Ibrahim Akbas from China!

 Hello everyone! 


I am Ibrahim Akbas from China Studies. I do conduct my PhD research on Chinese public diplomacy in the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC). As China rises in world politics, understanding how China talks with foreign audiences has become crucially important. I analyze China’s public diplomacy discourse on Islam and Muslims; and try to find out answers to how Muslim audiences interpret China’s messages. Today, diplomatic communication is a two-way road. Thus, perceptions of the foreign audiences are as important as the way a state talks to foreign publics.

Learning the unlearned through studying abroad has always been my great enthusiasm. During my bachelor years, I was an exchange student in Lomonosov Moscow State University. After graduating from International Relations in Ankara University, I started to Eurasian Studies MSc program in the Middle East Technical University (METU), as Eurasian politics was my main academic interest at those times. However, determining intellectual interests may take time. After a 1-year study at METU, I decided to continue my graduate studies in International Relations MSc in TOBB University of Economics and Technology (TOBB ETU). While holding a full-scholarship in TOBB ETU, I published my first journal article in Perceptions which is titled as “A “Cool’’ Approach to Japanese Foreign Policy: Linking Anime to International Relations.” Apparently, my scientific curiosity has shifted to East Asia. Then, I have started my PhD journey in the UNNC as a scholarship student of the Ministry of National Education of Turkey.

It is very tragic that COVID19 pandemic has taken many things from our lives. Many people lost their lives during this ongoing outbreak. It affected my academic life, as well. China closed its borders to overseas students while I am in Turkey for the winter break. Borders are still closed and I continue my education remotely. Being far from the university environment is sometimes compelling, because the university feeds the researchers in many ways as PhD students utilize them both physically and intellectually. However, this is a global disaster and as individuals we have to follow the instructions which aim to ensure the health and wellbeing of the global society. Therefore, I do my best to continue my education.

My main field of study is Chinese public diplomacy. As China goes global, Chinese government expanded investments on its international media. Now, China Global Television Network (CGTN) broadcasts in many languages around the world. In addition, it has a YouTube channel with around 2.5 million followers. Because YouTube is banned in China, this channel directly aims to communicate with foreign audiences. Hence, I conduct a discourse analysis by using videos which have “Islam” and/or “Muslim” keywords in their titles. Then, I aim to learn what Muslim students in China think about China’s messages. I believe that I will manage to make a contribution to the public diplomacy literature with my research.  

I feel quite excited for my future academic career in the Social Sciences University of Ankara.

With thanks and best wishes,

Ibrahim Akbas


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ahmed Çağrı İnan from Malaysia

Image
Hello everyone from Malaysia, the homeland of Harimau (Malayan Tiger), with this first post! In addition to being a symbol of courage and strength for Malaysians, Harimau is constantly visible in Malaysian daily life through various emblems. For example, you can see Harimau in the symbol of Proton, Malaysia’s first national automobile company, in the logo of Maybank, one of Malaysia’s important corporate banks, and in the coat of arms of the Royal Malaysian Police. In a way, this post  includes the postgraduate education part of the personal history of Ahmed Çağrı Inan, a PhD student who tried to understand Malaysia first and then explain what he understood from his perspective. The underlying reason for defining my writing is that I am a history student and I need to consider the length of my post so that reading becomes an equally enjoyable activity for the reader. For this reason, I designed the post as two separate sections that complement each other. The first part includes the pe
Read more

Tufan Kutay Boran from Indonesia!

Image
Greetings from Yogyakarta / Indonesia,   I am Tufan Kutay Boran. I completed my undergraduate degree in International Relations at Gazi University and my master's degree in International Relations at Selcuk University. At the moment, I am conducting my Ph.D. studies at Universitas Gadjah Mada in the department of government and politics since September/2019. My research is about the role of Islamic political parties and interest groups in Indonesian foreign policy after the Reformasi (Reformation). In this context, as a person who comes from geography almost completely foreign to the region, I will try to convey to you the experiences I have lived for 2 years in Indonesia. Frankly, although I was worried that no scholarship student had come to Indonesia before me, I was also excited to be the first student to study the region. After I figured out that I was awarded the Indonesian scholarship program, the first thing I did was searching for doctoral programs here. In this con
Read more

Gizem Bütün from Indonesia

Image
         Hi everyone, from Bandung, Indonesia!  I am Gizem Bütün, I obtained my B.A in International relations from Gazi University with an honors degree. Due to my high GPA during my bachelor, I also was accepted and completed minor degree in economy in Gazi University as well. First and foremost,   I would like to express my deepest gratitude to The Republic of   Turkey Ministry of National Education (Directorate General for Higher Overseas Education ) for providing scholarship that led the opportunity to improve my academic education. In addition, I would like to thank Ankara Social Sciences University-Regional Studies Institute for the blog platform to share our experiences in abroad. Before moving to Indonesia I lived in USA   for six months and completed Academic Language Course provided by YLSY scholarship   in The University of Alabama in August 2019. At present, I have been living in Indonesia for two years and, I freshly graduated from master program in the department of
Read more