Press Releases
HKBU conference draws renowned academics
to explore the narration of cold wars
The year 2021 marks the 30th anniversary of the end of the “Cold War”, a half-century of superpower rivalry that has predominately shaped the way we think about our world.
Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) will host a conference with the theme “Narrating Cold Wars” from 11 to 13 November to critically explore the ways in which cold wars have been narrated, what these narratives have left out, and how alternative possibilities may be imagined. The conference has been organised by the HKBU School of Communication and Film in collaboration with the Academy of Visual Arts and the Department of Government and International Studies.
The team behind the conference has put together interdisciplinary panels that address a range of issues, including transnational cultural production, soft power, humanitarian and ecological trauma, migration and exile, and Twitter diplomacy.
The three-day online conference will bring together around 70 speakers from across the globe, including five world-renowned keynote speakers, seven roundtable participants, a filmmaker, and more than 60 paper presenters.
Highlights of the programme are as follows:
Thursday, 11 November
Keynote speech: Issues in Cold War Historiography
- Professor Louis Menand, Professor in Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Filmmaker Lecture: The Shortest Speech
- Dr Naeem Mohaiemen, Associate Professor in Visual Arts, Columbia University
Keynote speech: Sadequain Naqvi – a ‘Pakistani Picasso’ for the Cold War
- Professor Caroline Jones, Professor in Art History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Roundtable: Plural Histories, New Imaginaries
- Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Professor in Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University
- Professor Caroline Jones, Professor in Art History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Friday, 12 November
Keynote speech: The Galaxy Empire
- Professor John Keane, Professor in Politics, University of Sydney
- Professor He Baogang, Professor in International Relations, Deakin University
Keynote speech: China at the Dawn of the Cold War: Between Class War and the New Internationalism
- Professor Rana Mitter, Professor in the History and Politics of Modern China, Oxford University
Roundtable: Cold War 2.0?
- Professor Kanti Bajpai, Professor in Asian Studies, National University of Singapore
- Mr Ian Johnson, former New York Times correspondent in China
- Dr Maria Repnikova, Assistant Professor in Global Communication, Georgia State University
Media representatives are cordially invited to register online to join the conference and cover the event. Please visit the official website of the conference for the full agenda and to register for the event: https://www.hkbu.online/narratingcoldwars/
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Media enquiries:
Ms Patricia Chan of the School of Communication and Film (Tel: 3411-7875 / 9722-7149, Email: patricia@hkbu.edu.hk)