ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

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

Kwartalnik Filmowy

Deadline: April 4, 2021

Number 114 (Summer 2021)

If we agree that reality – or what we tend to consider as such – is based on a certain order, it follows that this order has a mirror image in the form of disorder: equally clear, though – as mirror images do – oriented towards the opposite direction. This disorder, which can be a result of deliberate action as well as a function of time, takes on different forms and names, including contamination, dirt or flaw. It is worth noting that neither order nor disorder is unambiguous – whether in axiomatic or axiological terms. After all, phenomena as heterogeneous as the contamination of natural environment and ‘contamination’ of the adopted system of values or dominant narrative may be considered as something that demolishes a certain order, violates a general principle. In this volume, we would like to reflect on the possible reasons, meaning and purpose of any kind of contamination, understood both literally as a physical factor and figuratively as a metaphysical disturbing element. We are also interested in various cleansing rituals, invented and introduced in order to maintain the established order, wash away the dirt, remove the flaw.

What kinds of contamination must humans (and other organisms) face today in biological and social life? When and what kind of dirt can be a positive phenomenon? How to deal with a flaw? And should it be dealt with at all? And finally, how do filmmakers respond to all these problems? Can/should film become a voice in the discussion on the thus defined condition of the world (not only contemporary)? These issues were partly addressed by Thomas Elsaesser in his 2019 analysis of the state of contemporary European cinema. Drawing on Julia Kristeva’s theory of the abject, the film scholar described the ways in which the self exists and is depicted in cinema, and in so doing indicated problems experienced by contemporary Europeans and their attempts at dealing with them. This is not to say, of course, that we only invite reflection limited to the European context.

Examples of thematic areas:

• contamination, dirt, flaw as thematic motifs
• contamination of dominant narratives
• the work of film directors and audio-visual artists active outside the mainstream
• niche and independent cinema as a form of rebellion (artistic, social, political)
• order v. disorder (narrative, visual, moral/ethical etc.)
• disorder and disruption as creative methods
• actual and cinematic cleansing rituals
• materiality and non-materiality of contamination, dirt, flaw
• film as a rough draft
• (un)intentionality of technical flaw as an aesthetic means (with regard to image and sound)

Kwartalnik Filmowy

Deadline: December 31, 2020

No. 113 (Spring 2021)

We accept articles – in Polish or in English language – concerning subjects as announced below, as well as papers not strictly connected with the main topic of the volume, especially if they are related to history of Polish cinema, film theory or issues from the area of film and media studies that are underresearched so far. We also accept reviews of the books on film published in Poland or concerning Polish cinema and media.

Film as an idea, i.e. creating a mediated image that would reproduce movement, is as old as culture. On the other hand, the development of film technology, first as a photochemical, then electromagnetic, and finally a digital process, is the relatively short albeit tumultuous history of film as a medium. The art of cinema is always entangled in the technological process of creating a work, which brings both limitations and the freedom of artistic expression. This entanglement concerns all films, even the famous Zen for Film (1965) by Nam June Paik, because in fact – as the author himself has shown – there is no other possibility of artistic expression here, although, as can be easily seen, the concept itself is perfectly translatable into other recording technologies. Filmmakers sometimes try to conceal the materiality of their works, focusing on creating an illusion of reality. For others, the surface, the tape, the material substance already constitutes the film itself – as in the case of Man Ray, Stan Brakhage or Julian Antonisz. One may wonder where this materiality is today, in the age of digital effects and virtual existence of cinema.

The technological context calls for revisiting the fundamental question: what is film? After all, even in the age of a multiple ways of recording, we can still talk of a coherent history of the art of motion pictures. To what extent, then, are these technologies complementary or aesthetically significant in the creative process?

Examples of thematic areas:

• the history of film technology, also as the history/archaeology of cinema
• film technology and aesthetics
• the influence of the technological process on the shape of the film work v. the influence of the works themselves on the technological development
• film technology vis-à-vis notions such as original, copy, image recording
• digital remastering and related aesthetic problems
• using mixed film technologies as a conscious creative process
• technology and film theory
• the second life of film
• the cult of novelty and audio-visual perfection
• image (and sound) manipulation – the manipulative potential of image (and sound)
• image surface v. depth
• film as material substance
• technological limitations/innovations

University of Brighton

The School of Media, University of Brighton is inviting applications for AHRC-funded /technē/ Doctoral studentships for October 2021 entry. We are looking for motivated and engaged individuals to study across our research strengths in Media & Communications, Arts and Humanities. Applicants will be educated to Masters level or equivalent and meet AHRC eligibility criteria for funding.

Your application will go through a two-stage process, being considered first by the University of Brighton Doctoral College.

AHRC-funded technē Studentships /Technē/ is a Doctoral Training Partnership funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), aiming to create a new model for collaborative research skills training for research students across nine higher education institutions in London and the South East (Royal Holloway; Brunel University; University of Brighton; Kingston University; Loughborough University, London; Roehampton University; University of Surrey; University of the Arts London; and University of Westminster). /Technē/’s vision is to produce scholars who are highly motivated and prepared for academic, public or professional life.

Fully-funded studentships (stipends and fee waivers) will be awarded by /technē/ to the best students put forward by its member universities. Successful applicants will benefit from a rich and diverse training programme with a focus on interdisciplinarity career development both in and beyond higher education and they will be able to draw on supervisory expertise from across the partnership. The /technē/ training programme is enhanced by input and placement opportunities provided by 13 partner organisations, including the Barbican, Natural History Museum, Museum of London, BFI and the Science Museum.

The School of Media and Centres for Research Excellence

The University of Brighton’s School of Media fosters a thriving community of theorists and practitioners working on the development of new knowledge around media cultures, technologies and practices. Our research encompasses a broad range of media forms, from television and film to digital media, videogames, VR and AR and it focuses on different stages of media production, representation, distribution and reception.

More specific areas include innovative research on the media and: identity politics (e.g. gender and sexuality); power and resistance (e.g. activism, democracy); memory and history; sustainability and environmentalism, among others

Research is supported through specialist centres and groups. Doctoral supervisors are active in research in

• the Centre for Digital Media Cultures: https://www.brighton.ac.uk/digital-media-cultures/index.aspx
• the Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics: https://www.brighton.ac.uk/secp/index.aspx
• the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender: https://www.brighton.ac.uk/ctsg/index.aspx
• and the Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories: http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/research/centre-for-research-in-memory-narrative-and-histories

Additional Research & Enterprise Groups that provide further opportunities for networking, collaboration and support are the ones on

• Screen Studies: https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/organisations/screen-studies-research-and-enterprise-group
• Photography in Practice; Photography in Theory: https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/organisations/photography-in-practice-photography-in-theory-research-and-enterp
• Creative Sound & Music: https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/organisations/creative-sound-and-music-research-and-enterprise-group
• Cultural Informatics: https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/organisations/cultural-informatics-research-and-enterprise-group

The City of Brighton and Hove gives our PhD students access to one of the UK’s most lively media economies. We foster research that takes advantage of these relationships with a history of community engagement and industry-based research projects.

For more information about the School research culture, please visit the School of Media research website: https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/organisations/school-of-media/persons/

For more information about the scheme, please visit the Technē website: https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/organisations/school-of-media/persons/

For more details and how to apply, please visit the relevant University page on Funding Opportunities and Studentships: https://www.brighton.ac.uk/research-and-enterprise/postgraduate-research-degrees/funding-opportunities-and-studentships/dtp-ahrc-techne-general.aspx

Important dates:

*University of Brighton deadline:* Monday 4 January 2021.

*Interviews: *Week beginning 20 January 2021

For further information please contact the Postgraduate Research Coordinator Aris Mousoutzanis (A.Mousoutzanis@brighton.ac.uk)

Refractory: A Journal of Entertainment Media

Deadline: December 11, 2020

This is a CFP for a special issue of 'Refractory: A Journal of Entertainment Media' that will be themed around Nightmares, Nations and Innovations. This edition will focus on horror outside of film/TV and will be published on Halloween 2021.

Articles (3-8k words) will explore the ways in which the horror genre functions in all its multifarious forms outside of film/TV, to explore the synergies between the horror film and popular culture. By approaching horror away from the screen, it hopes to examine the interconnections between the complex forces at work on both sides of the horror equation: the economies of modern entertainment industries and production practice, cultural and political forums, spectators and fans.

Articles sought in and around the following areas:

- Appropriation and use of horror texts by fans

- Immersive horror & Hallowe’en experiences - Dark rides & haunted attractions

- Horror in video games or horror themed DLC & modding

- Horror podcasts

- Synergies between the horror film and popular culture

- Horror-centric social & cultural internet phenomena (Images, Memes, GIFS)

- Horror and transmedia storytelling

- Cosplay, apocalypse-ready (pandemic) fashion, Halloween costumes - Monsters as pop culture heroes & monster merchandise

Please send a short abstract and author bio to Gerard Gibson and John Kavanagh by Dec 11. Articles will be selected in Dec and should be completed by May.

Here's a little more info on our special edition:

Ndalianis (2012) theorises that horror is about the crossing of boundaries, suggesting that horror manifests where order falls into chaos and meaning collapses. Jowett and Abbott (2013), persuasively assert that horror has long ago successfully entered the mainstream, permeating popular culture. If these are so, have scholarly distinctions in horror been outmoded by new technologies, experiences and audience practices? Are academic distinctions in horror supported, complicated or eroded by such developments? If horror has transcended cultural boundaries can national ones be far behind? Horror films and literature are marketed internationally.

Creations like Carpenter and Hill’s homicidal Michael Myers are international brands, almost global folk characters, and worth millions. Popular Halloween experiences, immersive horror and dark rides take the intellectual chills of the horror story and embody them for corporeal, haptic experience, transforming the narrative into the material, fright into flesh. Horror, Cherry (2009) reminds us, is highly adaptable, finding expression in a multitude of forms; nationally, internationally, globally and across a wide palette of media. The aesthetics of horror and cute culture collide/converge in merchandise, figures toys and GIFs.

Monsters, serial killers, demons and ghosts are conventionalised on children’s clothing and as plushies. Do stories and characters remain in the hands of the creators and production companies or are they, as Jenkins (1992) argues, poached and appropriated by the fans? How does such poaching manifest in fan participation? Where do concepts of authorships sit in such a participatory culture? How have audiences taken horror and made it their own? Do narratives combine and storytelling practices intermingle? Does proliferation affect mainstream tastes and interests? Has it informed fashion? Has horror stepped off the screen and into our everyday lives? Might this erode the power of horror? If the transgressive is now the everyday, what remains taboo?

Call for Chapter Contributions 

Deadline: December 7, 2020

Please see below for editorial contacts and instructions for initial submissions.

Edited by Sarah Woodland (Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne, Australia) and Wolfgang Vachon (School of Social and Community Services, Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Canada)

Due for publication in early 2022

About the book

This edited collection aims to investigate the use of sound and audio production in community engaged participatory arts practice and research. The popularity of podcast and audio drama, combined with the accessibility and portability of affordable field recording and home studio equipment, makes audio a compelling mode of participatory creative practice. Working in audio enables a flexible approach to participation, where collaborators in sites such as prisons, schools, and community settings, can engage in performance and production in flexible ways, while learning valuable skills and producing satisfying creative outcomes. Audio works also allow projects to reach wider audience (and for longer) than an ephemeral performance event, extending the potential for diverse perspectives to be heard beyond prison walls, across borders, and between different communities and cultures.

The book will map current projects occurring globally and imagine where participatory audio creation could lead us. This will be done through a series of case study chapters that exemplify community engaged creative audio practice; theoretical analyses that illuminate and extend ideas of community-created sound practices; and methodological considerations in developing and implementing participatory audio-based research.

Chapters will focus on audio and sound based arts practices that are undertaken by artists and arts-led researchers in collaboration with (or from within) communities and groups. These practices may include: Applied audio drama, community engaged podcasting, community engaged sound art, sound and verbatim theatre, sound walks, community engaged acoustic ecology, digital storytelling, oral history and reminiscence, radio drama in health and community development … and more. (Please note: Although some of these practices may incorporate music and there can be crossover between certain forms of sound art and music, the work in this collection will not have music as its primary focus). The emphasis will be on collaborative creative audio-based work with communities towards artistic, social, pedagogical, and/or research outcomes.

Call for Contributions

We are seeking contributions from practitioners and researchers that consider the ethics, aesthetics, and practice of the work, investigating the role of sound in areas such as community building, wellbeing, education, and social or environmental justice. Contributors will be welcome to submit non-traditional papers, including interview transcripts, scripts, and audio files (for inclusion on the online Routledge Performance Archive). Contributions will represent a breadth of different practices and voices, across diverse community, cultural, and global contexts. Authors may consider (but are not limited to):

• What are some of the tensions and possibilities of using sound and audio in community engaged arts practice?

• What contribution can creative sound and audio practice make as an arts-led, participatory research methodology?

• How might activist approaches to creative sound and audio practice work from within communities to resist existing structures of power and knowledge? (E.g. how might these approaches contribute to feminist, queer, decolonising or antiracist actions and discourses?)

• What contribution can sound and audio technologies make towards supporting and strengthening situated, local, or cultural knowledges and practices?

• What are the aesthetic implications of using sound and audio in community engaged arts practice? How does working in sound/audio impact on aesthetic engagement, listening, representation, and cultural production?

• What are the ethical implications of using sound and audio in community engaged arts practice? What tensions and opportunities exist in terms of access, equity, participation, ownership, and voice?

• What role do creative sound and audio practices play for communities responding to contemporary global crises, events, and movements such as the climate crisis, migration and displacement, COVID-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter movement, Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, etc.

By focusing on practices that work collaboratively with and within diverse communities and groups, the collection will engage with and extend fields such as applied theatre, sound art, qualitative inquiry, and sound studies to place the emphasis on sound and community engaged participatory arts practice. As such, it will provide the first extensive analysis of what sound and audio brings to participatory interdisciplinary arts-led research and practice, representing a vital resource for community arts and performance practice and research in the digital age.

Chapters will be maximum 8000 words (including references), shorter contributions in the form of provocations, reflections on practice, scripts, interviews etc. will be welcome.

In the first instance, please submit a 300-word proposal and 150-word author biographies to the editors by the closing date: Monday 7th December 2020.

Please also feel free to email us to discuss the volume or your proposal prior to submitting. *

Editor contacts:

• Sarah Woodland: sarah.woodland@unimelb.edu.au
• Wolfgang Vachon: Wolfgang.Vachon@humber.ca