*CFP* "POST-CONFLICT CULTURES IN ASIA", MAJOR VOLUME, THE STUDIES IN POST-CONFLICT CULTURES SERIES

Critical, Cultural and Communications Press (London) announces the publication in early 2023 of a major volume focusing on post-conflict cultures in Asia.

The Studies in Post-Conflict Cultures series, which was inaugurated in 2006, has to this date published ten anthologies and three monographs exploring the cultural consequences of conflict across the globe. This is an ongoing series, originating in an Anglo-Italian Leverhulme-funded project, examining the specifically cultural aftermath of periods of national or international conflict, understood as war, civil war, dictatorship, terrorism, revolution, colonialism or persecution. 

No chronological or disciplinary boundaries are applied. Studies may be historical or contemporary, and may fall within any subject field. The ten volumes so far published have brought together international experts from disciplines as diverse as Political Science, History, Law, Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, Semiotics, Geography, Film Studies, Anthropology and Literature Studies. CCC Press intends to publish a major volume of papers on post-conflict cultures in Asia in the first half of 2023. 

*CFP* CALL FOR PARTICIPATION, I INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF CINEMA AND FILM ANALYSIS

I International Symposium of Cinema and Film Analysis (Online)

17-19 November 2021

 

We are delighted to invite proposals from academic researchers to be presented at the I International Symposium of Cinema and Film Analysis; organized by the CNPq research group CineArte – Cinema, Film Analysis, and Intellectual Experience. The event will be held online from 17-19 November 2021, and our goal is to deepen and broaden the exchange between research works centered on film analysis by gathering different perspectives, observing the outcomes when selecting different theoretical approaches and methodologies, and seeing how film language can be intertwined with numerous fields of study.

We are interested in the moving image studies, sound, film analysis definitions, case studies, changes throughout the time, and debates centered beyond movies, such as the interchange between other fields of study within the Arts and Human Sciences. The Symposium is a result of an interdisciplinary exchange between researchers who investigate the relationship between cinema, audiovisual, by selecting film analysis as a methodology within different usages and contexts. 

*CFP* CALL FOR ARTICLES, NEXT GENERAL ISSUE, COLLOQUY JOURNAL

Colloquy is an open access journal published twice annually by postgraduate students in the Literary and Cultural Studies Graduate Research Program at Monash University.

We publish articles from across the theoretical humanities, including literary and cultural studies, critical theory, continental philosophy, film and television studies, communication and media studies, and performance studies. We also publish translations, creative writing and book reviews. All work, except for book reviews, is double-blind peer reviewed.

We are currently looking for submissions for our general issue, to be published in mid-2021. The deadline for submissions will be the 30th of April and authors will be notified as soon as possible about the outcome of their submission.

Our submission policies can be found here and our editorial team can be contacted using the following email address: arts-colloquy@monash.edu

The latest issue of Colloquy, a general issue, was published in December 2020: issue 39.

*CFP* "ANIMALITY AND TEXTUALITY", SPECIAL ISSUE, WORD AND TEXT JOURNAL

In “But as for me, who am I (following)?”, the second section of The Animal That Therefore I Am, Jacques Derrida contextualises his interest in a certain passage in Plato’s Phaedrus as a systematic interest in what he calls “the animality of writing”. Derrida diagnoses in the traditional anthropocentric opposition between the (human) ability to respond and mere animal reaction an echo of the ancient denunciations of writing as language that cannot reply back – opaque and mindless. In fact, as he demonstrates in Of Grammatology and elsewhere, the histories of the condemnation of writing and of the devaluation of animality are intertwined and feed off each other. Both are characterised as a deviation from the source of truth – speech and/or the soul – carried out by a certain embodiment.

In the current state of the increasingly institutionalised field of Animal Studies, the same opaqueness that was held against both animality and writing has been defended as a productive nexus in which to think about animals and their relationship to text. For example, Anat Pick’s concept of the creaturely, characterised by its focus on embodiment, has proved influential in conceptualising both animal and human being.

*CFP* "SPECTROLOGY, HAUNTING AND GHOSTS", SPRING SEMINAR 2021

Spring Seminar 2021 

Spectrology, Haunting and Ghosts

6th-7th, May 2021

Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto, Portugal

 

Some artworks, from cinema to visual arts and photography, have absorbed phenomena like ghosts, zombies, illness, death, spectra, apparitions, and other kind of “in-between” states of being. This kind of liminality is a way of bringing forward in our historical present its profound ambiguity. 

Images are ontologically problematic in their approach to reality. They are always a representation of a time and a space, and their manipulation puts into question their indexicality.

 

This liminality of ghosts, spectra and apparitions is also a way of analyzing the complexity of our historical present, in both its linearity and a cross-over of past, present and future. Therefore, these “in-between” states discuss issues of the traumatic past, as are empowerments to change the future. That is, the traumatic past haunts the historical present demanding new ways of knowing the world and history that will transform power structures.

*CFP* "MEDIA-ENTERPRISE. DISCOURSES AND PRACTICES OF CINEMA AND THE MEDIA IN CORPORATE CULTURE", ISSUE 1, THE CINEMA E STORIA JOURNAL

The reconstruction of the Italian social fabric in the aftermath of WWII did not involve only the re-establishment of a democratic political framework after a twenty year-long Fascist dictatorship; it also implied a painstaking restoration of national industry, which had been seriously affected by the global conflict. As part of this process, increasingly wide portions of Italian territory were converted from agricultural to industrial use, new ways to improve the efficiency of mass production were introduced, and the ‘Marshall Plan’ helped with its substantial funding programme. The latter also updated generally the modes of communication at work within public companies and private enterprises, renewing the ways that both workers and consumers were informed, persuaded, and recruited.

This special issue, Media-Enterprise Discourses and Practices of Cinema and the Media in Corporate Culture, will focus on the complex set of relations between corporate culture and media discourses and practices. In taking the well-acknowledged governmental instrumentalisation of the medium of film and the increasing attention devoted to “sponsored” and “industrial” cinema as points of departure, we aim to expand these reflections to different media domains. As well as assessing industrial enterprises and corporations as subjects or commissioners of audiovisual representations, we intend to account for the role played by media-technologies within business, from the end of WWII to the present day.

*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* "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* "TOWARDS COSMOPOLITAN MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES: BRINGING DIVERSE EPISTEMIC PERSPECTIVES INTO THE FIELD", SPECIAL ISSUE, GLOBAL MEDIA JOURNAL, GERMAN EDITION

This Special Issue of Global Media Journal Towards Cosmopolitan Media and Communication Studies engages with the ongoing conversation on diversifying perspectives in the field. We believe that it is a normative imperative to shape our field towards more openness as ‘research thrives in diversity, and not in the singular dominance of certain methods, theories, or approaches’ (Tandoc et al. 2020). Epistemic consequences of dominant modes of knowledge production risk being viewed as the only legitimate knowledge claims. It can lead to the invisibility of entire research landscapes’ linguistic terrains, prevalence of the English language as lingua franca and difficulties to establish a horizontal dialogue among communication scholars’ communities. #CommunicationSoWhite (Chakravartty et al., 2018) highlighted exclusion of scholarly voices. In the spirit of a more open discipline, we choose using the concept ‘academic cosmopolitanism’ as a helpful way of thinking to creating more inclusive networks and a democratic and open approach to scholarly exchange (Beck, 2006; Waisbord, 2016; Ganter & Ortega, 2019; Badr, et.al., 2020; Ganter, 2020).

Instead of lamenting the situation, we consider this Special Issue a practical scholarly response to contribute to opening media and communication studies up. Academic cosmopolitanism combines intellectual and structural critique and aspires to create common spaces with room for differentiation. This Special Issue is a chance to practice ‘mindful inclusiveness’ towards under-represented geopolitical, methodological, and theoretical strands (Rao, 2019).

*CFP* "TOTAL SCREEN: WHY JEAN BAUDRILLARD, ONCE AGAIN?", SPECIAL ISSUE, MAST JOURNAL

What place does or could Jean Baudrillard occupy in media studies, visual studies, and art theory today? How does his work—as both a philosopher and a vernacular photographer—continue to influence visual artists and other forms of media art? How can we confront his radical views with feminist, intersectional, queer, postcolonial, and other critical approaches? This special issue of MAST journal seeks to answer and further explore these questions through proposals from arts practitioners and theorists.

Provocative, eclectic, ironic, playful, and anticipatory, Baudrillard’s thinking propels both the image and photography—and that which evades them—into a dimension that inspires, questions, amazes, and disturbs. Almost thirty years after 1991, when he argued that “the Gulf War did not take place” (Baudrillard, 1995) in an attempt to demonstrate the extent to which our society of images has deviated from an already-vanished reality; almost twenty years after 9/11, when he referred to the destruction of the Twin Towers on live television as a symbiotic apex between experience and its image; his conception of the image, of its forms, and of its plasticity remain resolutely contemporary and open to criticism.

*CFP* "STORYTELLING AND THE BODY", 2ND GLOBAL INCLUSIVE CONFERENCE

Storytelling and the Body: 2nd Global Inclusive Conference

Progressive Connexions

12th-13th March 2021

Lisbon, Portugal

Bodies of all kinds surround us. Glamorous bodies, modified bodies, healthy or unhealthy bodies, engineered bodies, trafficked bodies, in/visible bodies, dismembered bodies, persecuted bodies—ubiquitous and ever-present, we cannot help but notice them. But how do understand them? Through stories. Both fiction and non-fiction stories shape our understanding of what constitutes a/the body in the first place, and then create norms about how a body should look, behave, experience the world and even how bodies should interact with each other. Further, stories shape our perceptions of what constitutes deviant, abject, non-normative, frightening or otherwise undesirable bodies.

*CFP* “CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON MIGRATION IN DISCOURSE AND COMMUNICATION”, STUDIES IN COMMUNICATION SCIENCES THEMATIC SECTION

We are seeking contributions for a thematic section of Studies in Communication Sciences (SComS) exploring discursive constructions of migration. SComS is a peer-reviewed journal of communication and media research with platinum open-access (no article processing charges).

The massive movement of migrant and refugee populations from war and conflict zones to Europe in summer 2015 created a state of emergency for the member-states and institutions of the European Union (EU). More specifically, in the context of the so-called “refugee crisis” (2015-2017) new fences and borders were raised in Europe as well as alarming racist and hateful discourses were disseminated (see Mussolf 2017; Assimakopoulos et al. 2018). During this polarized period, studies that adopt a critical perspective focused on the examination of migration, racism and xenophobia across various fields of research in communication sciences (see e.g. Krzyzanowski, Wodak & Triantafyllidou 2018).

This thematic section aims at advancing this perspective in communication sciences by gathering cutting-edge research revolving around the discursive/communicative constructions of the migratory phenomenon and the related new forms of racism traced in various European countries (e.g. Greece, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, United Kingdom etc.).

*CFP* “DECOLONISING FILM AND SCREEN STUDIES”, EDITED VOLUME

… you cannot mobilize a movement that is only and always against; you must have a positive alternative, a vision of a better future that can motivate people to sacrifice their time and energy toward its realization.

Obioma Nnaemeka, “Nego-feminism: Theorizing, Practicing, and Pruning Africa’s Way”, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society,//29.2 (2003), p.364

Inspired by the RhodesMustFall movement at the University of Cape Town in May 2015, certain higher education institutions, individuals and collectives across the world have engaged in renewed, contemporary work to try to decolonise academia over the past four years. These movements are not new, and need to be historicised in relation to the long history of struggles for political decolonisation, complex engagement with the word “decolonisation” itself, and a wealth of significant theorizing around decolonising (e.g. wa Thiong’o 1986, Tuhiwai Smith 1999). These contemporary movements are also not uncontested, with some arguing that the term “decolonisation” has provided a useful way of bringing together academics from different disciplines with similar agendas around transformation, and others arguing that the term hides a range of distinct activities and practices, some of which appropriate or exploit the term without real commitment to fostering change.

*CFP* "EL POSTHUMANISMO Y LA NARRATIVA BREVE HISPÁNICA", NÚMERO 14, LEJANA: REVISTA CRÍTICA DE NARRATIVA BREVE 2021

Lejana. Revista Crítica de Narrativa Breve invita a colaborar en el número 14 en el monográfico `El posthumanismo y la narrativa breve hispánica´. 

Este número tiene el objetivo de reflexionar sobre la vigencia del posthumanismo y los conceptos afines enumerados, ofreciendo tanto reflexiones teóricas como análisis de obras concretas de narrativa breve en español, entendida esta categoría como una que abarca toda obra en prosa peninsular o hispanoamericana, escrita en español, desde la época medieval hasta nuestros días, que tenga extensión limitada, comprendiendo géneros y subgéneros variadísimos en la amplia gama desde el microcuento hasta la nouvelle o la novela corta.

Se esperan artículos monográficos relacionados con las siguientes líneas de investigación, dejando posibilidades abiertas para proponer otras:

*CFP* "PHILOSOPHY AND LANDSCAPE. EAST AND WEST", SPECIAL ISSUE 2020, THE JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS AND PHENOMENOLOGY

The landscapes we live within play a vital role in all aspects of human life and have become an important locus of phenomenological analysis. Often, landscapes are venerated for their beauty, sublimity, or their sacred status. Others, those too close to notice, the mundane landscapes of our everyday lives, hide themselves and in so doing are no less (or perhaps more) important for determining how we are as human beings, how we move, perceive, imagine, and think, perhaps even how we philosophize. We find ourselves as earthbound beings among the landscapes of the sacred and the mundane, the elevated and the everyday, the visible and the invisible. Inquiring between and beyond these binaries, the Fall 2020 volume of the The Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology will explore the various thinkers and artists East and West who have disclosed the rich potential of landscape for philosophy.

Submissions are welcome from all philosophical approaches and traditions exploring any number of issues or debates relating to and expanding the philosophies and phenomenological analysis of aesthetic issues relating to landscape; including, landscape art, painting, sculpture, landscape gardens, representations in cinema, virtual landscapes, topics relating to landscape and territory, migration, pilgrimage, religion, boundaries/borders, geophilosophy, the environment, as well as philosophies of place, environmental aesthetics, and issues arising from intercultural dialogue on landscape art and aesthetics.

*CFP* “KNOWLEDGE INFRAESTRUCTURES AND DIGITAL GOVERNANCE. HISTORY, CHALLENGES, PRACTICES”, OPERAS 2020 WORKSHOP

Knowledge Infraestructures and Digital Governance. History, Challenges, Practices

Three-day OPERAS 2020 Workshop

7-9 de Septiembre 2020

University of Luxembourg, Luxemburgo

This 3 days workshop is organized by the OPERAS (a European research infrastructure for the development of open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities) community. It aims at revisiting digital knowledge infrastructures from an organisational and governance perspective, through their history, their stakes and achievements, as well as their challenges and obstacles.

Our workshop aims to explore how these infrastructures frame themselves, evolve and adapt, how they stimulate participation and implement innovative models of governance (e.g. Wikipedia) as well as how they create a shared culture and common values, how they sustain knowledge commons and may contribute to a new epistemology and scientific environment.

*CFP* "RIDICULE AND HUMOUR IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: THE POLITICS OF LAUGHTER IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA AGE", EDITED COLLECTION

Ridicule and humour, while making people laugh and at times appreciate their conditions of existence or even push them to make alterations – as a capacitor for change – has been one of the accessible ways of coping or bringing about change in society. In some cases it has been the dictators’ ways of resisting change. Daily we encounter humorous engagements thanks to the digitized public spheres which have made these accessible on the click of a button. While humour, ridicule and comedy could be seen as lighter and pleasant forms of and to human communications, identity markers, they have the potential of engendering hatred, violence and hatred based on social, political, ethnic or racial lines. 

However, in some cases attempts at humorously depicting societal ills and perceived realities have led to debates and attitudes that may drive people apart, moreso in ethnically or racially fractious communities like South Africa where the privileged few stained with ‘whiteliness’ and white privilege insist that the world be seen, and understood to function only through the way they see and understand it. In other cases, humour has been critical at providing people with an avenue to face their fears especially during disasters and pandemics like the Coronavirus (Covi-19) and others, political crises such as coups and stolen elections and many others.

*CFP* "COMMUNICATION, CAPITALISM AND CRITIQUE: CRITICAL MEDIA SOCIOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY", ESA RN-18 MID-TERM CONFERENCE

Communication, Capitalism and Critique: Critical Media Sociology in the 21st Century

ESA RN-18 mid-term conference, Turin, Italy, 10-12/9/2020

We live in times of deepening economic, political, social, ideological and ecological crises that are expressed in widespread precarious labour, the commodification of (almost) everything, the rise of new nationalism, populism and authoritarian forms of capitalism, and ecological destruction. The display of power and counter-power, domination and spaces of power struggles, and the commons and the commodification of the commons characterise modern society. Contradictions and antagonisms between the haves and the have-nots shape contemporary Europe and beyond. Media and communication are fields of conflict in this power struggle: they are power structures and sites of power struggles, able to support both the expansion and the commodification of the commons.

On reflection of the conference place, Turin was the city where Gramsci lived, was politically active and where he set up the weekly newspaper ‘L’Ordine Nuovo’ and acted as editor of the newspaper ‘Il Grido del Popolo’. Gramsci exerted influence on the study of culture and communication in society. ESA RN18’s mid-term conference in Turin is an occasion for media/communication/cultural sociologists to ask: What is the relevance of Gramsci and other approaches and thinkers inspired by Marx for the study of communication and society today?

*CFP* “MEDIATING PLACE: MEMORY, CULTURE AND EXPERIENCE”, MECCSA POSTGRADUATE NETWORK 2020 CONFERENCE

MeCCSA Postgraduate Network 2020 Conference

Mediating Place: Memory, Culture and Experience

10-11 de Septiembre de 2020

University of Brighton, UK

Place is something more often sensed than understood, an indistinct region of awareness rather than something clearly defined. 'Place' has no fixed identity, as places themselves do not, and has similarly been subject to numerous demands, whether theological or philosophical, political or aesthetic (Tacita Dean and Jeremy Millar, Place, 2005, p. 14).

Dean and Millar’s comments encapsulate the pervasiveness of place in contemporary research – but also point to its inherently contested nature. The interaction of ideas, experiences and cultures of place are always already infused with power, politics and the plurality of possible pasts, presents and futures.

*CFP* “SILENCE TO THE PROCLAMATION!”: A HALF-DAY INTERDISCIPLINARY SYMPOSIUM UPON PUBLIC PERFORMANCES OF AUTHORITY IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND

A half-day Interdisciplinary Symposium Upon Public Performances of Authority in Early Modern England

Silence to the Proclamation

10 de Marzo de 2020

Jesus College, University of Oxford, UK

What did it mean to make a proclamation in early modern England? What performance was required from a Justice of the Peace to arrest their neighbour? And how did popular drama’s use of common processes of authority like these contribute to or alter their meaning?

This symposium aims to bring together researchers from English, history, political thought and performance studies, in order to probe some of these questions. It builds from recent currents in early modern history, considering the lived experience of government, and the state as social actor, and from the increased interest in the modalities of performance in early modern literary studies. It hopes to foster discussion across disciplinary boundaries, to explore different ways of approaching the ways that authority was performed in ordinary life, and to offer a new approach to social and legal history.