Call for Proposals

Call for Proposals: IAMCR 2022 Beijing pre-conference: Communicating science for a better post-COVID world, Suzhou, 10 July 2022

Abstracts between 300 and 500 words IN ENGLISH are requested and should be submitted via the conference website at https://iamcr2022pre.scievent.com. The deadline for submitting proposals is 15 April 2022, at 23.59 UTC.

This pre-conference is organised by the School of Communication at Soochow University (Suzhou, China) in partnership with IAMCR Environment, Science and Risk Communication Working Group and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU, in Suzhou, China).

With the COVID-19 threats gradually fading worldwide, the pandemic has brought much for us to reflect regarding science, health, risk, and digital communication. On the one hand, the disaster highlights the importance of science and health communication in promoting preventive behaviors, vaccination, and fighting misinformation. Still, on the other hand, the public health crisis showcases how science and health communication are constrained in a world fraught with polarization, conspiracy theories, and different contextual situations. If we want to communicate science more effectively for a better post-COVID world, we must advance a compelling and dynamic research agenda to understand better how science and health communication scholarship is influenced by the social environment in which it is deeply embedded.

This one-day hybrid IAMCR pre-conference addresses a range of fundamental questions regarding science communication solutions to a polarized world. It welcomes proposals covering the following themes and topics: 

·Reconsidering public scientific literacy in a public health crisis

·Collectivism and its public health implications

·Identifying (and healing) social polarization for a post-COVID world

·Constructive communication with social media platforms

·Climate change mitigation with communication strategies

·Metaverse: A communication research bonanza and a new PR slogan

·Mobilizing science community for communication in the new era

·Public engagement in science, environmental, and health communication

·Exploring science communication as an organizational communication

·Misinformation, conspiracy, and infodemiology across cultures 

·Discovering new forms of collective movements amidst the pandemic

·Science, the environment, and health in popular culture

·Feminist and postcolonial issues regarding science, environment, and health 

·Smart technologies and their implications to everyday life 

·Social and political uses/constructions of science, health, and the environment 

·Science/environmental/digital/health journalism in the new era 

We invite submissions of proposals that fall into any of the above categories. Abstracts between 300 and 500 words IN ENGLISH are requested and should be submitted via the conference website at

https://iamcr2022pre.scievent.com. Please include the title, abstract, keywords, and all author information (title, affiliation, and email address). The deadline for submitting proposals is 15 April 2022, at 23:59 UTC.

The decision for acceptance will be made in mid-April. The author who submits the proposal will be informed of the decision via Email. We intend to publish a special issue in an English journal based on the selected papers from this pre-conference.

The conference will be in hybrid mode (in person for China-based participants and online for international participants), with locations in the XJTLU, Suzhou, China. Registration is free and can be made online on the conference website at https://iamcr2022pre.scievent.com or via WeChat (for China-based participants).  

Click here to download the Call for Proposals.pdf

suda IAMCR preconference CFP0327.pdf