Event
This virtual, international two-day symposium will examine narratives of COVID-19 in China and the world, considering topics like technology, society, and nations. This event is co-sponsored by Center on Digital Culture and Society
Click here to register for the event.
March 19
8:30am – 8:45am EST
Welcome + Opening Remarks
- John L. Jackson, Jr., Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
- Guobin Yang, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
8:45am – 9:45am EST
Digital Work and Infrastructures during COVID-19
- "Locked Down but Not Locked Out: DingTalk and Digital Workplace Surveillance in Times of COVID-19" — Yizhou Xu, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- "Desperately Seeking the Public: COVID-19 Tracing Apps as the Digital Infrastructures in China and the U.S." — Elaine Yuan, University of Illinois at Chicago
- Moderator: Julia Ticona, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
- Discussants: Jack Qiu, National University of Singapore; Julia Ticona, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
10:00am – 11:00am EST
China – Africa: Connections and Conflicts
- "What Motivates the Sharing of Misinformation about China and Covid-19? A Study of Kenya, Nigeria, and the USA" — Herman Wasserman, University of Cape Town; Dani Madrid-Morales, University of Houston
- "Racializing the Pandemic: Chinese Debates over African Evictions in Guangzhou" — Maria Repnikova, Georgia State University
- Moderator: Amy Gadsden, University of Pennsylvania
- Discussants: Amy Gadsden, University of Pensylvania; Silvia Lindtner, University of Michigan
11:10am – 12:20pm EST
Racism against Chinese Students and Asian Americans
- "Cosmopolitan Imperative or Nationalist Sentiments: Mediated Experiences of Covid-19 Pandemic among Chinese Overseas Students" — Bingchun Meng and Zifeng Chen, London School of Economics; Jingyi Wang, University of Cambridge
- "Freedom and Pandemic in the Eyes of Chinese Students in the U.S." — Yingyi Ma, Syracuse University
- Moderator: Scott Moore, University of Pennsylvania
- Discussants: Scott Moore, University of Pennsylvania; Hongmei Li, Miami University
1:30pm – 2:30pm EST
Voice and the Platformization of Truth
- "Fact-Checking the Crisis: COVID-19, Infodemics, and the Platformization of Truth" — Kelley Cotter, Julia R. DeCook, and Shaheen Kanthawala, Arizona State University
- "How TikTok Functions as the Voice of Young People in the Times of COVID-19" — Daniel Klug, Carnegie Mellon University
- Moderator: Yue Hou, University of Pennsylvania
- Discussants: Lisa Keranen, University of Colorado, Boulder; Yue Hou, University of Pennsylvania
March 20
8:30 am – 10:00am EST
Politics of Sharing, Connection, and Mourning on Social Media
- "Visible Mourning on the Wailing Wall of the Internet in China" — Cao Xun, Soochow University; Runxi Zeng, Chongqing University
- “The Politics and Politicization of a Global Pandemic: How Public and Private Sharing of Narratives on COVID-19 Were Managed on WeChat” — Lotus Ruan, Masashi Crete-Ni Wesley, Jakub Dalek, and Nicola Lawford, University of Toronto
- "Cultivating Safe Connections: Narratives and Practices of Access Collaboration in a Time of Distance" — Zihao Lin, University of Chicago
- Moderator: Benson Zhou, University of Pennsylvania
- Discussants: Ruoyun Bai, University of Toronto; Fen Lin, City University of Hong Kong; Benson Zhou, University of Pennsylvania
10:10am – 11:10am EST
Nations and Nationalism during COVID-19
- "Unpacking the 'K-quarantine': Biopolitical Nationalism and Narratives of 'Quarantine State' in the Era of Global Pandemic" — Ji-Hyun Ahn, University of Washington Tacoma
- "Rewriting China’s Narrative of COVID-19 through Twitter Diplomacy" — Wendy Leutert and Nicholas Atkinson, Indiana University
- Moderator: Jacques deLisle, University of Pennsylvania
- Discussants: Jacques deLisle, University of Pennsylvania; Soomin Seo, Temple University
11:20am EST
Concluding Remarks and Future Publication Plan
- Catherine Cocks, Editor-in-Chief, Michigan State University Press
- Stephen Hartnett, University of Colorado, Boulder; Editor, Book Series on US-China Relations in the Age of Globalization, Michigan State University Press
- Guobin Yang, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania