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Globalizing India's Soft Power: Opportunities and Challenges

Globalizing India's Soft Power: Opportunities and Challenges

Event End Date
Event Title
Globalizing India's Soft Power: Opportunities and Challenges
Event Details
<strong>CENTRE FOR MEDIA STUDIES SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES</strong> a talk by <strong>Prof. Daya Thussu</strong> (University of Westminster, London) on<strong> Globalizing India's Soft Power: Opportunities and Challenges</strong> DATE: <strong>18th August 2016</strong> Daya Thussu is Professor of International Communication and founder and Co-Director of India Media Centre and research advisor to the China Media Centre at the University of Westminster in London. A PhD in international relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University, he is author or editor of 18 books, his latest publication is Communicating India's Soft Power: Buddha to Bollywood (Sage India, 2016). Professor Thussu is the founder and Managing Editor of the Sage journal Global Media and Communication and Editor-in-Chief of the new Sage journal Global Media and China. In 2014, he was honoured with a 'Distinguished Scholar Award' by the International Studies Association.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.