CNM Graduate Conference (gCON) 2020

Disruption has been a recurring theme in contemporary times. Globalization has disrupted the way goods and services are produced. Social media platforms have disrupted patterns of communication. Artificial intelligence has disrupted jobs and livelihoods. The latest disruption comes in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has accelerated some of these earlier disruptions and brought about its own disruptions on an unprecedented scale in some instances, such as mass lockdowns.

In light of these phenomena, gCON 2020 addresses the theme of disruption, exploring how disruptions influence and shape future understanding of media, technology, and society. We seek fresh ideas and perspectives on identifying key issues and challenges brought about by disruption, and how society should respond and address these issues.

OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

1.Tien Ee Dominic Yeo, Keynote Speech: 10:10 – 11:10

Tien Ee Dominic Yeo is a tenured associate professor at the Department of Communication Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University. Born and raised in Singapore, Dr Yeo obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge and is an alumnus of NUS where he was among the first batch of undergraduate students to graduate from the CNM (then known as ICM) department as well as the university scholars programme. Dr. Yeo’s research primarily examines communication practices and sociocultural phenomena around sexuality, health, and technology, particularly among sexual minorities and youth. He was awarded two competitive research grants from Hong Kong's Research Grants Council (RGC), under the General Research Fund (GRF) and Early Career Scheme (ECS) respectively, to investigate young people’s use of social media and the implications for their wellbeing. His work has been published in flagship and leading communication journals such as Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, and Mobile Media & Communication.

2. Sharon CHANG, Keynote Speech: 2:00 – 3:00

Dr. Sharon Chang is concurrently the Research Director of the Culture Academy, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, as well as the Chief Research Officer of the National Arts Council in Singapore. Her teams conduct studies on social capital, time use, social attitudes, population surveys on arts and cultural engagement as well as arts and cultural manpower in Singapore. Sharon is as an economist who has research experience in productivity measurement and growth, industry development, choice experiments and the non-market valuation of cultural resources. Besides these, her current research interests include the measurement of the impact of community arts, arts education, cultural tourism, wellbeing as well as social capital. Sharon has degrees in Economics from the National University of Singapore, the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Queensland in Australia. She has published in peer-reviewed journals such as the International Journal of Cultural Policy, Journal of Cultural Economics, International Journal of Hospitality Management as well as Tourism Analysis.