CFP Studies in Cultural Memory

Studies in Cultural Memory
Special issue of: International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics
Deadline: 30 June 2015.

Guest Editors:
Eleftheria Rania Kosmidou (University of Salford)
Christos Dermentzopoulos (University of Ioannina)

This special issue welcomes research across disciplines in the humanities and social sciences and seeks to provide a critical forum for dialogue and debate on the theoretical, methodological, and empirical issues central to an understanding of cultural memory today. Papers should address the ways in which cultural memory is formed, used, presented and represented, appropriated, and changed while being committed to the broad understanding of cultural memory as the interplay of past and present in socio-cultural and historical contexts. In particular, the volume encourages papers that examine questions of cultural memory, its manipulation and its understanding as a methodological and epistemological tool, as well as papers that investigate the relation between cultural memory and new media (including the Internet, social media etc) as well as old media (photography, cinema, TV etc).

Topics might address, but are not limited to, the following:
1)What can scholars, theorists and artists learn through Assmann’s essay?
2)What role does cultural memory play today?
3)What is being done to critique it?
4)How is cultural memory embedded/constructed in film, television, literature, comic books and graphic novels, visual art, and theatre?
5)Can cultural memory be manipulated?
6)What issues does post-memory raise?
7)How are memories used to mobilize groups and form identities?
8)What is the role of social media and the Internet?
9)How is nostalgia related to cultural memory? What is the role of nostalgia in the formation of cultural memory?
10)What is the role of location in the construction of cultural memory?

Interested contributors are invited to send 6,000-7,000 word essays (incl. references), short commentaries (2,500-3,000 words incl. references), and book reviews (1,000-2,500 words) to Christos Dermentzopoulos and Eleftheria Rania Kosmidou on or before 30 June 2015. Contributors should also include their affiliation, contact details and a short biographical note of approximately 200 words. Please follow the journal’s submission guidelines.

CFP Transnational Journalism History

Call for Papers
Transnational Journalism History

Traditionally, journalism history has been studied from a national perspective. This tendency has been spurred on by the work of Benedict Anderson, who argued that newspapers were one of the chief instruments for creating national identity. However, journalism has never truly been bounded by geography. Practices, technologies, and journalists have moved around the globe, bringing new ideas with them and taking more new ideas along when they move on. Practices have emerged in one place and spread around the globe since before Gutenberg invented movable type.

Journalism historians have rarely looked at their field from this broader perspective. More commonly, historical studies of international journalism have focused on foreign news provided by correspondents from the home country, written from the perspective of the home country. As Ohio University professor Kevin Grieves explains it, this sort of approach treats foreign news as news of the “other” that the correspondent interprets for the home audience. Transnational journalism, according to Grieves, treats more than one nation as the home audience. A good example of this would be America’s first newspaper, Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestic. This paper consisted primarily of English news for an audience who thought of themselves as English men and women but who just happened to be living on another continent.

The value of transnational journalism history is that it rises above nationalist approaches and historiographies. It does not privilege one people over another; it examines local applications of global developments and phenomena in journalism as being relevant across borders. Consequently, this conference is seeking presentations that transcend Anderson and considers people, practices and technologies that transcended national boarders.

This inaugural conference on Transnational Journalism History is seeking papers that deal with any aspect of the subject; however, we are particularly interested in work that examines the flow of those journalistic developments, people, and phenomena between Ireland and the United States. The work from this conference, and a second one anticipated for 2017, will form the basis of at least two volumes, one of which will deal with the flow of news, news personnel, and news developments between Ireland and the United States. The second conference and volume will be more global in scope.

The conference will be held on February 25–27, 2016 at Georgia Regents University in Augusta, Ga.  Saturday will include an optional tour of historic sites in and around Augusta. Conference sponsors include Georgia Regents University and Dublin City University, Conference organizers are Debbie van Tuyll and Mark O’Brien.

The conference is accepting proposals for research sessions (submit a completed paper); work-in-progress sessions (250-word abstract); and panels. All proposals should be submitted to van Tuyll by Oct. 1, 2015. Each submission will be evaluated in a blind review process.

National University of Singapore job ad

YUSOF ISHAK PROFESSOR IN SOCIAL SCIENCES – INVITATION TO APPLY

We invite applications for a professorial position named in honour of one of Singapore’s pioneer leaders Encik Yusof bin Ishak, whose exemplary and eminent public career was marked by his appointment as Chairman of the Public Service Commission, Singapore (1959), Chancellor of the University of Singapore (a predecessor institution to NUS), and as the first President of the Republic of Singapore (1965-1970). His professional tenure as a distinguished journalist and editor, his identity as a prominent patron of the arts scene in Singapore, his membership of the ‘Films Appeal Committee’, the ‘Nature Reserves Committee’ and the ‘Malaynisation Commission’ all reflect the depth and breadth of his critical and impassioned engagement with key socio-cultural, economic and political issues in an emerging nation-state.

The Professorship honours his many contributions to Singapore, not least his deep interest in promoting harmonious race relations and sustaining a multiracial and multi-cultural nation. The endowed professorship, established in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore, will enable the university to attract and appoint leading social scientists who have demonstrated excellence and an established international recognition.

The appointed candidate will assume stewardship for enhancing cutting edge research in one (or more) of the following fields of study: race, ethnicity and community studies and multiculturalism; communication and civic engagement; and studies of religion and religious diversity. In educating the next generation of leaders, the candidate will play a role in generating knowledge that benefits an inclusive and progressive society.

The successful candidate should be a senior scholar with a strong international reputation in any aspect of the social sciences. The appointee should have a strong publication record (with evidence of a continuing trajectory), extensive experience of teaching and student supervision, an internationally recognized research profile and a track record in securing research funding. He/She will be expected to contribute to the teaching, research and leadership in the department in which he/she is appointed.

The successful candidate will have a primary appointment in one of the social sciences departments according to area of expertise. Appointment will be on a full-time tenured OR full-time contract OR full-time visiting position. The professorship title will be for a period of up to three years. A competitive remuneration package will be offered to the appointee.

The application dossier should include a letter of interest, full curriculum vitae, and the names and contact details of six referees. There is no deadline for applications, which will be received until an appointment is made. Please send applications to:

Yusof Ishak Professor in Social Sciences Search Committee
c/o Ms Amy Tan
Research Division, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,
Block AS7 #06-20
National University of Singapore
5 Arts Link, Singapore 117570
Email applications are encouraged, they should be sent to Ms Amy Tan

For further enquiries, please contact:
Professor Vineeta Sinha, Chair of Search Committee
Name of Institution:    National University of Singapore
Position Announcement: open until filled

CFP Chinese NGOs, Digital Media & Culture

CALL FOR PAPERS
Chinese Non-Governmental Organizations, Digital Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices and Challenges
Special Issue of Chinese Journal of Communication
Submission Deadline: December 30, 2015

Guest Editors
Pauline Hope Cheong (Ph.D., Associate Professor, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University)
Aimei Yang, (Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California)

The general aims and focus of the Special Issue
In today’s increasingly mediated Chinese societies around the world, innovative forms of non-profit organizing have emerged to address pressing social concerns. While state systems and corporations are sometimes portrayed as inefficient in dealing with local and transnational social and environmental problems, the rising power of civil groups in many Chinese societies are increasingly prominent. Non-government organizations (NGOs) play significant roles in areas such as the building of emerging nations, international civil society and global development, corporate global alliance networks, international relationship and public diplomacy, humanitarian aid, environmental conservation and engaged spirituality. Given the increasing influence of Chinese NGOs in many facets of social, political, and religious life, it is important to examine their mediation, communication networks, and organizational dynamics in their operational and advocacy work.

While a growing corpus of research is being done on Chinese NGOs, we know less about the opportunities and challenges facilitated by Chinese NGOs’ appropriation of various forms of communication, including the use of newer digital media to build their community, social capital and service capacity. NGOs have traditionally faced the challenges of mobilizing their volunteers, translating their abstract principles into embodied interventions, sustaining members’ interest and commitment, and maintaining relationships with resourceful strategic partners. These difficulties are amplified in today’s increasingly media saturated environment where a diversity of ideas, ideologies, information and causes are available, which can serve as competition for Chinese NGOs and may not be compatible with their local and global capacity building. Moreover, although NGOs exist to serve the public good, their work is mired in and may be hindered by local cultural conditions, including value orientations, socio-political governance and regulations, as well as telecommunications infrastructure (or lack thereof) in which they are embedded.  Yet, at the same time, Chinese NGOs may creatively adopt and negotiate their media connections and communication networks to (re)build their trust and legitimacy to members, policy makers, potential donors and other civil actors.

Accordingly, this special issue aims to address the theoretical issues underlying the constitution and evolution of Chinese NGOs and to map empirical research on the mediated and communicative mechanisms fueling Chinese NGO growth and collaborations across different institutional actors.

We invite contributions in the following areas:
–        Historical perspectives on Chinese non-profit organizing, media use and culture
–        Analysis of digital media use and innovation in the constitution of Chinese NGOs
–        Examinations of the use of mobile social media by Chinese civil actors in communication and capacity building
–        Implications of cultural frameworks on volunteering and nonprofit service
–        Potential and limitations of digital advocacy, issue management, and/or fundraising in Chinese societies in Asia and beyond
–        Collaboration and/or conflict in multi-actor/cross-sectoral constellations of private, government and Chinese NGO networks
–       Assessment of globalization and/or glocalization developments in Chinese NGOs and their relationships with international NGOs and international developments
–        Comparative research on non-profit organizing, social value and partnerships
–        Short and longer terms implications of Chinese NGOs, civil society and social change

We welcome multidisciplinary scholarly contributions that draw upon, integrate or cross-fertilize literature from varied divisions of communication and media, information sciences, and management. We seek both qualitative and quantitative research, and papers that present critical reflections on methods, detailed discussions of the specific challenges of doing fieldwork in this area and data-mining on Chinese social media are welcome.

All manuscripts must be submitted by December 30, 2015. All accepted manuscript will be published online first and the planned printed publication date is an issue of CJC in 2017.

Submissions should conform to the editorial guidelines of the Chinese Journal of Communication under “Instructions for Authors”.

Papers for consideration in this special issue should be submitted online and should indicate they are
intended for inclusion in the special issue.

University of Nottingham (UK) job ad: Teaching Associate

The School of English at the University of Nottingham is seeking to appoint a part-time Teaching Associate (18 hours per week) in English Language and Applied Linguistics. The successful candidate will teach across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules focusing on discourse analysis and sociolinguistics.

Closing Date: Wednesday, 1st July 2015

Candidates should have a PhD (or equivalent) in a relevant area of English Language and Applied Linguistics. Evidence of the ability to teach at undergraduate and postgraduate levels on our live and distance programmes is essential. A proven track record in teaching in one or more of the following areas is highly desirable: discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, language and gender, professional communication.

This is a part-time, fixed-term post from 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2018 based in the School of English, Trent Building, University Park.

The interview process will include a presentation of teaching and a formal interview.

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Professor Norbert Schmitt. Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.

University of Nottingham (UK) job ad: Research Fellow

The School of English at the University of Nottingham is seeking to appoint a Research Fellow. This new full-time post is an exciting opportunity to join a recently established professional communication research cluster and business unit, Linguistic Profiling for Professionals, based in the Centre for Research in Applied Linguistics.

Closing Date: Wednesday, 1st July 2015

The successful candidate will research and assist in the delivery of training and consultancy in the field of professional communication, including business discourse, health communication, the sociolinguistics of the workplace and intercultural business communication. Professional communication training and research-based consultancy will be delivered to a range of stakeholders including external businesses and organisations. The person appointed will contribute to the School’s applied linguistics research activities on its UK and international campuses.

Candidates should have a PhD (or equivalent) on appointment in a relevant area of English Language and Applied Linguistics.  Evidence of the ability to consistently develop a research area within a team and also as an individual is essential, as is the ability to deliver research-based training and consultancy on professional communication to clients in a wide variety of businesses and organisations.

This is a full-time, fixed-term post from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2018 based in the School of English, Trent Building, University Park University of Nottingham.

The interview process will include a presentation of research and a formal interview.

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Dr. Louise Mullany. Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.

Assistant Professor in English Language and Applied Linguistics, University of Nottingham (UK)

The School of English at the University of Nottingham is seeking to appoint an Assistant Professor in English Language and Applied Linguistics. This new full-time post is an exciting opportunity to join a recently established professional communication research cluster and business unit, Linguistic Profiling for Professionals, based in the Centre for Research in Applied Linguistics.

Closing Date: Wednesday, 1st July 2015

The successful candidate will research, supervise and teach across the broad fields of sociolinguistics and discourse analysis, including: business discourse, health communication, the sociolinguistics of the workplace and intercultural business communication. Teaching will involve postgraduate courses, online courses and the delivery of training and research-based consultancy to a range of external businesses and organisations. The person appointed will contribute to the School’s applied linguistics research and teaching activities on its UK and international campuses.

Candidates should have a PhD (or equivalent) in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and/or corpus linguistics. Evidence of the ability to teach successfully at postgraduate level is essential.  A proven track record of research in discourse analysis, sociolinguistics and/or corpus linguistics, with a specific focus on workplace communication, is essential.  Evidence of the ability to generate research grant income is essential.

This is a full-time, fixed-term post from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2018 based in the School of English, Trent Building, University Park, University of Nottingham.

The interview process will include a presentation of research, teaching and a formal interview.

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Dr. Louise Mullany. Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.

Key Concept #68: Social Justice by Kathryn Sorrells

Key Concepts in ICDThe next issue of Key Concepts in intercultural Dialogue is now available. This is KC68: Social Justice by Kathryn Sorrells. As always, all Key Concepts are available as free PDFs; just click on the thumbnail to download. Lists organized chronologically by publication date and number, alphabetically by concept in English, and by languages into which they have been translated, are available, as is a page of acknowledgments with the names of all authors, translators, and reviewers.

Key Concept #68: Social Justice by Kathryn Sorrells

Sorrells, K. (2015). Social justice. Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, 68. Available from: https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/kc68-social-justice.pdf

The Center for Intercultural Dialogue publishes a series of short briefs describing Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue. Different people, working in different countries and disciplines, use different vocabulary to describe their interests, yet these terms overlap. Our goal is to provide some of the assumptions and history attached to each concept for those unfamiliar with it. As there are other concepts you would like to see included, send an email to the series editor, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz. If there are concepts you would like to prepare, provide a brief explanation of why you think the concept is central to the study of intercultural dialogue, and why you are the obvious person to write up that concept.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

CFP Conflict Mediation and Leadership

Call for Papers
Conflict Mediation and Leadership: Critical Reflections on Management and Banal Culturalism
for Volume 7, Studies in Intercultural Mediation, Peter Lang Publishers, Frankfurt
Editors: Dominic Busch and Claude-Hélène Mayer

Do mediation and leadership go together? And if they do, how do they?

During the past years, the discourse in mediation sciences and practices turns increasingly to the question how mediation is and can be used in management and leadership contexts. Research and popular publications do not only see mediation as an exclusive practice in managing, resolving and transforming conflicts, but also as a tool which can be used in managing and leading individuals, employees and organisations. Some voices seem to view concepts of mediative leadership or management-by-mediation as the new and future concepts of leading people and organisations. Other voices are highly critical that this is possible. Hardly any scientific research exists on mediation, management and leadership, their interrelationships, models, theories and practices.

In parallel, mediative strategies are frequently considered as particularly suited for a constructive management of conflict in intercultural settings. Traditionally, research on intercultural mediation has tended to rely on the assumption that people from different cultural backgrounds will prefer different modes of disputing as well as managing conflicts. More recently, critical scholars have pointed out that cultural research on these premises is based on Western ethnocentric assumptions shaping even Non-Western cultures according to the West’s ethnocentric imaginations of what is to be seen as the cultural other. Earlier research that now is frequently judged as culturalist had tended to over-generalize and to interpret anything that had been emerged in research on the basis of pre-fabricated cultural assumptions. This tendency can be found in people’s everyday discourse in Western societies, too: Here, people from other countries are consequently interpreted on the background of their assumedly foreign and different culture. What here can be termed as culturalizations in fact must be seen as an act of systematic and blurred discrimination and even racism. Leaders in international organizations here have to face the challenge of deconstructing culturalist organizational discourse – in conflict management in particular. Conditions of a constructive management of culturalisations can be subsumed under the notion of intercultural sustainability.

Volume 7 of Studies in Intercultural Mediation aims at advancing international research, practice and development of mediation theory and practice in the context of leadership. The purpose of this volume is to provide new insights and ideas into theories, practices, methods and techniques of mediation and leadership in the face of discursive culturalizations and the responsible management of cultural affiliations. It aims at contributing to the deeper understanding of conflict resolution processes in individual, cultural, organisational and societal leadership contexts.

We hereby invite abstract/chapter submissions that relate to the theoretical, empirical and practical exploration of mediation and leadership from various cultural perspectives. Authors are invited to contribute to theory, model building and practice regarding mediation and leadership in culturalist perspectives. Questions we would like to tackle in this volume are – but are not limited to – the following:
*What is the basic understanding of mediation and leadership?
*How can processes of culturalization and its responsible management in mediation and leadership be described?
*What mediation, management and leadership theories and practices apply?
*How can the concept of intercultural sustainability narrowed and elicited in regard to mediative leadership?
*What forms of mediative leadership may emerge in the lights of critical cosmopolitanism?
*Which concepts do exist in leadership with regard to conflict resolution and mediation?
*How does mediation theory and practice fit with management and leadership theories and practice, such as participative, servant, autocratic, spiritual, or charismatic leadership?
*What does empirical mediation and leadership research say in terms of the connection of these concepts in various cultural contexts?
*How do concepts such as mediative leadership or management-by-mediation contribute to the discourses on mediation, leadership and management?
*Which opinions exist with regard to the interlinkages of mediation and leadership in theory and practice.

A publication of the planned volume is scheduled for August 2016. Contributors with proposals and works in progress aiming for publication are welcome to contact the editors.

Please submit an abstract of a max. of 250 words until 15 September 2015.
Submissions will be reviewed and feedback will be provided on 1 November 2015.
Upon invitation, full articles should be submitted until 1. March 2016. Articles should not exceed 6.000 words in length excluding references.

The official language of this volume is English. Please use the reference system according to the Harvard Style. Please send your abstract until 1 August 2015 to one of the editors:
Prof. Dr. Dominic Busch, Universität der Bundeswehr, München
Dr. Claude-Hélène Mayer, University of South Africa

U.S. Mission to the European Union Funding Opportunity

The U.S. Mission to the European Union (USEU) is soliciting proposals for projects aimed at increasing understanding of U.S. foreign policy and economic priorities related to the EU; supporting U.S. goals of advancing economic growth in both regions and worldwide; and furthering U.S.-EU understanding and cooperation on our shared cultural, political and economic values, particularly democracy, rule of law, and human rights. USEU will award several cooperative agreements for projects to be carried out between September 2015 and December 2016. Section I: Funding Opportunity Description The U.S. Mission to the European Union (USEU) Public Affairs Section is soliciting proposals for projects aimed at increasing understanding of U.S. foreign policy and economic priorities; supporting U.S. goals of advancing economic growth in both regions and worldwide; and furthering U.S.-EU understanding and cooperation on our shared cultural, political and economic values, particularly democracy, rule of law, and human rights. Applicants should be legally recognized non-profit, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), think tanks, or academic institutions that comply with U.S. and EU requirements and have a proven track record of developing and implementing programs in the EU environment.

Sponsor: United States Department of State (DOS), Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
Closing Date for Applications: Jul 10, 2015
Estimated Total Program Funding: $180,000
Award Ceiling: $60,000
Award Floor: $10,000