Category: Conferences

Digital Transformations, Social Media Engagement & the Asian Century (Australia)

Planning is highly advanced for the International Communication Association Regional Conference, “Digital Transformations, Social Media Engagement, and the Asian Century”, to be held at the Queensland U of Technology (Gardens Point campus) from 1-3 October 2014.

The conference has a very exciting range of keynote speakers, including incoming ICA President Peter Vorderer (U of Mannheim), Mohan Dutta (National U of Singapore), Cynthia Stohl (U of California Santa Barbara), Jack Linchuan Qiu (Chinese U of Hong Kong), Yi-Hui Christine Huang (Chinese U of Hong Kong), ICA fellows Cindy Gallois (U of Queensland) and John Hartley (Curtin U), Lance Bennett (U of Washington), Christoph Neuberger (LMU U, Munich), and Stuart Cunningham (Queensland U of Technology).

There will be a range of special events taking place, including a forum on “Science Communication in the Digital Age” hosted by the U of Queensland at the historic Customs House, and “Crisis Communication in Chinese Context”, sponsored by the Public Relations Institute of Australia. There are also special lunchtime sessions on academic publishing convened by the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA) and Taylor & Francis, as well as over 50 paper sessions, panels and poster sessions.

Information on the conference can be found on the conference website. Early bird registration ($300 for faculty and $150 for graduate students) is available until 22 August 2014, with final registration by 12 September 2014. A draft program can be accessed from the conference website, as well as information about accommodation in Brisbane.

CFP Irish regional press (Dublin)

Proposals are invited for papers to be presented at an upcoming interdisciplinary conference on the Irish regional press to be held at Dublin City University (DCU) on Friday 12 December 2014. The conference aims to address the historical and contemporary development of the regional press in the major urban centres and rural areas across Ireland. This conference is organised in association with the Newspaper and Periodical History Forum of Ireland (NPHFI).

Papers might address, but are not limited to, the historical and contemporary consideration of the following themes in relation to the Irish regional press:
·         Biographies of reporters, editors or owners
·         History of individual newspapers
·         Corporate and business organisation
·         Political influence and / or affiliation
·         Professional networks
·         Sport
·         Gender
·         Technological and communication developments
·         The community and social role of the regional press
·         The Irish Language and the regional press
·         The urban-rural divide
·         Union organisation

Papers which address these themes, and others, from an historical or regional perspective, through case studies or quantitative and qualitative analysis are welcome. The conference is open to all disciplines. Early career researchers and postgraduate students are particularly encouraged to contribute.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words, for papers of twenty minutes, should be emailed to irishregionalpress@gmail.com by Friday 3 October 2014. Abstracts should clearly indicate the proposed title, the paper’s main aims, and the name and affiliation of the author(s ). Abstracts should be accompanied by a brief biography and contact details.

For further information or enquiries please contact either Ian Kenneally (ian.kenneally@gmail.com) or James O’Donnell (jamesthomasodonnell@gmail.com

). It is intended that the papers and discussion at this conference will contribute to an edited volume on the history of the Irish regional press to be published with a leading academic publishing house.

CFP Media, War and Memory (New Zealand)

Conference Call for Papers: Media, War and Memory
September 18–19, 2014
Venue: Sir Paul Reeves Building, AUT University (Auckland, New Zealand)

Keynote Speakers: Andrew Hoskins, University of Glasgow and Fay Anderson, Monash University

A century after 1914, it is timely to consider how World War I was started, prosecuted and reported on, from different national perspectives. How does this conflict appear in retrospect? As a prequel to World War II? The ‘beginning’ of the 20th century? Or as an avoidable, stand-alone catastrophe? These questions provoke wider reflection upon the connections between media, war and memory. What are these connections? How have they changed over time? Conference participants will, we hope, respond to these questions.

To this end, the following themes suggest themselves:
World War I
• Paths to war, patterns of news coverage
• Diplomacy, communication and the telegraph
• Atrocities and propaganda
• Frontline testimonials, journalism, poetry
• Domestic dissent

Race, culture, genocide
• Imperialism, colonialism, indigineity
• Jewish holocaust
• Armenian massacres
• Testimonies, amnesia Gender and depictions of war
• Masculinity, heroism
• War and patriarchy
• War, rape, testimony
• Women war journalists
• Women combatants

Journalism, media, civil conflict
• Spanish civil war
• Sri Lanka
• Balkans, Bosnia, Serbia
• US civil war
• Occupation, resistance, testimony

War, historiography and revisionism
• War novels
• Non-fiction tomes, wars, battles
• Military biographies
• Documentaries
• Conflicting retrospectives of major conflicts

Australia and NZ coverage of ‘overseas’ conflicts
• Boer War, WWI, WWII
• Cold war conflicts; Malaysia, Vietnam, Timor, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan etc.
• ANZAC mythologies
• Wartime censorship
• War, mobilization and dissent

War, propaganda, ideology
• Chomsky, Herman and the ‘propaganda’ model
• News ‘framing’ and war coverage
• Orientalism and colonial wars
• War and national identity
• Memorialism; ceremonies, monuments, museums
• Forgotten wars

Frontline war reporting
• War correspondents
• ‘Embedded’ journalists • Journalistic ethics
• Patriotism and ‘independent’ reporting

Information-communication technologies and war
• Global television, 24/7 ‘real time’ wars
• War and media spectacle
• Media space, battle space, ‘full spectrum dominance’
• Information and cyber warfare
• Online journalism, blogospheres, social media

Media constructions of ‘terrorism’
• Legitimate vs. illegitimate violence
• Terrorists, revolutionaries, freedom fighters
• Post 9-11 media discourses in US, Middle East
• Terrorism and orientalism

Abstracts due: July 30, 2014 (400 words maximum)

Send to: Verica Rupar
Curriculum Leader, Journalism
School of Communication Studies
AUT University

CFP Urban Communities in Conflict and Dialogue preconference

Call for Submissions
Pre-Conference on Urban Communities and Communication at 2014 NCA Conference:
Urban Communities’ Present(s), Past(s), & Future(s) In Conflict and In Dialogue

Chicago, Illinois
Wednesday, November 19
Full Day (9 am – 5 pm)

Co-Chairs
Matthew Matsaganis, State University of New York – Albany, NY
Peter Haratonik, The New School, New York, NY

Respondents
Susan Drucker, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
Gary Gumpert, Urban Communication Foundation, Great Neck, NY

DESCRIPTION & RATIONALE
Under the title “Technology is Not Driving Us Apart After All,” a recent New York Times article featured the research of Keith Hampton, a sociologist by training and a scholar of communication. Hampton’s (and his students’) work builds on the groundbreaking work of sociologist William H. Whyte. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Whyte, working with the New York City Planning Commission led a series of granular studies of the city’s public spaces. He and his collaborators spent many hours filming and photographing people in public spaces, taking detailed notes about how they behaved. The project became known as the Street Life Project. It was considered revolutionary in urban planning, both because of the methods employed and its findings. Whyte argued that this type of close and systematic observation of human behavior would provide insights into how policy could help people lead happier lives; lives in which individuals would not feel alienated from their neighbors.

Hampton’s work has taken on a similar set of questions, focusing though on what many deem to be the atomizing forces of our day: new communication technologies and, of course, the Internet.

Beyond the actual and fascinating findings of this work, the project undertaken by Hampton and his students reminds us that in our future-focused societies, researchers, too, frequently forget to look back to the past. Hampton revisited and learned from Whyte. Looking back can be enlightening.

Inspired by this example and in response to the call for submissions for the 2014 NCA conference, this preconference will bring together scholars and professionals from multiple areas within the discipline, but also from other fields of inquiry, to explore and discuss theoretical perspectives, new and ongoing field research findings, as well as case studies aimed at enhancing our understanding of:
(a) Communication patterns in urban communities;
(b) How these patterns are shaped by and shape the physical, built, and social environment of the places we live in;
(c) How the communication ecologies we construct in the process of our everyday lives impact our well-being; and
(d) The positive and negative ways in which policy interventions influence the communication environment of cities.
Historical perspectives on any of these topics, research revisiting old and persistent issues of everyday life in the city, and longitudinal studies will be particularly welcomed.

FORMAT
The pre-conference will unfold in a series of higher density panels, which will be organized thematically, and during which more colleagues (approximately 6) will be invited to present short position papers, research reports, or case studies (length: 7-10 pages, double-spaced). Presentations will be brief to allow more time for dialogue and debate among presenters and audience members. There will be 4-5 such panels held throughout the course of the day. The final number will depend on the number and quality of submissions, as well as the range of themes that emerge out of the submissions.

PROCEDURES FOR SUBMITTING ABSTRACTS & PAPERS To participate, please submit an abstract for the short position paper, research report, or case study you wish to contribute to the pre-conference. The deadline for submitting an abstract, which should be no longer than 200-250 words, is September 1. Abstracts should be submitted electronically to the co-chairs, Matthew Matsaganis and Peter Haratonik.

A committee composed of NCA members with UCF representation will review all submissions and inform the authors of the submissions rated the highest by October 1, 2014.

For colleagues whose abstract is accepted, full papers (7-10 pages in length, double-spaced) will have to be submitted by November 1. They will be made available in advance of the pre-conference, so that participants/attendees have a chance to review them prior to the actual meeting on November 19 in Chicago. The final seminar schedule will also be made available by November 15, 2014.

More information regarding the pre-conference at NCA will be made available later in the summer and over the first few weeks of fall via the Urban Communication Foundation’s website and Facebook page.

Statelessness and Transcontinental Migration conference (Spain)

‘Statelessness and Transcontinental Migration’
UNU-GCM’s Second Conference

UNU-GCM is organizing its second conference on ‘Statelessness and Transcontinental Migration’, on 24th and 25th July 2014. It will include five sections addressing issues of: citizenship, human security, urban vulnerabilities, non-state actors in migration management and sub-Saharan migration to the Mediterranean. Alongside the academic discussions, non-academic events will address statelessness through artistic production and activities.

This conference focuses on a range of issues related to the wellbeing and recognition of people who traverse continents devoid of citizenship. Issues related to refugees remain crucially unanswered in debates and policies surrounding migration. In the wake of acknowledgement within the academy that it is not always possible to isolate refugees from migrants, this conference analyses a range of contexts where dignity and human rights are compromised through the absence of legal and political recognition. By focusing on situations of extreme vulnerability and on lives lived on the borderline, this conference seeks to articulate and address urgent needs with regard to the stateless migrants who have entered Europe.

Keynote speakers:
Professor Eduard Sagarra iTrias, ‘The Necessity of Immigration in the Globalized World’, President of the United Nations Associations of Spain (ANUE), Barcelona / University of Barcelona
Professor Khadija Elmadmad, ‘Statelessness and Migration: The Case of de facto and de jure
stateless children in Morocco’, Director of The UNESCO Centre, The Law and Migration (CUDM)

Mob-ility symposium (Italy)

Mob-ility Symposium
Wake Forest University
October 10, 2014
Casa Artom, Venice, Italy

Submissions due July 31, 2014

The story of Camillo Artom is one of mobility, the theme of the Mob-ility Symposium, to be held on October 10, 2014. The Symposium is an opportunity to reflect on the movement of persons, ideas, traditions, goods, and the political, social, and cultural ramifications of mobility, as they relate to the changing practices in travel, the environment, social-economic status, and technology.

These often include, but are not limited to, discussion of citizenship, immigration, diasporas, belonging, and place. Specifically, the Symposium invites a focus on the people who move (the ‘mob’ in mobility): migrants, travelers, tourists, temporary citizens, and asylum seekers, refugees, stateless people. Venice is a perfect site for the ‘Mob-ility Symposium’ as a historic trade city, a merchants’ harbor where people have always come and gone.

Keynote speaker: Dima Mohammed, a Palestinian argumentation scholar who is currently working at the Argumentation Lab of the Instituto de Filosofia da Nova at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. Her domain of specialization includes argumentation theory, philosophy of language, persuasion research and political philosophy.

Invited: papers, paper abstracts, discussion panels, and encourage creative submissions related to all aspects of mobility, including:
*Migration, immigration, emigration
*Diaspora, exile, refuge, asylum
*Citizenship rights, nationality, borders
*Socio-economic status
*Travel, transportation
*Technology, mobile modes of communication
*Environment, sustainability
*Security, surveillance

Papers must not exceed 25 pages and must include a title, the author’s/s’ affiliation, and contact information. Paper Abstracts must not exceed 2 pages and must include a title, the
author’s/s’ affiliation, and contact information. Discussion Panels or Performances/Creative Expressions must include a 250-word rationale, a 250-word abstract of each proposed paper or contribution, and a list of presenters with affiliation and contact information.

Submissions from faculty, students, artists, activists, practitioners, and community members are all encouraged. Thanks to the Provost’s Office for Global Affairs, the Symposium is free and open to the public. Space is limited.

Send/Email all submissions to:
Alessandra Von Burg
Department of Communication
Box 7347, Reynolda Station
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC 27109

CFP From Multitudes to Crowds in Social Movements (Lisbon)

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
From Multitude to Crowds in Social Movements – publics, gatherings, networks and media in the 21th century
Lisbon, 26-27 January 2015
Co-organized by CECL/CECC
hosted by the Catholic University of Portugal

The International Conference “From Multitude to Crowds in Social Movements – publics, gatherings, networks and media in the 21th century” aims to discuss media relevance on present-day social movements and if and how collective action is being transformed in contemporary mediatized societies (Adolf, 2011; Burton, 2010). How should we think the relation between mediatization and public experience? What is the symbolic meaning attached to the occupation of public spaces such as streets, plazas or official premises? How do social movements’ commitment to change (Tilly, 1977) use social media to establish a unified system of belief? How do they relate to the “crisis of representation” in contemporary social and political systems? What is the place of crowds in social movements? What is the relation between multitudes, crowds and publics? How do publics engage in “public action regimes” (Cefaï and Pasquier, 2003)? How are Sociology, Political Science and Communication Sciences reacting to the new developments in social organization and public expression?

This two-day event brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines such as Communication Sciences, Sociology or Political Science to bring an updated perspective on the ways notions of multitude, crowds, social movements and media intersect. It proposes to study social movements repertoires and how social groups are led to adapt, improvise and invent new ones, under the social constraints imposed by the use or presence of media.

Confirmed Speakers:
Dr. Christian Borch (Copenhagen Business School, CBS, Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy); Dr. Erik Neveu (Sciences Po Rennes) Dr. Gustavo Cardoso (ISCTE- Lisbon Universitary Institute) Dr. João Carlos Correia (University of Beira Interior)

A Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Conference comprehending the following keywords:
Social Movements Studies; Media Studies; Political Communication; Social Networks; Media Events; Public Sphere; Social Movements Sociology; Sociology of the Publics; Crowds; Multitudes; Social Psychology; Social Policy and Law.

Official Language: English
Submission of Abstracts:
We welcome proposals of no more than 300 words, by August 31st 2014, including a title, abstract, four keywords, a short-bio and affiliation details. Send the proposals in RTF or PDF format to the following email: frommultitudetocrowds@gmail.com

Timeline
Submission of Abstracts Deadline: August 31st 2014
Notification on the Acceptance of the Abstract: October 1st 2014
Submission of Full Paper Deadline: December 15th 2014
Registration Fee:
Early-bird (until October 31st, 2014) – 80 Euros
Standard (from November to December 2014) – 130 Euros
Last Minute (January 2015) – 180 Euros
Undergraduate Students – 25 Euros

CFP Space, Race, Bodies Conference (New Zealand)

Space, Race, Bodies: Geocorpographies of the City, Nation and Empire is a forthcoming conference hosted by the Department of Media, Film and Communication (MFCO), the Postcolonial Studies Research Network (PSRN) and the Somatechnics Research Network (University of Arizona) at the University of Otago between the 8-10th December, 2014. The title of the conference is taken from Joseph Pugliese’s ground-breaking work on technologies of surveillance, law and terrorism. The conceptual merging of the corporeal body with geography—geocorpographies—draws attention to the institutional, cultural and legal forces that influence the global movement of people, capital and technology across cities and national borders.

Space, Race, Bodies will be the first Somatechnics conference held in New Zealand. The Somatechnics Research Network (SRN) facilitates connections between a vast array of scholars and institutions producing research on bodies and technology. SRN has fostered a truly interdisciplinary field of inquiry that includes the biological sciences, sport, gender and sexuality studies, media, film and music studies and postcolonial studies.

The Postcolonial Studies Research Network (PSRN) brings together an interdisciplinary group of established and emerging scholars whose research engages with a range of aspects of postcoloniality. These include the historical cultures of empire, and the contemporary cultural politics of indigeneity, of (post)colonial settlement, and of the diasporic condition.

Call for Papers

Keynote Speakers

Conference Registration

Accommodation

Save

Diversity in Transcultural/Int’l Comm conference (Germany)

Diversity in Transcultural and International Communication
October 2-3, 2014
Haus der Wissenschaft, Bremen, Germany

Conference of the International and Intercultural Communication Section of the German Communication Association (DGPuK) in Cooperation with the Creative Unit “Communicative Figurations” at the University of Bremen
Hosted by the Institute for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen
Coordination team: Stefanie Averbeck-Lietz, Rebecca Venema, Gabriele Gerber

The conference addresses both the meta-analysis of “diversity” and an analysis of the organization and practice of diversity. Diversity concepts take different sociocultural categories into account and implement these in organizational and institutional contexts. As such “diversity“ can be seen both as a normative concept and as a social phenomenon. Normative ideas can be found in concepts such as “representation“ (e.g. the representation of social minorities in the media), “participation“ (the participation in public communication of diverse layers and groups within the population), “plurality” or “variety” (among communicators, contents and opinions).

Does our discipline provide the appropriate tools for researching diversity in communication processes? Which theories and concepts are available for the research of communication ethics in inter-national and/or transcultural communication with respect to the phenomenon diversity? Which normative and empirical foundations are they based on? This leads to a second, more application-oriented issue and potential key topic of the conference: diversity as an operational instruction, task and/or practice.

Contributions on the following topics are welcomed:
1. Theoretical Concepts of Diversity
•   State of the art: disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches; basic theories and medium-range theories concerning the research of “diversity”
•   Boundaries and overlaps of terms and theories concerning the concepts of “cosmopolitanism,” “multiculturalism,” “interculturalism,” “transculturalism” and “hybridity” among others
•   The typology and analysis of intercultural communication processes and situations from the point of view of communication ethics
•   International comparisons: Which diversity concepts exist and how do other research communities in other countries research “diversity”? Is diversity research euro-centric?

2. Empirical Research on Diversity
•   Public representations and constructions of social differences and equality in mass media content, in (micro-)blogs, social media, event communication, PR etc.
•   Analysis of public and/or academic discourse on “diversity“
•   Diversity in media professions (public visibility of those working in media professions such as journalism, PR, advertising, film, theatre etc.)
•   Diversity as a Norm of communication ethics (e.g. in international/ intercultural communication)
•   Diversity management in media corporations
•   Case studies on diversity as an element and normative control parameter of diverse communication processes (political communication, journalism, PR, company and organizational communication…)
•   Diversity and justice under circumstances of mediatization and globalisation
•   Diversity as a factor in media and communication politics and policies

Submission and selection of papers
Please send your anonymized proposal for a 20-minute presentation in English (preferred) or German to Prof. Dr. Stefanie Averbeck-Lietz no later than JUNE 10, 2014 (using a single pdf file). The abstract should not be longer than 8000 characters (including blank spaces) and should be assigned to the conference topics. Please add a title page to the abstract containing the name(s) and address(es) of the presenter(s) and the title of the presentation. All submissions will be anonymously peer-reviewed according to the criteria of originality, relevance, theoretical foundation, appropriateness of the methods used, clarity of language, and reference to the conference theme. Submitters will be informed about the outcome of the selection process by July 2014.

CFP Conference on Comm and Management (Greece)

International Conference on Communication and Management (ICCM2015)
30 March-1 April 2015
Athens, Greece

The Communication Institute of Greece (COM.IN.G.) organises the International Conference on Communication and Management (ICCM2015) 30 March-1 April 2015, in Athens, Greece. The conference is under the auspices of the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, University of the Aegean, Greece and the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

The aim of this cross-disciplinary conference is to bring together academics, students and researchers from different disciplines and cultural backgrounds, encourage them to present their work, exchange and collaborate. Academics can participate by presenting a paper, chairing a session, organising a panel, or even by being an observer.

For more information please visit the conference website or send an email to Dr. Margarita Kefalaki, President of Communication Institute of Greece.

Communication Institute of Greece (COM.IN.G.) was established as an independent academic association with the mission to become a forum, where academics and researchers – from all over the world – can meet in Athens to exchange ideas on their research and to discuss future developments in their disciplines.