[Easttimorstudies] Postgrad and ECR Workshop Understanding the Internet in the Asia-Pacific: UoW

[Jennifer Drysdale]

>Workshop on Understanding the Internet in the Asia-Pacific
>25 September ­ 26 September 2006
>University of Wollongong
>
>The Centre for Asia Pacific Social 
>Transformation Studies (CAPSTRANS), with the 
>support of the Asia-Pacific Futures Research 
>Network (APFRN), is calling for applications 
>from PhD students and Early Career Researchers 
>at Australian universities to participate in a 
>workshop on the theme of understanding the Internet in the Asia-Pacific region.
>Background:
> From the mid-1990s onwards, the Internet has 
> shifted fundamentally from its co-ordinates in 
> English-speaking countries, especially North 
> America, to become an essential medium in a 
> wide range of countries, cultures, and 
> languages. Its uptake in the Asia/Pacific has 
> been particularly notable. According to March 
> 2006 statistics, Chinese language now 
> represents 14.1% of all Internet communication 
> and media use, Japanese 9.6 % and Korean, at 
> 4.1%, has more users than does French. At 35.8% 
> and falling, English use is now a minority in 
> terms of overall online language use. However, 
> communications and media scholarship, 
> especially in the Anglophone world, has not 
> registered the deep ramifications of this shift 
> and the challenges it poses to the concepts, 
> methods, assumptions, and frameworks used to study the Internet.
>The purpose of this one-and-a-half-day ECR 
>seminar on “Understanding the Internet in the 
>Asia/Pacific” is to acknowledge that Internet 
>use and Internet studies take place “elsewhere” 
>in various national and international contexts. 
>Through bringing together researchers whose 
>daily experience of the Internet is mediated 
>through Asian languages and cultures as well as 
>researchers situated within the Anglophone 
>academy whose work focuses on cultures in our 
>region, we hope to promote the visibility of 
>work already being done outside the Anglophone 
>world. We also aim to encourage new work that 
>critically engages with Anglophone Internet 
>scholarship that is based on research into 
>diverse locales and draws upon a range of intellectual traditions.
>The aim of the Workshop is to:
>o Bring together four leading Internet experts 
>working on Asia/Pacific Internet cultures who 
>will offer a seminar on their region of 
>expertise, discuss their work and highlight some 
>of the difficulties and particularities of 
>researching the Internet in the region.
>o Give Australian postgraduate students and ECRs 
>working on Asia/Pacific Internet cultures and 
>histories the opportunity to present their work 
>and receive feedback from leading experts in the field.
>o Lead to an edited book or special journal 
>edition or refereed online publication of 
>papers, thus adding to our understanding of the 
>specificities of the Internet as a medium of 
>communication in the region and contributing to 
>the career development of the ECR participants.
>Through the presentation of short papers on 
>their research, participants will have the 
>opportunity to discuss their research with peers 
>and with a number of senior research mentors. It 
>is hoped that these presentations and 
>discussions will assist participants to publish their research.
>
>What is CAPSTRANS?
>CAPSTRANS is an Australian Research Council 
>(ARC) Key Centre for Teaching and Research and a 
>joint venture of the University of Wollongong 
>and the University of Newcastle. The Centre 
>seeks to examine social transformation processes 
>in the Asia-Pacific region through innovative 
>research by combining methods from a variety of 
>disciplines, including political science, 
>economics, sociology, anthropology, social 
>history and media studies. An overview of our 
>research interests is available on our website http://www.capstrans.edu.au/
>What is the Asia-Pacific Futures Research Network (APFRN)?
>The APFRN is a network of Asian and Pacific 
>researchers supported by the Australian Research 
>Council. Its broad goals are to provide stimulus 
>for innovative research that makes links across 
>disciplinary and area boundaries to enhance 
>Australia's interactions with and knowledge of 
>the Asia Pacific region. Further information is 
>available at: http://www.sueztosuva.org.au
>Who are the expert researchers?
>Dr Nasya Bahfen (RMIT), an expert in online 
>cross-cultural communication who has conducted 
>extensive research into the take-up of the 
>Internet in Malaysia and the Islamic world more generally.
>Dr Gerard Goggin (USyd), one of Australia’s 
>foremost Internet scholars who has published 
>widely on the development of the Internet in 
>Australia, including Virtual Nation: The Internet in Australia.
>Dr Merlyna Lim (Annenberg Center for 
>Communication, USC) who researches online 
>activism in Indonesia and is an expert on cyberactivism in South-East Asia.
>Dr Mark McLelland (UOW) researches the Japanese 
>Internet and was co-editor of the Routledge 
>volume Japanese Cybercultures, the first book to 
>look at the cultural dimensions of Internet use in Japan.
>Who can apply to participate?
>PhD students enrolled in any faculty at an 
>Australian university and early career 
>researchers with less than 5 years since the 
>award of their PhD, whose current research 
>examines an issue related to the Internet in the 
>Asia-Pacific, including Asia-Pacific diaspora in 
>Australia. Doctoral candidates should have 
>completed at least the equivalent of 2 semesters 
>full-time of their PhD program.
>What is involved in participating in the Workshop?
>Successful applicants will come to Wollongong 
>from the 24 September to the 26 September 2006. 
>They will present a brief paper based on their 
>research with the aim of turning that 
>presentation into a publication in an edited 
>collection or proceedings. The presentation should:
>* Provide a clear statement of the research 
>question or issue under investigation,
>* The methodology employed, and
>* A discussion of findings and conclusions of the paper
>Unlike a typical academic conference, this 
>workshop aims to provide each presenter with the 
>opportunity to discuss his or her research in 
>depth. For this reason, all participants should 
>submit a 4000-word paper for pre-circulation to 
>other Workshop participants by 1 September 2005. 
>Guidelines on the preparation of this paper will 
>be sent to successful applicants.
>Funding:
>Applicants should in first instance seek funding 
>from their home institution. However, a limited 
>number of partial and full bursaries will also 
>be awarded. Applicants should indicate in their 
>travel budget whether they have applied for 
>funding from their home institution. Offers of 
>places in the workshop will be made by 14 July.
>How do I apply to attend the workshop?
>Please email your application containing the 
>following items to Mark McLelland 
>(markmc at uow.edu.au <mailto:markmc at uow.edu.au>):
>* Curriculum Vitae (1 page maximum)
>* Abstract (500 words maximum)
>* Travel budget
>* Letter of recommendation from your supervisor. 
>Doctoral students should arrange for their 
>Thesis Supervisor to send a brief reference 
>about the relevance of this workshop to the 
>student’s research topic and the benefits that 
>they believe the applicant will gain from 
>attending. Early-career researchers should 
>arrange for a letter of reference from their 
>current head of department or academic 
>supervisor. The letter should also indicate the 
>level of financial support that the university 
>can offer to the attendee in case full travel 
>and accommodation assistance cannot be provided by the workshop organisers.
>The letter of application should also contain 
>your name, full contact details, and in the case 
>of doctoral students, their PhD enrolment 
>details: i.e. institution, faculty and student number.
>E-Mail your application to:-
>markmc at uow.edu.au <mailto:markmc at uow.edu.au> 
>(Subject: Asia-Pacific Internet Workshop)
>**CLOSING DATE for applications and referee's 
>reports: 5pm, Friday 30 June 2006.