Following an invitation from the Rector of the University of Bordeaux Montaigne, Professor Ansgar Zerfass was a visiting professor at the ISIC Institut des Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication and the MICA (Médiations, Informations, Communication, Arts) research institute at the Université Bordeaux Montaign in France in June 2025.
The focus of the visit was the exchange with colleagues and doctoral students on the topic of organizational and corporate communications. For historical reasons, the field is framed differently in France in terms of perspective and methodology than in the German-speaking and Anglo-American academic discourse. This also has concrete implications for edcuation programs and knowledge transfer, which has so far suffered from a certain distance to the professional field in the neighboring country. As a result of the increasing relevance of strategic communication for business and society, this is currently changing.
Specific activities carried out by Professor Zerfass included a workshop on the conceptual foundations of strategic communication, cooperation talks with the editor of “Communication & Organization”, the only francophone academic journal in the field, as well as work on joint publications and research projects with Professor Aurelie Laborde, head of the MICA division “Communication Organisations et Société” and the Master's degree course "Communication des organisations: stratégie et conseil“.