Prof. Lim Song Hwee has been invited to act as a member of the steering committee of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK)-funded International Research Network on “Soft Power, Cinema and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). The network will investigate the relationship between non-state actors in the cultural industries of the BRICS countries and national ‘soft power’ strategies, by focusing on the nature and function of the film industry. One of its key objectives is to bring culture, and specifically film, to the centre of discussions on soft power, by focusing on big-screen narratives, and their on-and off-screen stories, with a view to analysing the extent to which film industries are being harnessed in the exercise of cultural diplomacy and the generation of soft power, and to what ends.

More information of the network can be found at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/news/article/4323/new_soft_power_and_film_network_to_launch_at_leeds.