The Annual UT-SNU-NCCU Symposium was held online on October 29th, co-hosted by three universities: the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies at the University of Tokyo (UTokyo), the Department of Communication at Seoul National University (SNU), and The College of Communication at National Chengchi University (NCCU). As suggested in its title, “Beyond Boundaries: Communication for diverse and multiple communities,” this year’s symposium provided us with invaluable opportunities to re-contemplate numerous changes in the ways of fostering communications and relationships, the implications of places and borders, and the ways of cultivating communities and solidarities across various boundaries, especially under the prolonged influence of the Covid-19 pandemic over the recent few years. Especially, the symposium took place at a venue on the metaverse platform, “Gather,” which increased chances to discuss research outcomes more freely, as well as to have casual conversations to get to know more people. More than 50 people joined the symposium to share their research outcomes and insights, including 11 student presenters and 3 faculty members from the GSII/III at the University of Tokyo.

This year’s symposium was composed of one poster session and four oral-presentation sessions. The poster session was introduced for the first time since we had shifted our venue online and allowed us to move around more freely to see posters and have discussions with many presenters. In the meantime, four oral presentation sessions were organized under the following titles: “Critical Communication and Cultural Studies,” “Computational Methods,” “Media, Technology, and Society,” and “Intercultural and International Communication.” Among a wide range of topics covered by presentations, one noticeable thread of presentations explored upsurging technologies and relevant methodologies, such as big data, new mobile applications, self-driving cars, VR, and deep learning. In addition, multiple presentations investigated how crossing boundaries engendered new types of communication and relationships and re-formulated identities, experiences, and activities in both personal and communal terms; thereby, boundaries themselves were unsettled and re-demarcated. Lastly, there was a highly valuable and meaningful discussion in which presenters shared their experiences and ongoing tasks surrounding how they underwent and overcame challenges wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic during their research.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the participants who shared their insightful research and joined ardent discussions, along with the organizing team at the SNU who spared no time or effort to organize this year’s symposium. I also hope to see you all in Tokyo next year – this time in person.

Text: Minjoo Lee (Project assistant professor)
English proofreading: David Buist (Project senior specialist)

Comments from participants:

I was able to meet many students of different nationalities who were researching their own academic fields at the Annual UT-SNU-NCCU Symposium. We were all connected by the word “communication”. I was inspired and motivated by students’ beautiful presentations because they had various perspectives and research methods. I was able to learn about issues each country had, as well as recognizing problems shared by all countries. As suggested in the symposium title, “Beyond Boundaries: Communication for diverse and multiple communities,” I would like to continue the work of communicating beyond the boundaries between countries and research fields. Finally, participating in the Symposium this time was a very stimulating experience. Let me express my deepest appreciation to all the people who prepared such a valuable event.
Chihiro Sato, Master’s Student, Social-information and Communication Studies Course

At the 2022 UT-SNU-NCCU Symposium under the theme of media and communication, participants from three universities made presentations about a variety of topics in various research fields. It was very stimulating to not only give a presentation about my research in front of many students and professors at an international symposium but also to listen to presentations about topics outside of my own field by other participants. It was very thought provoking and led me to reconsider the approach to my research. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity to present my research at this symposium. Finally, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to those who helped make this symposium possible.
Riku Kuwahara, Doctoral Student, Social-information and Communication Studies Course

I am grateful to the symposium, our peers, and our organizers. It was not just a place for us to present our research, but more importantly it provided us with a space to raise arguments, exchange ideas, and confirm our identities as young researchers in the contemporary context. To me, knowledge is nurtured as a result of communication where we keep questioning, thinking, examining and imagining. After two and a half years since the declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, we have experienced a dramatic change in how we communicate, but what I see here is that such challenges have not disassociated us in anyway; it was great to see how we were able to achieve self-confirmation and respond to our shared reality at this time.
Yichen Yao, Doctoral Student, Cultural and Human Information Studies Course

With a handful of Halloween-themed Gather avatars voicing out ideas about transportation technologies, fan studies, and feminism in speculative fiction films – each in their own virtual corner – this year’s online symposium certainly reshaped my understanding of “boundaries.” As someone who has only been in a Master’s program for less than a month, the sheer passion and interest demonstrated by fellow students while presenting their research on the so-called “metaverse” podium was an intellectually inspiring experience.

The rigorous preparation leading up to presentation day allowed me to relax as I presented my research on queer spaces in Tokyo. For this, I would like to extend my gratitude to Professor David Buist, Professor Minjoo Lee, and the organizers at Seoul National University. I was grateful that the event went smoothly, and I am certain that other students would share the sentiment of having thoroughly enjoyed connecting with students and seniors from different disciplines across the three participating schools, albeit at breakneck speed. Overall, I look forward to participating in another symposium like this.
Alyssa Castillo YAP, Master’s Student, ITASIA Course

The 2022 SNU-UTokyo-NCCU Joint Symposium gave me an excellent platform to share my research with members across three different universities. Through this symposium, I learned about much interesting research that is happening at SNU and NCCU, but, more surprisingly, also about the research that is happening within my own university. I never got the opportunity to learn about this research, as we rarely have exchanges across various schools/departments. It was particularly interesting for me to discover the extraordinary range of research topics that could be discussed under the theme of “Beyond Boundaries: Communication for diverse and multiple communities”. It was very inspiring and encouraging to participate in this type of inter-university joint symposium and share our ideas with students and professors within and across the borders. An in-person symposium would have allowed us to spend more time getting to know the participants and their research interests better, but the Gather platform was so well organized and easy to navigate, which made the meta-experience quite remarkable and fun.
Priya Murugeswaran, Master’s Student, ITASIA course