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News and events

27 August 2024

Check out the latest Public Diplomacy and Political Communication (PD-PCF) news and events.

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HER-UKR Jean Monnet Policy Network: Presenting results of WP 1 "Strategic Communication" in Europe

Professor Natalia Chaban, Leader of Package 5 “Strategic Communication” in HER-UKR Jean Monnet Policy Network, presented results of Year 1 of the WP5 at the 15th Sakharov Readings “Pulling Back from the Abyss. The global consequences of the war in Ukraine”. The Readings tool place at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Vilnius, Lithuania on May 21-22, 2025. The Readings brought together academics and stakeholders from different sectors and countries Professor Natalia Chaban, Leader of Package 5 “Strategic Communication” 

in HER-UKR Jean Monnet Policy Network, presented results of Year 1 of the WP5 at an academia-stakeholder event Academic & Policymakers Dialogue: Strategic Communication of Ukraine’s Heritage,  on June 4, 2025, , at KU Leuven Campus Brussels, Belgium. Prof Chaban presented results of WP5  to a group of stakeholders and decision-makers, including representative of the European Commission (Directorate General of Education, Culture and Sports, Creative Europe Unit, and Directorate General NEAR responsible for EU enlargement); UNESCO representatives (UNESCO Centre for Living Heritage, HERE&Well project, Ukraine Commission to UNESCO, UNESCO Liaison Office in Brussels), Deputy Ambassadors of Ukraine to the EU, representatives of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Government of Flanders.  Prof Chaban delivered this stakeholder event together with Prof Lien Verpoest (the Network Leader) and Daryna Zhyvohliadova (the Network Manager).

Professor Natalia Chaban, Leader of Package 5 “Strategic Communication” in HER-UKR Jean Monnet Policy Network, presented results of Year 1 of the WP5 at The Vienna Lecture on the European Union at the Centre for European Integration Research (EIF), Vienna, Austria, on June 17, 2025. Professor Chaban was invited to present an annual Vienna Lecture on the EU “EU heritage diplomacy towards Ukraine: The battle of narratives in global media in the context of heritage securitization”.  She also delivered a guest lecture on this topic to Masters Students at the TU Darmstadt, Germany, on June 22, 2025. 

Media and Communication’s PD-PCF Student Research Hub collaborates with the Embassy of France to New Zealand

On December 5, 2024, team of five students working within the framework of the PD-PCF Hub (led by Professor Natalia Chaban) reported results of their analysis of frames and narratives of France in New Zealand’s leading media, with a special focus on the images of France in the RSTI

issue-area. Students presented results to the French diplomats in the Embassy of France to New Zealand in Wellington.They concluded their presentation with a set of recommendation in the area of international strategic communication and public diplomacy. The presentation in the Embassy followed the first event in our collaboration this year – the Hub’s participation and contribution to the running of the Blue Talk ‘Science’ in Town Hall, Christchurch, on 20 November 2024. The 2024 Hub working with the Embassy of France marks the fifth year of collaboration between UC Media & Communication and its Public Diplomacy and Political Communication Forum (directed by Professor Natalia Chaban) and the Embassy of France to New Zealand. The members of the PD-PCF Hub working with the French Embassy in 2024 are:   Ella Bond (Hub’s senior researcher, MStratCom alumnus), Sophie Hill (Hub’s senior researcher, MA in Media and Communication alumnus), Mariyam (Falak) Ahmed (MStratCom), and undergraduate students Miles Peters and Ella Harsant.

PD-PCF Hub reports its media research to the Embassy of Ukraine to Australia and New Zealand

On December 2, 2024,  members of Media and Communication’s Public Diplomacy and Political Communication Forum (PD-PCF) (directed by Professor Natalia Chaban) presented their findings to the Ambassador of Ukraine to Australia and New Zealand, HE Vasyl Myroshnychenko.

This PD-PCF Student Research Hub has brought together PhD, Masters and undergraduate students to analyse narratives and frames of Ukraine in the latest media coverage in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, following Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region and the US elections. The mulit-disciplinary team have succeeded in delivering a nuanced empirical analysis with multiple recommendations.  The members of the Hub included: Mia Angeline (PhD in Media & Comms), Dmitry Romanenko (PhD in Media & Comms), Dinda Veskarahmi (MStratCom), Bryce Vevey  (MIRAD), James Blanchett (MEURO), and undergraduate students Jamie Jovel-Flores, Charlotte McAleer-Menzies and Daisy Francis.

 

Media and Communication’s PD-PCF Student Hub presents on EU digital diplomacy to EU Delegation to New Zealand

On December 5, 2024, Student Research Hub of the Public Diplomacy and Political Communication 

Forum (PF-PCF) (directed by Prof Natalia Chaban, UC Media & Comms) presented its analysis of the EU’s digital diplomacy towards New Zealand.  The team visited the embassy of the EU to New Zealand in Wellington where students presented their findings and recommendations to HE Lawrence Meredith, the Head of the EU Delegation, and his team of diplomats and strategic communicators. The PD-PCF Student Research Hub included:  Loredana Unsworth (MStratCom), Joshua Boucher (MPAG), and under-graduate students Davien Gray, Sophia Peacock-Price and Tarek Patchett. The work of the Hub was consulted by Sam Brett (PhD student, Media & Comms) and Margaret Vernygora (MIRAD).

Building research networks with Australia:  HER-UKR Jean Monnet Policy Network WP 5 “Strategic Communication” presents at the ESAANZ Conference 2024

Media and Communication’s research team, working in the framework of the Jean Monnet Policy Network “Opportunities and challenges of the EU’s heritage diplomacy towards Ukraine” (HER-UKR) supported by the European Commission,

presented a virtual panel at a regional conference of the European Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand (ESAANZ) 2024, organised in Melbourne (Australia).  Media and Communication researchers presented findings of Year 1 of the Work Package 5 “Strategic Communication” within the Network that brings together 15 universities from around the world.  The panel focused on the findings from the media analysis in five countries of Global South -- Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa.  The panel featured these HER-UKR researchers: Natalia Chaban (WP5 Research Lead), Francesca Harrison (MStratCom, researcher for South Africa) Mia Angeline (PhD student in Media & Comms, researcher for Indonesia), Dmitry Romanenko (PhD student in Media & Comms, researcher for China), Dr Daniela Grimberg (Media & Comms alumnus, researcher for Brazil) and Shalabh Chopra (PhD student in Media & Comms, researcher for India).

UC research on international communication informs diplomats: PD-PCF Student Research Hub presents to the Embassy of Germany to New Zealand

On November 28, Student Research Hub within Public Diplomacy and Political Communication Forum (directed by Professor Natalia Chaban), Department of Media and Communication,  presented in-depth analysis of the narratives and frames of Germany in New Zealand’s leading media at the Embassy of Germany to New Zealand in Wellington.

The Hub also developed and presented a set of original recommendations in the context of international strategic communication. The findings and recommendation were discussed in great details with the German Ambassador to New Zealand, HE Nicole Menzenbach, and the Deputy Ambassador, Winnie Swiatakowski.   The Hub team included Megan Gnad (MStratCom); Francesca Harrison (MStratCom); Xavier Dickason (MIRAD); Marrion Omniwega (MPAG); Jasmine Barry (current UG graduate, future MEURO) and Alessandra Ward (BSENS).

Raising UC research profile in Europe: Professor Natalia Chaban reports findings of the Jean Monnet Policy Network on opportunities and challenges of EU-Ukraine heritage diplomacy

The ongoing war against Ukraine presents new challenges for the EU’s external action and foreign policy.  One of them is in the area of securitization of cultural and historical heritage of Ukraine. 

Professor Chaban, who leads Work Package 5 “Strategic Communication” within a new Jean Monnet Policy Network “Challenges and opportunities of EU heritage diplomacy towards Ukraine (HER-UKR), reported about the main findings of the first year of WP5 research in Europe.  Professor Chaban was key speaker at the panel “The EU and the World” at the 35th Anniversary of Jean Monnet Actions Conference (Brussels) invited by the European Commission.  She also led the WP5 panel where the team of 19 researchers presented the key findings of the HER-UKR Year 1 conference at KU Leuven (Belgium) (October 27). UC team contributing to the panel with Prof Chaban included: Prof Paul Millar, Dr Daria Kuznetsova, Dr Daniela Grimberg, PhD students at Media & Communication Mia Angeline, Dmitry Romanenko, Shalabh Chopra, MA in Media & Communication Sophie Hill, MStratCom student Francesca Harrison and MIRAD student Margaret Vernygora.   Professor Chaban also presented the Year 1 findings at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark (November 5); University of Lund, Sweden (November 6); and Jagellonian University of Krakow, Poland (November 11).  On November 28, she presented the key findings of the HER-UKR at the webinar organised by the Ukrainian foreign policy think tank “Ukrainian Prism” sharing findings with Ukrainian stakeholders and decision-makers in the field of international strategic communication.

Science diplomacy: collaboration with French and German diplomats

Members of the Science Diplomacy Research Group at the UC (SDRG UC), Prof Natalia Chaban, PD-PCF Director, and Dr Tara Ross  organised a science diplomacy collaboration with the Embassies of France and Germany to New Zealand for students in COMS 330. The course is coordinated by Dr Tara Ross and the Global Communication module, in which students collaborated with embassies, is led by Prof Natalia Chaban, PD-PCF Director. Two teams of 3rd-year Bachelor of Communication students have been selected to work with French and

German diplomats to co-develop communication strategies for their science diplomacy initiatives. Teams of students in the core Bachelor of Communication course, COMS 330 Communication in Context, presented original social media campaigns to the Embassies of Germany and France on two different initiatives: The HALO-South Mission, which will be launched in Christchurch in September 2025 by German and New Zealand scientific partners, and the One Ocean science Congress (3 to 6 June 2025), which is organised within the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3, 9 to 13 June 2025, in Nice, France) and to which the Embassy of France will be sending 25 New Zealand scientists. 

Five student teams pitched their social media campaign ideas on the HALO (High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft) project, which aims to provide pressing knowledge about the relation between aerosols and clouds in the southern hemisphere. These findings will be extrapolated to a larger scale using satellite data and global climate modelling. Five other teams worked with the French diplomats to develop ideas and communications for One Ocean science Congress, with the goal is to spur action and implement SDG 14, which is the least funded of all Sustainable Development Goals.

The diplomatic juries picked two winning teams.  The German Embassy selected the social media campaign designed by Joshua Meredith, Connor Johnston, Elias Redpath, Leah Hills, Madeleine Barrett and Ruby Riley (featured on the photo). The French Embassy selected the social media campaign designed by Alexandra Scully, Teina Kotua, Scarlett Neame, Kenna Devane and Sophia Wright.  On May 16, the two winning teams met at UC with Deputy Ambassadors for the respective Embassies -- Winnie Switakowski (the Embassy of Germany) and Vincent Gremeret (the Embassy of France) – and will continue to work with the embassies on their campaigns, and attend events later in the year where they will meet the scientists working on these projects. 

International Symposium: “War, Academia, Women: Ukrainian Female Academics as Knowledge Producers and Community Agents in New Zealand and Australia”

The International Symposium “War, Academia, Women: Ukrainian Female Academics as Knowledge Producers and Community Agents in New Zealand and Australia”, supported by the UC Faculty of Arts, in association with the frame of the Ukrainian Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand, will bring together a community of like-minded self-motivated Ukrainian female academics, both experienced and emerging, who analyse the war against Ukraine and its impacts on the world and the Asia-Pacific region through their research, teaching, public outreach, and interactions with policymakers. The perspectives from female researchers on the war and its colonial legacies, which continue to shape our knowledge production in the region, remain in need of mapping and deeper reflection. The symposium aims to fill in this gap focusing on how female academics produce and shape knowledge, outreach to local communities, and facilitate a better understanding of the ongoing war against Ukraine in the context of decolonisation. Additionally, the symposium will not only foster a close relationship between female academic researchers in the region, but also stress the importance of scholarly exchange and outreach around questions of colonialism and decolonisation between colleagues in Australia and New Zealand. The main output of the symposium will be a Special Issue in an academic journal that will reflect on global knowledge production about the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including in the context of decolonisation.  Ambassador of Ukraine to Australia and New Zealand, HE Vasyl’ Myroshnychenko will present a key address to the participants of the Symposium. The Symposium is co-organised by New Zealand and Australian academics – Dr Daria Kuznetsova and Professor Natalia Chaban of the UC and Dr Olga Boichak of the University of Sydney.

Find out more

PD-PCF Director Professor Chaban interviews Gerard de Graaf, the EU’s Senior Envoy for Digital to the US

On August 30, 2023, Professor Natalia Chaban interviewed Gerard de Graaf, Senior Envoy for Digital to the US of the Delegation of the European Union to the United States.  This interview is a key input into the PD-PCF’s research project “Innovations in Public Diplomacy: Constructing dialogue and mitigating security risks between technology giants and governments”, and specifically its Part II, with the focus on the EU and EU member states.  The interview took place at the EU Delegation to New Zealand in Wellington.  Research team will report the final findings to the Senior Envoy and his team upon the project completion.

Natalia Chaban Gerard de Graaf
Nina Obermaier Olivia Hundleby

Media & Comms student Olivia Hundleby as a “shadow Ambassador” of HE Nina Obermaier, Head of EU Delegation to New Zealand

Olivia Hundleby, BC Political Communication major and a member of the PD-PCF Student Research Hub 2023, was invited by the EU Delegation to New Zealand to be a “shadow Ambassador” and experience a day in the life of an EU Ambassador, HE Nina Obermaier.  On August 28, Olivia participated in meetings at the Christchurch City Council, including a meeting with the Mayor of Christchurch Phil Mauger, met with secondary school teachers who participated in the workshop on the EU at the UC, attended the Ambassador’s keynote address to Model EU participants at the UC, met with local MPs, and visited Lincoln University where she met with NZ academics collaborating with academics from the EU. 

Launching PD-PCF Students Research Hub 2023 “EU Digital Diplomacy to New Zealand”

On August 28, 2023, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to New Zealand  Kevin O’Connell visited the UC where he met with the members of the new PD-PCF Student Research Hub 2023. The meeting launched the work of the Student Research Hub which will explore EU Digital Diplomacy to New Zealand. Members of the Hub will report findings to the EU diplomats in Wellington on December 8, 2023.

EU and NZ Flags

John Irgengioro, PD-PCF visiting researcher from Gent University (Belgium), presents results of the joint project in New Zealand

Within the framework of the joint PD-PCF and University of Gent project “Competing for hearts and minds in today’s multipolar world order: a comparative analysis of the soft power of China, Russia and the European Union in Central Asia”  supported by the Flanders Research Foundation (FWO), a visiting researcher John Irgengioro presented a series of research seminars  reporting the main results of the project across New Zealand.  The seminars took place at the Department of Media and Communication, University of Canterbury, Christchurch (8 March, 2023), at the Department of Political Science, University of Otago, Dunedin (15 March 2023), and at joint event organised by the NZ Asia Institute of University of Auckland, Centre for China Studies of the University of Auckland, and Massey University, New Zealand (5 April 2023).

PD-PCF UC  Roundtable “Navigating the Uncertain World: Mapping Future Directions in Political Communication”

On March 24, 2023, PD-PCF UC and the UC Department of Media and Communication organised and ran Roundtable “Navigating the Uncertain World: Mapping Future Directions in Political Communication”. The Roundtable discussants included Professor Ralph Schroeder, UC Erskine Fellow, Internet Institute, Oxford University, the UK; John Irgengioro, FWO Research Fellow at PD-PCF, Ghent University, Belgium; Emanuel Stoakes, MA candidate, UC Media & Comms, international news writer, and Professor Natalia Chaban, UC Political Communication Lead/Director, PD-PCF UC. Professor Chaban was the Chair and the Organiser of the Roundtable which involved Political Communication majors (Bachelor of Communication), as well as post-graduate students and academics. The presenter and the audience discussed the directions, opportunities and challenges the changing world presents to those who focus their study, research and practice on political communication – domestic and international – in the 21st century.

PC Roundtable Flyer

PD-PCF  hosts a renown international academic:  Professor Thomas Christiansen, LUISS, Rome

In December 2022, supported by the COST Action ENTER “EU Foreign Policy Facing New Realities”, within the COST – PD-PCF collaboration in the COST Work Package 2 “Communication and Perceptions” co-led by Professor Chaban,  Professor Thomas Christiansen of LUISS, Italy, visited the PD-PCF UC for research exchange and presented two seminars for the UC Department of Media and Communication  and wider UC’s academic community: The New Geopolitics after the Ukraine War:  Challenges and Opportunities for the EU (December 16, 2022) and Academic Publishing: Managing the Peer Review Process of Journal Articles and Book Manuscripts (December 14, 2022).  In the latter seminar, Prof Christiansen  reflected on his experiences as an Executive Editor of the Journal of European Integration  and a co-editor of the ‘European Administration Governance’ book series at Palgrave Macmillan publishing house.

Thomas Christiansen
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