China Bangladesh Norway cooperation: Sinophobia or Germophobia?
Robert W. Vaagan and Oona Solberg attended a webinar on 15.April 2021 hosted by China – South Asia Center for Socio-Cultural Studies at North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Assistant Professor Dr. Harisur Rahman presented findings from the research project “Sinophobia or Germophobia? Media representations of China with regard to Covid-19 in Bangladesh.”
He and another of the 35 participants (Dr. Moiyen Zalal Chowdury) are both former master students in the 4-year NOMA programme 2008-12 financed by NORAD/SiO that Oslo University College (as Oslomet was then called) arranged in Bangladesh and Nepal.
The 2 discussants Prof. Vaagan and Senior lecturer Mark Busse, University of Auckland, concentrated on methodology and Critical Discourse Analysis and social anthropology/audience research, respectively.
This generated a good discussion with valuable contributions by Dr. Zhou Weiwei and Professor Guo Jianbin (both Yunnan), Dr. Moiyen Zalal Chowdury, moderator Dr. Bulbul Siddiqi and Chair Professor Tawfique Haque.
Dr. Harisur, Dr. Moiyen Zalal Chowdury and Prof. Vaagan also found time to reminisce about 2008-10 when they were NOMA students and attended the master course given by Prof. Vaagan in Kathmandu, Nepal in April 2009. Great for OsloMet to see that many of the former NOMA students have launched successful careers, several in academia and research. (By Robert Wallace Vaagan)
PHOTO: Fresh research on social media and COVID was presented on zoom