BU Research Blog

Dr. Alina Dolea, who has joined BU’s Faculty of Media and Communication in September 2017, has been elected Chair of the Public Diplomacy Interest Group within the International Communication Association (ICA). ICA is the premier international academic association for scholars in communication research, gathering more than 4,500 members from 80 countries.

Alina is a founding member of the Interest Group established officially in 2016, following a collective effort of raising signatures that she co-ordinated as a volunteer. The Group has grown fast to over 100 members worldwide and brings together scholars investigating topics related to public diplomacy, nation branding, country image and reputation, public relations for and of nations, as well as political, global and cultural communication influencing international relations.

For the ICA annual conference 2018, Alina has coordinated, as the Vice-Chair elect, the submission process and planned the program that included a State of the art panel in Public Diplomacy with top scholars in the field. In addition, she organized a doctoral and postdoctoral pre-conference (“Emerging Research and Trends in Public Diplomacy and Nation Branding”) together with Diana Ingenhoff (University of Fribourg), James Pamment (Lund University), Rhonda Zaharna (American University), Jay Wang (USC Center on Public Diplomacy) and Steve Pike (Syracuse University). 12 papers out of 33 submissions were selected to be presented and discussed in a forum with established scholars from the field serving as mentors and giving feedback to each participant. The conference was sponsored by The Center on Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California & Rhonda Zaharna, Syracuse University and Lund University. It was a great success and brought new insights for both PhD students and established scholars.