Professor Natalia Chaban has won the Royal Society Te Apārangi Mason Durie Medal for her research on perceptions in international relations and public diplomacy.
Photo caption: Professor Natalia Chaban was presented the Royal Society Te Apārangi Mason Durie Medal.
Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury (UC) Professor Chaban is an internationally-recognised expert on political communication and perceptions in international relations and public diplomacy, and was presented the Mason Durie Medal for her innovative research, most recently about the war against Ukraine.
Originally from Ukraine, Professor Chaban began her academic career by researching external images and perceptions of a newly independent Ukraine in the early 1990s.
She researched Ukraine since its independence and has become an influential global commentator on how the war has impacted communication, expectations and attitudes internationally.
Her later research features various themes in the field of international political communication and public diplomacy, and, most prominently, the European Union.
“I have continued to study international images and perceptions of Ukraine over the decades, including from the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine since 2014 and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine since 2022,” Professor Chaban says.
For over two decades her research has united scholars, diplomats, and students from around the world into collaborative research networks informing policymaking. Professor Chaban is a founding expert in studying global perceptions of the European Union. Through this work, she challenges Eurocentric understandings of European Union foreign policy.
Professor Chaban’s research focuses on cognitive and semiotic aspects of political and media discourses, image and perceptions studies within the European Union and international relations contexts, and public diplomacy and political communication.
Professor Chaban is a founder and director of UC’s Public Diplomacy and Political Communication Forum research platform where she leads research and initiates diplomacy collaborations with scholars, diplomats and external relations experts from New Zealand and internationally.
Professor Chaban says that information is more important than knowledge – this idea, which she credits to Albert Einstein, has captured her research interest.
“How do images and perceptions of ‘Others’ – peoples, nations and countries – impact how we map the world in our mind and [impact] what course of actions we undertake towards our international partners and rivals?
“How do these mental images frame our expectations and attitudes vis-à-vis those actions, especially when we face war and peace in international politics?”
Reflecting on receiving the award, Professor Chaban says her words of appreciation “go first to the brave country of Ukraine and its people”.
Professor Chaban expressed gratitude to her husband and daughter for their support and humour, her New Zealand family for their curiosity about the world, her parents for their example as dedicated educators, and her sister for unwavering support.
She also thanked her PhD supervisor, Professor Svitlana Zhabotynska, for mentorship and encouragement, along with her collaborators in New Zealand and abroad for their inspiring passion, expertise, and optimism in research.
