Our Founding Father, Jos Willems (1932-2017), passed away on Sunday, April 2.
Jos was a true European, visionary and long-term strategist. Without Jos’s inspiration and foresight we wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we have now: a large community with an academic legitimacy.
He was Founder, President and Secretary General of CERP Education (Confédération Européenne des Relations Publiques – Education) from 1989 till 1999. Later, in 2000, CERP became EUPRERA, where he continued as Secretary General from 2000 to 2002. He was Honorary Member of our association.
He also was founder and past Principal of HIBO (Hoger Instituut voor Bedrijfsopleiding), presently Artevelde University College in Ghent, Belgium, and founder of the MARPE Network.
The Jos Willems Award (currently our Master Award) was launched back in 1999 to honour Jos’s lifelong dedication to public relations education and research.
Many members and colleagues have been writing today with their reflections and memories of Jos and recalling his inspiring words to many audiences of scholars from across Europe. Those who met him once and those who were close friends, everybody has a positive memory.
His vitality and strategic thinking created and inspired our network and association, and he was able to see the fruits of his initiative.
The remembrance ceremony will be held on Tuesday, April 11, at 6.30 pm in Lochristi (near Ghent), Belgium (for more details on the ceremony, please ask to Jos.afscheid@gmail.com).
❁ Sadly missed but fondly remembered ❁

Call for Papers for Recherches en Communication journal, issue coordinated by Andrea Catellani and Axel Gryspeerdt (Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium).

The aim of the issue is to examine the relationship between collections owned by businesses and organizations in the broad sense (excluding organizations specifically dedicated to museum activity), on the one hand, and internal and external communication of these same organizations, on the other.

Many companies and organizations have taken the initiative to create heritage collections of art and frequently contemporary art, or to set up collections that evoke the history of their activities by putting them in a wider industrial or technological context. In addition to these initiatives, there is also the invitation of artists in residence who get in touch with the staff of companies and organizations, most of the time with a goal of mutual valorization. The objective is, each time, to identify models of visibility and staging of a heritage, but also of an organization. Case studies are therefore possible, but also comparative analyzes and attempts to generalize and identify more global trends.

Please send your proposals to andrea.catellani@uclouvain.be by March 31, 2017. More info

Four more weeks to apply for newly graduates with excellent theses that research problems within the PR field and that contribute to the development of the body of knowledge, assessed by the university of origin up to 13 months before the date of submission of the abstract to the jury.

The award, run by EUPRERA since 1995, honours and rewards Master theses (MSc, MA and MPhil) that make a significant professional/ practical or academic contribution to the field of Public Relations in Europe.

The winner of each of the two categories (Practical Impact Award /Theoretical Impact Award) will receive a certificate and they will also be invited to present their thesis at the EUPRERA 2017 Annual Congress in London – travel expenses and accommodation will be paid (up to € 500 each winner). Applications are possible until March 27, 2017. For more info. 

IPRA, the International Public Relations Association, is delighted to announce that the Golden World Awards for Excellence (GWA) 2017 is now open to receive entries. Entries are now open and close on May 15, 2017. If you complete your entry by March 27 you will benefit from the early-bird price. Enter the IPRA website at www.ipra.org to find a full description of the rules, an entry kit, the 30 categories, and a set of FAQs.

The annual IPRA Golden World Awards initiative, established in 1990, recognizes excellence in public relations practice worldwide in a variety of categories. Recipients of the award take particular pride in the recognition granted to their entry as meeting international standards of excellence in public relations. An overall IPRA Grand Prix for Excellence is presented each year to the entry judged as representing the highest standards that year. More info

The EUPRERA website has never previously been used to intervene in a political dispute. The BoD has, however, unanimously decided to circulate the petition launched by the research community Discourse Analysis titled “Academics Against Immigration Executive Order”.
We apologize for any cross-posting and for involving those who are not strictly academics, but may want to circulate this message among their academic contacts.
Currently, more than 42.000 academics and researchers from a variety of fields of study, backgrounds, and personal convictions, signed the petition against the Executive Order signed by the U.S. President Donald Trump proposing a 90-day suspension of visas and other immigration benefits to all nationals of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Somalia.
Those who have already signed urge the President to reconsider going forward with this Executive Order, strongly opposed on three grounds:

• It’s discriminatory
• It’s detrimental to the national interests of the United States
• It imposes undue burden on members of the academic community

These bans, as proposed, have consequences that reach beyond the scope of national security. The unethical and discriminatory treatment of law-abiding, hard-working, and well-integrated immigrants fundamentally contravenes the founding principles of the United States.
If you want to express your concern, please visit the petition webpage https://notoimmigrationban.com/. To add your name please send an email:

• from your academic email
• to send@NoToImmigrationBan.com
• subject in one line: name, award/distinction, title, affiliation – e.g. John Doe, (Physics 1999), Professor, Harvard University

Thank you and best regards,
EUPRERA Board of Directors

Check the full programme of the preconference on “Future directions of Strategic Communication: Towards the second decade of an emerging field” will take place on May 25, 2017, in San Diego, USA.

This pre-conference comprises more than 40 speakers and moderators from 5 continents selected through a competitive peer-review process. It is part of the official ICA 2017 conference program and continues a series of successful ICA preconferences on strategic communication. Scholars across the globe are invited to continue to build the strategic communication body of knowledge by taking part in this preconference. More info

USI Università della Svizzera italiana is pleased to present a new program, the Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) “Communications Management in a Complex Environment”.

The new compact program is specifically designed for thosemanagers operating in communication-intensive functions(corporate communication, marketing, human resources, compliance) but with limited time availability: the program starts on May 2017 with the SMU session and finishes at the end of September 2017 at USI, for a total of 4 weeks over 4 months, providing a privileged opportunity for cross-cultural exchange. Credits: 17 ECTS.

Location and dates:

• Singapore (May 29 – June 3, 2017)
• Los Angeles (July 18 – 28, 2017)
• Lugano (September 22 – 30, 2017)

Application deadline: April 15, 2017.

An overview of the program, brochure, detailed schedule, and course descriptions are available here.

“The European refugee crisis: organizational responses and communication strategies“. Editors: James Pamment (Lund U), Alina Dolea (Bucharest U), Diana Ingenhoff (Fribourg U).

Call for Papers

This special issue of the Journal of Communication Management seeks contributions that explore the contradictions emerging from an international actor’s urge to attract and the urge to repulse in conjunction with the refugee crisis. We are interested in studies that explore the relationship between public diplomacy, nation brands and the negative messaging targeted at migrants.

We particularly welcome in-depth analysis of the refugee crisis and the above mentioned related topics, and that explore new empirical and/or theoretical avenues for better understanding these issues. We also welcome studies that further a “communication management” perspective upon the topic, particularly if such insights can be of relevance to practitioner communities.

Manuscripts should be between 6000 and 8000 words length (see full author guidelines) and submitted via the journal’s website by February 28, 2017.

Our next congress will be hosted by the University of the Arts London, on October 12-14, 2017, on the theme “Public Relations and the Power of Creativity. Strategic opportunities, innovation and critical challenges”.
Authors who have successfully submitted and presented papers at the congress can enter the selection for two awards and two publishing possibilities with Emerald. All details in the Call for Papers.
Submit your abstract!
The congress programme also foresees opportunities for graduates and young researchers:

• Enter the competitions for the best Master Thesis and the best Doctoral Thesis
• Join the PhD Seminar, following the congress

Abstract submission until February 1, 2017

BledCom Program Committee invites you to the 24th International Public Relations Research Symposium on June 30 and July 1, 2017 in Bled, Slovenia.

The main topic of BledCom 2017 is »CSR in Hypermodern Times«, expressed in the following sub-themes: corporate social responsibility (CSR), CSR communication, inbound (behavioral) CSR and outbound (symbolic) CSR, CSR reporting, Spirituality, religion, and CSR, CSR in the digital world, CSR and mediatization, CSR and international migrations. Please note that as has been the norm, BledCom welcomes ALL papers that are relevant to public relations and communication management beyond papers that discuss the conference theme. Deadline for abstracts is February 1, 2017.

Special issue of Public Relations Review

The Program Committee will be guest editing a special issue of Public Relations Review based on the main topic. Papers presented at BledCom 2017 will be considered for publication in the special issue.

The Program Committee will also publish a special Book of Abstracts, which will be available online by the end of June 2017 and BledCom 2017 Proceedings (both with an ISBN number).

More info