Centre for Global Research to host 2020 Global Studies Consortium
Representatives from over 40 international universities will meet, providing a rare opportunity to connect with global researchers.
In early June 2017 an RMIT delegation from the Centre for Global Research, led by Associate Professor Paul Battersby and joined by Dr Lynne Li, Honorable Professor Guosheng Chen, and Dr Tommaso Durante, conducted a successful academic tour of Chinese universities, culminating in the 2017 Global Studies Consortium meeting.
In addition to meeting with academic peers and presenting to the Consortium, the team successfully bid to host a future instalment of the Global Studies Consortium.
The annual meeting brings together consortium members from around the world. The Consortium’s primary purposes are to promote and facilitate graduate teaching programs in global studies and to foster cooperation among them. The Consortium also oversees the publication of ‘global-e’, a global studies journal based at the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The annual Consortium meeting draws together representatives from about 40 universities of about 20 countries. 2020 will mark the 13th annual meeting, and will be RMIT’s second time hosting.
Consortium meetings comprise both a research-oriented conference on a specific theme and meetings covering GSC-specific issues and business, as well as social activities. This year’s conference theme was, “Asia to the Middle East: Asianization of Middle East with Economic Characteristics?”
The 2017 meeting included 14 plenary sessions, with the RMIT team presenting and/or chairing three sessions, including the prestigious opening plenary session:
Session 1: Opening Plenary
“Global Studies Status Report 2007 – 2017”: Trends Across the Regions”
Associate Professor Paul Battersby presented the cases in Australia. RMIT’s successful internship programs were highly regarded by the participants, particularly by the New Zealand participant.
Session 2: Interdisciplinarity as a Research Framework in Global Studies
Dr Tommaso Durante presented an effective reflection on the basis of the discussions held on multidisciplinarity, as the discussant for the panel.
Session 3: Global Learning and Global Language Studies
This session was proposed by the RMIT team, and chaired by Honorable Professor Guosheng Chen. Dr Lynne Li wound up the discussion as the discussant.
There was also the announcement of the hosts for the next three Consortium meetings:
The 11th Meeting of the Global Studies Consortium will be held in June 2018 at Moscow State University.
The 12th Meeting of the Global Studies Consortium will be held in June 2019 at Leipzig University, Germany.
The 13th Meeting of the Global Studies Consortium will be held in June 2020 at RMIT University.
Congratulations and thank you to the members of the RMIT delegation who not only gave their time to further nurture and develop RMIT’s ties with other universities, but who also represented RMIT so effectively, resulting in the successful bid for 2020.
The Centre for Global Research looks forward to welcoming the consortium delegates in June 2020.
Story: Rebecca Carroll-Bell