The Asian Association of Social Psychology (AASP) is pleased to announce a Small Group Meeting on “Narratives of Identity: Bridging the Divides in a Multicultural World – an AASP-IALSP Task Force” from July 7-9, 2019 at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Kowloon. The meeting is co-hosted by the International Research Centre for the Advancement of Health Communication and the Department of English at HKPolyU, in collaboration with the International Association of Language and Social Psychology (IALSP). The Organizing Committee warmly welcomes early and mid-career scholars, as well as exceptional postgraduates to apply to attend the meeting.

AASP and IALSP have a long-standing Memorandum of Understanding to exchange symposia at one another’s conferences. The narratives of identity that are the subject of this Small Group Meeting are ones that can be mobilized to bridge divides between different groups– nations, ethnicities, religions, professions, generations, and genders – through improved communications. This meeting unites three streams of research, each designed to interweave and to produce international research collaborations that result in publications and conference presentations. The goal of the meeting is to develop a Task Force that will present their research findings to the International Communications Association (2020), the IALSP (2020), and AASP (2021). Participants will be expected to take advantage of the data, theory and inspiration provided by workshop leaders to develop new research projects and publishable research papers. Publications in a special issue of the Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Asian Journal of Social Psychology or other appropriate journals are an anticipated outcome of the meeting for participants.

1)  Prof Bernadette Watson & A/P Liz Jones: Bridging narrative divides in healthcare, between groups of health professionals and health consumers of different cultural backgrounds – articulating leadership and trialling interventions;

2)  Prof James Liu and Dr. Sammyh Khan: Bridging narrative divides in intergroup relations, between peoples and organizations embittered by historical memories of past conflict – by shifting identities and creating cosmopolitan narratives;

3)  Emeritus Prof Michael Harris Bond and Dr. Vivian Miu-Chi Lun: Bridging the divide in personal well-being across cultures – by conceptualizing the good life and understanding the process of achieving well-being across cultures;

Prof James Liu will share data he has collected from the Digital Influence survey (encompassing multiple waves with 20 to 40 countries, and thousands of participants, W1=20K, W2=16K) with participants (e.g. data on Satisfaction with Life and Social Representations of History). Other data sets may also be used. Participants will be expected to develop their own data-gathering after the workshop. There will also be opportunities for developing international collaborations based on shared research projects developed at the Small Group Meeting. These should centre around interventions based on meeting themes.

Submission

We expect a maximum of 25 participants. They should be early and mid-career researchers who have a strong interest in researching these topic areas. Applicants will be required to write a paragraph about why they wish to attend the workshop, describe their current research expertise and how they might contribute to the workshop, and include a two page CV. They should also indicate in numerical order (from 1-3) which of the topics they are most interested in and why. All submissions must be in English and should be emailed to aaspialspmeeting@gmail.com before Jan 15, 2019.

Meeting Theme

Narratives of Identity: Bridging the Divides in a Multi-Cultural World- an AASP- IALSP Task Force

Meeting Dates

July 7-9, 2019

Meeting Place

Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Scientific Program

The meeting will commence on July 7 at 9.30am and conclude at 5pm on July 9. A detailed program will be emailed to all participants prior to the meeting.

Registration Fee

  1. No registration fee is charged for this meeting. Accommodation will be provided by the meeting at no charge. Participants will be provided with free lunches for three days during July 7 – 9 (box lunch). There are tea breaks in the morning and afternoon during the meeting (a total of 6 tea breaks).
  2. Participants are required to pay their own transportation fees to and from Hong Kong, apply for visas, and cover meals not planned by the workshop.

Important Dates

Nov 15, 2018: First Announcement (Call for Papers), applications for places at the meeting open. Up to 25 places are open to participants.

Jan 15, 2019: Applications close, Academic Committee reviews applications

Jan 31, 2019: Acceptances to the meeting decided, invitations sent out to applicants.

Upon acceptance, each participant should formally commit to attending the small group meeting, or give up their place to the next candidate. Failure to show up after acceptance will be viewed very negatively by AASP & IALSP.

March 31, 2019: Second Announcement to accepted applicants providing details of the collaborative research and inviting participants to elaborate on their research proposals to be shared in advance of the meeting

July 7-9 in Hong Kong at HK Polytechnic University

Contact Us

Any questions should be emailed to aaspialspmeeting@gmail.com.