Attending delegates pose for a photo. [people.com.cn]

A China-Canada academic forum on gender communications and social development was officially launched at the Communications University of China, in Beijing on July 3. A joint summer school will be held as an offshoot, which will center on media policies, business and practice in the digital age.

The launching ceremony was presided over by Professional Liu Liqun, the Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) of the Communications University of China.

Participants will hold intensive discussions on a series of topics, including the theoretical implications of gender equality in a changing social situation, the complex relations between gender concepts and the meaning of class and other issues involving women.

The forum, jointly sponsored by the Communications University of China, the Simon Fraser University of Canada, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has attracted 26 universities from six countries, including China, US and Canada, and more than 70 professionals from research centers around the world.

With a combination of international perspective and domestic conditions, the forum will explore important topics related to gender issues in media communications, and emphasize emerging phenomena involving women's concerns so as to be able to understand comprehensively the relationship between media communications and gender issues.

The annual summer schools are defined as a platform for studies and exchanges in the field of international media communications, following charitable, academic and exploratory principles.

Leaders from the National Centre for Radio and Television Studies, the Communications University of China, Communications and Media Research Institute, the University of Westminster, the School of Journalism and Communications, Chinese University of Hong Kong, the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University and the Women's Studies Institute of China under the All-China Women's Federation's (ACWF) attended the launch ceremony.

(Source: people.com.cn / Translated by womenofchina.cn)