September 17-19, 2025

Karlstad University, Sweden 

Deadline: April 14, 2025

We would like to inform you that the call for papers for the 6th International Geomedia Conference "Transforming Passions" is now open.

The conference is organized by the Centre for Geomedia Studies and will take place at Karlstad University in Sweden from 17th to 19th September 2025.

It marks 10th anniversary of the Geomedia conference series and explores, among other dimensions: refocusing emotional energy to imagine alternative futures and push for systemic changes; questioning the role of media in relation to individuals’ and groups’ emotional investments into space and place; reorienting personal affective experiences into collective action; reevaluating the risks associated with commodified or exploited passion in digital labor; and redefining current understandings of passion into new forms that are artistic, social, political, or technologically mediated.

We welcome contributions that address issues of, but do not have to be limited to:

• spaces and places of mediated intimacy and (com)passion
  
• affective dimensions of digital (media) labor
  
•  passion in representations of space and place 
  
• feelings and experiences of connection / disconnection 
  
• passion’s states of being and modes of becoming
  
• passions and desires of the self and their surroundings
  
• (geo)media and love of place and/or environment
  
• geopolitics and the mediation of affect 
  
• passion, media and territorialization
  
• temporalities and proximities of passion
  
• affective dimensions of mobility and tourism 
  
• (social) media and performance of love, hate, and everything in-between
  
• solid and unstable forms of passion, passion and privilege, passion and glitches, failures and uncertainties
  
• passion and the public sphere
  
• transformative potential of passion’s fragilities and vulnerabilities
  
• passion and its boundaries or excessiveness
  
• environmental and sustainable passions
  
• mediating emotions in times of political and social turmoil
  
• the democratic role of passion
  
• passion as a form of agency
  
• passion as a concept and/or method in research and activism
  
• cocreating passion in and through artistic practice
  
• transmedia and transdisciplinary perspectives of passion
  

The theme Transforming Passions will also be addressed through invited keynote sessions, plenary panels and workshops, audiovisual screenings and conversations. Participants are encouraged to submit proposals for individual papers, artistic contributions, audiovisual essays, workshops or paper sessions addressing the conference theme.

The theme Transforming Passions will be addressed through invited keynote sessions, plenary panels and workshops, audiovisual screenings and conversations. Participants are encouraged to submit proposals for individual papers, artistic contributions, audiovisual essays, workshops or paper sessions addressing the conference theme.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

• Paul C. Adams (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
  
• Mark Deuze (University of Amsterdam, NL)
  
• Annette Hill (Jönköping University, SE)
  
• Jyoti Mistry (University of Gothenburg, SE)
  
• Kaarina Nikunen (Tampere University, FI)
  
• Erika Polson (University of Denver, USA)
  
• Jenny Sundén (Södertörn University, SE)
  

The Geomedia Conference 2025 invites proposals for individual papers, thematic panels, audiovisual essays, workshops or paper sessions in English through the conference submission system opening in February 2025.  

Each proposal should include the following information: Title; Abstract; Presentation format; Biographical note of max. 100 words; 3-5 keywords.

The submission system opens for proposals in February 2025, and the deadline for submission is 14th April 2025.

For more information on specific proposal guidelines and conference timeline, see: https: www.kau.se/transformingpassions

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at: geomedia2025@kau.se