ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Academic Quarter | Akademisk kvarter

Deadline: April 15, 2026

Guest Editors

• Jens F. Jensen, Aalborg University
  
• Kenneth Holm Cortsen, University College Northern Denmark
  

Esports has rapidly evolved from a niche pastime into a global phenomenon that intersects with multiple dimensions of contemporary life. As a form of competitive gaming, it embodies elite performance, strategy, and digital dexterity. As an industry, it drives innovation, sponsorship, and media engagement, constituting a dynamic sector with substantial economic impact. As part of the experience economy, esports further offers immersive entertainment and community-driven events that redefine audience participation and co-creation.

Beyond its commercial and competitive aspects, esports is increasingly recognized as a powerful medium for learning, fostering competencies such as collaboration, problem-solving, and digital literacy. It also constitutes a vibrant cultural field, shaping identities, narratives, and social practices within digital leisure. Participation in esports—whether as players, spectators, content creators, or organizers—reflects broader transformations in how individuals engage with technology, play, and social interaction.

The approaches to esports as both an empirical field and an analytical object are highly diverse. T.L. Taylor’s work examines the cultural practices of esports and the aspirations associated with professional gamer identity (Taylor 2012). Svensson and Pargman analyse the sportification of esports, exploring how esports legitimizes itself as a sport (Svensson & Pargman 2024). Andy Miah investigates the olympification of esports, addressing whether and how esports may become an Olympic discipline. While these studies are interested in the practices and the potentials of esports, scholars such as Brett Hutchins link the emergence of esport to the sociocultural conditions of second, or reflexive, modernity (Hutchins 2008).

Lately Lu Zhouziang has documented “A History of Competitive Gaming” (2022) presenting an overall historical approach to esports. Further Anne Tjønnedal has edited “Social Issues in Esports” (2023) as a comprehensive research publication identifying important issues such as gender, mental health and integrity, diversity and inclusion.

Even though these approaches do not share the same theoretical or methodological framework, it is possible to understand esport both as a particular circuit of culture and as part of a broader circuit of culture (du Gay, 1996). This approach facilitates the analysis of how esports are represented, what identities are negotiated, what modes of consumption and production are currently dominant or marginal, and what regulatory frameworks are established and which regulations need to be formulated, realized, and policed.

This call invites interdisciplinary contributions that examine esports through lenses including, but not limited to, media studies, education, business, cultural studies, sociology, and game studies. We welcome theoretical, empirical, and practice-based papers that explore esports as a site of innovation, interaction, and influence in the digital age. This volume intends to explore issues such as:

• How can the esports gaming experience be conceptualized and described?

• What is the significance of multimodal representation in shaping the esports experience?

• How does gender influence the cultural practices of esports?

• What are the elements in esports that contribute to toxicity and exclusion?

• What role can esports play in teaching and learning?

• What role does esports play in the continuity/discontinuity of the history of sport in general?

• What are the challenges of future esports practices in relation to game design, organization, economic structures, and regulation?

• What are the constituent elements of esports ecosystems?
  

• How does match-fixing challenge esports?

• What key issues related to health and training are relevant to current as well as future esports practices and research studies?

• How are cross-media interactions and convergent media prac- tices relevant to the study of esports?

References

Crawford, Garry, Victoria K. Gosling & Ben Light. 2011. Online Gaming in Context. The social and cultural significance of online games. London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

du Gay, Paul. 1996. Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman. London: Sage.

Hofmann, Annette R. & Pascal Mamudou Camara. 2024. Critical Perspectives on Esports. London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003383178

Hutchins, Brett. 2008. Signs of meta-change in second modernity: the growth of e-sport and the World Cyber Games· New Media & Society Vol. 10 (6), p. 851-869. Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444808096248

Miah, Andy. 2017. Sport 2.0. Transforming Sports for a Digital World. Cambridge: The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/7441.001.0001

Rogers, Ryan ed. 2019. Understanding Esports. An Introduction to the Global Phenomenon. Lanham, Boulder, New York, London: Lexington Books. https://doi.org/10.5771/9781498589819

Svensson, Daniel & Daniel Pargman (2024). Esports and Sportification. A View From Sweden. Hoffmann & Camara, eds.: Critical Perspectives on Esports. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003383178-6

Taylor,T.L. 2012. Raising the Stakes. E-sports and the professionalization of computer gaming. London: The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/8624.001.0001

Tjønndal, Anne, ed. (2023). Social Issues in Esports. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003258650

Zhouxiang, Lu (2022). A History of Competitive Gaming. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003095859

Practical information

• Abstracts: 150 words
  
• Full article: 3,000-3,500 words
  
• Video essays: Max 7-12 minutes, accompanied by an academic text (1,000-1,500 words) that explicitly reflects on the scholarly/academic contribution. Videos must be original.
  

Abstracts and articles should be submitted to Annemette Helligsø (anhe@ikk.aau.dk). Detailed author guidelines and further information are available on the journal’s website: https://journals.aau.dk/index.php/ak

Video Essays

You are welcome to take the opportunity to produce a video essay following these guidelines:

Video essays must be a maximum of 7–12 minutes long and accompanied by an academic guiding text of between 1,000–1,500 words that clearly reflects on the publication’s scientific/academic contribution. Video essays must be original works of publishable quality within a strict scientific context and can take argumentative, expository, explanatory, documentary, performative, essayistic, poetic, symbolic (metaphoric), or artistic forms—or a combination of these. The guiding text must clearly explain the argument in the video essay and/or the insight the viewer can gain by watching and listening to it. This guiding text must follow the instructions in the article stylesheet.

Note: The European Accessibility Act (EAA) requires audiovisual media broadcasters to incorporate features such as closed captions and audio descriptions to make content accessible to people with hearing or visual impairments. Contributors to video essays are therefore obligated to include closed captions in all video essay submissions to meet these access requirements.

Video essays must be final and submitted as a separate mp4 video file. Academic Quarter supports only the publication and not the technical development of video essays, but contributors are welcome to discuss video essays in progress with the editors.

Video essays and the guiding text are reviewed together. The criteria for reviewing submissions are:

a The clarity of the argument (cogency).

b The technical and stylistic execution of the video material.

c The clarity of the guiding text.

Deadlines

• Submission/review of abstracts: April 15, 2026
  
• Response to authors on abstracts: May 1, 2026
  
• Submission of articles/videos for peer review: July 17, 2026
  
• Peer review returned to authors: September 15 2026
  
• Resubmission of articles/videos after peer review: October 20, 2026
  
• Layout/copy-editing: November 21, 2026
  
• Publication: December 15, 2026
  

Journal of Environmental Media (Special Issue)

Deadline: June 21, 2026

Guest Editors: Luciano Frizzera, Mónica Humeres, and Fenwick McKelvey.

Big AI’s demands for this world are becoming clearer. In 2023, Microsoft announced plans to build new data centers powered by nuclear energy to fuel energy-hungry models (Calma, 2023). Google and Amazon made similar announcements subsequently (da Silva, 2024; Olick, 2024). Plans to build nuclear-powered AI data centers clearly illustrate the scale and consequences of AI as a social blueprint – rendering clear “the choices (implicit or explicit) made in the course of technological innovation” and demanding reflection on “the grounds for making those choices wisely” (Winner, 1986, p. 18). This special issue invites interventions against the growing cyberphysical project of “Big AI” (van der Vlist et al., 2024) or “AI as platform” (Mahnke & Bagger, 2024).

This special issue questions the imbrication of AI and digital sovereignty at work in new articulations of technological nationalism (Charland, 1986; Couture & Toupin, 2019; Grohmann & Costa Barbosa, 2025; Medina, 2011). Theories of the digital sublime and charismatic technologies have long been used to legitimate technologies as social blueprints (Ames, 2019; Carey & Quirk, 1970; Mosco, 2004), but AI arrives at a moment of critical duress for social epistemologies usually found in journalism seem incapable or unable to counter the sociotechnical futures produced by big AI (Bareis & Katzenbach, 2021; Dandurand et al., 2023; Liebig et al., 2024; Valderrama Barragán et al., 2025). We encourage contributions that unite fragmented scholarship as a counterpoint to Big Tech’s global, competitive cyberphysical project (Lai et al., 2026; Salamanca, 2025).

AI’s social blueprint has a ghastly environmental toll that threatens environmental justice (Hogan, 2015; Pasek et al., 2023; Velkova, 2016). We welcome contributions that share findings and digital methods that expose AI’s global technological footprint with an emphasis on the Americas (South and North). Whereas the AI industry itself seeks to bound AI’s toll as merely another technological problem that becomes another benchmark (Jegham et al., 2025), we seek to push media studies, science and technology studies, and communication studies to develop new accounts of AI’s hold on the world.

We hope to move from nationalistic sovereignties to global solidarities. AI’s social blueprint has not developed unopposed; across the world, social movements have turned to fight the spread of toxic data centers and reimagine AI (Halper, 2026; Murphy, 2025; Pasek, 2023). These movements are important sites to theorize the articulations of new political movements and media activism (Baumann et al., 2025; Dunbar-Hester, 2009; Renzi, 2020). We also welcome engaged and speculative research on alternative AI infrastructures that may include local or regional infrastructure, the fediverse, frugal AI infrastructures, decentralized, and/or distributed infrastructures (Coleman, 2021; Gehl, 2025).

Finally, we welcome discussion of what public interest infrastructure would look like for AI. Public interest AI refers to “support those outcomes best serving the long-term survival and well-being of a social collective construed as a ‘public’” (Public Interest AI, n.d.). The Paris Charter on Artificial Intelligence in the Public Interest (2025), published after the Paris AI Summit, aims to “encourage a more comprehensive and inclusive design of AI in the public interest, in terms of technology, organization and institutions that serve different jurisdictions and communities in attaining similar success.” Public interest AI, however, is already a contentious term and not dissimilar to other terms, such as “AI for Good” or “Responsible AI,” that can act as ethics washing (Bourne, 2024; Wagner, 2018). Scholarly attention is required to define public interest AI as a critical concept advancing social and environmental justice.

Key Dates

• 13 April 2026 – Call for Papers
  
• 21 June 2026 – Deadline for abstracts submission
  
• 20 July 2026 – Notification of selected Proposals
  
• 18 October 2026 – Full paper submission deadline
  
• Fall 2027 – Special issue publication
  

Submission Details

We aim to produce a diverse and balanced edition that includes researchers from Latin America. We encourage submissions in Spanish and Portuguese, as well as in English, for this special edition.

Please send a 300-words abstract with bibliographic references and a short biographical note to Luciano Frizzera (luciano.frizzera@me.com) by June 21, 2026.

If accepted, the author(s) will be asked to submit a full article by October 18, 2026.

Accepted articles must not exceed 6000 words (including bibliography) and must be accompanied by 5 keywords, author name(s) and a 100-word max bio, institutional affiliation(s) and contact details.

Authors guidelines and further information about the journal are available here: intellectbooks.com/journal-of-environmental-media.

Articles will be submitted to double blind peer review. Submission of a paper will be taken to imply that it is unpublished and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

The publication of this special issue is scheduled by fall 2027.

No payment required.

For any queries do not hesitate to contact the special issue co-guest editors.

Editors

Luciano Frizzera (luciano.frizzera@me.com) is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Guelph. He has a PhD in Communication Studies from Concordia University and an MA in Digital Humanities from the University of Alberta. His primary research discusses the political economy of subjectivation driven by AI and digital platforms. He is also an experienced UX designer and web developer.

Mónica Humeres (monica.humeres@uchile.cl) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Communication at the University of Chile. She is also an Adjunct Researcher at the Millennium Nucleus for the Future of Artificial Intelligence (FAIR), an interdisciplinary research and creative group focused on the cultural, social, and environmental implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Fenwick McKelvey (fenwick.mckelvey@concordia.ca) is an Associate Professor in Information and Communication Technology Policy in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University. He leads Machine Agencies at the Milieux Institute. He has successfully organized a number of conferences and preconferences, including (un)Stable Diffusions: A two-day international symposium on AI’s publics, publicities, and publicizations at Milieux Institute, Tiohtià:ke/Montréal.

Global Media and China

Deadline: May 20, 2026

We are pleased to announce a Call for Papers for a forthcoming special issue titled “AI, Algorithmic Media, and Digital Governance: Power, Control, and Technological Transformation,” to be published in the journal Global Media and China.

The accelerating integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into digital infrastructures represents a profound transformation in contemporary media environments and governance systems. AI-driven platforms, algorithmic recommendation systems, and automated content moderation increasingly shape how information circulates, how public discourse is structured, and how political authority is exercised across different societies. These developments raise important questions about algorithmic governance, digital sovereignty, media regulation, and the broader political implications of AI-mediated communication.

This special issue seeks to advance interdisciplinary scholarship examining the evolving relationships between AI technologies, media systems, and governance practices. We welcome contributions that critically explore how algorithmic systems influence media production, platform governance, public communication, and political power across diverse institutional and geopolitical contexts.

We invite empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions from scholars working in communication and media studies, political science, digital governance, sociology, science and technology studies, and related disciplines. Submissions may focus on specific national or regional contexts, or adopt comparative and transnational perspectives.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Algorithmic governance, digital statecraft, and political authority
  
• AI-driven propaganda, information manipulation, and computational misinformation
  
• State-led AI governance and digital surveillance regimes
  
• Platform politics and the political economy of algorithmic systems
  
• Public perceptions of AI and the politics of digital rights
  
• AI infrastructures, technological sovereignty, and global asymmetries in digital power
  
• Smart cities, Internet of Things systems, and algorithmic governance in public administration
  

Key dates

• Abstract submission deadline: 20 May 2026
  
• Notification of invitations for full papers: 1 June 2026
  
• Full paper submission deadline: 30 October 2026
  

Please submit an abstract of up to 500 words to the guest editors with the subject line “GMAC Special Issue Submission.”

Guest Editors:

• Dechun Zhang, University of Copenhagen (dezh@hum.ku.dk)
  
• Weiai Xu, University of Massachusetts Amherst (weiaixu@umass.edu)
  
• Han Lin, Soochow University (linhan741@gmail.com)
  

Full details of the Call for Papers can be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/GCH/Algorithmic%20Media_CFP-1773117974170.pdf

September 17-18, 2026

Aarhus, Denmark

Deadline: April 17, 2026

The abstract submission deadline for the Inaugural Symposium of the Nordic Manosphere Network is fast approaching. We invite prospective contributors to submit their proposals promptly to ensure consideration.

Although research on the manosphere is expanding globally, Anglo-American perspectives remain dominant. Research into the manosphere in the Nordic countries is currently dispersed and somewhat under-researched. The Nordic Manosphere Network aims to change this by creating a collaborative, interdisciplinary space that brings manosphere researchers together to share and create future collaborations. The purpose of the Network is also to reflect on the Nordic specific cultures and societies that situate and influence Nordic manospheres in different ways, e.g. the Nordic welfare states, gender equality, state feminism and other cultural and societal issues that are specific to the region.

We invite submissions engaging with any aspect of the Nordic manosphere, including but not limited to:

• Incel communities
  
• Red-pill narratives
  
• Tradwife discourses
  
• Digital masculinities
  
• Platform dynamics
  
• Manosphere financing and business models
  
• Anti-gender discourse
  
• Overlap with the far-right
  
• Feminist or intersectional approaches to these digital cultures

We especially encourage early-career scholars to contribute. For this, the NMN is able to facilitate limited traveling financial support via application.

Following the symposium, accepted abstracts will be published in a digital booklet, and participants will be invited to join regular online meetings designed to foster collaboration, peer support, and long-term research development. The Network seeks to connect isolated researchers, strengthen Nordic scholarship on gendered digital cultures, and develop regionally grounded frameworks for studying this increasingly influential online phenomenon.

Keynote: Professor Debbie Ging

Debbie Ging is Professor of Digital Media and Gender in the School of Communications at Dublin City University and Director of the DCU Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities. She teaches and researches on gender, sexuality and digital media, with a focus on digital hate, online anti-feminist men's rights politics, the incel subculture and radicalization of boys and men into male supremacist ideologies. Debbie’s research also addresses youth experiences of gender-based and sexual abuse online and educational interventions to tackle these issues. 

About the Nordic Manosphere Network:

The NMN is a newly established network that aims to bring together individuals researching the Manosphere within a Nordic context, with the goal of facilitating discussions and collaboration across borders and boundaries. Our inaugural symposium will bring together different scholars from the Nordics (and beyond) and unite the different strands of work to better facilitate ongoing work with the Nordic Manosphere.

More information on the call and how to apply here: https://nordicmanospherenetwork.com/

May 5, 2026, 5pm-7.30pm (UK time)

Registration: This event is FREE to attend, but registration is essential. To book your place, please email: a.zsubori@lboro.ac.uk

About the event:

Various digital media platforms in illiberal contexts function as a complex double-edged sword. In Hungary, they often act as additional channels for illiberal attitudes, amplifying state-sponsored negative sentiments. Yet, these same spaces remain vital for the expression of liberal views and resistance. This session explores this tension, focusing on how social media spaces have become sites of both systemic hostility and profound resistance for LGBTQ+ communities in Hungary.

We will be joined by Hungarian guest speakers who will discuss the lived reality of navigating this digital environment. The discussion will cover the online and offline consequences of the regime’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, as well as the state-encouraged harassment. Beyond victimisation, our speakers will highlight the diverse strategies of resistance, exploring how marginalised groups utilise digital media to build counter-narratives, maintain community safety, and challenge the illiberal status quo.

The session features a panel of individuals at the forefront of this struggle, including activists, journalists, and individuals with direct lived experience of digital victimisation. By bringing together those who document these harms and those who experience them, this webinar aims to provide a nuanced understanding of how political communication in an illiberal regime translates into real-world harm, and how resistance persists in the face of structural exclusion.

This webinar will be of interest to academics across communication, digital media, gender and LGBTQ+ studies, human rights, and political science, as well as non-academic audiences interested in the lived realities of LGBTQ+ minorities and their digital experiences.

The event is supported by the British Academy and Loughborough University.

Looking forward to seeing you there! Also, feel free to circulate this invitation!

November 5–7, 2026

Online

Deadline: May 31, 2026

Photography Network's Annual Symposium

Photography practitioners, historians, and curators respond in a multitude of ways to political and cultural contexts that challenge their work. Moreover, in response to efforts to remove, omit, occlude, obscure, or manipulate, photographs often persist, transform, and recirculate, reformulating visual worlds. Photographs bear a complex relationship to political and social power; authorities might manipulate or remove photographs to further their goals, but forms of covering up, self-censorship, or self-fashioning might also function in the name of individual privacy, safety, or resistance. Furthermore, as the material capabilities and limitations of photography shift, new questions continually emerge about the role of photographic removal and photographic resilience in constricting cultural climates.

This symposium offers a platform for scholarship that investigates the adaptability of photography and photo history in the face of constraints, be them cultural, governmental, institutional, editorial, individual, or otherwise. What do historians, curators, and photographers do when limitations are placed on their work, and what do the limitations themselves reveal about photography? Relatedly, when is restriction, refusal, or withdrawal protective, strategic, or empowering? Finally, what, if anything, has changed about how the medium navigates social or cultural boundaries—what can we learn from how practitioners have done this in the past that might shed light on present-day questions? We welcome interdisciplinary approaches, and we especially encourage international scholars to submit.

We invite submissions of 15-minute talks related to topics such as:

• Photographic exhibitions in complex political or social contexts
  
• Collecting institutions' navigation of political pressures
  
• Image circulation and content moderation on social media
  
• Privacy and surveillance
  
• Photographic archives and repatriation
  
• Photojournalism, political figures, war imagery
  
• Image withdrawal, refusal, or veiling as a form of justice,
  
• resistance, or repair
  
• Challenges in conducting scholarship on controversial imagery
  
• Cancelled exhibitions, publications, and public history projects
  
• Archives and historical erasure
  
• Cancelled negatives, "killed" negatives
  
• The aesthetics of photographic concealment—the blur, the black rectangle, the crop

We also, of course, encourage approaches to these questions beyond what we have outlined here.

To submit, please send a 250-word abstract and your CV to photographynetworksymposium@gmail.com by May 31, 2026.

August 5 - 15, 2026

Locarno, Switzerland

Submission Deadline: May 28, 2026

Call Description: https://www.locarnofestival.ch/it/about/factory/real-academy.html

Program Overview:

REAL – Reality Exploration Academy of Locarno is a newly reimagined ten-day program dedicated to critically engaging with the evolving landscape of non-fiction cinema. Building on the 26-year legacy of the Documentary Summer School, REAL marks a bold shift toward interdisciplinary exploration at the intersection of audiovisual theory, creative practice, and contemporary media ethics.

Hosted by the Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG) at Università della Svizzera italiana, in collaboration with the Locarno Film Festival, REAL offers a transformative educational journey where critical thinking meets cinematic imagination.

What is REAL?

REAL– Reality Exploration Academy of Locarno is where critical thinking meets cinematic imagination. Held during the Locarno Film Festival and hosted by the Institute of Media and Journalism at the Università della Svizzera italiana, REAL provides a transformative educational experience that dives deep into core questions: What is the “real” today? How do we engage with it ethically, creatively, critically?

This is the only program at the Locarno Film Festival awarding ECTS credits (up to 6), making it a unique opportunity for Bachelor, Master, and PhD students, as well as emerging filmmakers who want to deepen their theoretical reflection on the real. REAL embraces an innovative approach that incorporates video essays as practice-based research, utilizing Locarno Film Festival as a laboratory environment for both study and creation.

REAL is not just a course. It’s a journey of discovery that opens doors to new insights and forms lifelong bonds among the next generation of talents. It’s a conversation, a community, and a launchpad for reimagining and questioning how we engage with reality through cinema.

Is REAL for You?

If you’re curious, critical, and ready to challenge the way we see the world through film—then REAL is the right place for you.

REAL is calling for:

• University students at Bachelor, Master, or PhD level who want more than just classroom theory.
  
• Emerging filmmakers who want to deepen their understanding of reality through moving images.
  
• Cinematic minds, curious thinkers and bold storytellers obsessed with exploring reality on screen— from raw truths to hybrid forms.
  
• Fluent English speakers ready to dive into global conversations (all sessions are in English).
  

If I am selected, what can I expect from the REAL Academy?

10 unforgettable days of ideas, images, and inspiration at one of the world’s most iconic film festivals.

• Inspiring lectures with leading international scholars and filmmakers
  
• Privileged/priority access to the Locarno “Future of Cinema” conference, August 10-12, which brings leading international researchers on cinema and the audiovisual.
  
• Curated screenings and Q&As from the Locarno Film Festival and Semaine de la Critique
  
• A deep-dive seminar on the video essay, blending artistic research and critical media theory
  
• Creation of a final video essay expressing, your personal reflection on the real, to receive your credit for to up to 6 ECTS recognition
  
• (Experience with video production is encouraged but not required - video essay assignments are adaptable to all levels of expertise).
  
• An official certificate of participation
  
• Festival Accreditation that gives you access to everything the Festival has to offer
• 10 nights at the Papio College in Ascona, cozy triple rooms shared with fellow participants, private bathroom, and breakfast included, all in a beautiful lakeside setting just 8 minutes from the Festival hub, with easy access via the Festival shuttle bus – included in your participation.
  
• Evening events, informal gatherings, real networking — the kind that shifts your perspective, not just your LinkedIn profile.
  
• A global networking playground with fellow creatives and thinkers from around the world.
  

Participation fee: CHF 800 covering your stay, festival accreditation, lectures, screenings, and more. You just cover your travel and meals (except breakfast).

Which dates do I need to put in my diary and keep free if selected?

• March 10, 2026 – applications open
  
• May 28, 2026 - deadline for sending in your application
  
• June 14, 2026 – by this date you will receive an answer in respect of your application
  
• 5–15 August 2026 – participation in the program and Locarno Film Festival
  

Organizing Committee

• Prof. Kevin B. Lee, Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of Cinema and the Audiovisual Arts at USI. Filmmaker, media artist, and leading expert in video essays and artistic research.
  
• Dr. Eleonora Benecchi, Lecturer and Researcher at USI, expert in audiovisual theory, digital cultures, and social media.
  
• Laura Pranteddu, Doctoral student and researcher at USI, responsible for the audiovisual theory and production lab, with expertise in AI in journalism.
  
• Flavia Mazzarino, Doctoral student and researcher at USI in visual arts, with expertise in experimental cinema, curatorial practices, and avant-garde film production.
  
• Giulia Villani, Doctoral student and researcher at USI in digital communication, with expertise in consumer culture, public opinion, and cultural production in online environments.
  

April 10, 2026

The third event in the 2026 By/For: Photography & Democracy virtual lecture series is coming up on Friday, April 10, at 1pm ET: “When Home is a Photograph: Blackness and Belonging in the World” with Leigh Raiford. Learn more and register here.

By/For: Photography & Democracy is a collaborative partnership between three photographic historians, Dr. Tom Allbeson, Dr. Colleen O’Reilly, and Helen Trompeteler. Our collective investigates photography’s assumed democratic credentials as an art form and a medium of mass communication. We believe a historical perspective on the complex relationship between photography and democracy is critical to understanding how the medium and related visual technologies can address the social and political issues of our time.

In 2026, we invite you to join leading thinkers Anne Strachan Cross & Matthew Fox-Amato, Vindhya Buthpitiya, Leigh Raiford, Jeehey Kim, Zahid R. Chaudhary, and Tiffany Fairey for thought-provoking conversations on photography and democracy. Explore season two, view recordings, and register for all events here.

August 8–16, 2026  

Astana, Kazakhstan 

Deadline: May 31, 2026

YOUNG SCHOLAR CONFERENCE & RESEARCH SCHOOL

The Kazakhstan Sociology Lab in partnership with the School of Sciences and Humanities at Nazarbayev University invites applications for the Young Scholar Conference & Research School AI & Methods in Computational Communication (AIM-CC 2026).

Computational social science is undergoing a profound transformation driven by artificial intelligence. Methods that once relied on limited automation and classical analytical approaches are now being reshaped by large language models, embedding-based techniques, generative agents, and AI-assisted experimental designs. These developments open new analytical possibilities while simultaneously raising important methodological and epistemological questions.

AIM-CC 2026 is designed to address these transformations directly. The Conference & School provides structured methodological training in major areas of Computational Social Science and Computational Communication Research, while systematically integrating AI-related developments into each course.

The program is designed for PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, advanced Master’s students, and early-career scholars working in Computational Communication Research, Computational Social Science, digital sociology, political communication, network science, AI & Society, and related fields. Alongside intensive methodological training, participants will have a chance to present their research in a poster session and receive feedback from instructors and mentors, with the opportunity to further refine and present updated versions of their work.

Instructors

• Taha Yasseri – Director, TCD–TU Dublin Joint Centre for Sociology of Humans and Machines (SOHAM), Full Professor and Chair of Technology and Society, Trinity College Dublin & Technological University Dublin
  
• Ivan Smirnov – research consultant for AI in Research and Researcher Training, University of Technology Sydney; External Faculty Member, Complexity Science Hub Vienna
  
• Olessia Koltsova – Director,  Laboratory for Social and Cognitive Informatics, Professor, Department of Sociology, HSE University
  
• Basak Taraktas - Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bogazici University
  
• Miriam Schirmer – Postdoctoral researcher, LINK Lab, Northwestern University

Courses and workshops:

• Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence in Social Sciences
  
• Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Artificial Intelligence in Social Sciences
  
• Experimental Methods and Artificial Intelligence in Social Sciences
  
• Workshop: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Misinformation - Current Trends, Detection, and Mitigation
  

Contact  

More details on the eligibility criteria, application process and travel information are available on the AIM-CC 2026 website. For inquiries, please contact: aim_cc26@kazsoclab.kz

April 24, 2026

Online

The Influencer Ethnography Research Lab (IERLab) is pleased to present the Influencer Diplomacy Symposium. This is a one-day, online-only, open-access event focusing on the multifaceted role of influencers in diplomacy. The symposium offers a platform for scholars to examine how influencer cultures, practices, and industries shape diplomatic processes: from influencers taking on diplomatic roles and politicians adopting influencer strategies, to the ways influencer diplomacy extends beyond formal state and institutional settings into everyday politics, influencing public discourse and social engagement.

The symposium will feature a keynote address alongside a series of panel sessions that bring together scholars to discuss the evolving role of influencers in contemporary diplomacy.

More information about this event can be found here: https://ierlab.com/influencer-diplomacy/

The event will take place 24 April, Friday 10.00-16.00hrs AWST (GMT+8). Registration is free, and open now. Please use the link below to register only if you intend to attend live: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_h-voOmGWSUub8nDVMi1Gog

If you cannot attend live, event will be recorded and recordings will be made available shortly after on our website: https://ierlab.com/influencer-diplomacy/ 

Please feel free to share this email with your networks, and any questions about this event can be sent to contact@ierlab.com