ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

September 9, 2025

The University of Sheffield 

Deadline: July 10, 2025

Online presentations are also accepted.

R. Murray Schafer said that “the sense of hearing cannot be closed off at will. There are no earlids. When we go to sleep, our perception of sound is the last door to close and it is also the first to open when we awaken” (Schafer, 1977, p. 11). The experience of  “Thinking through sound” is not only a sensory experience but also its a phenomenon that shapes how we perceive the society and the world, and make meaning of life.  This notion also intersects with different fields: media, philosophy, cultural studies, gender, acoustic ecology, musicology, audio accessibility, urban sounds, artificial intelligence, among others. But what is the conception of thinking through sound in the different areas of studies? Sound manifests itself in various formats and shapes across different times and spaces. How can we think through sound in both everyday life and broader societal issues? How can we think our research through sound -even if sound is not the center of the research? In what ways does sound contribute to other disciplines and vice versa? How can sound shape our methodologies?  Can sound play a role in how we reflect on and within our research practices? Can sound play a role in revealing the archive of resistances, tracing the history and building identity? Keeping this in mind, how can sound be used as a tool in research? These questions are an invitation to explore the multiplicity of sound—as medium, metaphor, method, and memory. We are inviting paper abstracts, proposals that revolve around, but not limited to, the following areas:

• Art, Creativity and Culture
  
• Sound, Technology and Communication
  
• Gender, Sexuality and Sound
  
• Memory and Archives
  
• Urban Spaces and Acoustics
  
• Acoustic Ecology and Activism
  
• Sound and Epistemology
  
• Sound/ Music Industries
  
• Music Production and Sound Design 
  
• Cinema and Sound
  
• Therapeutic Sounds 
  

Submission Guidelines:

Deadline for Abstracts: 10 July 2025

Format: 300-500 word abstract

Include: Name, institutional affiliation, short bio (max 100 words), and indication if you prefer to present online or in person

Submit to: https://forms.gle/vhRNBpNegTiMx8RdA

This event is an opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary dialogue, share your research, and contribute to a growing field of radio and sound. We look forward to hearing from you

With warm regards,

ECREA Postgraduate Conference Team

November 20, 2025

Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon, Portugal

Deadline (EXTENDED): July 4, 2025

Dear colleagues,

We hereby announce the new deadline for submitting abstracts for the I LIACOM International Conference, under the theme “The (Un)Sustainability of the Media”, which will be held on November 20, 2025, at the School of Communication and Media Studies – Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon (ESCS-IPL).

We inform you that the call for papers has been extended until July 4, 2025, for the following parallel sessions:

• Journalism: Sustainability in an ecosystem looking for solutions
  
• Media Literacy and Communication: Challenges for Citizenship
  
• Brands, Advertising, and Consumption in the Age of Media (Un)Sustainability
  
• Mobilizing for Change: The Role of Public Communication Campaigns
  
•  Disruptions and continuities in communication professions
  

For more information about the conference and details on submitting proposals, please do not hesitate to contact us (conferencia.liacom@escs.ipl.pt), or visit the official conference website: https://liacom.escs.ipl.pt/en/conferencia-liacom/

We look forward to your participation and would like to thank you in advance for sharing the new deadline with your networks and institutions.

Best regards,

Jorge Veríssimo and Sandra Miranda

October 15-17, 2025

Madrid and Salamanca (Spain)

Deadline: July 15, 2025

ECREA CYM Mid-Term Conference

Children’s play is undergoing a profound transformation in a world increasingly shaped by algorithmic infrastructures. No longer confined to physical spaces or open-ended exploration, today’s play journeys are routed through opaque recommendation systems that curate stories, games, and peers according to commercial logic. What once fostered imagination and serendipity is now entangled in platforms that gamify interactions, influence tastes, and weave childhood experience into data-driven ecosystems.

At the heart of this transformation lies the architecture of algorithmic infrastructures. Research with young users shows how platforms like TikTok or YouTube Kids not only mediate choices but actively shape habits, preferences, and social bonds. Feeds become curated playgrounds where children’s agency is subtly engineered—reflecting not neutrality, but corporate interests.

Compounding this, we confront the datafication of childhood. Connected toys, wearables, and apps turn children into both data subjects and profitable data sources. Echoing Shoshana Zuboff’s concept of surveillance capitalism, children’s playful interactions now feed predictive analytics systems that anticipate and monetize their desires, reinforcing asymmetries of power and diminishing spaces for genuine, autonomous play.

Meanwhile, gamification strategies—such as points, badges, and infinite scroll designs—blur the lines between play, work, and consumption. Although they boost engagement, they also risk creating compulsive loops and fostering exploitative forms of participation, raising urgent ethical concerns around persuasive and addictive technologies.

In parallel, algorithmic personalization fosters polarization rather than just entertainment. Personalized feeds often create “echo chambers” that isolate children in homogeneous bubbles of opinion and taste. Surveys across Europe and North America show increasing parental concern about how these dynamics challenge civic dialogue, empathy, and coexistence, leading regulatory bodies like Ofcom to recommend interventions to mitigate divisive content exposure.

This algorithmic environment also heightens risks of exposure to hate, misogyny, and bias. Empirical studies reveal how quickly recommendation systems can escalate from benign content to extreme narratives, amplifying harmful discourses among adolescents. Simultaneously, the automated systems designed to moderate hate speech often replicate biases of race and gender, creating a double bind where marginalized voices are silenced even as harms proliferate.

The impact on mental health and privacy is equally profound. Teenagers themselves report links between heavy social-media use and challenges such as sleep disruption, anxiety, and declining self-esteem. Efforts by schools and parents to monitor and mitigate these risks—often through AI surveillance tools—introduce further tensions, raising fresh questions about trust, autonomy, and digital rights in educational and domestic spaces.

In response to these complex challenges, scholars call for a shift towards critical algorithmic literacy and reparative digital design. Instead of merely protecting young users through surveillance or restrictions, participatory approaches aim to empower them to interrogate and reshape the very infrastructures that mediate their digital lives. Such frameworks advocate for inclusive, plural, and rights-respecting online spaces that children and youth can co-create alongside educators, caregivers, designers, and policymakers.

This mid-term conference invites contributions that engage with these intertwined issues—algorithmic infrastructures, datafication, gamification, polarization, hate, mental health, critical literacy, and participatory design. We seek to foster a rich, interdisciplinary dialogue that advances our understanding of how play, pleasure, and participation are being fundamentally reconfigured under algorithmic conditions. We welcome submissions from scholars, educators, activists, designers, and practitioners working across media studies, childhood and youth studies, education, digital culture, AI, and ethics.

Key Topics (include but are not limited to):

• Algorithmic influence on play, imagination, and autonomy
• Media and information literacy in algorithmic environments: challenges and pedagogies
• Artificial intelligence and data: ethical tensions, transparency and children’s rights
• Platform design and children’s play behavior
• Branded content in youth media cultures: commercial influence and participatory formats
• Gamification and its educational/ethical implications
• Surveillance and datafication of children’s leisure
• Creative resistance: how children subvert algorithmic norms
• Play, inclusion and marginalization in digital spaces
• Digital well-being and psychological implications of algorithm-driven play
• Educational tools to foster critical play and media literacy
• Regulation, parental mediation and institutional responses

Format and Participation 

This CYM Mid-Term Conference 2025 will take place over three consecutive days, each with a distinct thematic and structural focus.

On 15 October, the event will open at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid with a day centered on youth participation and industry-academia dialogue. This first day aims to foreground the voices of children and to explore the intersections between research, media practice and policy through collaborative sessions and a special roundtable.

On 16 October, hosted at Universidad Villanueva (Madrid), the conference will feature the core parallel paper sessions, alongside two keynote lectures and an expert roundtable discussion on artificial intelligence and children’s media use. This central academic day will highlight critical perspectives on digital infrastructures, algorithmic mediation and well-being.

Finally, on 17 October, a Doctoral Colloquium will be held at Universidad de Salamanca, exclusively dedicated to PhD students working on topics related to children, youth and media in digital environments. This session offers a supportive space for doctoral researchers to present their research projects, conceptual frameworks, and methodological approaches, whether they are in early or advanced stages of development. Each participant will receive constructive feedback from senior scholars in the field, as well as input from peers, with the aim of strengthening their academic work and expanding their research networks. The colloquium is designed to foster dialogue, mentoring and scholarly exchange, and to provide visibility for emerging voices within the CYM and ECREA communities.

This conference prioritizes in-person participation. All accepted presentations will be delivered onsite, fostering direct interaction, collaboration and networking. However, the Doctoral Colloquium on 17 October will exceptionally offer a hybrid participation option for PhD students, allowing for remote presentations in justified cases.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit an abstract of 300–400 words, clearly stating:

• Research question and relevance to the theme
• Theoretical framework and/or methodology
• Key findings or expected insights

For the Doctoral Colloquium taking place on October 17, participants are invited to submit 300-400 words text clearly stating:

• Title of the research project
• Research context and relevance (why is this topic important?)
• Main research questions or objectives
• Theoretical and/or methodological approach
• Current stage of the research
• One or two specific aspects you would like to receive feedback on

Submissions must be in English. Authors can only submit 2 proposals as first author.

Abstracts must be submitted exclusively via the following form:

https://forms.gle/kCMiFVbZ3eyAyvqAA

Submissions sent by email will not be considered.

Deadline: July 15^th, 2025

Notification of acceptance: July 29^th, 2025

For any questions related to this call or the submission process, please write to us at: ecrea.cym.2025.madsal@gmail.com

Organizers

This conference is a Mid-Term Conference of the Children, Youth and Media (CYM) Section of ECREA, supported by Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad Villanueva and CÁTEDRA RTVE USAL (Universidad de Salamanca).

Chairs:

• Patricia Núñez Gómez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
• Beatriz Feijoo, Universidad Villanueva (Spain)
• Teresa Martín García, Universidad de Salamanca (Spain) / Cátedra RTVE-USAL (Spain)

Organizing Team:

• Patricia Lafuente Pérez, Universidad Villanueva (Spain)
• Jose Alberto Irarrázaval, Universidad de Navarra (Spain)
• Isabel Rodrigo, Universidad de Valladolid (Spain)
• Luis Rodrigo, Universidad de Valladolid (Spain)
• Maciej Wysokinski, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
• William González Baquero, Universidad Salamanca (Spain)
• Álvaro Núñez, Universidad Salamanca (Spain)

Scientific Committee

This CYM Mid-Term Conference 2025 is supported by a diverse and interdisciplinary Scientific Committee, composed of international scholars and experts in the fields of media, communication, childhood and youth studies and digital culture.

• Félix Ortega, Universidad de Salamanca (Spain)
• Ana Filipa Oliveira, Lusófona University (Portugal)
• Patricia Núñez Gómez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
• Beatriz Feijoo, Universidad Villanueva (Spain)
• Teresa Martín García, Universidad de Salamanca (Spain)
• Carlos Arcila Calderón, Universidad de Salamanca (Spain)
• Tomás Atarama Rojas, Universidad de Piura (Perú)
• Erika Fernández Gómez, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (Spain)
• Jonathan Hardy, University of the Arts London (United Kingdom)
• Viera Kacinová, Univerzita sv. Cyrila a Metoda v Trnave (Slovakia)
• Herminder Kaur, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (United Kingdom)
• Patricia Lafuente Pérez, Universidad Villanueva (Spain)
• Kepa Larrañaga, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
• Iain MacRury, University of Stirling (United Kingdom)
• Mónica Mongui, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
• Pedro Moura, University of Minho (Portugal)
• Sara Pereira, University of Minho (Portugal)
• Clarisse Pessôa Universidade Europeia (Portugal)
• Isabel Rodrigo, Universidad de Valladolid (Spain)
• Luis Rodrigo, Universidad de Valladolid (Spain)
• Sandrina Teixeira, Instituto Politécnico de Oporto (Portugal)
• Arantxa Vizcaíno Verdú, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (Spain)
• Maciej Wysokinski, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)

Fees (registration September 30^th)

15, 16, 17 of October 2025

• ECREA Members (regular): €100
• ECREA Members (Junior scholars*): €50
• Non-ECREA Members (regular): €150
• Non-ECREA Members (Junior scholars*): €70

*Junior Scholars (PhDs, early career up to a year after finishing their PhD)

Participations (special issue)

Deadline: September 30, 2025

The European audiovisual landscape is complex, with a huge variety of content providers and a traditionally strong public service. While only about 10% of all European providers feature public ownership, these play a key role as facilitators of original European productions across the continent (Fontaine, 2024:7; Antoniazzi et al., 2022). However, the US has a substantial and increasing influence on the European audiovisual sector (Schneeberger, 2024:7). The SVOD segment, as the most concentrated market segment in Europe, has the highest share of US (84%) and private (99%) interests (Ene Iancu, 2024:10). In terms of SVOD consumption, a lion part of what is watched originates from the US (Grece & Tran, 2023; Iordache et al., 2023), and earlier concerns on US cultural imperialism have been revived (Davis, 2023; Lotz, 2021). 

Recently, public service media across Europe have experienced dire economic conditions. For example, in Sweden, budget cuts were announced for public service in the spring of 2024 with the argument of unfair competition, while diversity and democratic arguments are downplayed (SOU 2024:34). This development is in line with the European Commission’s focus on competition and on creating a single market. Ultimately, this bypasses opportunities for cultural objectives such as media pluralism, cultural protection or social regulations (Humphreys, 2008:154). Although the European Audiovisual Media Services Directive (2018) has sought to level the market between domestic and transnational platform suppliers and protect the production of film and television in Europe (Kostovska et al. 2020), the political space to discuss streamed content as culture seems to have shrunk. This has far-reaching consequences for European content and democratic values such as equality and diversity (Jansson et al., 2024). In this special issue for the journal Participations, we aim to investigate what these developments mean for audiences, as fiction consumers, but also – and especially – in their role as citizens. 

On a theoretical level, there is a range of conceptualizations of how fiction (and culture) shapes citizens, including the “political self” (Van Zoonen, 2007), the cultural public sphere (McGuigan, 2005), and civic cultures (Dahlgren, 2009). Scholars have focused on identity formation, articulations of community (Askanius, 2019:273) and  “public connection” (Couldry ea., 2007; Nærland 2019:652), as well as the creation of “lifeworlds” (Bengesser, 2023: 63) to denote more complex orientations of the audience toward the public and the political. 

On an empirical level, the link between fiction and democracy is often presupposed in research relating to democratic values or “the political” (Van Belle, Aitaki and Jansson, 2025). Audiovisual fiction has been argued to directly correlate with political engagement (e.g. Fielding, 2014; Cardo, 2011) and opinion-formation or political attitudes (e.g. Hermann et al., 2023; Swigger, 2017; Adkins et al., 2014; Butler et al., 1995). Indirectly, identities and bodies are assumed to be the glue between connecting audiences and democracy through the viewing of fiction (e.g. Smith, 2020; Yea, 2014). On a more structural level, fiction is seen as contributing to imagined worlds (Randall, 2011) or discourses (Kato, 2015). Regardless of theoretical belonging, most studies have a rather crude understanding of the audience and its agency (see e.g. La Pastina, 2004). This activates questions about how democratic values and political topics are negotiated in relation to the fictional content audiences watch. Further, it includes exploring audiences’ understandings of fiction in relation to their roles as citizens in a democratic European context.

This special issue is interested in contributions that could, but are not limited to, illuminate some of the following topics: 

- The relation between SVODs, reception and citizenship or democracy

- Public service audiences and society

- Fiction and political activism from an audience perspective

- Viewers’ negotiation of identities via fiction, in relation to democracy and politics

- Viewers’ negotiation of political and democratic values in relation to fiction, such as equality, solidarity, community, or freedom

- Fiction audiences and political trust

- Missing audiences/citizens 

- Media pluralism, cultural protection, social regulations, or diversity from an audience perspective

- SVODs’ conceptualizations of audiences and audiences’ conceptualizations of SVODs

- Fiction, ethics, and democracy from an audience perspective

Those with an interest in contributing should submit an abstract (max. 750 words) where the main theme (or argument) of the intended article is described along with an indication of the theoretical and methodological approach of the article. The abstract should contain the preliminary title and five keywords. A clarification on how the article fits into the overall scope of the issue should be included.  

Send your abstract to the editors by 30 September 2025 on jono.van-belle@oru.se, georgia.aitaki@kau.se and maria.jansson@oru.se. 

Scholars invited to submit a full manuscript (maximum 8000 words including footnotes, bibliography, tables and appendices) will be notified by e-mail after the abstracts have been assessed by the editors. All submissions should be original works and must not be under consideration by other publishers. The reference system should be Harvard author-date format. More information on style and formatting can be found on the Participations website: https://www.participations.org/submissions/ 

Deadline for submission abstract: 30 September 2025

Deadline for full paper: 30 January 2025

Estimated publication date: November 2026. 

December 5, 2025

Online

Deadline: October 27, 2025

Continuing our series of research meetings focused on specific issues in mediatization research — chaired in past years by eminent experts such as Göran Bolin (2017), Johan Fornäs (2018), Andreas Hepp (2019), Mark Deuze (2020), André Jansson (2021), Andrew Hoskins (2022), Kirsten Frandsen (2023), and Carlos A. Scolari (2024) — this year’s workshop will be held online on 5 December 2025.

It will be led by Michael Skey from Loughborough University.

The title of this year’s edition is: Youth, Sports, and Media.

We invite researchers who wish to discuss their current projects within a focused and closed group of media scholars, under the guidance of an expert.

Important dates: 

• 27 October 2025 – Submission of abstracts
  
• 5 December 2025 – Closed online workshop
  

Details and registration form: 

https://www.umcs.pl/pl/towards-development-of-mediatization-research-ix-youth-sports-and-media,32378.htm?fbclid=IwY2xjawJ1eVpleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFYVmd3MVhPdXh2U0NDM1VVAR6n83CD81hTEs8jIjkc1w33VqH2zVxwWR3It2-6kgtBwj4oIKyUPWl12AoMZA_aem_yo4EG_k9V-m5jI6jjoWMbg

For any substantive questions about the workshop, please contact:

Katarzyna Kopecka-Piech

Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin

katarzyna.kopecka-piech@umcs.pl

September 24-26, 2025

University of Pamplona (Spain)

Deadline (EXTENDED): June 30, 2025

ECREA’s section for Interpersonal Communication and Social Interaction (ICSI) is delighted to announce that the 8th bi-annual meeting of the ICSI section of ECREA will take place in University of Pamplona in Navarra, Spain at 24.-26.9.2025.

Overcoming differences celebrates the spectrum of research themes, metatheories, methods and paradigms that have created a fruitful soil for understanding mutual interaction in interpersonal encounters. Overcoming differences means accepting differences, respecting them and seeing the huge possibilities and synergies that we have as interpersonal, interaction and communication scholars. ICSI2025 conference creates a platform for being together and discussing the nuances and potential that our discipline provides. During the conference a Young Scholar’s workshop will also take place.
Call for abstracts is now open. See all the detailed information here: https://www.unav.edu/web/instituto-cultura-y-sociedad/actividades/overcoming-differences-icsi-conference-2025 Notice the extended deadline June 30.

If you have any questions, please contact: ICSI2025@tuni.fi

Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences

We are seeking two post-doctoral researchers to conduct ethnographic studies of game production for the ERC grant GAMEINDEX: Politics and aesthetics of indexical representation in digital games and VR. The project is headed by Dr. Jaroslav Švelch and located at Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, within the Prague Game Production Studies research group. The starting date is in 2026 and the duration of the position is 2 years, with the possibility of extension to 3 years.

The deadline for applications is 30 September 2025.

Project focus:

GAMEINDEX focuses on indexical representation in games – both as traces of real-life objects or people in the simulated worlds of digital games and VR, and as references to physical locations. Besides games themselves, we are interested in analyzing indexical techniques such as motion capture, 3D scanning, voiceover recording, and others. The post-doctoral researchers will primarily contribute to the work package that analyzes the use of indexical techniques within the production practices of video games and/or VR, and explores the transformation of real-life objects and people into in-game assets. The GAMEINDEX project presupposes that material will be collected in game/VR production studios using ethnographic methods (studio ethnographies, participants observation, interviews). Within the scope of the GAMEINDEX project, described here, the applicant is free to come up with their own research project with more specific research questions.

Required qualifications:

• A completed Ph.D. degree or a document from home university confirming that Ph.D. will be awarded by the starting date of contract
  
• Documented experience in social scientific or humanistic research of digital games or other media
  

Recommended qualifications:

• Experience with studio ethnographies or other ethnographic methods of researching game or media production
  
• A Ph.D. from fields such as media studies, film studies, anthropology, or sociology
  
• A solid record of publishing academic research in the English language
  
• Knowledge of contemporary game production and familiarity with indexical techniques (technical experience with them is welcome but not required)
  

Required materials:

• An academic CV and a list of published works
  
• Two references from within academia (include name, title, institution, email address, and phone number); an additional reference from the game industry may be provided if applicable. No letters needed.
  
• A copy of a Ph.D. certificate or an official record of planned/completed defence
  
• Research project – a 2,000 word description of your intended project, which should fit the aims and scope of GAMEINDEX but may reflect the applicant’s personal research interests and previous experience. The project should include: a theoretical background and positioning, research questions, methodology, a list potential case studies, risk analysis, and a rough work plan for the 2 years (Gantt chart not needed).
  
• Two samples of academic writing – ideally from published articles, dissertation, or conference papers
  

Practical arrangements:

The incoming applications will be screened by the GAMEINDEX team and suitable candidates will be invited for an online or in-person interview. Successful applicants are expected to relocate to Prague and are eligible for a relocation fee from the project budget.

Successful applicants will become full-time employees of Charles University, with benefits and a competitive salary commensurable with experience (details provided upon request).

Once employed, the researcher can be granted funding from GAMEINDEX to cover costs of fieldwork and conference travel.

Submissions:

Applicants may submit their applications by September 30, 2025, via e-mail to:

kariera@fsv.cuni.cz, with the subject: “Postdoc ERC GAMEINDEX”. Applicants may approach the PI Jaroslav Švelch at jaroslav.svelch@fsv.cuni.cz to ask questions about GAMEINDEX and the postdoc positions.

By responding to this advertisement, you consent to the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, located at Smetanovo nábřeží 6, Prague 1, Postal Code 110 01, processing your personal data for the purposes of the selection procedure. The processing of personal data is carried out in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and Act No. 110/2019 Coll., on the Processing of Personal Data.

Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague

We are seeking two PhD students to work on dissertations aligned with the ERC grant “GAMEINDEX: Politics and aesthetics of indexical representation in digital games and VR.“ The project starts in October 2025, is headed by Dr. Jaroslav Švelch, and located at Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism within the Prague Game Production Studies research group. 

Dissertation topic: 

GAMEINDEX focuses on indexical representation in games – both as traces of real-life objects or people in the simulated worlds of digital games and VR, and as references to physical locations. PhD students will be involved in the work package that analyzes indexical representation in games and/or VR apps as media artifacts. The applicants are invited to propose a project within the scope of GAMEINDEX, focusing on representation of a certain region and its locations, culture, and/or history in games and VR apps produced both within and outside that region. We are looking for applicants from a diverse set of regional backgrounds including locations deemed peripheral by mainstream game culture. The research is expected to involve qualitative content analysis/close reading, discourse analysis, and interviews with developers or stakeholders. For more information about the project, see the project description here. Besides their main focus on in-game representation, the PhD students will also take part in the analysis of discourse about indexical techniques and contribute to a database that is a part of the project’s output. 

Candidate requirements: 

Candidates must complete their Master’s degree by August 30, 2025. They are expected to be well-versed in literature related to game production and game representation and be skilled in qualitative content analysis or related methods. During their PhD, the candidates will be required to present papers at academic conferences and produce publications for international peer-reviewed journals.  

Practical arrangements: 

Starting in the Fall semester of 2025, the successful applicants will enroll into the Media and Communication Studies 4-year English-language PhD program in the combined form. They will be employed by the GAMEINDEX project and will receive a full-time salary for the duration of four years. Successful applicants are expected to relocate to Prague and are eligible for a relocation fee from the project budget. 

Application procedure: 

The deadline for the application is APRIL 30, 2025. To apply, the candidate must submit a structured CV, a 10-page dissertation project and a list of literature they wish to discuss at the admission interview. We strongly encourage prospective applicants to get in touch earlier to consult their application. The admission interview will focus on the dissertation project and the list of literature and will be conducted remotely. The application and the interview will be evaluated by the selection committee, chaired by the guarantor of the PhD program. If accepted for the PhD program, the applicant’s employment on the ERC project will then be confirmed by GAMEINDEX’s PI. 

More information about the admissions process, along with a link to the online application form are available here: https://iksz.fsv.cuni.cz/en/admissions/phd-programme-media-and-communication-studies/how-apply 

When applying, please choose the “combined” rather than “full-time” form of study. For administrative purposes, externally funded full-time PhD students fall under the “combined” form.  

Frequently asked questions:

Can international students apply? 

The position is primarily intended for international, meaning non-Czech, students. We are looking for expertise on other countries or regions.

What do you mean by “dissertation project”? How should it relate to GAMEINDEX? 

Based on the information about the GAMEINDEX project, you are supposed to come up with your own dissertation project that is in line with our goals, meaning that it studies indexical representation in games from a certain region. You can specify your research question and add your own twists based on your knowledge of a given region or based on your previous work and academic background. When filling in the dissertation project, use this form, as instructed on the “How to apply” page. The form is generic and meant for any applicant into the program. You will be able to elaborate on your project’s relationship to GAMEINDEX in multiple fields of the form.

How should I start consulting my application?

Check the dissertation project form to familiarize yourself with its structure. In line with the instructions within the form, prepare an extended abstract (800 words) of your prospective project. Send the extended abstract to the GAMEINDEX PI Jaroslav Švelch (address below) along with your CV. Prepare the questions you want to ask.

For more information about the positions (including the salary) and GAMEINDEX, please contact Jaroslav Švelch at Jaroslav.Svelch@fsv.cuni.cz.  

To learn more about the doctoral program, please check this webpage: https://iksz.fsv.cuni.cz/en/study/phd-studies.

Call for Chapter Proposals

Deadline: August 15, 2025

Editors: CarrieLynn D. Reinhard, Linda Howell, and Jessica Hautsch 

In the wake of the 2024 American presidential campaigns and election, this book seeks to explore the current American political situation from the perspective of fan studies. The goal of this collection is to understand the conditions, processes, objects, people, and institutions of contemporary democracies for their overlaps with fans, fandoms, and fan communities. The collection seeks to answer this question: can fan studies help us understand political experience and expression within American democracy and, if so, what led to, is involved in, and impacted by this understanding?

A political fandom occurs when fannish behaviors, both external and internal, operate in relation with a traditional political entity or process. Political fandoms have emerged in the 21st century as politics have increasingly become mediated and celebritized, with the emergence of Trump and the MAGA movement as, perhaps, the inevitable expression of the intersection between politics, mass media, and celebrity culture. These observations are also not unique to fan scholars, as journalists have begun to question the extent to which political campaigns and politicians have begun to interact with voters and constituents as fans. Journalists and political analysts have even begun to use fannish terms like “cosplay” in their discussion of the second Trump Administration. This collection, then, seeks to explore and understand how fandom concepts occur in contemporary democratic processes and institutions. 

Understanding political fandoms means utilizing both the affective and cognitive aspects of fandom to illuminate the personal, social, and political actions of networked citizen-as-fans. We hope this book will theorize the nature of the citizen-as-fan and the development of political fandoms, analyze the actions that constitute and maintain political fandoms, and understand the implications of political fandoms and citizens-as-fans for the world and people’s everyday lives and, through these implications, to offer warnings and suggestions for the future.  

Thus, the purpose of this book is both an analysis of the current state of politics in the United States and a consideration of what the future may hold for this Ameri-fan experiment.

We are seeking chapter proposals from various methodological, disciplinary, and ideological perspectives to help us explore current American politics from a fan studies perspective. Our hope is to produce a collection of interest outside of academia, as such a general interest book may be of vital importance at this time.

The chapters can be empirical studies, case studies, theoretical explorations, philosophical musings, and/or conceptual explorations that seek to answer the question above. Thus, the chapters can be of variable length, from 2000-8000 words, including references (likely a footnotes system). Possible topics for these chapters includes, but are not limited to:

•   Applications of fan studies concepts and theories to political sphere (e.g., MAGA merch and memes)
  
•   Relationships between emotions, fandom, and political attitudes and actions (e.g., patriotism)
  
•   Relationships between ideology, politics, popular culture and fandom (e.g., Aaron Rodgers)
  
•   Fandoms that interconnect popular culture, celebrities and politics (e.g., Joe Rogan)
  
•   Indoctrination into political ideology through popular culture fandoms (e.g., UFC)
  
•   Canons, fanons, and head canons in political fandoms
  
•   Fannish rhetoric in political sphere
  
•   Co-optation of fannish behaviors by political movements
  
•   Overlaps in psychology of fandom and politics
  
•   Overlaps in political economics of fandom and politics
  
•   Historical perspective on the relationship between politics and fandom
  
•   Ethical considerations associated with political fandom and citizen-as-fan conceptualizations
  
•   Suggestions for how to handle this current political situation
  

This list is not comprehensive, as it reflects our perspectives, and the goal of the anthology is to bring together a variety of perspectives. Additionally, ideas can be combined in whatever way you feel illuminates this current moment.

We will write the introduction chapter to set a conceptual foundation for the collection, and we will provide a conclusion chapter that comments on the throughlines and connections among the chapters as well as recommendations for future actions for fans, fan scholars, citizens-as-fans, and citizens.

The number of accepted proposals depends on the variety of topics received and the desired lengths of those proposed chapters. Right now, we anticipate the anthology’s overall word count to be 100,000-200,000.

Chapter proposals are due by August 15, 2025. Proposals should be sent to carrielynn.reinhard@gmail.com and include the following: Title; 3-5 keywords; 300-500 word abstract that covers chapter’s topic, approach taken, purpose of the work, significance of the work; Proposed length of the chapter (between 2000-8000 words); Contact information

The current timeline for the project is:

• 8/15/25: Proposals due
  
• 9/15/25: Proposal acceptances notified
  
• 11/15/25: Finalize contract with publisher (several currently interested)
  
• 2/28/26: Chapter first drafts due
  
• 4/30/26: Internal peer review complete
  
• 7/30/26: Chapter final drafts due
  
• 9/30/26: Manuscript sent to publisher
  

Edited By: Mette Marie Roslyng, Anna Rantasila, Anna Maria Jönsson

This volume examines how a new hybrid mediascape represents and contributes to the construction of facts and knowledge in relation to science, environment, and climate controversies, providing a new, critical perspective to the bourgeoning field of science and environment communication.

Arguing that science must be understood from an inclusive perspective, respecting public values and concerns alongside scientific arguments, the authors demonstrate how this will allow us to properly understand the role of science, truth, and factuality alongside the ethical, cultural, and political concerns about science raised in different publics. The chapters focus on the more controversial aspects of science and environmental communication: misinformation, public understandings of science and the environmental crises, vaccination, and the role of the hybrid mediascape in science, environment, and climate conflicts.

Offering a much-needed interdisciplinary approach to understand the role of science of media in science and environment conflicts, this book will appeal to students and academics in the areas of media and communication, journalism, cultural studies, science, environment and risk communication, and digital media studies, as well as sociology and political science.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. 

An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched (KU). KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 9781003479550. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org.

https://www.routledge.com/Communicating-Science-Climate-Change-and-the-Environment-in-Hybrid-Media-Constructed-Facts-Contested-Truths/Roslyng-Rantasila-Jonsson/p/book/9781032766652