Conferences/Workshops/Seminars
2022 International Workshop on 'Narratives in East Asia and Beyond: debating 'narrative's limits, prospects and linkages across disciplines' University of Duisburg, Essen Online, 14-15, 21-22 March
Public Roundtable "Strategic Narratives and IR: Narrating Great Power Politics" (featuring Lutgard Lams, Runya Qiaoan, Will Walldorf, Nele Noesselt)
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International Seminar on 'Politics in East Asia' Institute for Security and Development Policy, ISDP Stockholm, September 09-10 2021 
The ISDP Stockholm China Center hosted a two-day seminar on ‘Politics in East Asia Today’, bringing together European and East Asian scholars and experts who are distinguished figures in their respective fields. To better understand conflicting political, economic, and diplomatic realities, ISDP provided a platform for valuable discussion and exchange. Prof. L. Lams presented a talk on "Tracing strategic narratives in contemporary Chinese leadership's speeches" ************International IPrA conference panel on 'Meaning Generation in Chinese Official Media Discourse' (convened by L. Lams/Zhang Rui) 17th International International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) Conference (online) Winterthur, June 27-July 2, 2021 Special theme: The Pragmatics of Inclusion This panel 'Meaning Generation in Chinese Official Media Discourse' offered a platform for an exchange of ideas about explorations into various phenomena concerning the pragmatics of meaning generation in Chinese official media discourse. The panel comprised three sessions with a total of 10 contributions. While session 1 dealt with media narratives about conflict and dispute, session 2 consisted of presentations about meaning generation in official press releases/conferences. Session 3 gathered papers about media narratives on public health emergencies. These were all empirically-grounded contributions that took linguistic analysis as the point of departure but adopted different analytical lenses, either from a culture-specific perspective or a cross-cultural one. https://pragmatics.international/general/custom.asp?page=Winterthur2021
************ International IPA Conference Panel on ‘Discourse as an Interface in the Study of Interactions between China and the World: Foreign Policy, Narratives, and Diplomacy' BCCDS Cooperative Panel in the 13th Interpretive Policy Analysis Conference June 28 -July 2, 2021 (Online)
In this panel, PhD Cand. Steven Langendonk (KU Leuven) and Prof. Lutgard Lams (KU Leuven) gave a presentation on "Doing things with narrative in the study of China in the world: promises and pitfalls". Drawing on the seminal work by Austin 'Doing things with words' for the title of their presentation, Steven and Lutgard looked into the promises and pitfalls of the 'narrative turn' in the IR discipline. The panel name was inspired by and revisited the theme of the first BCCDS conference at the Royal Flemish Academy in Brussels in 2010. 2020
International BCCDS Workshop on 'Discourse in and about China'
December 11, 2020, 14:00-16:30 hrs, online
The 11 December 2020 international
workshop, which was to gather the institutional partners and individual
scholarly contributors in Brussels, was transformed into a virtual webinar, in
which the participants engaged in an exchange of thoughts about their current
research in the domain of 'Discourse in and about China'.
Discourse ‘in’ China was covered in a presentation by
Ying Xu, PhD Candidate and Prof. Lutgard Lams (KU Leuven, Belgium)
on how Chinese media narratives portray the 2018 Sino-US trade
conflict, and how presuppositions greatly contribute to implicit meaning
making. The second contribution to this angle of
‘discourse in China’ was brought by Prof. Qing Cao (Durham University, UK), who shared his fascinating latest insights on how political terms in modern China were translated from Western concepts.
The studies on discourse ‘about’ China were presented by
Damien Ng (Julius Baer Bank, Zurich), who explored the portrayal
of the 2010 trade dispute between China and its major trading partners
in Western Newsmagazines’ headlines. His insights were very much echoed
in the study by
Prof. Shasha Wang (Bangor University, Bangor, UK), who outlined the images of China through the lens of British TV documentaries.
Although
the meeting was originally planned for two hours, the lively exchange
among this core group of researchers, sharing similar interests, went
on for four hours and we still had the feeling so many aspects were
still waiting for further discussion. This enthusiastic scholarly
discussion led to the idea that the ‘to-be-continued’ panel discussion
could become a full-fledged public BCCDS event in Brussels, November 2021. This eventually was organised as a hybrid event, because of travel restrictions from the UK. But dr. Damien Ng gave an in-situ presentation to the Brussels public and the students of the MA in Journalism. ************
BCCDS
co-organizes the 17th International European Association of
Taiwan Studies (EATS) Conference in cooperation with EASt (ULB) Brussels, 2020
'Narrating Taiwan: Re-imagining, re-writing, and re-connecting Taiwan'
- Venue: ULB, Brussels
- Date: 6-8 April 2020
*UNFORTUNATELY, THE EVENT WAS CANCELLED BECAUSE OF CORONA-VIRUS HEALTH MEASURES Follow the news on: https://www.eats-taiwan.eu/conference/eats-2020-conference
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2014: BCCDS International Seminar 'Totalitarian/Authoritarian Discourse Across Time and Space'
Venue: Berlaymont building (EU Commission), Salle Cinéma, Wetstraat/ Rue de la Loi, 200, 1000 Brussels Date: November 13, 2014, 16:30-18:30 pm Guest speakers: Rüta Petrauskaité, Ko Ko Thett, Lutgard Lams At this seminar, three contributors to the book “Totalitarian/authoritarian discourses; a global and timeless phenomenon?", edited by Lutgard Lams, Geert Crauwels, and Henrieta Serban presented their views on totalitarian/authoritarian discourse in China, Myanmar, and the former Soviet Union, addressing the following questions. What are the common characteristics and main functions of the totalitarian/authoritarian discourse? In what form does totalitarian/authoritarian discourse survive after democratization and to what extent can it impede democratization? Why is deciphering discourse important for policy-makers? The authors discussed how totalitarian/authoritarian discourse contains an explicit emphasis on the Party's or Leader's monopoly on truth and aims at creating a collective identity directed towards a common enemy.
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BCCDS Outreach Lectures (Selection of lectures given by L. Lams)2021: Zurich Taiwan Lecture Series 2021 (Online)
organized by Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich
Date: May 20, 2021, 10:15-11:45 am (CEST)
'Framing Analysis of the 2016 Taiwan Presidential Election Campaign'
On 20 May 2021,
Lutgard Lams gave an (online) lecture at the
Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies of the Department of Chinese Studies, at
the University of Zurich. She focused on
framing strategies, used
by the main contenders in the 2016 Taiwan presidential campaign.
Besides outlining major campaign themes and observing how the candidates
frame the Self and the Other, the talk also pointed
out discursive complexities or ambiguities concerning cross-Strait
relations. Since presidential elections provide the perfect arena to
either disambiguate or obfuscate positions in this matter, she probed
into the use of certain terms and set phrases, such
as ‘1992 consensus’, ‘status-quo’ in the 2016 presidential campaign.
************* 2020: BCCDS Lecture 'Examining Strategic Narratives in Chinese Official Discourse under Xi Jinping' organized by Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation International Sinological Center Date: 25 Feb, 2020, 4 pm Venue: Charles University, Prague ********************** 2016: BCCDS Lecture Series in Taichung, Taiwan
'Sinicization and Taiwanization processes during Ma Ying-jeou’s first term in office' Date: March 24, 2016 Venue: Chung Hsing University, Graduate Institute of International Relations, Taichung, ROC (Taiwan)
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2016: BCCDS Lecture Series in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
'The interplay of language and ideology in political communication: case study: Taiwan 2016 Election Campaigning'
Date: April 11, 2016 Venue: National Sun Yat-sen University, Graduate Institute of Political Science, Kaohsiung, ROC (Taiwan)
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2013: BCCDS Lecture Series in Anhui, China'The Recent Developments of IP Protection in China'Prof. Frank Gotzen / Prof. Lutgard LamsIn
the second half of April, Frank Gotzen and Lutgard Lams were invited by
the School of Public Affairs at the University of Science &
Technology of China (USTC), Hefei (Anhui Province) to give a series of
lectures to the Ph.D. students of Public Affairs. Frank Gotzen also
visited the Chinese Intellectual Property Office, Anhui Branch
and discussed recent developments of IP protection in China with the
Director of the Office. Lutgard Lams met with the Head of the
International Office of USTC and the Vice-Dean of the USTC News Center
and Deputy-Director of USTC Center for Science Communication.
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Panel Discussions and Public Outreach (2011-2014)
2014
On 15 April 2014, in a panel discussion "Taiwan's Role and Commitment from Regional and Global Perspectives", organized by EIAS (European Institute for Asian Studies), Lutgard Lams discussed how the Taiwanese authorities have been striving to improve cross-Strait relations in order to reinforce Taiwan's position in the region, and to increase economic opportunities and cooperation both with the PR China and with its primary trading partners. She outlined continuities within the presidential discourse over the last few years and presented different ideological perspectives in the Taiwanese society about cross-strait rapprochement. A discussion followed about the Sunflower Movement (including student demonstrations in March 2014) and the government response.
2013 On 29 Nov 2013, the EU Parliament, DG External Policies, Policy Department organized a Policy hub to discuss discursive issues of unification, 'one China framework', national identity with respect to Taiwan and Hong Kong, in light of recent policy trends and theoretical models. Guest speakers were Lutgard Lams (KULeuven Campus Brussels) and David Huang (Academia Sinica, Taipei).
2012
On Feb 27, 2012, at the book launch of "European Perspectives on Taiwan" in Brussels, experts on Taiwan discussed issues and questions related to various perspectives from Europe on Taiwan. Four of these experts, Dr. Jens Damm, Prof. Dr. Paul Lim, Dr. Ann Heylen and Dr. Lutgard Lams presented an in-depth elaboration of their contributions to the book. . |
On Dec 19, 2011, Lutgard Lams presented a talk entitled ‘Taiwanization - A dynamic discursive process in the face of glocalization' during a conference at the European Parliament. Her presentation highlighted key discursive elements from the policy statements of two major Taiwanese 2012 Presidential candidates, President Ma Ying-jeou (KMT) and Dr. Tsai Ying-wen (DPP) to clarify their different options regarding Taiwan's future in the dynamic of the local democratization, the Cross-Strait relations, the regional integration in the Asia-Pacific region as well as of the globalization. The presentation happened at the occasion of the 28th Taiwan-European Conference: EU's development and contemporary Greater China. The participants included MEPs, diplomats in Brussels, IR scholars and experts from the EU and Asia. Image source: Central News Agency 2011On Nov 3, 2011, Lutgard Lams gave a talk to a group of Chinese MA and Ph.D. students on the application of Chinese Discourse Studies in IPR studies (Law School & Intellectual Property School, Jinan University, Guangzhou)
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International Conferences (2013-2014)
2014 International Conference in Brussels 'Mass Communication and EU-China relations" at the EU Committee of the Regions', Brussels.
 On April 3-4, 2014, The College of Europe organized an international conference 'Mass Communication and EU-China relations" at the EU Committee of the Regions', Brussels. Lutgard Lams presented a paper "China: economic magnet or rival? Framing of China in the Dutch- and French-language quality press in Belgium and the Netherlands".
2013 International Conferences in China
In the Fall Semester, two presentations concerning 'Communication and China' were given by Lutgard Lams at two consecutive conferences in China.
In September, she participated in the 2013 China Communication Forum and the First Central Asia Communication Forum in Urumqi. In the panel on "Media, Xinjiang, and Central Asia", chaired by prof. Moritz, Lutgard Lams gave a talk on the Belgian press representation of Xinjiang. Kevin Peters from Web International English discussed shifting traditions in Xinjiang and Milica Pesic from the Media Diversity Institute, London presented a speech on "professional Journalism and the Question of Ethnicity".
The second conference, the Fourth International Conference of Multicultural Discourses, was held from 24 to 26 October at the enchanting West Lake in Hangzhou (Institute of Discourse & Cultural Studies, Zhejiang University). Lutgard Lams shared her views on how the Chinese press frames the US and Japanese Other in sensitive times of diplomatic standoffs.
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Fellowship Cooperation (2011, 2016)
2011, 2016 Taiwan Research Fellowships
Lutgard Lams, Jan-April 2011 and 2016, at National Sun Yat-sen University, Graduate Institute of Political Science within the framework of Taiwan Fellowship Program, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan. In 2011, Lutgard Lams carried out fieldwork
on the discourses about ECFA. In 2016, she examined the Taiwanese
presidential election campaign discourse.
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2014
On 29 Nov 2013, the EU Parliament, DG External Policies, Policy Department organized a Policy hub to discuss discursive issues of unification, 'one China framework', national identity with respect to Taiwan and Hong Kong, in light of recent policy trends and theoretical models. Guest speakers were Lutgard Lams (KULeuven Campus Brussels) and David Huang (Academia Sinica, Taipei).
