a writing sample (5 pages, in English, ideally from an academic paper), to Prof. Jolanta Drzewiecka.

Deadline
The appointment starts February 1, 2016 with a possibility of September 1, 2016 appointment. The call is open until the position is filled.

NOTE: This is the revised version, with additional information, updated October 16, 2015.