*CFP* "USER-GENERATED CONTENT IN MODERN COMMUNICATION", INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH-TO-PRACTICE 2020 CONFERENCE

User-Generated Content in Modern Communication

The 1st International Research-to-Practical Conference

April 22-23, 2021

The Faculty of Journalism of Chelyabinsk State University, Russia

 

The Faculty of Journalism of Chelyabinsk State University announces the International Research-to-Practice Conference User-Generated Content in Modern Communication. The conference is dedicated to user-generated content (UGC), its major platforms (YouTube, Instagram, VK and others), users’ comments, amateur journalism and other forms of communication that emerge in a non-institutional communicative environment.

Main topics on the Research-to-Practical Conference

• Impact of UGC on professional journalism
• the user-generated content effect on principles, techniques, strategies and tactics of the professional news desks;

*CFP* "POSTCOLONIALISM, POSTCOMMUNISM AND POSTMODERNISM", 3RD INTERNATIONAL INTERDISCIPLINARY ONLINE CONFERENCE

In our postmodern world there are a lot of questions that should be re-considered and re-defined. What does it mean to fight against colonialism and racism in the world of migration crisis and xenophobic attitudes towards minorities? What does it mean to be a postcommunist country in the face of the common nostalgia for order and rules? How is it possible to have a national identity being aware of the relative character of every national feature?

We want to examine the notions of postcolonialism, postcommunism and postmodernism as thoroughly as possible, from many perspectives and in variable aspects: in politics, society, psychology, culture, and many more. We also want to devote considerable attention to how these phenomena are represented in artistic practices: in literature, film, theatre or visual arts. We invite researchers representing various academic disciplines: history, politics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, economics, law, literary criticism, theatre studies, film studies, fine arts, memory studies, migration studies, consciousness studies, dream studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies, medical sciences, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, cognitive sciences et al.

*CFP* "DIGITAL YOUTH AND RELIGION", BOOK CHAPTER

Public and academic discourse on the online activities of youth have been stormy and ambivalent at times. Nevertheless, a significant body of work has been devoted to the grass-rooted workings of youth on new media platforms, albeit in adolescents’ autonomous settings, such as social media (e.g., Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube), online gaming, and interpersonal communication (e.g., instant messaging, WhatsApp). While past scholarship has yielded a rich offering of insight into these activities, there is a clear dearth of research on the online social worlds of religious youth. Nowadays, youth are afforded multiple venues of religious creeds and interpretations in unprecedented formats and channels. These channels enable access to youth outreach, foster communal participation, and shape youths’ identities, belief systems, and affiliation to (or from) religious institutions.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to draw together concepts, theories, and empirical data related to the study of three legacies: youth cultures, digital culture, and religious studies. We invite scholars that study different societies, faiths, cults, and sects from interdisciplinary fields (e.g., media studies, sociology, anthropology, semiotics, cultural studies, religious studies) to submit a proposal.

*CFP* "NEW FICTIONAL FORMATS AND AGE-OLD NARRATIVES: UNDERSTANDING CREATIVE MODES OF POPULAR CULTURE IN THE DIGITAL AGE", POPMEC RESEARCH BLOG

Constant transformation has been the norm in the new digital media environment since its inception. During the 2020 health crisis, the impact of this ever-changing digital world in our daily lives has been especially notable. Due to quarantine measures, the only opportunity to interact with friends and to consume culture was to rely on social networks, streaming services and video conferencing softwares. Web-based cultural activities have affected people’s relationships with cyberspace: many have visited museums, seen award ceremonies, and even been to concerts online. In other words, we are never disconnected from the Internet (DeNardis 2020). 

Our continuous virtual presence has had a radical aesthetic influence in our lives. Fictional narratives have been evolving hand in hand with the continuous change in digital media—from vaporwave and memes to changes in the way we write and express ourselves. These new ideas and symbols have developed thanks to online trends, both in terms of rhetoric and via the emergence of new words. Renowned writers such as Jennifer Egan and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie have not overlooked this transforming environment and have published their works on social media platforms in a serialized format (what is now known as Twitterature). Their cases are notable examples of how the possibilities to share content and combine mediums in order to create fictional narratives have grown exponentially. While the content of those stories has not been significantly altered by the format, we can look at this phenomenon from the perspective of media scholar Marshall McLuhan: the medium is the message.

*CFP* "MAKING A MURDERER: TRUE CRIME IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE", SPECIAL ISSUE, EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS CRIME FICTION STUDIES JOURNAL

“Everybody’s fascinated with the notion that there is a cause and effect,” claims notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, quoted in the Netflix original, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019) – that we can “put our finger on it,” and reassuringly rationalise the genesis of the uniquely modern phenomenon of the American serial killer. But when there is “absolutely nothing” in the background of a serial murderer that would lead one to believe they were “capable of committing murder,” how do we begin to acclimatise ourselves to this violent defect of contemporary history? More challengingly, how do we bring depth to our collective portrait of what constitutes a murderer, so that we may then self-exempt our compulsion to look more closely at these perversely familiar figures? 

Over the last 50 years, a plethora of books, magazines, film and television adaptations on the subject of true crime has captured – and held – the public imagination in a vice-like grip, ultimately achieving cult status in postwar-American society while furthermore granting the white male serial killer the kind of cultural capital usually awarded only to celebrities. 

*CFP* "COSMOPOLITAN STRANGERS IN LATINA/O LITERATURE AND CULTURE", EDITED VOLUME

This volume sets out to identify and analyze current definitions of the figure of the stranger, as well as ‘rooted’ or ‘vernacular’ cosmopolitanism at work in Latina/o literature with a cosmopolitan outlook that runs counter to discourses that criminalize ‘strangers’. While necessarily examining the workings of xenophobia, racism, gendering and othering in that specific context, we will focus on the alternative processes of interaction, conviviality, and inclusive practices.

While the stranger is a long-standing figure, the defining characteristics of the figure are specific in space and time. All studies of alterity implicitly contain the stranger (i.e., in postcolonial and gender studies, and critical multiculturalism). Most markedly, the figure of the stranger has been foregrounded in spatial and urban theory (Young 1986, Ahmed 2000, Sandercock 2003). The affinities between the stranger and the cosmopolitan subject have been recently dissected by Vince P. Marotta (2010, 2017), who conceives the stranger as a social type, and argues for its importance in understanding the human condition and cross-cultural interaction (2010, 106).

*CFP* "RADICAL FILM AT THE DAWN OF A NEW SOCIETY", BOOK CHAPTER

You are invited to make a contribution to a new book arising from the Radical Film Network Meeting Berlin (RFNMB). Under the working title “Radical Film at the Dawn of a New Society”, the book aims to critically interrogate how various actors working at the intersection of radical film, art and digital culture are engaging with issues of our present time shaped by changes and disruptions of seismic proportions. The events of the year 2020 have fundamentally transformed public life almost beyond recognition. It remains to be seen if these transformations are here to stay or just a passing phase. These events and many of the transformations they have given rise to have fostered a surge of anxiety, feelings of powerlessness and a dark vision of the future.

However, if we take a second look at the current situation, we can also see a newly developed focus on the importance of community, of solidarity and on maintaining sociality, all of which hold the promise of a new society. And while anxiety is often said to embody paralyzing features, one could argue that anxiety — a basic human emotion like joy, lust and anger — is a strong motive for collective human action because nobody wants to stay alone in the dark.

*CFP* "STREAMING AND SCREEN CULTURES IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC", EDITED PALGRAVE MACMILLAN COLLECTION

To the surprise of analyst expectations, at the end of 2019 Netflix recorded a record-high growth in subscribers and revenue outside of the United States, specifically in its Asia-Pacific region. The growth in this region is attributed to the establishment of regional offices and the commissioning of local productions, the success of which travels even further afield in the wealth of pan-Asian content making its way into Netflix’s global catalogue. But while Netflix occupies a dominant, though increasingly threatened position in the West amongst competitors such as Amazon, Disney+ and Hulu, in the Asia-Pacific it faces bigger challenges pitted against an abundance of well-established alternatives, such as Viu (Hong Kong), iflix (Malaysia), Voot (India) and HOOQ (Singapore). While there is an emergent body of work with a focus on streaming and screen cultures in the US and Europe, limited attention has been paid to the Asia-Pacific region. Our collection wishes to address this gap, exploring Asia-Pacific’s expansive services to produce a more comprehensive picture of its contemporary streaming culture. We are therefore inviting scholars to consider the expanding stream culture in Asia-Pacific territories. 

Our collection has already attracted some exciting new work, contributing to our understanding of visual media and its contemporary cultural significance in China, Japan, South Korea, India, Thailand, and Australia. However, we are aware that our collection is incomplete. The aim of this re-circulated CFP is to therefore seek chapters that specifically explore or engage with content, technologies or viewing practices in the Australasia and Southeast Asia region.

*CFP* "TRANS IDENTITIES IN THE FRENCH MEDIA", EDITED VOLUME

As a preamble to this call for abstracts, we want to specify that we are using the terms “transgender” and “trans identities” as umbrella terms for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Our use of “transgender” or “trans identities” thus encompasses a variety of experiences within and outside the gender binary, and a range of expressions, as trans individuals pursue many different options (medical changes, clothing, make-up, etc.) to bring their appearances into alignment with their gender identity, or may choose not to.

“Transsexualité, transidentité: un tabou français?” (“Transsexuality, transidentity: a French taboo?”[1]): such was the title chosen by the online French news magazine France Info for an article published in 2015 that discussed the lack of visibility and biases transgender people still experience in French society. Indeed, the production of images and narratives about transgender people in a French context is a complex process that demands to be further analyzed. On the one hand, there has been an increasing visibility of trans individuals in film and TV in recent years. TV documentaries such as Devenir il ou elle (Lorène Debaisieux, 2017) and Être fille ou garçon: Le Dilemme des transgenres (Clarisse Verrier, 2017) follow the lives of adolescents as they transition into their authentic gender; director Sébastien Lifshitz dedicated a documentary to one of France’s first individuals to have undergone gender confirmation surgery with Bambi (2013), and he hired a transgender actress to play the main character in his film Wild Side (2004). 

*CFP* "MIGRANT BELONGINGS: DIGITAL PRACTICES AND THE EVERYDAY", 2021 ONLINE CONFERENCE

Migrant Belongings. Digital Practices and the Everyday

22nd-23rd April 2020

Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Online Conference

Migrant belonging through digital connectivity refers to a way of being in the world that cuts across national borders, shaping new forms of diasporic affiliations and transnational intimacy. This happens in ways that are different from the ways enabled by the communication technologies of the past. Scholarly attention has intensified around the question of how various new technical affordances of platforms and apps are shaping the transnationally connected, and locally situated, social worlds in which migrants live their everyday lives.

This international conference focuses on the connection between the media and migration from different disciplinary vantage points. Connecting with friends, peers and family, sharing memories and personally identifying information, navigating spaces and reshaping the local and the global in the process is but one side of the coin of migrant-related technology use: this Janus-faced development also subjects individual as well as groups to increased datafied migration management, algorithmic control and biometric classification as well as forms of transnational authoritarianism and networked repression. 

*CFP* "THE FILMS OF OLIVER STONE", REFOCUS SERIES

For many, Oliver Stone set the tone and pacing for the political film narrative in American cinema for nearly twenty years. First, we have to put Oliver Stone back in the current Hollywood system, a place a thousand leagues from where he occupied in the 80s and early 90s. Oliver Stone began as a screenwriter for filmmakers as John Milius (Conan the barbarian), Brian De Palma (Scarface), Michael Cimino (Year of the dragon) or Alan Parker (Midnight Express and an Oscar for best screenplay) before quickly becoming one of Hollywood's great filmmakers. Platoon, his fourth feature film after two low-budget films and Salvador with James Woods, won four Oscars including that of best film and best director. An unexpected triumph for a very personal film (Oliver Stone participated in the Vietnam War and this is a subject that is particularly important for him).

The American filmmaker, who has French origins through his mother, has a series of successful films such as Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July (which allows him to obtain a second Oscar for best director) or JFK. The turning point in his career was the public and critical failure of the last installment of his Vietnam trilogy (Heaven and Earth with Tommy Lee Jones). Oliver Stone's state of grace in Hollywood is over despite some modest box office successes (especially Any Given Sunday which saves his career from total wreck and even allows him to start his dream project on Alexander The Great).

*CFP* "CULTURES OF AUTHENTICITY", EDITED BOOK

Following the successful webinar series, hosted by Loughborough University this autumn, we are now seeking contribution for an edited collection on the topic of 'authenticity'. A widespread fascination with the authentic is said to have emerged as a response to the processes of homogenisation, rationalisation and standardisation at the heart of modernity. The concept of authenticity arose historically at a time of rapid social change and has again come to the fore where social, political, cultural and technological upheavals give rise to feelings of distrust, detachment and alienation against which supposedly authentic people, places and things are sought out for their reassuring certainty and value. Yet, there are huge contradictions and inequalities in who can make claim to authenticity and its construction and communication invariably involves competing narratives and oppositional assertions about what is authentic and how and why the authentic gains its value.

Thus, while the concept of authenticity has a long history, in recent years it has emerged as a prominent theme in many of the most pressing debates about contemporary communication and culture. In political communication there are ongoing concerns about misinformation and fake news, while the success of populist parties is often tied to their claims to be a more authentic representative of ‘the people’ than a detached and dispassionate elite. 

*CFP* CALL FOR ARTICLES, GENERAL ISSUE, SCREEN BODIES: THE JOURNAL OF EMBODIMENT, MEDIA ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY

Screen Bodies invites submissions to be considered for a forthcoming general issue. We welcome work that focuses on matters of embodiment in media arts from any of the disciplinary or methodological perspectives described below. Research articles are typically between 6k–9k words. Please see our website for details about the inclusion of artwork/images.

Screen Bodies is a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal that is devoted to the interface of art, science, and technology. The journal’s aim is to examine how bodies engage with and are engaged by screens, as well as how bodies are represented on screens. It features critical, theoretical, and empirical methods used in the diverse fields comprising the humanities, social sciences, computer science, communications, and the arts.

 

Screen Bodies is a publication where scholars, creators, and scientists come together to map new media ecologies with an eye toward the aesthetic, ethical, and political dimensions of emerging technologies as well as to matters of design, programming, engineering, and performance. 

*CFP* "SHARING WAR MEMORIES - FROM THE MILITARY TO THE CIVILIAN", WAR MEMORIES CONFERENCE 2020/21

War Memories (2020/21)

Sharing War Memories – From the Military to the Civilian

22, 23 & 24 June 2021 (Le Mans University)

 

War narratives are subject to emphases, orientations and points of view that give a particular flavour to wars fought by populations (anonymously, individually and/or hidden in an organisation, secret or not) and by the military (from high command to the ‘unknown soldier’). Such accounts evolve with the benefit of hindsight, the writing of history textbooks and the constant (re)interpretations of archives (new or not) and the official version a country wishes to put forward according to its political agendas and visions of patriotism, citizenship and human rights, or its diplomatic or international policy objectives. The narratives of wars vary with the context and the need for men and women to express their inner feelings when faced with the torments and human atrocities of war; they also reflect the place of individuals within a group and the implications of group cohesion within the larger community.

*CFP* "DEMOCRACIA", VOL. 30, Nº 6, REVISTA EL PROFESIONAL DE LA INFORMACIÓN

Hemos empezado a planificar el v. 30, n. 6 (noviembre-diciembre de 2021) de la revista El profesional de la información sobre Democracia

El uso intensivo de tecnología en las democracias implica nuevos retos y desafíos para la comunicación. Los bots, las noticias falsas, los nuevos actores políticos, la influencia de las plataformas digitales, el uso de minería de datos o la inteligencia artificial remodelan la esfera pública. El papel de Cambridge Analytica en el Brexit, las acciones de Facebook y Twitter con los mensajes de Trump sobre el coronavirus o las advertencias de la Unión Europea sobre la injerencia de los bots en la política comunitaria son ejemplos que ilustran la importancia del fenómeno.

En 2018 Daniel Kreiss y Shannon C. McGregor detectaron la intervención de las plataformas digitales en las campañas electorales en los Estados Unidos. Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft y Google fueron asesores de los partidos políticos y dieron forma a la estrategia digital y a los contenidos de la campaña a través del desarrollo de estructuras organizativas y patrones de personal adaptadas a las dinámicas de la política estadounidense.

*CFP* "SCREENING IMMIGRATION IN NORDIC TELEVISION", PANEL, THE NARRATIVE AND VIOLENCE WINTER SYMPOSIUM

The Narrative and Violence 2021 Winter Symposium, "Narrating Violence: Making Race, Making Difference" invites abstracts for 20-minute papers for the panel: “Screening Immigration in Nordic Television”. This panel seeks to explore how immigrant-themed narratives are constructed in contemporary Nordic television. There has been a growing interest in the transnational direction of Nordic screen culture, owing much to the international success of Nordic noir and its saturation in the international markets. In particular, shows like Forbrydelsen The Killing (2007-2012) and Broen Bron The Bridge (2011- 2018) have helped to foster the region’s now formidable reputation for incisive, political and, above all, ‘quality’ drama.

Over the last two decades, an abundance of Nordic narratives featuring subjects like ‘ethnic Otherness’, immigration and the politics of multiculturalism have emerged. Many examples have gained a cultural foothold with support from a range of international broadcasters like the BBC, through to industry giants like Netflix, reinforcing the reach and cultural relevance of these shows. Offerings such as recent Danish drama DNA (2019- ), Iceland's Ófærð Trapped (2015 -) and Swedish thriller Blå ögon Blue Eyes (2014-2015) appear, on the surface, to be explicitly concerned with contemporary immigrant politics.

*CFP* "WOMEN, ECONOMICS AND LABOUR RELATIONS", CHAPTER BOOK

This series aims to publish monographs and edited collections (in the region of 70,000-90,000 words) that tackle the position of women in the economy as well as explore labour relations. By labour relations, it means studying human relations in work in its broadest sense and analysing how labour relations affect social inequality with particular reference to women. In terms of social inequality, this series particularly welcomes analyses of women and class and broader analyses of labour relations. The series will publish perspectives from around the world and thus the series fits into the understanding of labour relations through both work relations in a Western sense and non-Western forms of labour. The series is also interested in studies of the position of women in worker’s unions, stance on women’s affairs within workers unions, and the position of women and women’s affairs in labour movements. Both historical and contemporary perspectives are welcome. Studies in industrial and economic sociology are particularly welcome.

The book series aims to publish books from a variety of perspectives, e.g. the series will equally accept both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Also, the book series will accept case study perspectives on women working in various industries. We would particularly like to hear from authors who research the position of women in working-class positions, e.g. factory workers, supermarket workers, etc. Studies on women in feminized industries (e.g. nursing, teaching, PR) and masculine industries (construction, business, finance) are equally welcome.

*CFP* "THE POST-PANDEMIC WORLD: A BAD PICTURE OR A GOOD OPPORTUNITY?", COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT FORUM 2021

Communication Management Forum 2021

The post-pandemic world: A bad picture or a good opportunity?

19th and 20th March, 2021

Edward Bernays University College,  Virtual Conference

 

In addition to the health situation, the coronavirus pandemic has affected all segments of society. The economy and social life have entered a state of dormancy, interpersonal relationships take place under the influence of physical distance or have been transferred to the digital world, business travel has proved unnecessary in the world of teleconferencing, people's social lives have changed, young people are changing patterns for finding a partner, new practices have been introduced in the education system, the psychosocial health of individuals is under threat. 

 

At all levels, the pandemic has completely changed the outlook and functioning of the entire world. The question is in which direction will societies develop in the future, how will citizens behave after the pandemic, how will interpersonal relationships be established, but also how will employers and employees, whose attitudes have partially changed, behave?

*CFP* "'AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER' AND 'THE LEGEND OF JORRA'", BOOK CHAPTER

Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-08) and its sequel The Legend of Korra (2012-14) are among the most acclaimed and influential animated television series of the twenty-first century. Yet, there has been little scholarly writing about them. To remedy this gap, I am looking for contributors for an edited volume of essays on this franchise.

The book will be designed for a general undergraduate readership, covering a range of topics in relation to the Avatar franchise. These include (but are not limited to):

• Depictions of race and ethnicity (esp. of Asian and Indigenous peoples), gender, and sexuality 
• Use of character design, storyboarding, voice acting, music, etc. 
• Issues regarding nationality, transnationality, and cultural appropriation 
• Depictions of violence, imperialism, and trauma 
• Genre (e.g. kung fu films, fantasy, and anime) 
• Fandom and fanworks (e.g. Racebending.com, shipping, cosplay, etc.) 
• Adaptation and franchise

*CFP* "IMPASSE", THIRD ISSUE, SOAPBOX : A GRADUATE PLATFORM/JOURNAL FOR CULTURAL ANALYSIS

For the third issue of Soapbox: a graduate platform/journal for cultural analysis, we invite submissions that critically engage with the concept of 'Impasse.' Dwelling on the term impasse provides space for speaking of the unresolvable, of the disorienting (what is outside of time and space, alter/outer), of the failure of connection, and finally, of loss, of the unretrievable and the necrotic. The notion of impasse comes to mind all the more in the context of the ongoing pandemic and of transmission through physical contact or proximity.

In its most literal meaning, an impasse indicates a border that arises in our way. In everyday life, it is what prevents one from moving forward, for instance from entering onto a property one is not allowed to be in or arriving at a dead end. Supposedly, the only possible counter-action, the exit from an impasse, is either the risk of trespassing, of having to turn around, or ending one’s journey. An impasse can also denote a specific kind of liminal spatiality. It is a space of thein-between; where one gets stuck or does not know how to proceed. As a state of unknowing, the impasse is constantly being re-configured. How can we orientate ourselves in a space that is always becoming?

*CFP* "MEDIEVALISMS ON THE SCREEN. THE REPRESENTATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES IN AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY", PHD CONFERENCE

Medievalisms on the Screen. The representation of the Middle Ages in Audiovisual Media in the 21st century

April 29th-May 1st 2021, Central European University, Budapest/Vienna

PhD Conference, Department of Medieval Studies

 

The technological advancements in audiovisual production that have taken place in the first two decades of the 21st century have accentuated the multiple representations of the Middle Ages in popular media. The explosion of the videogame industry, the refinement in digital technologies for the recreation of past spaces, and the popularization of streaming services like YouTube and Netflix have all allowed for an increase in the venues for the representation of the medieval past. Be it the crusaders of Assassin’s Creed (2007) or the Scandinavian world of Vikings (2013-2020); from the fantasy universe of Game of Thrones (2011-2019) or bands like Rhapsody of Fire, to the hack-n-slash hell of Dante’s Inferno (2011), it is a non-academic version of the past which is more familiar to the general public.

*CFP* "MULTILINGÜISMO Y MIGRACIÓN EN LA ERA DE LAS HUMANIDADES DIGITALES", XXIII CONGRESO DE LA ASOCIACIÓN ALEMANA DE HISPANISTAS

XXIII Congreso de la Asociación Alemana de Hispanistas

Sesión monográfica: multilingüismo y migración en la era de las humanidades digitales

24-27th February, 2021

Universitat Graz, Austria

La Universitat Graz invita a participar en esta sesión monográfica del congreso de la Asociación Alemana de Hispanistas que se celebrar del 24 al 27 de febrero de 2021. El objetivo de la sesión es explorar el valor y los límites de la digitalización en el campo de la lingüística migratoria y del multilingüismo en el mundo hispanohablante de una forma tanto teórica como metodológica con el fin de ampliar el paradigma de métodos establecidos en la investigación de la lingüística migratoría y del multilingüismo. El plazo para el envío de propuestas permanece abierto y en las próximas circulares, se dará más información al respecto.

Las nuevas tecnologías digitales desempeñan un papel clave en el contexto de la migración y del multilingüismo. El smartphone puede ser mencionado como un ejemplo que ha llevado a una profunda transformación en el ámbito de la movilidad.

*CFP* "MIGRATING ARCHIVES OF REALITY", PROGRAMMING, CURATING, AND APPROPIATION OF NON-FICTION FILM ONLINE CONFERENCE

Migrating Archives of Reality

Programming, Curating, and Appropriation of Non-fiction Film

Online conference

6/7 May 2021

 

The digital turn, which has created new modes of access and circulation for films, underscores and amplifies what has been the fate of non-fiction film since the beginning of its existence - it has always been, and continues to be, a migrating archive of reality. While non-fiction films featured prominently in early cinema programs, the ascendancy of the feature-length fiction film as the dominant format of distribution and exhibition since the 1910s has rendered the position of nonfiction film in mainstream movie theatres contested and malleable, both restricted and supported by various legislative measures. At the same time, an intensive international circulation of non-fiction films developed beyond the cinema, through the exchange of newsreel shots, the exhibition of non-fiction films in circuits of alternative/nontheatrical distribution (notably educational, etc.), and later at festivals.

*CFP* CALL FOR ARTICLES, ISSUE 38, LA VALLE DELL'EDEN / EAST OF EDEN: JOURNAL OF CINEMA, PHOTOGRAPHY, MEDIA

The issue #38 of La Valle dell’Eden/East of Eden – Journal of Cinema, Photography and Media is in preparation. It is a miscellaneous issue open to a wide range of researches and methodologies. In particular, it will be interested to the following topics:

• Acting, stardom, celebrities.
• Archives, restoration, memory.
• Avant-garde, experimental films, videoart.
• Fashion.
• Gender, identity.
• Graphic novel, game, web.
• Narrative, writing, genres.
• Industry, production, professions.
• Intermediality.
• Reception, critical discourse.
• Screen, technologies, apparatus.
• Series, broadcasting, formats.
• Sound, music, audiovision.
• Spectators, audience, consumption.
• Style, modes of representation.
• Visual culture, image aesthetic.

*CFP* "SCREENING CONTROVERSY" EDITED COLLECTION, ROUTLEDGE SCREENING FILM SERIES OF BOOKS

You are invited to submit an abstract for the upcoming edited collection Screening Controversy, part of the Routledge Screening Film series of books that aim to support the use of individual film screenings as a core aspect of film studies pedagogy. Books devoted to individual films are often difficult to assign as set readings due to their length and approach which is not conceptualized for screening-based support. Screening Film is positioned to fill this gap in teaching film where screenings are a core activity. Each volume of Screening Film includes fifty key readings on individual films specifically designed with the aim of supporting film screenings. Contributions should be short, focused, contextual and analytical readings that address an individual film of your choice, and, as the title of this volume suggests, this volume is specifically interested in films whose reception has been marred by controversy. 

We invite established and emerging scholars specializing in film studies and cognate disciplines, to contribute chapters of a maximum of 4000 words on an individual film that responds to the theme of the collection. It is expected that each chapter includes any key historical, political, stylistic, industrial contexts which are necessary for understanding the film more broadly, especially in relation to the canon, movements, and debates which circulate around the text and that this is in advance of, or alongside, any new insights, research, and arguments brought to the analysis.

*CFP* "ENTERTAINMENT AND THE ARTS IN THE QUARANTIMES", CHAPTER BOOK

When the arts, culture, and entertainment industries of the world came to a screeching halt in late winter 2020, many commentators claimed this was the end of art as we know it. Theatre managers and museum directors grasped at straws, trying to stoke excitement via social media and running archival footage in hopes of generating revenue while their seats and halls remained empty. Artists’ opportunities to show or create non-digital work ran dry. Film and television sets were vacated and production put on hold. At the same time, gaming platforms and streaming services thrived. Animal Crossing on Nintendo’s Switch became a worldwide phenomenon; Netflix traffic hit all-time highs. DJs streamed to Instagram live, garnering record viewerships. Meanwhile, friends and colleagues got creative with distanced sociality and shared cocktails on Zoom, at least until the fatigue set in.

As we enter, from a North American standpoint, months 10 and beyond of “quarantine,” the question of how we have learned - as creators or consumers - to play, is far from settled. This proposed collection addresses the question of play in broad terms: how have the arts, culture, and entertainment industries adapted to a majority virtual world? How has our understanding of togetherness and play changed with public health guidelines in effect? Might new forms of art and play developed in quarantine outlive the pandemic and perhaps supplant earlier forms? What do these forms offer in terms of accessibility, equity, or exclusion?

*CFP* CALL FOR ARTICLES, ISSUE 1 (2021), MEDIÁLNÍ STUDIA JOURNAL

Mediální studia / Media Studies (ISSN 2464-4846) is a peer-reviewed electronic journal, published in English, Czech and Slovak twice a year. Based in disciplines of media and communication studies, it focuses on analyses of media texts, media professionals practices and media audiences behaviour. We especially welcome papers covering media in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and support the emphasis on the dynamics of local-global knowledge on media and its mutual connections. The journal is indexed in these databases: Scopus, CEEOL, ERIH+.

Studies are based on original research, solving the issue raised empirically, theoretically or methodologically. The recommended length of the studies is 6000-8000 words, including footnotes and references with an abstract of up to 150 words, up to 10 keywords, and brief information about the author up to 100 words.

Essays explore upcoming or current media trends or events and discuss their relevance. Or, they ruminate upon different conceptual or methodological approaches. The recommended length of the essays is 3000-4000 words, including footnotes and references with an abstract of up to 150 words, up to 10 keywords, and brief information about the author up to 150 words.

*CFP* "GAME STUDIES NEXT LEVEL? METHODOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS, ORIGINAL THEMATIC PROPOSALS AND NEW OBJECTS OF INTEREST", SPECIAL ISSUE, REVISTA INDEX.COMUNICACIÓN

Game Studies have become a broad discipline than in recent decades. The study of games, in general, had been promoted since the middle of the 20th century with figures such as Roger Callois, Johan Huizinga, Brian Sutton-Smith or Elliott Avedon from the perspective of Anthropology, History and Sociology. In contemporary times, a group of researchers of various nationalities (Gonzalo Frasca, Jesper Juul, Espen Aarseth, Markku Eskelinen, Susana Pajares-Tosca, Lisbeth Klastrup) retake the path opened by those authors, but this time applying it to Digital Games. This original research chart a way forward to the Games Studies that were born under the protection of the magazine of the same name, as a label under which academic works were assigned from then on, forming an extensive corpus: specialized publications, funded research projects or own collections within publishers. Once the ontological debates of the first years over video games have been overcome, terms such as Ludology, Ludonarration or Ludosophy have been normalized, and approaches to digital games admitted multiple perspectives. However, the Games Studies still do not belong to a defined branch of knowledge, and its limits are still blurred. Based on this scenario, the present monograph invites to submit proposals that try to look beyond contemporary research of digital game studies to define future lines of action or consolidating established lines with an integrating approach. The monograph draws two main scenarios: a new articulation of topics of interest for Game Studies in their relationship with the contemporary world and methodological proposals established from other disciplines, but with a little appearance in the field of game studies.

*CFP* "PLAYFULNESS ACROSS MEDIA", 2021 ISSUE, ELUDAMOS: JOURNAL FOR COMPUTER GAME CULTURE

“Playfulness” is a bona fide example of a travelling concept (Bal 2002), with a complex conceptual history that ranges from anthropology and psychology (e.g., Lieberman 1977; Sutton-Smith 1997) via literary theory (e.g., Stewart 1979; Hutchinson 1983) to the interdisciplinary field of game studies (e.g., Ensslin 2014; Sicart 2014). 

 

While there are thus evidently many different ways to approach the question what it means for humans or other animals to think, perceive, and/or behave “playfully,” even a brief look at our current media culture—with its increasing erosion of the border between work and play, its subversion of the notion of distinct media and established genre conventions, as well as its promises of new forms of creative and political participation—clearly demonstrates that this question is indeed still worth asking.

For the forthcoming 2021 issue of Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture, we thus invite proposals for articles exploring aspects of playfulness across media. Possible topics would include:

*CFP* "CULTURE IN THE PANDEMIC AGE", INTER-ASIA CULTURAL STUDIES SOCIETY VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

Culture in the Pandemic Age

Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society Virtual Conference

Main Conference July 28th-30th 2021 + Graduate Conference July 26th 2021

Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society and the National University of Singapore, Singapore

 

The C-19 pandemic has upended all aspects of everyday work, life and play. From emergency lockdowns that required everyone to shelter at home to the gradual lifting of restrictions where working from home and remote learning continue to remain the norm, no one and no mode of human interaction have been left untouched by the virus. It is a cascading disaster involving health, economic and social challenges. Its measures designed to mitigate the virus have changed patterns of consumption and production. Its viral war metaphors have unleashed hostility between people, groups and nation-states. 

 

As a catastrophic event, it has precipitated ecological changes to unsettle and defamiliarize our traditional sensemaking of the world. While exacerbating structural inequalities and racial injustices, it has also reminded us there are things we should value, such as care and community. 

*CFP* "THE X-FILES COMPANION", BOOK CHAPTERS

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*CFP* "FALLING OFF A CLIFF? WOMEN, AGEING AND THE SCREEN INDUSTRIES", BOOK CHAPTER

Scholars researching (self-identifying) women and ageing in the screen industries are invited to send chapter abstracts for an edited collection provisionally entitled Falling off a Cliff? Women, Ageing and the Screen Industries. The book will explore the gendered challenges facing women over 50 yrs. as they attempt to carve out and/or maintain a career in the screen industries, in front of and behind the camera. Research relating to on-screen representation has shown that women over 50 yrs. are relegated to supporting roles primarily; they are less likely than men to be cast as protagonists or central characters; they are characterised by ageist stereotypes and sexually active older women are absent with some recent tentative exceptions.

To date, there has been much less focus on the experiences of women over 50 behind the camera; in key creative roles or as crew. Anecdotally, practitioners speak of becoming invisible as the years pass, being overlooked or leaving the industry and finding it extremely difficult to regain a foothold.  Who is behind the camera. especially in key creative roles, is important and can have implications for the kinds of stories being told and the employment and creative opportunities available to other women.

*CFP* THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN COMMUNICATION, AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA AND ANALYSIS IN SPAIN AND LATAM, FIRST HERMES CONGRESS

Hermes, International Conference in Communication, Audiovisual Media and Analysis in Spain and LATAM

25-27th March, 2021

Lanzarote, Spain

Beginning this upcoming 2021, communication researchers will have an annual date at Hermes, the International Conference in Communication, Audiovisual Media and Analysis in Spain and LATAM, to be held on March 25, 26 and 27 in Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain). Hermes will bring together scholars interested in media texts and communication produced in Spanish and Portuguese. See here the video presentation.

Latin American countries, Portugal and Spain are united by common elements that sink their roots in Greco-Roman culture. This is why we wanted to name this conference "Hermes", the Greek god of communication, oratory and persuasion; in short, the deity will represent the human power to question reality and seek answers to questions that allow us to orient ourselves in the hazardous world we inhabit. As a god that represents change, Hermes gives his name to a conference that aims to offer a scientific perspective on the social and cultural contexts of all the countries that share Spanish and Portuguese as a language, focusing on new trends in the field of audiovisual media and communication. On both sides of the Atlantic, there are countries joined by the use of these languages, but also differentiated by their specific particularities and diverse cultural richness.

*CFP* "APPROACHING RACE AND ETHNICITY IN NORDIC FILM CULTURE", SPECIAL ISSUE, JOURNAL OF SCANDINAVIAN CINEMA

In 2017, the head of the Swedish Film Institute (SFI), Anna Serner, highlighted the distinct lack of ethnic diversity in Swedish film culture and signalled ambitions to ‘broaden representation, both behin and in front of the cameras’ (2017: 4). Echoing these sentiments, the Danish Film Institute (DFI) and the Norwegian Ministry of Culture (NFI) have outlined targets for ‘increasing cultural diversity and reaching new audiences’ (NFI 2018). These statements reflect the Nordic film industries’ aspiration to address the significant underrepresentation of black, Asian and minority ethnic voices in the creative sectors across the Nordic region.

However, themes of race and ethnicity have long-established patterns of representation on Nordic screens (see Wright, 1998, Gustafsson, 2014 and Sundholm, 2018). With no established industry voice or body overseeing representational diversity, as the above studies attest, cinematic depictions of diversity matter precisely because they largely offer the only insight into the way these themes are understood and construed.

*CFP* "VISIONS OF CHANGE: COMMUNICATION FOR SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE", ICA VIRTUAL PRE-CONFERENCE 2021

ICA Virtual Pre-Conference 2021

‘Visions of Change: Communication for Social and Environmental Justice’

Pre-Conference date: 27 May 2021

 

Division/Interest Group Affiliation: Visual Communication Studies Division, Environmental Communication Division, and the Activism, Communication and Social Justice Interest Group.

A key challenge for representing environmental crises such as climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and toxic pollution is contextualizing the crises through a diversity of accounts and time scales. Candis Callison (2020, 2017, 2014) stresses how accountability and justice are impossible without recognition of the particular harms perpetuated by long-standing political, economic, and cultural systems of oppression. The ongoing violence of imperial capitalism are consistently removed from view through cultural processes of erasure whereby ecological crises are “decoupled from its original causes by the workings of time” (Nixon, 2011: 11). 

*CFP* "GLOBAL HORROR PRODUCTION IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY", BOOK CHAPTERS

As we move into the third decade of the twenty-first century, it becomes increasingly clear that the taste for horror has not abated. In fact, horror has proven to be as successful as ever, with global horror productions contributing towards an ever-diversifying canon of critically lauded and commercially successful films reflective of new and persisting directions in horror filmmaking. It is already the case that twenty-first century horror has, in its many forms, invited sustained critical scrutiny. Echoing analytic traditions evinced by horror scholars such as Robin Wood, modern horror has often been found to be one the more prescient genres at work today, illustrated in the plethora of publications dedicated to picking apart and understanding the genre’s bearings upon, or reflection of (per Wood), the cultural moment(s) from which key films emerge. However, with most studies dedicated to the analysis of particular horror films, prominent critical tendencies have saturated the field at the cost of exploring pertinent production dynamics in the context of the genre’s development. Indeed, substantially less has been written on industry climates that pertain to the making of horror films, in both micro (studio horror from small to large) and macro (national film industries) modes. While some significant work does exist on these themes — indeed, one such volume that offers a precedent for this project is Richard Nowell’s (2014) edited collection Merchants of Menace: The Business of Horror — as we see it, there remains a pressing need to account for the advent of new modalities that have continued to emerge and/or evolve in recent years from across the world. 

*CFP* "CONTEMPORARY POLITICS, COMMUNICATION, AND THE IMPACT ON DEMOCRACY", BOOK CHAPTER

This book is aimed to analyze the relationship among politics and communication in the current context of increasing polarization and their disruptive effects over democracy (Bennett & Pfetsch, 2018). From an interdisciplinary approach, the book is intended to offer an overview of the threats faced by traditional and stable democracies in a hybrid communicative scenario (Chadwick, 2013) in which disinformation (Guess, Nyhan & Reifler, 2018) reaches worrying levels.

 

Objective

The objective of this book is to address a relevant issue that involves a multidisciplinary approach, that is, the relationships between communication, politics, and democracy. It is aimed to offer a valuable contribution regarding the challenges and threats faced by contemporary democracies while disinformation, polarization and populism have a main role in the present hybrid communicative scenario. This is a relevant and current topic that makes the book suitable for scholars and professionals working in the areas of political communication, political sciences, journalism and media. One of the strongest features of the book is the multi-national approach to the topic.

*CFP* CALL FOR ARTICLES, THE QUIVIRR: QUALITATIVE VIDEO RESEARCH REPORTS NEW LAUNCHED JOURNAL

A new open access journal has been launched called QuiViRR: Qualitative Video Research Reports (pronounced 'quiver'). The journal will fill an increasingly noticeable gap in the publication landscape in the field of video methods for qualitative research. 

 

The goal is for this journal to address that gap, as well as to support and promote open scholarship beyond the narrow green/gold open access debate. The journal is edited by academic scholars in the field who are passionate about the issues.

QuiViRR is a serious, hybrid academic journal that supports both blind peer review and non-peer reviewed content. Its broad thematic focus is qualitative research methods in the humanities and social sciences that are centrally and substantively video-based.

 

The main areas that the journal covers include:

*CFP* "BUILDING BRIDGES/ DISMANTLING RACISM FOR THE COMMON GOOD", INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP & VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

Building Bridges/Dismantling Racism for the Common Good

International Workshop - Virtual Conference

June 9th-11st, 2021. 

The workshop-conference will examine the characteristics of systemic racism and its impact on everyday life by exploring the interrelated themes of diversity, alienation (anomie), whiteness, and community. Presentations developed around these themes will establish critical frameworks for understanding how race and racial ideologies persist in shaping social and cultural institutions, which mediate interconnectedness and/or social isolation between individuals and social groups, and how these factors foster or hinder community-building. 

 

Towards this end, perceptions of identity and community will be examined by (i) presenting concepts and theories that are core to cultural diversity including the basis of stereotypes, prejudice, stigma, discrimination, and privilege, (ii) investigating the links between practices of exclusion and the structuring of societies, and (iii) exploring the psychosocial factors that contribute to alienation (anomie) and social isolation. 

*CFP* "YOUTH, NEWS, AND DEMOCRATIC ENGAGEMENT", SPECIAL ISSUE, THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRESS/POLITICS

Citizens’ political engagement is essential for the well-functioning of democracies. From boycotting products and signing petitions to discussing politics, attending demonstrations, and voting, citizens’ political engagement shapes our societies. In order for such engagement to take place, people need information that can mobilize them. For a long time, the news media was the key source in this regard. As a natural consequence exposure to news and political information in the media is a well-known forerunner for democratic engagement.

The relationship between news exposure and democratic engagement is constantly evolving, however. In today’s hybrid media system, people get information about politics and society from various sources and on many different platforms. In the contemporary media environment an endless list of information sources, including legacy news outlets, alternative news sites, politicians, and interest organizations, are therefore competing for people’s attention. Exposure to political information can take place on traditional platforms, like television or newspapers, or on new digital platforms, such as social media sites or other private online platforms. Not all information is equally reliable, and mis- and disinformation is part of the information ecosystem. At the same time, new forms of political participation are also emerging, especially online where people, for example, can discuss politics or contact politicians without much investment.

*CFP* "AUDIO STORYTELLING" AND "DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE", NEXT ISSUES, THE WRITING PLATFORM

The Writing Platform is looking to commission articles of approx 750 to 2,000 words on aspects of innovative audio storytelling, from podcasts and interactive storytelling using smart speakers, to binaural story scapes and audio walks. We are interested in experimentation, personalisation and playfulness with form and content. The articles will be published on The Writing Platform website between January and March 2021.

Your proposed article might fit into one of the following categories;

• Resource: for example, a how-to guide on an aspect of audio storytelling. 
• Research: for example, an overview of a research project from an academic or practitioner perspective. 
• Experience: for example, an account of an audio experience that you have experienced or developed. 
• News: for example, highlighting a new project or opportunity in the field that our readers might not have heard of before. 
• Projects:  for example, a reflection on a project that you have developed or one that you have been inspired by.

*CFP* "REDES DIGITALES COMO ESPEJOS SOCIOTÉCNICOS DE IBEROAMÉRICA", NUMERO 147, CHASQUI: REVISTA LATINOAMERICANA DE COMUNICACIÓN

Chasqui, Revista Latinoamericana de Comunicación extiende a la comunidad académica un saludo y llamado a participar en el monográfico de su número 147 sobre Redes digitales como espejos sociotécnicos de Iberoamérica que se publicará en agosto de 2021 dentro de la celebración especial por los 40 años de su segunda fase, iniciada en 1981.

Este monográfico convoca a artículos iberoamericanos enfocados en examinar las redes sociales digitales desde una perspectiva panorámica, con los efectos que las relaciones sociotécnicas (Latour, 2012) tienen sobre los individuos, las comunidades y las sociedades. Se espera, por tanto, recibir estudios y ensayos que aborden las redes como un espejo tecnológico, no solo como en el espejo enterrado de Carlos Fuentes, sino ampliado por las potencialidades técnicas y conectadas por redes de cultura y comunicación. Como sugiere Martins (2018), las tecnologías de la información y comunicación posibilitan una circunnavegación tecnológica, que articula el sentido de comunidad cultural a través de las redes transculturales y transnacionales de conocimiento, mediante la constitución de los ejes digitales. Esa transnacionalidad de la investigación iberoamericana resiste al aislamiento de la ciencia impuesto por el idioma inglés frente al español y al portugués.

*CFP* "VICTORIAN INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION", VICTORIAN POPULAR FICTION ASSOCIATION'S 13TH ANNUAL VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

Victorian Popular Fiction Association’s 13th Annual Virtual Conference

“Victorian Inclusion and Exclusion”

14th – 16th July, 2021

University of Greenwich

Hosted online with MS Teams

 

The Victorian Popular Fiction Association is dedicated to fostering interest in understudied popular writers, literary genres and other cultural forms, and to facilitating the production of publishable research and academic collaborations amongst scholars of the popular.

*CFP* "RADICAL FILM NETWORK", UNIVERSITY OF GENOA UNCONFERENCE

Radical Film Network

Unconference

Genoa 21-26 June 2021

 

After a forced hiatus in 2020, Genoa will host the Radical Film Network Festival/Unconference from Monday 21st to Saturday 26th June 2021. It's no accident that we've decided to host it here, as the summer of 2021 will mark 20 years since the Genoa G8 protests. We'd like this to be an opportunity for the RFN not only to look back at the role of radical film culture in the mobilizations surrounding that event, but also (and especially) to reflect on and organize radical film practices in the strange present we're going through and in years to come. The Festival/Unconference will build on the success of past RFN gatherings, in particular Glasgow in 2016, the first meeting to use the ‘Festival and Unconference’ model, as well as Dublin, Berlin and Nottingham in 2018 and 2019, which placed a welcome emphasis on the transnational dimension of the RFN.

*CFP* "EXHIBITING VIRTUAL BODIES: THE SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL IMPACT OF VR ON THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES", BOOK CHAPTERS

Virtual Reality (VR) is not a new technology by any stretch of the imagination. Regardless of how futuristic VR might appear in popular culture, VR encompasses a rich and varied history that began to surface in the 1980s and 1990s when VPL Research produced a number of commercial devices (e.g. the DataGlove and Audiosphere). As exciting as these systems were, the technology simply could not live up to the hype (Evans, 2018). In reality, the level of ‘immersion’ associated with these developments was just not enough to fulfil the implicit promise of VR. Simply put, the available technology was not able to conjure an experience of being present in a digital world that felt in any way ‘real’ (Shields, 2005).

In contrast to the failed hype of its first few decades, contemporary VR is going through a marked ‘renaissance’ (Evans, 2018). Modern systems, such as the Oculus Quest and more recently the Oculus Quest 2, are not only far more affordable than earlier offerings, but these headsets also represent a new era of standalone VR. Significantly, the Quest and Quest 2 do not require powerful personal computer to run. Instead, the computer is effectively built into the headset itself. This untethering, as it is commonly referred, not only allows for more immersive experiences free from trailing wires, but also establishes a more complex and ‘coextensive’ relationship between physical and digital space (Saker and Frith, 2020).

*CFP* "CONTEMPORARY FICTIONS OF MIGRATION AND EXILE: WRITING DIASPORA IN THE 21ST CENTURY", SPECIAL ISSUE, INTERNATIONAL TOP-TIER JOURNAL

James Procter (2007) defines 'diaspora' as both a geographical phenomenon and a theoretical concept that stands for the physical movement of people from one area to another, and for a particular way of understanding world order and cultural representations. Literature mirrors some of the most immediate challenges that contemporary society has to face as migration has turned 'glocal'. Many characteristics that shape contemporary migratory movements depend on the destination sought, the circumstances that force them, and the links maintained with the country of origin. This special issue is interested in exploring the ways in which contemporary fiction writes legal, illegal migration and the different shades between both. 

The European Union, as a comfort zone (Cafruny and Ryner 2003; Schmidt 2006; Geddes 2008) and the border between Mexico and the U.S., as a conflict zone (Anzaldúa 1987; Tokatlian 2000; Staudt 2008) are two of most productive 'diaspora spaces' (Brah 1996) for analysing the subaltern position of the migrant subject through literature, although not the only ones. Transoceanic movements of Afghan, Somali and/or Syrian refugees that seek shelter, the case of Hongkongers whose flexible citizenship has allowed them to ameliorate political risks, or the Windrush Generation being sent back to Jamaica by the UK Home Office are some of the myriads of diasporic experiences of interest for contemporary authors.

*CFP* "PARTICIPACIÓN CIUDADANA EN LA ESFERA DIGITAL", MONOGRÁFICO 2021-4, REVISTA COMUNICAR

Una de las cuestiones principales que se han asumido sobre el impacto de Internet y las redes sociales apuntan a la proliferación de canales de participación ciudadana, más o menos visibles, a través de la llamada esfera digital. En este sentido, la literatura ofrece una multiplicidad de visiones enfrentadas sobre la naturaleza, dinámica y perfil de este nuevo espacio. En contra de la propuesta de la creciente desconfianza en las instituciones y procesos políticos de las democracias modernas, las tecnologías digitales se han configurado repetidamente como esperanzas para el fomento y la profundización en el compromiso y la participación de los ciudadanos a través de un amplio catálogo de innovaciones democráticas. 

En esta línea, las redes sociales podrían tener un impacto directo en la movilización y el empoderamiento, capacitando a los ciudadanos para interactuar entre ellos, o con los representantes públicos, ejerciendo a veces de bypass de otros canales de comunicación más institucionalizados como los capitalizados por periodistas y su función de filtros (gatekeepers). En el mejor de los casos, estos procesos podrían conducir hacia una participación más inclusiva y significativa, y profundizar en la deliberación pública.

*CFP* "THE X-FILES COMPANION", CHAPTER PROPOSALS

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*CFP* "YEARS IN CULTURAL STUDIES", SPECIAL SECTION, LATERAL: THE JOURNAL OF THE CULTURAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION

What forgotten historical moments or contexts shaped the trajectory of cultural studies? How have individual scholars and broader social movements contributed to the cultural studies we know today? Lateral, the journal of the Cultural Studies Association, seeks to answer these questions and more through essays that interrogate cultural studies’ diverse, fragmented, and provocative history. This call is for an on-going, special section of Lateral called "Years in Cultural Studies." Essays in this collection focus on specific years in the history of Cultural Studies.

“Years in Cultural Studies” seeks to provide a pedagogical resource, a place for documentation and excavation, and a forum for storytelling. We see this work as heeding the call Ted Striphas to do “care work”—that is, infrastructural, cultivating work—to support the field of Cultural Studies. Striphas asks, “What would it mean to imagine Cultural Studies as a ‘care discipline,’ or better yet as a field in which criticism and care cohabitate?”In this spirit, “Years in Cultural Studies” provides a collection of open, accessible, student-friendly histories of the field that allow all of us to learn more about its intellectual genealogies, struggles, and contexts. 

*CFP* "MEDIA IN AMERICA, AMERICA IN MEDIA", CONFERENCE

We invite the submission of abstracts for Media in America, America in Media international conference to be held online on 25-26 March 2021. 

This is the third edition of a joint effort of the American Studies and Political Science scholars who aim to generate a cross-disciplinary debate that brings together divergent yet complementary voices reflecting on American media environment and America’s portrayals in media across the globe.

The conference Media in America, America in Media addresses a wide variety of topics across the disciplines of media, political science, language and cultural studies. 

They may include the following themes, among others:

• Media in America: 
• Media and their representations in America 

*CFP* "LA AGENCIA FEMENINA EN LAS NARRATIVAS AUDIOVISUALES", PRÓXIMO NÚMERO, REVISTA CUESTIONES DE GÉNERO

Cuestiones de género: de la igualdad y la diferencia es una revista académica de acceso abierto y periodicidad anual creada por iniciativa del Seminario Interdisciplinar de Estudios de las Mujeres de la Universidad de León. Está abierta a todos los trabajos de investigación realizados en el área de los estudios feministas y de la mujer con el objetivo de afianzar un espacio académico e interdisciplinar de indagación, encuentro y debate sobre el género. Admite contribuciones que sean inéditas y en cualquiera de las lenguas oficiales de la Unión Europea.

La Revista figura indexada en los siguientes catálogos, índices y bases de datos: CIRC, Dialnet, DICE, DOAJ, Dulcinea, ERIH Plus, Google Scholar Metrics, Google Scholar, IN-Recs, InDICEs CSIC, Latindex, MIAR, MLA-Modern Language Association Database, REBIUN, REDIB, RESH, Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, WordCat.

La revista Cuestiones de género abre convocatoria al envío de artículos originales e inéditos que aborden el tema: La agencia femenina en las narrativas audiovisuales. El plazo de envío cierra el 15 de marzo de 2021.

*CFP* "CELEBRITY AND CRISIS, CELEBRITY IN CRISIS", INTERNATIONAL 2021 CONFERENCE

Celebrity and Crisis, Celebrity in Crisis

10-13rd May, 2021

University of Bologna, Italy

 

The emergency and exceptional situations linked to crisis contexts involve a series of urgencies and perspectives that also affect the world of celebrities. Depending on the type of crisis in progress, the media define new celebrities, or place an emphasis on the actions of already known personalities. An example is Greta Thunberg, who has become an icon of the climate crisis, known to the general public above all for the importance that mass media have given to her words and actions. Or the recent "celebrities with white coats", so called to emphasize the social importance and media presence of medical experts in the Covid 19 emergency.

When cases of this type appear in the media, opinion makers and commentators usually rush to define the specificities of the celebrity on duty, also motivating the reasons for its rapid notoriety. Observations on his behavior are activated only randomly, following, in fact, the very trend of the crisis, which appear suddenly, reach the peak and then return to a stabilization logic. In other words, there seems to be a lack of systematic reflection, which instead leads to an analysis of the effects and consequences of the actions of celebrities in crisis situations.

*CFP* "VISUALISING THE SELFIE MOVEMENT: DOCUMENTING DIGITAL MATERIALITIES", VISUAL ESSAYS, THE DIGITAL CULTURE AND EDUCATION JOURNAL

Covid-19 has transformed the way we work. With domestic space now positioned up front and centre in daily working life, the humble home bookshelf has been transformed into a professional platform. Heightened online time has invited novel habits and trends such as taking, sharing and appreciating shelfies. This special issue invites visual essays on ideologies, ontologies, and epistemologies circulating in shelfies within formal and informal contexts.

Shelfies throw into relief ways of being, thinking, and valuing (or not) spaces. What objects are foregrounded and backgrounded in shelfies? What is visible and invisible? In what ways are shelfies political, affective, hermeneutic, and contested?

Visual responses to the shelfie movement have the potential of opening up a new lens for conducting and interpreting research. In addition, visual articles give (more) room to present and theorise people’s relationships with the liminal spaces we move in and out of during and post-COVID.

*CFP* CALL FOR ARTICLES, NEXT ISSUES, ECONOMÍA CREATIVA JOURNAL

The editors of Economía Creativa, an academic journal of CENTRO Advanced Design and Communication Institute, are pleased to invite you to participate in the next issues, according to the following guidelines:

 

Editorial Guidelines (Approaches and Scope)

The purpose of this publication is to contribute to the effective dissemination of new knowledge related to the field of Creative Economies, (Architecture, Marketing, Textile and Fashion Design, Communication, Film and Television, Fashion Design, Publishing Industries, Advertising, etc.), Social Innovation, and Prospective, in any of these modalities:

• New and original research reports 
• Case Studies. 
• Articles of dissemination and reviews of books on recent multimedia work, linked to the topics of specialization of the publication.

*CFP* "CHENG QING LING: THE UNTAMED", CHAPTER BOOK

Thanks to an increasing range of streaming platforms, a greater general familiarity with adaptation-driven and transmedial storytelling, and faster rates of communication among invested viewers—among other factors! —audiences today have access to an increasingly transcultural range of popular culture content. The 2019 Chinese web series Chen Qing Ling (English translation: The Untamed) is one such example. While the show is not the first of its various genres or circumstances, it has generated and sustained a wide appeal that is worth exploring.

We are soliciting book chapters for an edited scholarly collection on Chen Qing Ling/The Untamed, its contexts, and its audiences. This will be a multi-disciplinary collection that considers the show's popularity, influences, and effects from a variety of cultural and critical viewpoints. After episodes began airing on Tencent in June 2019, Chen Qing Ling/The Untamed quickly became one of China's most widely-viewed and highest-earning dramas, attracting millions of views per episode and drawing a large international audience through streaming on additional platforms. Just over a year on, the show continues to release new paratextual materials, support a vibrant transnational and transcultural fan base, and generate wider, ongoing interest in genres such as danmei, xianxia, and Cdramas. Given these effects, this collection aims to assemble a first compilation of interdisciplinary scholarship that begins to contextualize, explore, and evaluate Chen Qing Ling/The Untamed, the works that inspired it, the contexts that impacted it, and the influences it continues to have.

*CFP* CALL FOR TV/FILM REVIEWS, NEXT ISSUE, GOTHIC NATURE JOURNAL

Gothic Nature is seeking TV/ film reviews for its next issue. The show or film reviewed must have a clear thematic link to ecohorror/ecoGothic and have first appeared in 2020-21 (see some possibilities below). 

Reviews should aim for about 1,000 words in length (Harvard style and British spelling and punctuation conventions appreciated). 

Send inquiries and submissions to Sara L. Crosby at crosby.sara@gmail.com. For further information about the journal, please visit the website.

Partial list of 2020/21 films and TV series that could potentially be reviewed from an ecohorror/ecoGothic standpoint:

*CFP* "OBSCENITY AND CENSORSHIP: (RE)CONSTRUCTING TABOOS", 34TH ANNUAL INTERDISCIPLINARY GRADUATE STUDENT SYMPOSIUM

Obscenity & Censorship: (Re)Constructing Taboos

34th Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Symposium 

April 9th-10th, 2021

Graduate Association of French and Italian, Virtual Conference

A word, or a phrase or a work of art deemed obscene for not following the moral structures and sensibilities of a particular period is a tale as old as time. Yet, we as humans often take these judgments at face value, attributing it to the dominant culture at hand and uttering it?s just the way things are. If we turn a more critical eye to these works that were not only accused of being obscene, but also underwent a trial to validate that judgment, it bears asking: who or what has the authority to deem a work of art as such. Who or what determines that an exposed breast in a painting by Rosso Fiorentino is less obscene than a paragraph of libertine literature penned by the Marquis de Sade or than a cinematographic shot of male genitalia in the Decameron?

 

We invite you to address and dialogue with the inherent morality or obscenity within our numerous and varied fields of study. This ambiguous, if not ambivalent, judgment placed on works of art can also quite easily be extended to pop culture and everyday life. We hope that GAFIS 2021 will be a place of compelling and productive interdisciplinary discussion on the topic of obscenity.

*CFP* "OBSCENITY & CENSORSHIP", 34TH ANNUAL INTERDISCIPLINARY GRADUATE STUDENT SYMPOSIUM

34th Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Symposium

April 9 & 10, 2021 Virtual Conference

The "Obscenity & Censorship" Conference

 

A word, or a phrase or a work of art deemed obscene for not following the moral structures and sensibilities of a particular period is a tale as old as time. Yet, we as humans often take these judgments at face value, attributing it to the dominant culture at hand and uttering it?s just the way things are. If we turn a more critical eye to these works that were not only accused of being obscene, but also underwent a trial to validate that judgment, it bears asking: who or what has the authority to deem a work of art as such. Who or what determines that an exposed breast in a painting by Rosso Fiorentino is less obscene than a paragraph of libertine literature penned by the Marquis de Sade or than a cinematographic shot of male genitalia in the Decameron?

*CFP* "HISTORIES OF WOMEN IN FILM AND TELEVISION: THEN AND NOW", HYBRID CONFERENCE

Sarah Arnold is happy to announce a call for papers for the conference 'Histories of Women in Film and Television: Then and Now' taking place as a hybrid virtual/on-site event on July 10th and 11th 2021. This conference has two strands: the first is a strand that is a refreshed call for papers that fall under the theme of 'Doing Women's Film & Television Histories'; and the second strand concentrates on the theme of Women and the BBC in anticipation of the BBC centenary 2022. Please see below for details:

DWFTH 5 revised for 2021: New call for papers. 'Histories of Women in Film and Television: Then and Now.' A Hybrid Conference: July 10 - 11, 2021 (virtual and on-campus at Maynooth University, Kildare, Ireland)

Supported by Women’s Film & Television History Network, this call for papers is made in collaboration with ‘Women and the BBC’, a special themed issue of Critical Studies in Television.

"ESPECTÁCULO DE FRONTERA Y CONTRANARRATIVAS MIGRANTES. REPRESENTACIÓN Y AUTORREPRESENTACIÓN AUDIOVISUAL DE LOS MIGRANTES Y REFUGIADOS EN DOS ORILLAS DEL ATLÁNTICO", ENCUENTRO ONLINE CINE Y MOVILIDAD

Espectáculo de frontera y contranarrativas migrantes. Representación y autorepresentación audiovisual de los migrantes y refugiados en dos orillas del Atlántico

16 de diciembre de 2020, 17:00 horas (Madrid).

Acceso: meet.google.com/uxb-qjuk-qtb

Twitter: @CinemahMov

 

Este seminario propone un diálogo en torno a la representación y autorepresentación mediática de la movilidad humana. Tomando como punto de partida diversos materiales audiovisuales, veremos cómo se trabajan las desigualdades geopolíticas y las particularidades de países emisores, de tránsito y receptores de migrantes y refugiados, con especial atención a la situación de las fronteras en Europa y América. En este contexto, atenderemos a las representaciones alternativas y a las autorepresentaciones de migrantes y refugiadas en espacios fronterizos, entendidas como cuerpos racializados, feminizados, empobrecidos. El encuentro se centrará en narrativas que cuestionan los discursos mediáticos hegemónicos sobre migración y analizará las posibilidades de construir formas disruptivas que intervengan en las problemáticas migratorias contemporáneas.

*CFP* "A CRITICAL COMPANION TO JULIE TAYMOR", CRITICAL COMPANIONS TO CONTEMPORARY DIRECTORS LEXINGTON BOOKS SERIES

Considered as a true visionary, Julie Taymor is one of the of the most experimental and intellectually engaged film and theatrical directors working today. Her fusion of folklore, pop-culture, and classic literature has resulted in a series of fascinating and intellectually demanding works, both on stage and screen. From her beginnings with downtown not-for-profit theater through her Broadway successes and failures to her idiosyncratic career in Hollywood, Taymor has proven herself a notable and important artist. 

This collection will explore Taymor’s career, with an emphasis on her work in film, from Fool’s Fire (1992) to more renown productions such as Titus (1999), Frida (2002), The Tempest (2010) and the recent The Glorias (2020). As the first comprehensive scholarly volume on Taymor, covering her entire career in cinema, we are currently inviting the submission of 250-300 word abstracts for essays to be included in A Critical Companion to Julie Taymor set to be published in the Lexington Books series Critical Companions to Contemporary Directors, edited by Adam Barkman and Antonio Sanna.