ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

April 20-22, 2021

Online

Deadline: January 15, 2021

The theme for the 2021 Spring Seminar is monstrosity. This theme explores the role of monsters and monstrosity in games, play, game cultures, and other forms of playful media and popular cultures. The figure of the ‘monster’ is a crucial area for development in game studies. Recent scholarship has opened important trajectories for examining how such figures can embed problematic world views (Stang & Trammel 2019; Young 2016), and how the mythic dimensions of the monster are made mundane and knowable through containment within the rules (Švelch 2018). Monsters appear widely across digital and non-digital games and we welcome work that considers how they are deployed in game design and world-building, as well as critical analysis of specific monsters or games.

We are also interested in work that explores the theme of monstrosity more broadly. ‘Monstrosity’ evokes a taste-based or even ethical judgment, traditionally regarding architecture. What constitutes a monstrosity in the context of games and game cultures? What edifices, institutions, and monuments blight this domain? Are there elements of gaming culture and games that are indelibly evil? In some cases, the figure of the ‘gamer’ has become monstrous (e.g. Consalvo 2003), the commercial gaming culture’s role in enforcing racialised and gendered structures and practices is widely acknowledged (e.g. Richard & Gray 2018), while widespread industry practices such as ‘crunch-time’ are routinely condemned (e.g. Dyer-Withefor & de Peuter 2006).

We plan to bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines and perspectives to explore the theme of monstrosity. We are particularly interested in how this theme intersects with feminist scholarship, disability studies, gender studies, indigenous studies, queer studies and critical race/whiteness studies, and scholars who are working in these areas are encouraged to apply.

The possible list of topics includes but is not limited to:

• Monsters and the monstrous in playful media and popular cultures
• Panic discourses on gaming in mainstream media
• Harassment in gaming, social media, and streaming platforms
• Precariousness of work in the game industry
• Destructive capitalist and neoliberal structures and practices in gaming
• Gaming controversies
• Censorship, violence and pornography in games
• Toxicity in competitive gaming and esports
• Monstrosity as a playful practice
• Racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and hostility towards marginalised groups in gaming

Monstrosity is the 17th annual spring seminar organised by Tampere University Game Research Lab. The seminar emphasises work-in-progress submissions, and we strongly encourage submitting late-breaking results, working papers, as well as submissions from graduate and PhD students. The purpose of the seminar is to have peer-to-peer discussions and thereby provide support in refining and improving research work in this area. The seminar is organised in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies.

The papers to be presented will be chosen based on extended abstract review. Full papers are distributed prior to the event to all participants, in order to facilitate discussion. Three invited expert commentators, Dr. Aino-Kaisa Koistinen (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), Doctoral Candidate Sarah Stang (York University, Canada), and Dr. Jaroslav Švelch (Charles University, Prague), will provide feedback on the papers.

The seminar is looking into partnering with a journal so that the best papers would be invited to be further developed for publication in a special journal issue. In the past, we have collaborated with Games and Culture, Simulation & Gaming, International Journal of Role-Playing, and ToDiGRA journals.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the seminar will be held online. The seminar is free of charge.

Submission guidelines

The papers will be selected for presentation based on extended abstracts of 500–1000 words (plus references). Abstracts should be delivered in PDF format. Please use 12 pt Times New Roman, double-spaced, for your text. Full paper guidelines will be provided with the notification of acceptance.

Our aim is that all participants can familiarise themselves with the papers in advance. Therefore, the maximum length for a full paper is 5000 words (plus references). The seminar presentations should encourage discussion, instead of repeating the information presented in the papers. Every paper will be presented for 10 minutes and discussed for 20 minutes.

Submissions should be sent to gamestudiesseminar@gmail.com.

Important dates

• Abstract deadline: 15 January 2021
• Notification of acceptance: 29 January 2021
• Full Paper deadline: 30 March 2021
• Seminar dates: 20–22 April 2021

References

Mia Consalvo 2003. The Monsters Next Door: Media Constructions of Boys and Masculinity. Feminist Media Studies 3(1): 27-45.

Gabriela T. Richard and Kishonna L. Gray 2018. Gendered Play, Racialized Reality: Black Cyberfeminism, Inclusive Communities of Practice, and the Intersections of Learning, Socialization, and Resilience in Online Gaming. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 39(1): 112-148.

Sarah Stang and Aaron Trammell 2020. The Ludic Bestiary: Misogynistic Tropes of Female Monstrosity in Dungeons & Dragons. Games and Culture 15(6): 730-747.

Jaroslav Švelch 2018. Encoding monsters: “Ontology of the enemy” and containment of the unknown in role-playing games. In the edited proceedings of The Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, Copenhagen 2018. http://gameconference.itu.dk/papers/09%20-%20svelch%20-%20encoding%20monsters.pdf

Nick Dyer-Witheford and Grieg de Peuter 2006. “EA Spouse” and the Crisis of Video Game Labour: Enjoyment, Exclusion, Exploitation, and Exodus. Canadian Journal of Communication 31(3).

Helen Young 2016. Racial Logics, Franchising, and Video Game Genres: The Lord of the Rings. Games and Culture 11(4): 343-364.

April 21-23, 2021

Utrecht University (Netherlands)

Deadline: January 31 (panels)/February 15 (abstracts)

The conference has been postponed to Spring 2021. The new submission deadline for panels is 31 January 2021. Abstracts can be submitted until 15 February 2021.

Migrant belonging through digital connectivity refers to a way of being in the world that cuts across national borders, shaping new forms of diasporic affiliations and transnational intimacy. This happens in ways that are different from the ways enabled by the communication technologies of the past. Scholarly attention has intensified around the question of how various new technical affordances of platforms and apps are shaping the transnationally connected, and locally situated, social worlds in which migrants live their everyday lives.

This international conference focuses on the connection between the media and migration from different disciplinary vantage points. Connecting with friends, peers and family, sharing memories and personally identifying information, navigating spaces and reshaping the local and the global in the process is but one side of the coin of migrant-related technology use: this Janus-faced development also subjects individuals as well as groups to increased datafied migration management, algorithmic control and biometric classification as well as forms of transnational authoritarianism and networked repression.

This conference pays particular attention to the everyday use of digital media for the support of transnational lives, emotional bonds and cosmopolitan affiliations, focusing also on the role digital media play in shaping local/urban and national diasporic formations. This is because it becomes increasingly important to give everyday digital media usage a central role in investigations of transnational belonging, digital intimacy, diasporic community (re)production, migrant subject formation, long-distance political participation, urban social integration and local/national self-organization.

Therefore we need to examine individual and collective user practices within the wider historical and cultural contexts of media studies, cultural studies and postcolonial cultural studies scholarship, attuned to issues of politics and power, identity, geographies and the everyday. This also creates new challenges for cross-disciplinary dialogues that require an integration of ethnography with digital methods and critical data studies in order to look at the formation of identity and experience, representation, community building, and creating spaces of belongingness.

Contributions are welcome from any field of study that engages with questions about how technology and social media usages mediate contemporary migration experiences, not only within media and communication studies, or digital and internet studies but also in neighbouring disciplines such as anthropology, postcolonial studies, gender studies, race studies, psychology, law, visual studies, conflict studies, criminology, sociology, critical theory, political theory and international relations.

Contributions that explore non-media-centric entry points by focusing on users’ digital practices and foregrounding ethnographic exploration as a uniting framework are especially welcome.

The conference is part of the ERC project CONNECTINGEUROPE, Digital Crossings in Europe: Gender, Diaspora and Belonging.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Affective digital practices and the politics of emotion
• Digital diaspora
• Cosmopolitanism
• Cities and urban belonging
• Translocality and transnationalism
• Co-presence and togetherness
• Cultural capital
• Migrant visualization
• Appification of migration
• Platformization of migrant lives
• Gender and critical race
• The migration industry of connectivity
• Digital ethnography
• Transnational authoritarianism
• Networked conflicts
• Datafication and surveillance

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

Submissions for panels should be submitted via e-mail to ERC2020@uu.nl by 31 January 2021.

• Submission for panels should include a chairperson, a rationale for the panel (250 words), and the names of three speakers including their abstract (250 words) and biographical note (150 words).

Abstracts should be submitted electronically, using the online submission system by 15 February 2021.

• Submissions for papers should include an abstract (max 300 words) and short biographical note (150 words) about the author including her/his current position and interest in the field of digital media and migration.

For further questions please mail: ERC2020@uu.nl

The PDF of this call for papers is available here.

June 21-23, 2021

Link Campus University, Via del Casale di San Pio V 44 – Rome (IT)

Deadline: November 15, 2020

Conference Website: https://www.detect-project.eu/detect2021/

CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

• Charlotte Brunsdon (University of Warwick)
• Theo D’haen (Leuven University and Leiden University)
• Janet McCabe (Birkbeck, University of London)
• Peppino Ortoleva (University of Turin)

More info abou​t the speakers: http://www.detect-project.eu/keynote-speakers/

Description

Among the different expressions of popular culture, no other genre more than crime – meant as a composite made up of many different variants or subgenres -- has proved able to travel and expand its reach into international markets and with audiences. Nor has any other genre been more adept at laying bare the conflicts and contradictions – social, political and historical – that characterise contemporary European societies.

The Detecting Europe conference offers an open forum to explore and discuss how narratives of crime and investigation, as well as their production and reception, have helped define the major industrial, commercial, thematic and stylistic trends of European popular culture since 1989, fostering both the transnational circulation of its products and the appearance of new transcultural representations in line with the emergence of new social identities. We welcome proposals that interrogate the notion of Europeanness as a critical category, and its viability for the study of contemporary popular culture, both in print and screen media. We wish to explore both the scope and limits of the interrelated notions of transnational identity and cosmopolitanism when applied to the works of European crime fiction, including print fiction, film, and TV.

A few general — but not exclusive — questions may be asked. Are we to conceive of cosmopolitanism and the process of European transculturation merely as unifying factors, fostering the generation of a shared and uniform transnational identity? Or should we better acknowledge the existence of a variety of European transcultural identities, expressed in different writing and audio-visual styles, characteristic narrative models, place-specific production cultures and distribution and consumption patterns? What is the impact of national media ecologies in shaping the idea of the European, and how the national translate the European when foreign products appear in its mediascape? Should hybridization and transculturation be assumed as markers and powerful drivers of cultural homologation? Or rather the opposite is true, namely that cultural hybridization entails a growing differentiation of narrative forms and styles, contents and formats, production and reception practices, thus contributing to the emergence of a post-national assemblage of multiple and possibly diverging cosmopolitan identities? We deem it important, at this particular time, that the notion of Europeanness and its eventual instantiations in contemporary crime narratives is approached having in mind the multiple crises that are currently affecting the continent and its population.

We invite proposals from multiple fields of cultural studies, including representation studies, industry and production studies, and reception and audience studies. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Main stylistic trends of the crime-genre works produced in Europe in the last 30 years.
• Debating/reframing Euronoir as a critical category for cultural studies.
• Hybridization and transculturation: toward homologation or increased cultural differentiation?
• Crime fiction and the European crisis: immigration, migrant labour, Brexit, and the rise of right-wing popularism.
• The restaging and critical analysis of Europe’s recent past in the work of crime writers, screenwriters and directors.
• Images of Europe and Europeans: investigating social change through the study of popular crime narratives.
• Restating vs challenging class, gender and ethnic stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination in the representation of crime.
• The multiple facets of European diversity: how have social, spatial and historical identities been expressed in the works of the European crime genre?
• Ecocriticism and environmental humanities in the era of widescale ecological crisis: eco-noir and the challenges to European environment policies.
• The profiled position of crime in fostering transnational cooperation in the European cultural and creative sectors.
• Relationships and discrepancies between national/local creative industries and transnational cultural policies in the production milieu of the European crime genre.
• Transnational production and distribution and the emergence of transcultural formats.
• The hopes and limits of European cohesiveness, as revealed in practices of co-production and distribution of crime novels, films and TV dramas across the continent.

• Crime narratives and the media discourse on organized trans-European crime.
• Fictional representations of legal and forensic practices in comparative perspective.
• Translation, dubbing, subtitling as strategies for cultural adaptation and appropriation.
• The imbrication of local, national and transnational identities in the reception of foreign crime stories, between old and fresh perspectives on proximate or distant neighbors.
• Transnational distribution and the role of audiences in shaping the circulation patterns of European crime narratives across the continent.
• Detecting transcultural identity and social change through the study of the audiences’ response to crime stories and trans/cross-media universes.
• Engagement and design of crime audiences in the age of digital markets and online distribution.
• Making sense of social change through the audience’s response to the representation of female, gay, lesbian and queer characters.
• Theorising transnational/transdisciplinary research for the study of European crime narratives in print and screen media.

Conference Chairs

Monica Dall’Asta (University of Bologna), Federico Pagello (University of Chieti-Pescara), Valentina Re (Link Campus University)

Organizing Committee

Luca Antoniazzi (University of Bologna), Sara Casoli (University of Bologna), Massimiliano Coviello (Link Campus University), Paola De Rosa (Link Campus University), Lorenzo Orlando (Link Campus University)

Advisory Board

Stefano Arduini (Link Campus University), Maurizio Ascari (University of Bologna), Jan Baetens (KU Leuven), Luca Barra (University of Bologna), Stefano Baschiera (Queen’s University Belfast), Giulia Carluccio (University of Turin), Silvana Colella (University of Macerata), Caius Dobrescu (University of Bucharest), Andrea Esser (University of Roehampton), Nicola Ferrigni (Link Campus University), Katarina Gregersdotter (Umeå University), Kim Toft Hansen (Aalborg University), Annette Hill (University of Lund), Dominique Jeannerod (Queen’s University Belfast), Sandor Kalai (University of Debrecen), Matthieu Letourneux (University Paris Nanterre), Natacha Levet (University of Limoges), Giacomo Manzoli (University of Bologna), Janet McCabe (Birkbeck University), Jacques Migozzi (University of Limoges), Andrew Pepper (Queen’s University Belfast), Marica Spalletta (Link Campus University)

Submissions guidelines

Submissions are welcome as individual papers (max. 20 minutes) and pre-constituted panels (3/4 papers).

Individual presenters are required to provide their name, email address, the title of the paper, an abstract (max. 300 words), references (max. 200 words), and a short bio (max. 150 words).

Submit your paper proposal here

Submit your panel proposal here (panel organizers are also asked to submit a panel title and a short description of the panel (max. 300 words).

Deadlines and practicalities

• Abstracts deadline: 15 November 2020
• Feedback: 15 December 2020
• Registration deadline: 31 January 2020
• Regular conference fee: €120

Reduced conference fee (PhD students, Postdoctoral researchers): €90

Further information: info@detect-project.eu

At present, we are still planning to hold the conference in person at Link Campus University, taking all the necessary health and safety precautions required by Italian authorities. We will also be monitoring national and international guidelines for health and safety to communicate any changes in a timely manner.

(Fees include: coffee breaks, 2 light lunches, 1 light dinner, 1 welcome drink).

The conference is supported by CUC – Consulta Universitaria del Cinema, Italy.

Journal of Digital War

The Journal of Digital War is seeking review essays for our upcoming publication on topics related to digital war. We publish reviews of current books, artworks and conferences (ca. 750-1500 words).

Published by Palgrave Macmillan (Springer Nature), Digital War aims to critically explore what war means today and how it will develop in the future. Digital War provides an interdisciplinary forum for cutting-edge analysis of contemporary warfare, unifying researchers and knowledge from media studies, politics and IR, cybersecurity, the military, art, library and information studies, geography, and cultural studies as well as from political and technological commentators.

If you are interested in contributing a review article, please send an email to the Reviews Editor, Ally McCrow-Young: ally.mccrowyoung@hum.ku.dk , including your name, title and institutional affiliation. We have a number of titles available for review, however we also welcome review proposals on topics related to the journal’s aims.

We welcome timely interventions from practitioners, scholars and students. For more information and general submissions to the journal, visit: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/42984

Find the current full list of online first content here: https://link.springer.com/journal/42984/onlineFirst/page/1

USI, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society

Deadline: Applications received by the end of January 2021 will be given priority

Call and more info: https://content.usi.ch/sites/default/files/storage/attachments/hru/hru-call-professor-usi-lff.pdf?_gl=1*1ge96to*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE1OTk4MDk2MjQuQ2owS0NRand3T3o2QlJDZ0FSSXNBS0VHNEZYb0VSU3cwb2Qya2stWjcwVUtBc0NhaklaOUdTWmtJOHFPVndMekp4OVVxU25TTWFEaFllZ2FBaEx6RUFMd193Y0I.*_ga*MTMzOTgwNDUwMC4xNTY5OTQyNTc0*_ga_89Y0EEKVWP*MTYwNDkzMjkwNS4yNC4xLjE2MDQ5MzI5MTAuNTU.&_ga=2.109666181.1273169737.1604824630-1339804500.1569942574

Profile of the University, the Faculty and the Locarno Film Festival

Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) is one of the 12 certified public universities in Switzerland and member of swissuniversities. USI is a young and lively university, a hub of opportunity open to the world where students are offered a quality interdisciplinary education in which they can be fully engaged and take centre stage, and where researchers can count on having the space to freely pursue their initiatives. USI and its affiliated research institutes attract a substantial amount of competitive research funds every year, mainly from the Swiss National Science Foundation and the European Union. USI is featured in the most important international rankings. In particular it ranks 26th worldwide in the prestigious QS Top 50 Under-50; 54th in the Young University Rankings' of the Times Higher Education, and 20th in the 'THE world's best small universities 2020’ rankings.

The Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society is committed to research and teaching excellence in innovative fields of humanities and social sciences, and offers an edgy and highly international context. With a strong interdisciplinary approach, it especially explores the complex challenges that society is faced with, namely: digital technologies and global communication networks; cross-cultural interactions; the way communication and marketing decisions in profit, public, and non-profit organisations intersect markets, culture, and society; and, paradigmatic shifts in the way culture is shaped and conveyed.

The Locarno Film Festival (LFF), one of the longest-lived and most important film festivals in the world, was created after the end of WWII, capturing the cultural ferment of the post-war period and the newfound values of freedom (a spirit that has always distinguished its guidelines ever since). LFF aims at launching the works of independent filmmakers, focusing on the distribution and support of films made by young directors, to offer the public an overview of the most recent auteur and popular productions – often world or international premieres – and to deepen and broaden the knowledge of the history of cinema, through its annual retrospectives. Thousands of film fans and industry professionals meet at the Festival every summer, with in common a craving and a passion for cinema in all its diversity. The audience is the soul of the Festival, as embodied by the famous evenings on the Piazza Grande, whose magical setting can accommodate up to 8,000 filmgoers every night. In recent years, the Festival has also consolidated its commitment to the training and inclusion of young people, thanks to the activities of Locarno Pro and the Locarno Academy. Unable by the health crisis to take place in its usual form, in 2020 the Locarno Film Festival accelerated a process of reflection and change, launching a signal of solidarity with the film industry and enhancing the possibilities offered by digital. It was with this in mind that the Locarno Film Festival began to collaborate with USI to reflect on the future of events and to ensure that the Locarno Film Festival continues to be an avant-garde model of an international festival, maintaining a world primacy while having a strong local relationship, and following the fundamental values that define it: having courage, defending freedom and being aware that culture contributes to the upholding human dignity. One of the main current challenges of the Locarno Film Festival is to identify the fields of activity in which technology makes it possible to go beyond the "geographical boundaries" of an event organised in the city of Locarno and the "temporal boundaries" of an 11-day programme.

The synergy between the Locarno Film Festival and USI has taken shape over the past twenty years, though, in several key activities of the Locarno Academy, such as the Documentary Summer School, and the selection of short films made by the students of the USI Academy of Architecture. These have been joined by more recent collaborations, namely the Strategic Development Partnership in the field of strategic and organisational development of the LFF, but also the Locarno Media City initiative, a partnership with the City of Locarno, the Palacinema, and Swisscom, which, among other innovations, will enhance the role and utilization of the Locarno Film Festival archives.

Candidate Profile

• Subject focus

The subject focus of the candidate shall be in that of cinema and/or cultural production and management in the audio-visual context. Ideally, she/he is also competent in curating and organising cultural events and, in general, she/he reflects on cultural events, on the evolution of film storytelling and film criticism.

A profile defined by transversal training and/or professional curricula that privileges interdisciplinary approaches. The candidate is also familiar with artistic experimentation, as an act of creativity and research. In full continuity with the spirit of the Locarno Film Festival, which has always been marked by the desire to discover new talents, the candidate will manage to broaden the boundaries of the art of film and experiments with new lines of research, artistic action and programming.

• Scientific and personal profile

The candidate has an international professional, research and training experience. She/he combines academic activity – research and teaching – with a broad and international reach and involvement in the film and/or audio-visual sector (or related), as event curator, film critic and experimenter of new practices of reflection on motion pictures. The candidate’s activity encompasses the digital dimension, not only in the production of digital images but also in the digital distribution of cinema and/or audio-visual content.

A profile, which is also strongly focused on practice, favours interdisciplinary experimentation and dialogue. The candidate’s research is supported by the performative use of its engagement in the cinema and/or audio-visual sector.

The candidate has a marked ability to dialogue with different audiences, both internal and external, starting from USI and LFF, to manage inclusive reflection and innovation processes and to activate networks of contacts within the communities of reference.

To this end, the candidate has expertise in the development and financing of research and open innovation projects involving the various communities of reference for the LFF.

Her/his research captures trends in the field of cinema, audio-visual and their production, as well as their design and development also as cultural events. In particular, the candidate studies the transformations offered by the change in production, consumption and communication/marketing of cinema in society. Through teaching and thought leadership activities, the candidate is also able to communicate and foster these trends, making them become reference practices. She/he does so with an awareness of what is changing, thanks to a deep knowledge of classical and contemporary cinema. As a disseminator, the candidate is able to orchestrate an articulated training project.

The cooperative and communicative spirit of the candidate will allow him/her to bring a large academic community into the festival, which goes beyond the one she/he is personally and directly in contact with. Moreover, this community does not only include the one related to its area, cinema and audio-visual, but also includes other artistic sectors and application skills. The candidate is able to promote and manage interdisciplinary logics with the aim of co-devising a context of reflection and project paths within the LFF and USI, and with the involvement of third party entities. In this sense, the candidate’s profile is defined by a marked curatorial sensitivity.

• Seniority

Considering the role, and in particular the need to interface and manage complex contexts, a profile with already consolidated experience, ideally mid-career, is preferred,

Job Description

At USI, the successful candidate will be expected to:

• promote research also in association with research programs funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and similar institutions;
• develop, coordinate, and teach courses/seminars on her/his topic areas at different levels: Bachelor, Master and Doctoral;
• coordinate assistants’ activities and act in an advisory capacity for PhD candidates; actively participate in the work of the Faculty Council and related ad-hoc committees;
• connect the competences available at USI in the field of cinema and the audio-visual arts, thus contributing to one of USI's defining elements, interdisciplinarity, which is also strongly emphasized in the 2021-2024 strategic planning of USI, and supporting the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society as USI's most interdisciplinary and interconnected Faculty. In addition, the successful candidate will consolidate the role of academic reference at the LFF, enabling as such access to a field of great interest for research.

At the Locarno Film Festival the successful candidate will be expected to:

• contribute to the training activities of LFF addressed to students, continuing education programmes, seminars, lectures, round tables and ad hoc programmes involving both student audiences and film and audio-visual enthusiasts. The development of training activities is part of the current initiatives proposed by Locarno Young and Locarno Pro, strengthening their impact and their ability to contribute to the training of talents in both the artistic and curatorial fields;
• contribute to the development of the "cultural collective" that today shapes the many initiatives that are included in the summer programme and that are also offered throughout the year, taking on the role of a driving force for critical reflection, broadening perspectives, building bridges, creativity and therefore overall growth.

The professor will have privileged access, at various levels, to the LFF, and will act as an independent advisor of the LFF, albeit through a genuine and active involvement with the LFF.

The total teaching load within degree programs is of 18 ECTS per year for a full-time position of associate and full professor and 12 ECTS for a position of assistant professor.

Contract and salary

The position offered is full-time. However, part-time employment is not excluded. In the case of part-time employment, the successful candidate is required to give priority to this position.

The successful candidate will share her/his activity between the USI campus in Lugano and the USI office in Locarno.

The salary offered is highly competitive and will be defined based on experience and qualifications.

The terms of the contract are defined by the University Statutes (www.usi.ch/en/struttura_legale.htm). The position would start as of September 2021.

Residence and Language

The professor should take residence in Ticino (Italian-speaking part of Switzerland).

The University’s graduate programs are taught mainly in English, while Bachelor classes are taught in Italian. Fluency in Italian is initially a plus, but required within the third year. The knowledge of a second Swiss national language is welcomed.

Application and Required Documentation:

Applicants should submit:

• a letter of motivation addressed to the Dean of the Faculty;
• a detailed CV including a list of publications, together with documentation of relevant academic qualifications, teaching, service and professional experience;
• copies of a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 10 publications of relevance for the position;
• names of three referees.

As an Equal Opportunities employer, USI ensures equality in recruitment, development, retention and promotion of staff, and that no one is disadvantaged on the basis of their gender, cultural background, disability, sexual orientation or identity. We encourage everyone who meets the selection criteria to apply. We particularly encourage and appreciate applications from women.

Deadline

Applications received by the end of January 2021 will be given priority.

Please send your electronic application to the Faculty’s Dean by e-mail, addressed to:

Università della Svizzera italiana

Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society

Prof. Luca M. Visconti, Dean

Via Giuseppe Buffi 13

CH-6904 Lugano

E-mail: concorsi.com@usi.ch

For further information, please contact

Prof. Luca M. Visconti (for USI)

luca.visconti@usi.ch

Raphaël Brunschwig, Chief Operating Officer (for Locarno Film Festival)

raphael.brunschwig@locarnofestival.ch

Wilfrid Laurier University

Date: Oct 23, 2020

Location: Waterloo, CA

Company: Wilfrid Laurier University

Department: Faculty of Arts

Campus: Waterloo

Employee Group: WLUFA

Application Deadline: December 1, 2020

Requisition ID: 877

Wilfrid Laurier University is a leading multi-campus university that excels at educating with purpose. Through its exceptional employees, students, researchers, leaders, and educators, Laurier has built a reputation as a world-class institution known for its rich student experience, academic excellence, and global impact. With a commitment to Indigenization and commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, Laurier’s thriving community has a place for everyone.

Laurier has more than 19,000 students and 2,100 faculty and staff across campuses in Waterloo and Brantford, as well as locations in Kitchener and Toronto. The university is committed to providing an inclusive workplace and employing a workforce that is reflective of local and national demographics. Our locations are situated on the traditional territories of the Neutral, Anishnawbe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. We recognize the unique heritages of Indigenous peoples and support their intentions to preserve and express their distinctive Indigenous cultures, histories, and knowledge through academic programming and co-curricular activities. Laurier’s Centre for Indigegogy is one example of how Laurier honours Indigenous knowledge.

Wilfrid Laurier University—The Department of Communication Studies invites applications for a tenure-track appointment at the Assistant Professor level commencing July 1, 2021, subject to budgetary approval. We seek to hire a critical communication studies scholar with demonstrated expertise in one or more of the following sub-fields: feminist media studies, health communication, environmental communication, decolonial media studies, social movements. Applicants must have a completed PhD in Communication Studies or a cognate discipline by the time of the appointment. The preferred candidate will have a strong research record, as evidenced by publication in peer-reviewed sources, and a record of excellence in teaching. Demonstrated knowledge of a range of research methodologies in Communication Studies and/or Cultural Studies would be considered an asset. The teaching workload norm at the University is four one-term courses at the undergraduate and Master’s level.

Communication Studies is a leading critical program in Canada. We study the intersection of language, media and culture from an interdisciplinary perspective and train students in the histories, theories and methodologies of Communication Studies. The department also offers a Combined BA in Cultural Studies. With an average of 1000 majors, Communication Studies is the largest program in the Faculty of Arts. In 2021, we will celebrate our 20th anniversary.

Applicants should submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, up to two selected publications and a teaching dossier. The teaching dossier should include copies of course evaluations, selected course outlines and a brief reflection on teaching and the applicant's teaching experience.

Candidates should also provide contact information (address, telephone and email) for at least three referees to:

Dr. Judith Nicholson, Chair,

Email: commst@wlu.ca

Department of Communication Studies,

Wilfrid Laurier University,

75 University Avenue West,

Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3C5.

Electronic applications will be accepted until December 1, 2020 at commst@wlu.ca.

Please submit the application via the email above.

Applicants can learn more about the Department and current faculty research interests at https://students.wlu.ca/programs/arts/communication-studies/index.html

Wilfrid Laurier University is committed to employment equity and values diversity. Laurier welcomes applications from qualified members of the equity-seeking groups. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, as per Canadian immigration laws, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority. To comply with the Government of Canada’s reporting requirements, the University is obligated to gather information about applicants’ status as either Permanent Residents of Canada or Canadian citizens. Applicants need not identify their country of origin or current citizenships, however, all applicants must include one of the following statements in their cover letter:

Yes, I am a current citizen or permanent resident of Canada;

No, I am not a current citizen or permanent resident of Canada

Members of designated groups must self-identify to be considered for employment equity. Candidates may self-identify, in confidence, to: Dr. Gavin Brockett, Acting Dean of Arts at gbrockett@wlu.ca.

Laurier strives to make our application process accessible and provides accommodations for both applicants and employees as outlined in Policy 8.7: https://www.wlu.ca/about/governance/assets/resources/8.4-employment-equity.html. If you require assistance applying for this position, to obtain a copy of this job description in an accessible format, or would like to discuss accessibility and accommodations during the recruitment process, please contact the Dean of Arts Office at 519-884-0710 ext. 3361 or at artsinfo@wlu.ca.

Applicants are encouraged to address any career interruptions or special circumstances that may have affected their record of research and teaching, in accordance with SSHRC and NSERC definitions and guidelines.

The Faculty of Arts wishes to thank all applicants for their interest. All nominations and applications shall be reviewed and considered under a set of criteria established by the Search Committee and a short list of candidates shall be interviewed. Only those applicants selected for the short list will be contacted.

Wilfrid Laurier University endeavors to fill positions with qualified candidates who have a combination of education, experience, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position while demonstrating Laurier's Employee Success Factors.

Equity, diversity and creating a culture of inclusion are part of Laurier’s core values and central to the Laurier Strategy. Laurier is committed to increasing the diversity of faculty and staff and welcomes applications from candidates who identify as Indigenous, racialized, having disabilities, and from persons of any minority sexual and gender identities. Indigenous candidates who would like to learn more about equity and inclusive programing at Laurier are welcomed to contact the Office of Indigenous Initiatives. Candidates from other equity seeking groups who would like to learn more about equity and inclusive programing at Laurier are welcomed to contact Equity & Accessibility. We have strived to make our application process accessible, however if you require any assistance applying for a position or would like this job posting in an alternative format, please contact Human Resources. Contact information can be found at careers.wlu.ca/content/How-to-Apply-/

Should you be interested in learning more about this opportunity, please visit www.wlu.ca/careers for additional information and the online application system. All applications must be submitted online. Please note, a CV and letter of introduction will be required in electronic form.

https://careers.wlu.ca/job/Waterloo-Communication-Studies-Tenure-Track-appointment-at-the-Assistant-Professor-level_/3158947/?fbclid=IwAR2lOw5WhoK4H4Mk6ojbgQbhOouKFufi4k6rjTTVR1y7ObuBO9z4L8hoOmk

Utrecht University

https://www.uu.nl/…fte

Hours per week: 38 to 40

Faculty: Faculty of Humanities

Department: department Media- en Cultuurwetenschappen

Application deadline: 7 December 2020

Job description

The Department of Media and Culture Studies is looking for a media scholar with a strong international reputation and excellent skills in research, teaching and management. S/he can articulate an engaged, interdisciplinary vision on the field in line with the strategic plans of the department, the Faculty of Humanities, and the university. The ideal candidate substantially contributes to developing the department’s research themes in media, data and society and helps to disseminate this knowledge beyond academia.

S/he has a strong research focus on media developments of digitization, datafication and platformization (i.c. data-driven and algorithmically steered platforms), and their cultural social and political implications. S/he is able to draw on a broad scope of theoretical and methodological approaches, such as digital methods, media ethics, digital etnography or STS, and has experience in investigating concrete practices, e.g. digital innovation or data governance in societal processes. The interconnection between data-driven practices, media, and societal change constitutes the core of collaborations between Utrecht University’s researchers. The candidate is able to motivate and inspire cooperative research projects across the various disciplinary areas, apply for outside funding, initiate collaborative teaching, and stimulate innovation that directly connects to recent developments in media studies, both nationally and internationally.

The successful candidate focuses on datafication and the cultural and societal dimensions of media in today’s digitized society, in both teaching and research. S/he is expected to engage with, and help to develop, existing interdisciplinary research initiatives such as urban interfaces and/or Datafied Society external link. Moreover, s/he is expected to contribute to Utrecht University’s strategic themes “Institutions for Open Societies, “Dynamics of Youth” and/or “Pathways to Sustainability”, and focus areas such as Governing the Digital Society external link, Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence external link and/or Game Research external link. The successful candidate is encouraged to initiate and build on UU’s research strengths in these areas.

The candidate we are looking for has a strong publication record, proven abilities to generate external funding, and an extensive international network. S/he has profound knowledge of the theoretical foundations of media studies as an academic field and is familiar with current developments in the field of media such as datafication, mediatisation, datafication, and platformization; we welcome theoretical, historical, empirical and contextual orientations towards these developments.

The new chair will be positioned in the Department of Media and Culture Studies (MCW), which is part of the Humanities Faculty of Utrecht University (UU). MCW provides education and research in the fields of film, television, games, new media and digital culture, theatre, dance and performance, musicology, gender and post-colonial studies, communication and information studies, and participation in arts and culture. In the department, a wide range of media as well as cultural and artistic expressions are studied in conjunction with one another. Culture is interpreted as a dynamic combination of artistic, creative and everyday activities that people use to shape their identities, and within which social processes, structures and institutions are shaped.

Qualifications

We are looking for candidates:

• Who are experienced, internationally respected senior researchers in the field of the chair, as shown by a completed PhD and an extensive list of peer-reviewed scholarly output in leading academic journals and reputable book publications;
• Who have successfully acquired internal and external research grants;
• With substantial experience in teaching media subjects at the BA and MA level and who have acquired the Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO) according to Dutch university standards or who have extensive experience in developing curricula;
• Who have experience in supervising PhD candidates in an inspiring and effective way as well as in leading an international team of researchers;
• Who have an extensive international and national network in academia and beyond, especially in the media sector, and who are able to engage this network in order to develop original research projects;
• Who have excellent communication skills and who are capable of inspiring a positive team spirit;
• Who have the experience and willingness to take on managerial responsibilities at the departmental level;
• Who are fluent in English at near-native or native-speaker standard in oral and written communication;
• Whose fluency in Dutch is at least at the NT2 level (or able to reach this level within two years after the appointment).

Offer

We offer a temporary position (1.0 FTE) for five years in an international working environment. Subject to excellent performance, this will be followed by a permanent appointment. The gross salary - depending on previous qualifications and experience - ranges between €5,749 and €8,371 (consistent with the Collective Employment Agreement scale for professors of Dutch Universities) per month for a full-time employment. Salaries are supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8% and a year-end bonus of 8.3% per year. In addition, Utrecht University offers excellent secondary conditions, including an attractive retirement scheme, (partly paid) parental leave and flexible employment conditions external link (multiple choice model). Here you'll find more information about working at Utrecht University external link.

About the organisation

Utrecht University external link strives for excellence in teaching and research. This also holds for the clearly defined research profiles with respect to four core themes: Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences, and Sustainability. Utrecht University has a strong commitment to community outreach and contributes to answering the social questions of today and tomorrow.

The Faculty of Humanities external link has around 7,000 students and 900 staff members. It comprises four knowledge domains: Philosophy and Religious Studies, History and Art History, Media and Culture Studies, and Languages, Literature and Communication. Through its research and teaching in these domains, the Faculty aims to contribute to a better understanding of the Netherlands and Europe in a rapidly changing social and cultural context. The enthusiastic and committed colleagues and the excellent facilities in the historical city center of Utrecht, where the

Faculty is housed, contribute to an inspiring working environment. The Department of Media and Culture Studies external link at Utrecht University is an internationally renowned teaching and research consortium composed of scholars in Film, Television, Arts Policy and Participatory Arts, Communication, New Media, Game and Gender Studies Music, Theatre, Dance. It is dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to media, performance, music, and culture in general.

Additional information

For informal inquiries please contact Professor Maaike Bleeker (m.a.bleeker@uu.nl), Head of the Media and Culture Studies Department.

Please note that an assessment can be part of the selection procedure. More information on the chair position can be found here external link.

Apply

Everyone deserves to feel at home at our university. We welcome employees with a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives.

Applications must include:

• a letter of motivation detailing how the candidate’s experience and competence with regard to research and education relate to the department MCW and Utrecht University in general;
• a CV including a full list of publications;
• certified copies of relevant diplomas;
• names and contact details of three (academic) referees.

Please refer to the position you are applying for and use the application button below to apply.

The application deadline is 7 December 2020.

Special issue of Journal of Digital Media & Policy, 12.3 (October 2021)

Deadline (extended): November 20, 2020

https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-digital-media-policy

Special Issue Editors: Sally Broughton Micova (University of East Anglia) and Krisztina Rozgonyi (University of Vienna)

The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) is the centrepiece of media policy in the European Union. It sets the foundations of regulating broadcast media without frontiers. Over multiple revisions over the last two decades it was gradually extended first to on-demand audiovisual services, and most recently to video sharing platforms dealing in user generated content. This policy journey was a remarkable one characterised by careful balancing of economic and cultural policy objectives and various policy innovations. It has been an enlightenment in Member States with media markets suffering from oppressive and politically driven regulatory regimes, but it also has taken a heavy toll on smaller markets distressed by major transnational audiovisual content providers.

The revised AVMSD adopted in late 2018 promised to create a more level playing field for European media outlets competing with US-based tech giants and fighting for shrinking sources of income and increasingly fragmented audiences. The deadline for national transposition is 19 September 2020. Whether and how all member states meet this deadline given the Covid-19 related consequences on legislative processes raises several issues. Legal and policy scholars are dealing with challenging questions about the wide-reaching impact of entering a new phase of regulation and the next level of media governance, while old problems were still dragging along without due response.

This special issue considers the numerous questions and challenges arising in the implementation of the AVMSD in the context of the role of European policy in a global digital media environment. It will bring together scholars of communication and media, law, economics, policy and technology to answer some of these questions and debate the limits and potential of the AVMSD’s novelties. Therefore, contributors are invited to address issues such as:

1. The fate and function of the country of origin principle, particularly in light of some efforts to re-nationalise speech regulation and the implications of applying the principle to global platform owning companies;

2. The “level playing field”, both as a policy aim and as a condition of competition in the market for audiences and advertising, considering both societal and economic concerns;

3. The allocation of responsibility to video sharing platforms without eroding exemption from liability and the wider consequences of this policy innovation;

4. The design of co- and self- regulatory models for video sharing platforms;

5. The increased obligations on video on demand services in relation to European works, especially from the perspective of smaller national markets;

6. The expectations of independence of audiovisual regulators and potential for regulatory cooperation, particularly given the challenges facing some “troubled” national regulators.

7. Implications for future public policy, such as the impact of Brexit and interaction with the proposed for a Digital Single Act: overlapping competencies, competing policy objectives.

We also consider short reports/commentaries with a policy focus of bet. 1,500-2,000 words.

DEADLINES: abstracts of 400 words to be received by FRIDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2020 and full manuscripts of 6-8,000 words, including refs, by MONDAY 15 MARCH 2021 in order to be sent out for review. Peer-reviewed manuscripts will need to be with the Editors by MONDAY 31 MAY 2021 and final decisions/papers to be sent to the publisher by WEDNESDAY 30 JUNE 2021. No payment from authors is required.

All submissions should be sent via email attachment to Sally Broughton Micova (S.Broughton-Micova@uea.ac.uk) and Krisztina Rozgonyi (krisztina.rozgonyi@univie.ac.at).

November 18-19, 2020 (both days 13:00-18:00 GMT)

Online conference (Zoom)

For decades, Brazil has been on the frontline of debates about sustainable development largely due to its central role in the global ecosystem. In recent years, the country has been facing increases in forest fires, dam disasters, illegal mining and use of agrochemicals, and ongoing oil spills on beaches.

Brazilian environmental media coverage is in a position to improve recognition and understanding of environmental risks amongst the Brazilian public. From news to social media, from documentary films to broadcast television, environmental communications take multiple forms and have a multitude of impacts on policies, politics, economics, culture and public awareness of these issues. Critical analysis must take similarly complex approaches, from content analysis to reception studies, from engagement with media industry political economies to their environmental impacts.

Furthermore, as Brazil’s environmental concerns resonate globally, especially with debates over the state of the Amazons, these need to be discussed in a reciprocal global sustainability framework that understands that media systems are now heavily international and integrated and that environmental problems flow across borders.

Supported by a Global Challenges Research Fund Fellowship and the Institute of Advanced Study at University of Warwick, this symposium aims to promote innovative research, educational knowledge exchange, and networking strategies in environmental communication.

Please register for the symposium through our website: https://doity.com.br/…=en

Veronika Kalmus, Marju Lauristin, Signe Opermann, Triin Vihalemm (editors)

This collective monograph can be seen as a retrospective logbook of the long journey of the research group “Me. The World. The Media” (in Estonian “Mina. Maailm. Meedia”, abbreviated as MeeMa). The book offers a reflexive review of the long-term experience of researching the transformations in Estonian society, particularly by using the lens of social morphogenetic analysis developed by Margaret Archer and her co-workers. Specifically, the book aims to re-conceptualise the main results of the empirical studies from 2002 to 2014 by synthesising different theoretical perspectives on social change.

“This book, edited by Veronika Kalmus, Marju Lauristin, Signe Opermann and Triin Vihalemm, is an impressive scientific achievement. I can strongly recommend the book as a must-read not only for scholars interested in post-communist social transformations but also for those interested in global processes of modernisation and in connecting the most relevant contemporary sociological theory with empirical research.” -- Professor Matej Makarovic, School of Advanced Social Studies, Slovenia

“This book provides innovative, theoretically framed, multidimensional, richly evidence-based analysis of socio-cultural transformations in Estonia during the last two decades, encompassing the accession to the European Union and its momentous consequences. Historians of science will describe this book some time in the future as the landmark event in the making of another University of Tartu scientific school brand: the Tartu sociological school.” -- Professor Zenonas Norkus, Vilnius University, Lithuania

https://tyk.ee/politology-and-sociology/00000012966