This report summarizes NACDI's Cultural Diplomacy as Critical Practice (2020), the first in a series of three research summits as part of the SSHRC-funded The Cultural Relations Approach to Diplomacy research project.
The report is available to download in English, French, or Spanish.
NACDI's first research summit, Cultural Diplomacy as Critical Practice, responded to increasing calls for analyses of cultural diplomacy informed by the methodologies and approaches of the cultural disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. These specialities have yet to carve out a place for themselves in a cultural diplomacy field dominated by political science, international relations, and diplomatic studies. Bringing together academics and practitioners from both sides of the culture : diplomacy divide, we asked: how do we understand diplomacy as a critical practice? What lessons from the past and present can inform the future? In short, this research summit asked participants to consider how a cultural relations approach to diplomacy opens new avenues to the theoretical and empirical study of diplomacy, and in so doing address wicked problems of the times—cultural conflict, climate change, the biopolitical challenges of global pandemics. Ultimately, we hope these discussions empower those seeking to imagine counterhegemonic possibilities and more egalitarian and inclusive futures.
The virtual summit was jointly hosted by Queen's University and the Royal Ontario Museum with the support of the Centre for Public Diplomacy at University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
