November 6-7, 2023

University of Malaga (Spain)

Deadline (EXTENDED): September 15, 2023

The YECREA Network together with the Department of Journalism, University of Malaga invites interested and critical early career scholars to a workshop to critically discuss and reimagine a better academic for ECRs in communication studies. The workshop will take place 6th and 7th of November 2023 at the University of Malaga.

The aim of this workshop is to create an inclusive space for like-minded and critical-thinking ECRs who are prepared to interrogate and intervene in current academic cultures. We do not envision this to be merely a space for critiquing “how bad academia is”, but to identify key problems and transform academia by offering long-term, tangible, and implementable solutions. We recognize the value of growing research highlighting the problems in academia, but what we want this workshop to be is a call for action to improve the conditions for ECRs in academia. We invite doctoral and post-doctoral researchers, as well as early-career lecturers and independent scientists, who are outspoken, engaged, and committed to coming up with creative and disruptive solutions and ideas to challenge academia in its current state. These goals also align with ECREA’s broader activities, reflecting on neoliberal conditions in academia.

The 2-day workshop will focus on broad themes, including inequality and access to the academic field, precarious working conditions, and mental well-being. On day one, renowned experts on these themes will provide keynotes to open the workshop and facilitate debate and discussion. On day two, the central focus of the workshop is to synthesize and concretize discussions to come up with feasible and actionable solutions. Throughout the workshop, participants will present on these themes, reflecting on both existing research on academic cultures as well as their experiences and observations of and within academia. 

Ultimately, the workshop is envisioned as a starting point for establishing an ongoing collective of early-career scholars mobilized around reimagining and repairing academic culture through various forms of engagement. 

Deadline for submissions (EXTENDED): September 15, 2023. More information: http://yecrea.eu/2023/07/20/yecrea-workshop/