The much-anticipated ICA (International Communication Association) post-conference ‘Strengthening Communications for Social Justice through Education and Research’ was held on the 25th of June 2024 at the St Lucia Campus of the University of Queensland (UQ). With the post-conference having been postponed in 2020 due to COVID-19, the staging of the ICA's 74th Annual Conference on Queensland’s Gold Coast presented an ideal time for an international community of scholars interested in Communication for Social Justice to gather with the intent to share conversations on Education and Research.
The conference included four key sessions ‘Social Justice Agenda’, ‘Social Justice Pedagogy’; ‘Social Justice Communication’, and ‘Social Justice Research’ with presentations spanning a broad geographic reach. Centre for Communication and Social Change (CfCSC) HDR candidate, Jodie Martire, and Affiliate, Dr Elena Block (UQ SCA Lecturer in Strategic Communication), were among the presenters.
An experienced publishing and communications professional, Jodie is also a Sessional Academic in UQ’s School of Communication and Arts, with a teaching role that focuses directly on Communication for Social Change courses. Aspects of teaching and pedagogy were the central focus of her presentation, “Teaching about/from Communications for Social Change: Human Exchange as a Counterweight to Digitised Worldviews”. According to Jodie, “Presenting on my tutoring work within the courses run by the CfCSC showed me how our teaching here is part of a strong global community teaching communication in order to create social justice.”
Principal Centre Associate and UQ Academic Associate Professor Pradip Thomas chaired the session on 'Social Justice Pedagogy', while Professor Silvio Waisboard, Professor Karin Wilkins, and Professor Cherian George chaired the other sessions. Also affiliated with the CfCSC is HDR candidate Minh Chanh Dang who played an important role in facilitation and worked with Associate Professor Thomas as key organisers of the conference.
Amongst the scholars in attendance were CfCSC staff and Affiliates including Centre Director Associate Professor Elske van de Fliert and CfCSC Affiliates Dr Lemi Baruh, and Dr Kylie Navuku.
