GET THE MOST OUT OF AANZCA26 PERTH (and stand a chance to win travel support funding!)
AANZCA Queensland’s regional reps are hosting a free ‘getting the most of AANZCA26’ event open to all on Wednesday 10 June at 12 noon (AEST) online.
Featuring a Speed Pitch contest for ECR/HDR/MCRs, this exciting event includes a special keynote conversation with Communication Research and Practice Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor Jian Xu, who is the co-series editor of Asian Celebrity and Fandom Studies (Bloomsbury) and the Cambridge Elements series Digital Asia (Cambridge University Press).
Associate Professor Xu will share insights about how to use the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Communication Association Conference (and future conferences!) to turbocharge your research opportunities, including how to publish in journals, convert your PhD thesis into a book, and extend and deepen your professional networks.
This session will open with the finals of a two-minute Speed Pitch contest, open to all early-career, HDR, and mid-career researchers preparing to submit their abstracts for AANZCA26. To enter, please submit your written draft version of your proposed conference abstract for AANZCA26! Eight of the entries will be selected to go through to the Speed Pitch finals (where you’ll be asked to present live!) on 10 June.
Judges will award two x $300 AANZCA Travel Support bursaries to the pitches determined to be the most impactful and effective, as well as two x $200 bursaries for each of the two runners-up.
If you would like to enter the speed-pitch contest, please email your draft abstract to AANZCA QLD rep and event co-organiser, Dr Caryn Coatney, at Caryn.Coatney@unisq.edu.au by Wednesday 27 May.
Dr Samantha Vilkins (Queensland University of Technology) is also co-organising the event as an AANZCA Queensland rep.
Contest finalists will be notified by Friday 29 May, in advance of presenting their two-minute speed pitches at the “Making the Most of AANZCA26” online event on 10 June.
About The Keynote Speaker
Jian Xu is an Associate Professor in Communication in the School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University. He is Editor-in-Chief of Communication Research and Practice, published on behalf of the AANZCA. Jian is co-series editor of Asian Celebrity and Fandom Studies (Bloomsbury) and the Cambridge Elements series Digital Asia (Cambridge University Press). He convenes the Asian Media, Culture & Society Research Group at Deakin University. Jian researches Chinese digital media cultures and politics, wanghong studies and celebrity studies with critical approaches. He is the lead editor of The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Digital China (forthcoming), The Sage Handbook of Chinese Digital Media and Communication (2026), Internet Vulgarities in China (Routledge, 2026), Asian Celebrity Cultures in the Digital Age (Hong Kong University Press, 2025).
If you have an enquiry about this event, please do not hesitate to send an email to Dr Caryn Coatney at Caryn.Coatney@unisq.edu.au or phone 3470 4609.
More information is available at the Call for Papers section of the conference website.