ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

November 2-4, 2020

Online

We are pleased to invite you to the "Mediating Sexualities. The Sexual Politics of Media Production and Regulation" international conference, which will take place *online, on November 2nd, 3rd and 4th 2020.

Access to the pre-recorded papers and participation in live discussions is free of charge, upon registration: https://mediasex2020.univ-lille.fr.

All pre-recorded content will be available in English and French. Depending on the panels, it will be possible to ask questions to the speakers in French and/or English.

By bringing together about thirty researchers working from five different countries, this conference aims to answer questions such as:

• How are "pornography" and "hate" regulated on social media?
• How is platform capitalism changing pornography and sex work?
• What representations of sexuality are considered acceptable on the billboards of French cities?

• How is sexuality scripted for cinema and television?
• How has the #MeToo movement changed the journalistic coverage of sexuality and the gender dynamics inside press newsrooms?

Mediating Sexualities also aims to show how much feminist and queer approaches are important to understand the media ecosystems that organize our public experiences.

This conference is supported by the Arènes and Gériico research units, and by the University of Lille.

Béatrice Damian-Gaillard & Florian Vörös for the conference team

Contact: mediasexlille@gmail.com | Twitter: @mediasex2020 #mediasex2020

Tools and Transformations series (HammerOn Press)

Deadline: April 1, 2021

COVID-19 is a global crisis that has affected everyone. As we recover from the pandemic, there is an opportunity to ensure that justice, sustainability and care are rebuilt into the fabric of our societies.

Articulating bold visions and sharing practical knowledge can help catalyse meaningful and lasting change.

Tools and Transformations, a new series from HammerOn Press, will publish books to further this agenda.

We welcome proposals for single authored or edited collections exploring, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Building caring economies
• Centring Black Lives
• Environmental and multi-species justice
• Regenerative finance and business
• Queer and Trans World Making
• Social enterprise and co-operation
• Health and Disability politics
• Histories of radical organisations
• Pedagogy and social transformation
• Listening and community building
• Anti-carceral feminism and restorative practices
• Storytelling and new political imaginaries
• Digital literacy and data activism
• Building alternative institutions

Books in the Tools and Transformations series will be affordable, grounded in rigorous research, be between 40,000-80,000 words and written in accessible language. The deadline for proposals is 1 April 2021.

For initial enquiries about proposing a book for the series, email D-M Withers at hammeron@intellectbooks.com or Jelena Stanovnik at jelena@intellectbooks.com .

HammerOn Press is now an imprint of Intellect Books.

For information about Intellect, and how to propose a book for Tools and

Transformations visit: https://www.intellectbooks.com/…-us

June 1 - 4, 2021

Deadline: December 6, 2020

Canadian Communication Association (CCA) Annual Conference 2021

In collaboration with the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta

We are very pleased to announce our Call for papers for the next annual conference of the Canadian Communication Association, which will be held from June 1-4, 2021 as part of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS) 2021 Congress. This year’s theme is “Northern Relations." Congress 2021 is organized this year in partnership with the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

Proposal Submission Deadline: December 6, 2020.

Please visit the CCA’s website for detailed information in both French and English, including the format of the conference during the pandemic, student funding, how to submit your proposals and CCA’s list of prizes: https://acc-cca.ca/index.php/conference/2021-conference/

Les présentations en français sont aussi les bienvenues.

We hope you will join us for this annual conference,

Ghislain Thibault, Université de Montréal, Canada, CCA Vice-President and Conference Chair, ghislain.thibault@umontreal.ca

Gordon Gow, University of Alberta, Canada, Local Area Coordinator

UCLouvain

UCLouvain invites applications for a tenure-track or tenured full-time position in Information and Communication

Context

UCLouvain is a comprehensive university offering, in the context of the present position, the opportunity of cross-disciplinary research and teaching collaborations. Within the Social sciences and humanities sector, the position is attached to the Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Sciences and Communication and to the Institute of Language and Communication that offer opportunities for diverse and stimulating teaching as well as an environment to carry out ambitious research. The Louvain-la-Neuve site offers a unique living environment conveniently located at the heart of Europe.

Mission

Teaching

The successful candidate will have teaching assignments in the field of organizational communication and global communication. He or she should be able to intervene in the following teaching areas:

• Theories of organizational and strategic Information and communication (companies, non-profit organizations, NGOs, institutions, cultural industries, etc.)
• International communication strategies
• Strategic planning and branding strategies
• Advertising formats (e.g. storytelling), including on the web

The successful candidate will be based on the campus of Louvain-la-Neuve but he or she may also have teaching assignments on the campus of Mons.

Research

The successful candidate will develop and drive a cutting-edge research program in communication studies looking at formats and strategies of communication for profit and non-profit organizations in an international context.

He or she will firstly contribute to The Communication Systems Analysis Laboratory of Organizations research program (https://lasco.comu.ucl.ac.be), within the Langage & Communication Institute.

The successful candidate will also participate in the transversal research dynamics around the Media innovation and intelligibility Lab platform (MiiL), as well as other research groups in the Communication Research Pole.

Function

• Be responsible for teaching courses at all study levels (i.e. undergraduate and postgraduate), as well as in programmes of continuing education;
• Supervise the final diploma research (i.e. theses) of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as PhD theses;
• Be involved in (and/or supervise, promote) research programmes;
• Be available to carry out, in the long term, different service activities and take on responsibilities within the University and its entities;
• Contribute to the international visibility of the University through teaching and research excellence;
• Contribute to activities of the University with a societal impact in the fields of the economy, socio-cultural changes or cooperation with developing countries.

General conditions

Required Qualifications : the applicant must have

• A PhD degree in Communication sciences or any comparable discipline;
• Either studied abroad for an extensive period or have had substantial experience outside his or her university of origin;
• A significant scientific record with international publications;
• Experience in and the aptitude for teaching at university level, demonstrated if possible by formal assessments;
• The capacity to work within a team of teachers and to integrate research findings into teaching;
• Creativity and must be open to teaching innovation and interdisciplinarity;
• The capacities required to undertake high-level academic research: capacity to raise research funds, to supervise projects, to animate and lead a research team;
• Team management and communication skills, including if possible fluency in French and English, spoken and written. Otherwise, the applicant will be asked to acquire them within two years after taking office, in order to be able to communicate and teach in these languages. Knowledge of other languages is an additional asset.

Specific Qualification

Knowledge of different qualitative and/or quantitative methods research is required.

Offer

The level of recruitment (appointment to the rank of lecturer or professor) will be discussed if a proposal is made to you, in connection with your previous academic experience. For more information, see: jobs.uclouvain.be.

Our HR policy supports equal opportunities and diversity including in the academic career. Attention is also paid to reconciliation of private life and professional life.

Practical Information

Application deadline: Monday, November 16, 2020 at noon

Starting date: 1st September, 2021

Further information :

Prof. Olivier Servais, Dean ESPO – doyen-espo@uclouvain.be

Prof. Fanny Meunier, President ILC – president-ilc@uclouvain.be

Localization: Social sciences and humanities sector

Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Sciences and Communication (ESPO) (https://uclouvain.be/en/faculties/espo)

Institute for Language and Communication (ILC) (https://uclouvain.be/fr/instituts-recherche/ilc)

New Media & Society, special issue

Abstract Deadline: November 1, 2020

Edited by: Karin Fast (Karlstad University/University of Oslo); Pablo Abend (University of Siegen)

Overview

There has been an increased interest in the process of place-making by means of technology. Spurred by the spatial turn in the humanities and social sciences, and the appearance of new location-aware technologies, the nexus between geography and media came into focus of media and communication studies. While the majority of work within the field of geography and media focus on contemporary developments, this volume wants to address the nexus of geography and media from a historical perspective. Such a perspective serves to counterbalance dominant discourses - produced not least by ICT companies and policy makers but also by academics - about the “revolutionary” traits of new location-aware media.

The objects of study are geomedia (e.g. Thielmann, 2010; Lapenta, 2011; McQuire, 2016; Abend, 2017; Fast et al, 2018). The term is used for a wide variety of phenomena in many contexts. In geography and adjacent fields, for example, geomedia refers dominantly to visual media used to communicate geographic knowledge about the earth like (digital) maps and globes. Within media and communication studies a wider definition has been developed. Here, geomedia qualifies as an umbrella term used for assemblages of technologies, processes, operations and practices that socio-technologically reorganize our encounter with space and place (Döring/Thielmann, 2009). This includes localizing technologies, augmented-reality applications and data practices.

In addition, geomedia can be used as a concept for describing the state which media is currently entering. Seen this way, geomedia is not referring to a bundle of specific types of media, but rather serves as a label for the particular condition(s) brought about by location-aware and location-based technologies in interplay with wider social, economic, cultural or political trends. Certain trajectories such as convergence, ubiquity, location-awareness, and real-time feedback can be followed, with geomedia sitting at the intersection of these developments (McQuire, 2016). Therefore, the volume is interested in investigations into the starting points of these trajectories.

With this in mind, geomedia can be understood in the double sense of media that is situated - its use being bound to a specific place - and media that situates - producing and altering space and place. In order to account for this productive dimension of geomedia, one has to move away from the representational qualities of media and attend to its placemaking powers. Space gets continually socio-technically re-organized through processes of mediatization. But this re-organization is not only the work of circulating representations of space – e.g. in the sense of a power of maps. It is also, and perhaps to an even greater extent, the result of our concrete interactions with technology. Technology is not only a tool to discover and understand the world, but also a productive force that is granted a certain agency in the production of space and the making of place. Methodologically, this can be translated into a call to de-center the media by looking at the practices and operations surrounding geomedia technologies rather than concentrate on representations, since representations are not the start but an intermediate outcome of these processes. This poses additional challenges for historical research. The volume welcomes research that engages in questions pertaining to geomedia histories, such as, for example:

- What is the historical backdrop of today’s place-aware geomedia technologies?

• What are the historical equivalents to contemporary geomedia affordances?
• Where can we look for the starting points of various socio-technological trajectories that are constitutive of today’s geomedia condition (e.g. convergence, ubiquity, location-awareness, real-time feedback, etc.)?
• How can we trace past geomedia uses and practices?
• Who were the “early adopters” of geomedia?
• How can we account for past changes in power structures introduced or sustained by geomedia?
• Who were the early geomedia producers, advocates or stakeholders? (e.g. foundational industries, authorities, organizations, etc.).
• If you have any other perspectives on geomedia histories, share them with us in your paper proposal.

References

Abend, P. (2017). From map reading to geobrowsing: Methodological reconsiderations for geomedia. In Felgenhauer, T. & Gäbler, K. (Eds.). Geographies of Digital Culture. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Döring, J., Thielmann, T. (Eds.) (2009). Mediengeographie: Theorie - Analyse – Diskussion. Bielefeld: transcript.

Fast, K., Jansson, A., Lindell, J., Bengtsson, L.R. & Tesfahuney, M. (Eds.) (2018). Geomedia Studies: Spaces and Mobilities in Mediatized Worlds. London: Routledge.

Lapenta, F. (2011). Geomedia: on location-based media, the changing status of collective image production and the emergence of social navigation systems. Visual Studies, 26(1), 14-24.

McQuire, S. (2016). Geomedia: Networked Cities and the Future of Public Space. Cambridge, UK: Polity.

Thielmann, T. (2010). Locative media and mediated localities. Aether: The Journal of Media Geography, 5(1), 1-17.

Research Areas

We welcome contributions by scholars of Science and Technology Studies, Media and Communication Studies, History of Computing, Media History, Communication Geography, Media Geography, Geomedia Studies, or from adjacent fields of research.

Deadlines and contact information

Please send your abstract (maximum 250 words) and a short biographical note (maximum 50 words) to karin.fast@kau.se and pablo.abend@uni-siegen.de until November 1st, 2020. Based on the abstracts, the editors will pre-select authors that will be invited to submit a full paper. The first drafts of the full manuscripts are due on May 31st, 2021. All full papers will be double-blind peer reviewed, which means that we cannot guarantee that your paper gets accepted even if your abstract is.

Contact (corresponding editor)

Karin Fast (PhD)

Associate Professor in Media and Communication Studies

Department of Geography, Media and Communication

Karlstad University

Sweden

Karin.fast@kau.se

Call for Book Chapters

Deadline: November 30, 2020

Editors

• Tendai Chari (PhD), Senior Lecturer, University of Venda, South Africa
• Martin N. Ndlela (PhD), Associate Professor, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway & Northwestern University-Qatar

The mass media have an enormous responsibility to disseminate truthful, accurate and up-to- date information to the public during pandemics. Yet, pandemics pose serious ethical conundrums to the media in that their informational role can easily be undermined by their tilt towards sensational reporting and scare-mongering, thereby undermining public trust (Thomas & Senkpeni, 2020). Pandemics are in great measure evolving, highly unpredictable, and in most cases panic inducing. This makes the media’s capacity to disseminate balanced and credible information timely more compelling than ever. Covid 19 has reawakened the media to their ethical responsibilities by bringing to the fore unique ethical issues, challenges and dilemmas, and has also reincarnated ethical debates associated with reporting of previous pandemics such as negative stereotypes, stigmatisation, protecting the confidentiality of sources, dealing with bereavement, privacy issues, thus underscoring the fact that pandemics are not just health crises, but information crises as well. While the media have played a positive role in helping shape positive public health behavior, and by extension promoting human security, there has been fear that media reporting of pandemics is fueling “infodemic” epitomized by fake news, conspiracy theories and apocalyptic prophecies, misinformation, disinformation, thus posing a threat to human security. In the age of social media networks whereby information spreads very fast, the deluge of information may make it difficult for citizens to separate reliable information from false information.

Centralization of information about the pandemic by governments and international bodies and the concomitant over-dependence on ‘expert analysis’ have opened the floodgates for patriotic discourses and appeals for ‘collective action’ mantras which impinge on media independence. In addition, health protocols constrain the media from accessing critical information, thus predisposing journalists to politically correct ‘accredited’ sources while jettisoning unpalatable voices from the news agenda. As the media become more embedded in official narratives, journalism may be reduced to a public relations exercise, resulting in the proverbial echo chamber. Pandemics predispose the media to overt and covert influence and control, yet the ability to obtain and disseminate information without external interference are two fundamental tenets of media ethics (Hooker, Leask & King, 2012). As Covid 19 has demonstrated, nature of ethical dilemmas confronting the media during global pandemics, relating to both media content and the professional conduct of media practitioners are becoming more complex and have elicited diverse responses using different philosophical lenses in different contexts. As the contours of ethics shift during pandemics, it is necessary to critically reflect on existing ethical norms, issues, practices, challenges and dilemmas confronted by the media during global pandemics. This proposed edited volume explores ethical issues confronted by the media during global pandemics. The aim is to enhance the media’s capacity to report pandemics and similar emergence situations ethically by drawing lessons from the current and previous pandemics. What ethical challenges have confronted the media during health pandemics? What dilemmas have the media faced? To what extent have these impacted on the media’s role? What philosophical approaches can be used to address these challenges and dilemmas? What lessons can be drawn for reporting future pandemics? How can the media be better equipped to deal with ethical issues during pandemics?

We are looking for innovative original works which critically engage with different aspects of ethical issues in the context of global pandemics using different theoretical and methodological approaches.

Contributions can focus on, but are not limited to the following topics:

• Ethical Issues in the representation of pandemics
• News Sourcing and Ethics
• Fabrications, Falsehoods
• Confidentiality and protection of sources
• Privacy and the Public Interest
• Ethical Dilemmas
• Trauma reporting during pandemics
• Health protocols, government restrictions and journalism ethics
• Language and Reporting Pandemics
• Pandemics, Racism and Hate speech
• Sensationalism and propaganda
• Journalism ethics and “infodemics”
• Conspiracy theories, misinformation and fake news
• Ethnocentrism and Stereotyping
• Patriotic Journalism
• Social Media
• Medical remedies, Advertising
• Ethical philosophies, media and pandemics
• Media law and ethics during pandemics

Articles should not be more than 7000 words, including references

Important Dates

• Deadline for Accepted Abstracts: 30 November 2020
• Deadline for Full Papers: 31 March 2021
• Deadline for Submitting Revised Chapters: 30 May 2021
• Expected Date of Publication: 31 September 2021

Targeted Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Interested contributors are invited to submit a 500-word proposal and a short biography by 30 November 2020, to Tendai Chari, tendai.chari@univen.ac.za and Martin Ndlela, martin.ndlela@inn.no.

Final chapters of approximately 5000-7000 words will be due by 31 March 2021.

Please note that all submissions will be peer-reviewed. Abstracts must clearly state the aim and objectives of the study, the theoretical and methodological approaches contemplated in the study.

The Journal of Hate Studies

Deadline: December 30, 2020

General Issue, Vol. 17 with a Forum on “Pandemania”

Guest Editor: Lisa Silvestri, Ph.D. (Gonzaga University)

The Journal of Hate Studies is an international scholarly journal promoting intellectual engagement with processes that embolden the expression of hate. The goal is to establish a deep repository of theory and research on which to ground practical anti- hate interventions. For example, past articles in the journal have:

1. Examined hate in any one or more of its manifestations (e.g. racism, misogyny, antisemitism, homophobia, religious intolerance, ethnoviolence, anti-immigrant animus, etc.).
2. Considered how hate is institutionalized, maintained, or perpetrated through culture, organizations, policies, politics, media, discourses, epistemologies, etc.
3. Developed, adapted, or refined disciplinary specific or trans-disciplinary research methods for understanding and/or effectively addressing hate.

The Journal reflects the optimism that understanding hate can lead to its containment, allowing humans to flourish without fear of reprisal.

For this issue, we will accept both general submissions on any topic within the field as well as contributions destined for a subsection featuring conversations on hate taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic. General submissions range between 6,000-8,000 words. Forum submissions are shorter, ranging between 3,000-5,000 words. Potential topics covered by the “pandemania” forum can include, but should not be limited to, the following COVID-19 focused topics:

• Racism and anti-racism
• Xenophobia
• Protests
• Policing
• Masks and social distancing
• Institutional violence
• Digital manifestations of hate

We invite both textual and visual submissions employing interdisciplinary and innovative approaches in the humanities and social sciences. To float ideas and proposals for the general submission or for this forum, specifically, please contact silvestri@gonzaga.edu.

Brief Guidelines for Submissions

The Journal seeks compelling articles written with precision and depth that find resonance with an interdisciplinary audience. A primary criterion for acceptance is the level to which the article enriches, extends, and advances the study and understanding of hate in its multiplicity of forms.

Research-based submissions should follow 7th APA format and include a discussion of approach, method, and analysis. Submissions focusing on pedagogy should balance theoretical frameworks with practical considerations of how particular approaches play out in both formal and informal educational settings. Discipline-specific submissions should be written for non-specialists.

For further information on style and formatting, accessibility requirements, please consult: https://jhs.press.gonzaga.edu/

Submission and Review Process

All work appearing in The Journal undergoes extensive double-blind peer-review. As a courtesy to our reviewers, we will not consider simultaneous submissions, but we will do our best to reply to you within 4 months of the submission deadline. All work should be original and previously unpublished. Essays or presentations posted on a personal blog may be accepted, provided they are substantially revised.

Important Dates

Submission deadline for full manuscripts is December 30, 2020. Notification of acceptance expected April 30 for publication in early fall 2021. For full journal details, including themes and goals, general topic areas, submission instructions or to apply to become a reviewer, please visit: https://jhs.press.gonzaga.edu/

Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies (OJCMT)

Deadline (EXTENDED): October 31, 2020

Editors:

• Fábio Ribeiro, University of Trás-os Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) – Portugal, Communication & Society Research Centre – University of Minho (Portugal) , fabior@utad.pt
• Luís Bonixe, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre – Portugal, ICNOVA – Nova University of Lisbon (Portugal), luisbonixe@ipportalegre.pt

As Bob Franklin (1998) put forward in his book Local Media, academic appraisals of the local and regional media typically emphasise the declining number of local papers, their diminishing readerships and circulations, constant monopolies that tend to centralise media productions in large regional centres. Globalization, funding models (commercial, public or independent/grassroots), the insufficiency of human resources are often regarded by academics in this area. In his iconic Local Radio, Going Global, Guy Starkey (2011) enthusiastically defined local radio as “the sleeping giant”, baffled with concentration models and repressions, but still resisting: “a world-wide phenomenon”, Starkey asserted.

This special issue of The Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies (OJCMT) intends to contribute for a systematic review of worldwide experiences regarding the social, cultural, political impacts of local and community media within societies. In addition, it does not intend to romanticize these media, but rather a positive and empirical approach of experiences, examples of how local media engage with societies: what kind of experiences are being followed to involve local audiences? Is it possible to identify several key aspects to be define a valuable engagement with those communities?.

Taking this context as an inspiration, editors welcome all articles focusing the following range set of topics, not excluding other suitable ones:

• Citizens’ participation in the local/community media
• Economic models and audiences
• Journalism and audiences
• Community representations in local/community media
• Heritage/historical preservation
• Memory and local media
• Politics in a local/community media framework
• Rural ramifications of local media
• Hyperlocal media
• Local/community audiences and social networks.

Important dates:

• Start submission: May 1, 2020
• Manuscript Due: October 31, 2020
• Double blind reviewing process: from November 1, 2020 to December 30, 2020
• Authors’ notification towards decision: January 1, 2021
• Authors’ final versions: until February 28, 2020
• Editor’s final checks: from March 2021 to April 2021
• Publication: May 2021

Submissions: To submit your manuscripts, go to https://www.editorialpark.com/ojcmt and select special issue "Discussing local and community media: positive experiences and impacts on societies".

About the journal:

The Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies (OJCMT) is an international open access journal, rigorously peer-reviewed journal in the field of Communication and its related fields. OJCMT is interested in research not only on Theory and Practice of Communication and Media Studies but also new trends and developments, Communication in Education, Visual Communication and Design, Integrated Marketing Communication and Advertising.

Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies is listed by the following indexes/databases/directories/libraries.

• Web of Science - Emerging Sources Citation Index (Clarivate)
• Database for statistikk om høgre utdanning (DBH)
• Google Scholar
• International Association for Media and Communication Research - IAMCR
• ROAD

Full call for papers: https://www.ojcmt.net/home/special-issues

Author Guidelines: https://www.ojcmt.net/home/author-guidelines

July 17, 2021

Leeds, United Kingdom, Venue: Queens Hotel, City Square, Leeds, LS1 1PJ

Deadline: April 15, 2021

Please note that the conference date is provisional and subject to change due to the epidemiological situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. We will not open a fee payment system until we are sure we can host the event. Please do not book flights and accommodation before the conference date is confirmed by the organizer.

 KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Professor Ángeles Moreno, University Rey Juan Carlos Madrid, Spain: Factors affecting women leadership in the Strategic Communication industry: An overview of diverse international contexts

RATIONALE

In the age of post-feminism when many are trying to argue that feminism is no longer needed because women have reached equality through the introduction of legislation and entry of women to all professions, the reality shows a different story. Women politicians, for example, are still scrutinised based on their looks and objectified. For example, in March 2017 British Daily Mail splashed a cover page screaming, ‘Never mind Brexit, who won the Legs-it’. The cover page was commenting on the meeting of British Prime Minister Theresa May and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Besides, many professions are still running according to masculine work patterns and thus many workplaces are still places for blokes. For example, in newsrooms women cannot succeed in obtaining editorial positions as the profession is still largely masculine with men reporting on politics, the main news of the day and business while women are still confined to lifestyle, food and health. However, when traditional women topics enter the agenda then we see male journalists writing about it. Also, female journalists hardly have any role models given the fact women who succeed in journalism become so bloke-if it becomes difficult for younger women to look up and see a role model or a type of women they may want to become in the future (Miller, 2014; Gallagher, 2017; Topic, 2018; Franks, 2013). The situation is similar in other professions, both those that feminised (e.g. nursing, teaching, public relations, advertising) as well as in traditionally masculine professions (e.g. construction, banking, finance) (Crewe & Wang, 2018; Siu & Kai-ming Au, 1997; Sandikci, 1998; Patterson et al, 2009; Kemp, 2017; Gee, 2017; Suggett, 2018; Topić, 2020). In public relations, scholars speak of the feminisation of the industry that saw women entering PR industry in higher numbers but because of it, the salaries diminished and even though women form the majority of the workforce they still face issues such as glass ceiling and the wage gap. In some countries, the number of women started to decline after a decade of the profession being feminized (CIPR, 2018). These are just a few examples from a few industries, but the situation is the same (or worse) elsewhere.

The societies are still based on patriarchal values. For example, even though it is legally possible for men to take paternal leaves and stay at home to take care of children and household, it is still women who have these requests approved more often than men, which testifies that patriarchal views of expected roles are still present. Besides, in some countries, women are still banned from exercising basic rights such as the right to vote, work in all positions and even the right to drive. While many men experience family violence, it is still women who mostly suffer from this type of abuse, while those men who do suffer from it fear to report it due to the expectation that the men are the boss in the house. Nevertheless, with the rise of Far-Right political candidates and public speakers started to question Feminism and argue that it fulfilled its purpose, while at the same time re-introducing old prejudices and practices against women where an emphasis is based on their appearance, birth-giving, etc.

COVID-19 that resulted in global lockdowns in 2020, with no end to the pandemic anticipated at the time of opening this call for papers, also has a potential to severely impact women. For example, it is well-known that women mostly work part-time and it is a question to what extent women lost jobs due to pandemic job losses. Some analyses already showed that the lockdown is hurting women with many women academics decreasing their academic production whilst men increased it, women reporting exhaustion because of having to look for children during the lockdown, domestic abuse skyrocketed, etc.

The questions the conference addresses are what is the position of women in a challenging world marked with the rise of the Far Right and the global pandemic and what can be done to reverse the trend that worsens the position of women and undermines decades of feminist activism?

Papers are invited (but not limited to) for the following panels:

• Women and the global pandemic
• Women in lookdown: narratives, experiences and effects of the lockdown on career, mental wellbeing and personal relationships
• Working-class women: issues and perspectives
• Middle-class women: issues and perspectives
• Women and Career progress
• Socialism, Marxism and Women
• Patriarchy
• Women and the rise of the Far-Right
• Women and labour
• Women and discrimination
• Women and sexual violence
• Women and religion
• Women in the media
• Women and politics
• Women and sexuality
• Theory and methodology in women’s studies
• Women and reproductive rights

Prospective participants are also welcome to submit proposals for their own panels. Both researchers and practitioners are welcome to submit paper proposals.

Submissions of abstracts (up to 500 words) with an email contact should be sent to women_conference@socialsciencesandhumanities.com by 15 April 2021. Decisions will be sent by 15 May 2021 and registrations are due by 30 June 2021.

The Conference fee is £180, and it includes,

• The registration fee
• Conference bag and folder with materials
• Access to the newsletter, and electronic editions of the Centre
• Opportunity for participating in future activities of the Centre (research & co-editing volumes)
• Meals and drinks
• WLAN during the conference
• Certificate of attendance

PUBLICATIONS

A special issue of journals will be edited and published in an Intellect journal. The topic of the special journal and the journal selection depends on conference submissions and the review process. From last year’s conferences, two special issues are currently being edited,

The Journal of Popular Television (Intellect), special issue topic ‘Women and Girls in Popular Television in the Age of Post-Feminism’ (eds. M. Topić & M. J. Cunha)

Facta Universitatis: Series Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology and History (University of Niš), special issue topic ‘#metoo movement: past, present and what next? (ed. M. Topić)

Participants are responsible for finding funding to cover transportation and accommodation costs during the whole period of the conference. This applies to both presenting and non-presenting participants. We will not discriminate based on the origin and/or methodological/paradigmatic approach of prospective conference participants.

The conference is a grassroots initiative led by Dr Martina Topić (https://www.martinatopic.com). Martina can be contacted on martinahr@gmail.com

The conference usually has five to six panels, and we can organise parallel sessions for panels (up to two parallel sessions per day).

Visa Information

The Centre will issue a Visa letter to participants with UK entry clearance requirement.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Ángeles Moreno is a professor at University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain, and currently executive director of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA). She leads the Latin American Communication Monitor. Her awards include Best Paper Award EUPRERA 2013, Faculty Top Research Award PRSA 2012 and Top Paper Award ICA2006. She is the president of EUPRERA, the largest public relations professional association in Europe and a chair of Latin American European Communications Monitor, as well as a full member of European Communications Monitor consortium. She currently leads EUPRERA project on Communicating COVID-19 and she is the lead of the Spanish team in the EUPRERA Women in Public Relations project exploring the position of women in public relations in Europe.

April 7- 9, 2021

Online conference / Erasmus University Rotterdam

Deadline: December 1, 2020

Keynote speakers:

• Dal Yong Jin
• Sangkyun Kim
• Mimi Sheller
• Peter U. C. Dieke
• Lúcia Nagib
• Matt Hills

In today’s globalized, transnational and digitalized media environment, popular culture plays a significant role in the establishment and (re)negotiation of place identities and the ways in which people relate to physical locations. Traveling to film locations, participating in fan re-enactments or visiting theme parks are some of the varied and multifaceted ways in which the ties between people’s worlds of imagination and the real worlds they inhabit are made tangible through place.

This conference highlights the interconnections between media, tourism and place and aims to bring together the diverse perspectives, approaches and actors involved in this process while focusing on critical issues accompanying this multifaceted phenomenon. We venture off the beaten track by adopting a decidedly global perspective and putting emphasis on the exploration, analysis and comparison of cases from around the world. Consider Bollywood, which produces more films, for a larger audience, than Hollywood does every year, and how Chinese, Indian and Russian travellers increasingly determine the face of international tourist flows. This conference aims to broaden the horizons by including and comparing research into, for example, Bollywood films, Brazilian telenovelas and South Korean K-pop culture.

We proudly present the following keynote speakers: Prof. Dal Yong Jin (Simon Fraser University), editor of "Transmedia Storytelling in East Asia: The Age of Digital Media" (2020) and author of "Transnational Korean Cinema: Cultural Politics, Film Genres, and Digital Technologies" (2019); Prof. Sangkyun Kim (Edith Cowan University), editor of "Food Tourism in Asia" (2019, with Ian Yeoman and Eerang Park) and "Film tourism in Asia: Evolution, transformation and trajectory" (2018, with prof. dr. Stijn Reijnders); Prof. Mimi Sheller (Drexel University), author of "Island Futures: Caribbean Survival in the Anthropocene" (expected 2020) and "Mobility Justice: The Politics of Movement in an Age of Extremes" (2018); Prof. Peter U. C. Dieke (University of Nigeria), editor of "Research Themes for Tourism" (2011, with Peter Robinson and Sine Heitmann) and "The Political Economy of Tourism Development in Africa" (2000); Prof. Lúcia Nagib (University of Reading), author of "Realist Cinema as World Cinema: Non-cinema, Intermedial Passages, Total Cinema" (expected 2020) and "Brazil on Screen: Cinema Novo, new cinema and utopia" (2007), and Prof. Matt Hills (University of Huddersfield), author of "Fan Cultures" (2002) and "Doctor Who: The Unfolding Event" (2015).

This year the current Corona crisis has hit the world hard, also with regard to its media and tourism industries. The lockdown has seriously hampered filming and all other media production practices both on location and in the studio. At the same time, the tourism industry as a whole is suffering a disastrous year after a virtually constant annual growth since the late 1950s. At the time of writing there are modest signs the media and tourism industries are finding answers to the current crisis. It is clear, though, that the need to find more sustainable ways to deal with the interrelation between popular culture and tourism is even more relevant now that the Corona crisis has become part of the global agenda. This conference also aims to address this issue.

We seek to bring together scholars across disciplines, including, but not limited to, media studies, cultural studies, cultural geography, fan studies, tourism studies, and development studies. We invite papers that address all themes around media, place and tourism, such as:

• Media tourism
• Popular culture and heritage
• Film location production
• Film (and) tourism policies
• Impacts of filmmaking and tourism on locations and communities
• Imaginative geographies in media and tourism
• Fan re-enactments
• Place identity and belonging
• Media tourist experiences
• Theme-parks and tourism
• Critical issues in media tourism
• Comparative studies on media tourism
• (Interdisciplinary) theories on media tourism

Creative presentation formats are welcomed. Moreover, we warmly encourage participation by scholars from the Global South, early career researchers and filmmakers working at the intersection of media, place and tourism. The conference aims to include a special (online) movie screening session, where filmmakers are invited to showcase and discuss their work on this topic.

Due to governmental measures regarding COVID-19, the conference will take place predominantly online. We plan on organizing some live events in the city of Rotterdam (such as public lectures), but these will also be livestreamed for those preferring to participate fully online. The conference is organized by the ‘Worlds of Imagination’ research group consisting of Prof. dr. Stijn Reijnders, dr. Emiel Martens, Débora Póvoa, Apoorva Nanjangud, Henry Chow and Rosa Schiavone, and sponsored by the European Research Council (ERC).

Please submit your abstracts of max. 300 words and a short biographical statement (max. 50 words) to info@worldsofimagination.eu before December 1st, 2020. For more information, please access our website: www.worldsofimagination.eu.