Successful Hosting of the MeCCSA-PGN 2022 Conference at King’s College London

The 2022 MeCCSA-PGN Conference hosted by King’s College London has just ended. Themed “Mediating Gendered Identities: Articulations, Representations & Contestations,” it took place on 21-22 July in a hybrid format. For PGRs who made it to London, it was an opportunity for us to meet, discuss ideas, and share our research in-person since 2019. If you remember, the 2020 conference hosted by the University of Brighton was shifted to 2021 (thanks to Covid) and that conference was fully virtual.

So having the chance to meet in-person this year was indeed refreshing. There is always something magical about having a close-knit conference in-person, and we did feel the magic. But since the 2022 conference was hybrid, there were others who joined us virtually, and we did our best to make them feel included in the proceedings.

For the conference, we had six panels, featuring presentations by PGRs from the UK and beyond. At the start on Day 1, we faced issues with locating the room venue in the maze that is King’s College London, and there were quite a few people who lost their way. Thankfully, there were helpful security officials on hand to help. The conference began with the keynote address by Dr Ysabel Gerrard of the University of Sheffield, and we were grateful to have had her. Following this were nine presentations organised into three panels. And Day 1 ended with a meze and drinks reception. The conference programme can be found here.

Things got to a quick start on Day 2, which featured the remaining nine presentations in Panels 4, 5, and 6. After the presentations, we held the MeCCSA-PGN Annual General Meeting. Here, Rukhsar Hussain, the PGN Vice-Chair, chaired proceedings, outlined the achievements of the PGN in the past year, announced the new Associate Editor, and introduced the host of next year’s conference – Staffordshire University. You can find real-time Twitter updates on the conference here: https://twitter.com/MeCCSAPGN

We thank the organising committee of the conference at King’s for all their hardwork. They included Taylor Annabell, Sophia Sakellaridis-Mangoura, Robyn Shooter, and Caroline Gleason-Mercier. PGN Committee members who attended the conference included Vincent Obia (Lead Communication Officer), Rukhsar Hussain (Vice Chair), and Carolyne Lunga (Associate Editor). Sharon Zheng, the PGN Chair, attended virtually as she had sadly contracted Covid.

Overall, the conference was a splendid success. It proved why the PGN remains relevant as a community that facilitates peer support and network among postgraduate students in media, communication, and cultural studies from different intellectual traditions and cultural backgrounds. We have demonstrated this objective at the 2022 conference. We hope to continue replicating same in the years ahead.

See you next year! More pictures below.