ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

December 3, 2020

Online

Deadline: October 15, 2020

A one-day online academic-industry conference of the SCMO network in cooperation with HMTM Hanover (Institute for Musicology) and TU Berlin (Audio Communication Group)

The global Covid-19 pandemic, the resulting lockdown imposed in many countries, as well as related safety measures taken by governments and authorities pose big challenges to classical music culture. Concert producers, artists and audiences are still suffering intensely from the situation, whilst digital streaming of recorded or live music events has quickly turned out to be the only way to supply classical music enthusiasts and to provide a perspective for artists, musicians as well as opera and concert houses.

Shortly before lockdown, the successful kick-of meeting of the European “Streaming Classical Music and Opera” (SCMO) academic-industry collaboration network took place, with 14 participants from four different countries. Sixth months later, we are eager to continue and extend the fruitful discussion between classical music researchers and opera and concert producers regarding psychological, sociological, cultural and economic aspects that pertain the use of streaming technology in the field of classical music. Given the remaining travel restrictions and the unforeseeable further development of the pandemic with the upcoming winter months, we have decided for an online conference format.

In the initial part of a series of three consecutive online conferences planned for the upcoming months we will focus on the institutional perspective: Our call for contributions arrives at a point in time, when several European countries have already seen leases in pandemic-related concert prohibitions in terms of open-air concerts and indoor music events with reduced audience. Hence, streaming digital content is no longer the only way to reach the audience, however, a ‘normal’ public service is also still not possible for most institutions.

Hence, we expect increasingly heterogeneric conditions for classical music performances across Europe together with an unclear future perspective for the whole field and, specifically, the role of streaming. At this time, we deem it fruitful to invite managers, producers and event organizers to share and discuss their experiences and current strategies amongst each other, as well as with researchers devoted to the institutional perspective in the field of classical music.

For December 3rd 2020, we therefore ask network members as well as externals for short 20min presentations on questions such as:

• How do lockdowns and safety measures affect the work organization of opera and concert houses?
• How do they alter marketing and advertising strategies for performances and streaming content?
• How is the work of dramaturgs, the artist booking, and the repertoire influenced and changed?
• How does the pandemic affect the offered aesthetic formats online and on stage?
• Which new role does, specifically, streaming technology play in this time of transition?

While the SCMO network is centrally devoted to the topic of streaming, we strongly encourage to also submit contributions on related issues regarding to the overall conference theme of “strategic realignment due to the pandemic”. Presentation formats are not limited to scientific research reports, but can also be informal talks on in-house experiences, mission statements, video examples from performances, media reviews etc..

Proposals for individual contributions (20 minutes presentation time) should be submitted before October 15th 2020 to ruth.mueller-lindenberg@hmtm-hannover.de. They should include presenter’s full name, country and institution, e-mail address, and presentation title. For academic research presentations we would like you to also include a short abstract of maximum 350 words. Apart from individual presentations and their discussion, the conference will also provide time slots for general discussions on central topics. Selected contributions of the conference series will be later published online in an academic outlet.

For more information and membership in the SCMO network, please contact hauke.egermann@york.ac.uk

October 29, November 5, 12 and 19, 2020

Online

Authenticity has become a buzzword for our times. Much of the travel industry is built around the provision of ‘authentic’ experiences, global brands fight to be seen as ‘authentic’ and social media platforms are awash with arguments about the authenticity of this post or that vlogger. But what we do mean by authenticity? And why have these debates grown so dramatically in the last two decades?

Leading experts from around the globe will be discussing the answers to these and other related questions in a series of webinars hosted by the Centre for Research in Communications and Culture at Loughborough University. Commencing in autumn 2020, the series will feature high-profile scholars from across the social sciences, including Professor Sharon Zukin of City University, New York and Professor Sarah Banet-Weiser of London School of Economics, UK.

The concept of authenticity has a long history, having first emerged as a response to the processes of homogenisation, rationalisation and standardisation at the heart of modernity. In recent years, authenticity has again come to the fore where social, political, cultural and technological upheavals give rise to feelings of distrust, detachment and alienation against which supposedly authentic people, places and things are sought out for their reassuring certainty and value. Yet, there are huge contradictions and inequalities in who can make claim to authenticity and its construction and communication invariably involves competing narratives and oppositional assertions about what is authentic and how and why the authentic gains its value.

The purpose of the webinars – and of an edited book planned to follow the series – is to provide a space for scholars interested in the culture, politics and ethics of authenticity to share their research and insights and together examine the continued salience of this concept to understanding of contemporary social, cultural and political life.

Each webinar features a keynote speaker followed by a panel of 3-4 research presentation and time for questions and discussion. Registration is free via the individual links included in the session summaries below.

Series Schedule

Webinar One: Cities & Urban Culture

Thursday 29th October, 1400-1630

Keynote: Sharon Zukin (City University of New York)

We start the series by examining the relevance of authenticity to understanding cities and urban culture. While urban spaces are often valorised as sites of creativity and cultural expression, the multiple ways in which cities develop and change through fractious processes of growth, urban renewal and gentrification gives rise to competing claims to authenticity. Cities often manifest processes of globalisation, homogenisation and, increasingly, digitisation, yet enclaves of authentic sociability survive and continue to appeal to many.

Register for Webinar One here

Webinar Two: Place & Heritage

Thursday, 5th November, 1400-1630

Keynote: Jillian Rickly (University of Nottingham)

The second webinar in the series addresses debates about the preservation of history and the communication of culture and belonging. Thus, many parts of the tourism and heritage industries involve complex decisions about the (re)creation of the past and who can access cultural communities and traditions. Specific locations often give rise to tensions about claims to authorship and ownership of ‘real’ culture making authenticity claims a significant feature of many struggles over heritage, culture and place.

Register for Webinar Two here

Webinar Three: Social Media & Digital Communication

Thursday 12th November, 1000-1230*

Keynote: Crystal Abidin (Curtin University, Australia)

*Please note earlier start time of Webinar Three accommodating the time difference between UK and keynote speaker

The advent and meteoric rise of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram means authenticity has recently taken on new meaning in explaining the appeal of internet celebrities, their followers and the wider pressure to self-present an authentic version of the self in digital spaces. The third webinar in the series will address these concerns by examining a range of recent trends and examples which question how the authentic can be created, communicated and profited from in creative yet often highly problematic ways.

Register for Webinar Three here

Webinar Four: Gender & Identity

Thursday 19th November, 1400-1630

Keynote: Sarah Banet-Weiser (London School of Economics)

Webinar Four brings the initial series to a close through discussion of the relationship between gender, identity and authenticity. The webinar will feature papers addressing how claims to “real” femininity and masculinity are contested and how gender politics frequently involves the negotiation of competing claims to authentic voices, bodies and gendered ways of being.

Register for Webinar Four here

Event Organisation Team

Dr Michael Skey, Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies, Loughborough University, Centre for Research in Communication and Culture

Dr Thomas Thurnell-Read, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Loughborough University, Centre for Research in Communication and Culture

Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross

The book is published today in the UK following earlier publication in the US.

It’s available with a 30% discount at https://global.oup.com/academic/product/parenting-for-a-digital-future-9780190874704?cc=gb&lang=en& (order with promo code ASFLYQ6). The first chapter of the book is free to read until 24 October at Expectations.

“Parenting for a Digital Future” asks how parents manage digital devices, what they should expect of them, and why these questions are so contested within families, among policymakers and in the media. Based on rigorous and in-depth fieldwork with diverse families around London, we argue that ‘digital parenting’ is not only about technology, salient as this may seem. Indeed, family practices and values around technology have become a crucial means by which people explore pressing dilemmas over how to live, what constitutes wellbeing and what ‘good life’ to hope for.

By inviting parents to look back to their own childhood and then forward to their children’s futures, we first position parenting in relation to the risk society before showing how digital technologies intensify families’ opportunities and risks in distinctive ways. We introduce three distinct genres for ‘digital parenting’ – embrace, balance and resist – and we explore how these play out in terms of screen time, social inequalities, geeky families, parents of children with disabilities, and more.

The book reveals the pincer movement of parenting in the digital age, in which parents are, on the one hand, more burdened with responsibilities given the erosion of state support and an increasingly uncertain financial future and yet, on the other, charged with respecting and encouraging the agency of their child as they negotiate ‘the democratic family.’

Links

Read more at https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2020/08/19/book/

Review copies available from academic.reviews@oup.com

UK book launch event on 24th September, please register at https://www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2020/09/202009241600/parenting

University of Siegen, Germany

The cooperative research center “Media of Cooperation” at the University of Siegen, Germany has six 3 year PhD positions in the field of digital media, inventive methods, digital praxeology, AI/HCI, platform studies etc starting from January 2021. The application deadline is Oct 01 2020.

“Media of Cooperation” is an interdisciplinary research group that explores the cooperative accomplishment of media at the intersection of STS, HCI and media studies, focusing on infrastructural and public media. In its second funding period the center focuses among other things on data practices, data publics and sensor media. More information can be found here: https://www.mediacoop.uni-siegen.de/en/

Interested candidates can realise their own resaearch project whilst being part of our internal graduate school which offers in depth methodological training in the field of digital methods, digital ethnography and inventive methods.

Please forward the job offers to anyone interested. If you wish to discuss the position, please do not hesitate to contact me carolin.gerlitz@uni-siegen.de or our scientific coordinator Timo Kaerlein timo.kaerlein@uni-siegen.de

The job offers can be found here: https://jobs.uni-siegen.de/…01/

And here: https://jobs.uni-siegen.de/…01/

Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln

For the winter semester of 2021/22, KHM is seeking to appoint a Professor of Transversal Aesthetics (academic salary band “W3”) on a permanent basis to join its Art and Media Studies department. Reflecting the transdisciplinary ethos of KHM, the successful candidate will be engaging with aesthetic and cultural processes based on an understanding of perception as translation. In this context, translation connotes a transversal approach that perceives the entanglement of time and space within the context of cultural, social, political and economic determinants, as well as reflecting the relationship between ecologies and organisms. Advancing epistemological methodologies towards dimensions of affect, as well as sustainable degrowth and post-colonial/ decolonial epistemologies, this professorship will investigate new forms of knowledge production. The successful candidate will engage with ethical and societal questions, particularly the conviviality of human and non-human forms of life. 

https://www.khm.de/termine/news.4981.professor-of-transversal-aesthetics/

www.khm.de

Aarhus University

The School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University invites applications for the position of associate professor of digital media history based at the Department of Media and Journalism Studies. The associate professorship is full-time and tenured. The appointment begins on 1 February 2021 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The School of Communication and Culture is committed to diversity and encourages all qualified applicants to apply regardless of their personal background.

The position

The field of media and journalism studies is undergoing significant changes not least due to the increasing digitalisation of culture and society that has radically transformed the basic conditions under which mediated content is produced, distributed, used and experienced. These new conditions call for critical and innovative ways of training qualified students in media and journalism studies for a rapidly changing job market and of producing high quality research that helps society make sense of contemporary media landscapes. The Department of Media and Journalism Studies is taking an international lead in developing research and study programmes based on the premise that the ability to fully understand the implications of digital technologies within various media necessitates the adaptation and integration of digital modes of enquiry into both research and teaching.

Against this background, we are looking for an applicant with an ability to combine theoretical issues and methodological development within digital media history and digital humanities. Applicants should be able to demonstrate research and teaching interests and experience in two or more of the following areas:

* Digitally supported research methods of relevance to media studies, digital media collections and media history

* Digital humanities in relation to media studies

* Media history with a focus on digital media history and history of digital media

* Data management, data protection and privacy of specific relevance to media studies

In sum, we are looking for an innovative and dedicated applicant who will enhance the research and teaching profiles of the department nationally and internationally as well as contribute to Aarhus University’s core activities in the areas of research, teaching and supervision, talent development and knowledge exchange.

Research

The Department of Media and Journalism Studies at Aarhus University has a pronounced and significant international profile and a strong research network. Research and teaching at the department are directed towards Danish and international media with an emphasis on the interplay of the core fields of study: media institutions, media production, media texts and media use/reception, and the role of media in culture and society.

The research at the department applies a wide array of theoretical and methodological perspectives to these fields of study, incorporating institutional, organisational, sociological and political perspectives as well as textual and aesthetic forms of expression, production circumstances, media use, media history and media theory.

The successful applicant will demonstrate specialisation in studies of digital media history. Preference will be given to applicants whose work foregrounds theoretical and methodological reflections on and the practical use of digital media collections and digitally supported research methods of relevance to media studies and media history, including knowledge about digital research infrastructures and research data management. The applicant’s research must meet high international standards.

The successful applicant is expected to

• participate actively in the dissemination of digital methods at the department
• make scholarly contributions to developments within the field and initiate new collaborative research projects with internal and external partners as well as in connection with external research funding
• publish original peer-reviewed research internationally.

Teaching and supervision

The successful applicant will be expected to take part in the department’s teaching and supervision activities and to teach and supervise on the department’s Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD degree programmes, particularly on the degree programmes in media studies and journalism. In this connection, experience of degree programme and curriculum development at universities or similar institutions will be an advantage. Furthermore, the successful applicant is expected to initiate the upskilling of the department’s staff’s digital methods competences.

The applicant must demonstrate the ability to teach at least two different courses within the areas of media studies and journalism from among the degree programmes listed below; please indicate in your application which courses you could teach:

* BA in Media Studies

* MA in Media Studies

* MA in Journalism

* MA Erasmus Mundus in Journalism, Media and Globalisation

* BA Supplementary in Film and Media

* BA Supplementary in Journalistic Communication

The successful applicant will be expected to apply innovative teaching methods and to contribute to the ongoing development of curricula and the degree programme(s) within the field of media studies an  journalism. Given the international focus of the degree programmes, the successful applicant will be expected to teach in English as well as in Danish.

Talent development

We are looking for applicants who have experience supervising students at both BA and MA levels. The successful applicant will be expected to supervise students at both Bachelor’s and Master’s levels. The successful applicant for the position of associate professor will also be expected to supervise and help develop the careers of early-career researchers as well as recruit and supervise PhD students and participate in the development and implementation of PhD courses within the field.

Knowledge exchange

It is expected that the successful applicant will engage in knowledge exchange, such as research collaboration with private companies, government consultancy, collaboration with civil society, and the public dissemination of knowledge. The successful applicant will have excellent opportunities to engage in relevant collaborative initiatives with partners inside and outside Aarhus University.

Qualifications

Applicants must have a PhD degree or must document equivalent qualifications in media studies, preferably highlighting media history. They must also have teaching and research experience equivalent to that attained through an assistant professorship. Applicants must be able to document, relevant to the position:

* an internationally oriented research profile as documented by a strong international peer-reviewed research publication record in digital media history

* experience of participation in international research projects and/or national and international research networks

* teaching and supervision competences and experience at BA and MA level, including curriculum development

* experience of knowledge exchange

* completion of a teacher-training programme for assistant professors especially designed for university teaching, or an equivalent qualification.

Furthermore, it will be considered an advantage if applicants can document

* experience of managing digital research infrastructures and the practical use of digital media collection

* time spent abroad working at one or more internationally recognised research institution

* experience of applying for external research funding.

Finally, applicants are asked to provide a research plan for the next three years and state how they see themselves and the department contributing to future research developments within the field. The length of the application, including plans for research and visions for the future of the field, should be between four and six pages.

Please note that applications that do not include uploaded publications (maximum eight) will not be considered.

Work environment

Active participation in the daily life of the department is a high priority, and we emphasise the importance of good working relationships, both among colleagues and with our students. In order to maintain and develop the department’s excellent teaching and research environment, the successful applicant is expected to be present at the department on a daily basis.

We respect the balance between work and private life and strive to create a work environment in which that balance can be maintained. See Family and work-life balance for further information.

International applicants

International applicants are encouraged to see Attractive working conditions for further information about the benefits of working at Aarhus University and in Denmark, including healthcare, paid holidays and, if relevant, maternity/paternity leave, childcare and schooling. Aarhus University offers a wide variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including a relocation service and career counselling for expat partners. For information about taxation, see Taxation aspects of international researchers’ employment by AU.

If the successful applicant does not speak Danish, he or she will be required to acquire sufficient Danish to participate fully in the activities of the School of Communication and Culture within approximately three years of commencing the appointment.

About Media and Journalism Studies

Grounded in its historical blending of research traditions within the humanities and social sciences, the department carries out research and teaching which examines media and journalistic institutions, productions, texts, use/reception and the roles of media and journalism in culture and society in current and historical perspectives. The

Department of Media and Journalism Studies at Aarhus University is one of nine departments that make up the School of Communication and Culture in the Faculty of Arts. The research environment is characterised by extensive participation in cross-institutional national and international research projects, well-established national and international research networks as well as international conferences. In the QS World University Ranking system, communication and media studies at Aarhus University has consistently ranked in the top 50 since 2012 and is currently ranked 42 in the world. The researchers at the department are engaged in the following AU-based research programmes and research centres:

0. Centre for University Studies in Journalism

1. DATALAB - Centre for Digital Social Research

2. Centre for Internet Studies

3. Centre for Media Industries and Production Studies

4. Centre for Transnational Media Research

5. Centre for Sound Studies

6. Center for Kulturevaluering (CKE)

7. Centre for Humanistic Computing 

8. DIGHUMLAB 

9. Cultural Transformations

10. Media, Communication and Society

Prospective applicants are invited to view the department’s website.

School of Communication and Culture

The school is a part of the Faculty of Arts. You will find information about the school and its research programmes, departments, and diverse activities on its website .

Contact

For further information about the position, please contact Anne Marit Waade, Head of Department of Media and Journalism Studies, by tel.: +45 8716 2009 or by e-mail: amwaade@cc.au.dk .

If you need help uploading your application, or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please e-mail HR supporter Mads Brask Andersen: mban@au.dk .

December 12 - 19, 2020

Virtual conference

Deadline: September 30, 2020

Punk Scholars Network Annual Conference

A virtual, online, global conference spanning eight days is being brought together by the Punk Scholars Network – be a part of it. Punk is a truly global phenomenon that manifests in myriad ways in different scenes, political regimes, cultural contexts and individual experiences. Punk is many things to many people and seldom remains static over a lifetime. Increased globalisation, changes in connectivity and technology, and shifts in both capitalism and populism have impacted punk for better and worse. International and intranational punk scenes and connections are growing and finding commonality and conflict through music, education, mutual aid, performance, political activism and human behaviours. The global Coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the differences people face accessing resources and how governments respond. How have, and how will, various local punk scenes respond to this crisis, and what does their response tell us about punk as a global phenomenon?

The current Punk Scholars Network series Global Punk has attempted to capture the spread and variance of punk across the world (Bestley, Dines, Gordon & Guerra 2019, 2020, 2021). Gabriel Kuhn’s (2019) work on Straight Edge punk experiences has been based upon interviews with straight edge punks around the world, exploring different aspects of their experiences, attitudes, and activism. The journal Punk & Post-Punk regularly features contributions from punk scholars in a variety of

geographical locations and settings. With these efforts, and others,

serving as a base we are seeking to hold an entirely virtual conference that explores, examines and critically engages with punk scholars around the globe. Each PSN region will be responsible for one day over an eight day period and will include some academic papers or panels responding to this call for papers. Taking global punk seriously as a theme means considering the variety of experiences within local, national and international punk communities.

This conference takes place against the backdrop of increased political authoritarianism and a noticeable rise in racial and religious intolerance across the world more generally, and under the guise of responses to the global pandemic more specifically. We must consider what impact these issues have – good and bad – on punk scenes and individuals. To do this together, we are asking to what extent is punk a helpful means or a hindrance in considering identity and ‘being’ within wider social problems, dynamics, and understandings?

In line with the broad view being taken on the theme of global punk and in keeping with the PSN’s wide ranging academic reach, we are seeking contributions from a range of interdisciplinary areas, including, but not limited to: cultural studies, musicology, ethnography, art and design, humanities, performing arts, and the social sciences. Papers and panels could cover the following themes, (list is by no means exhaustive):

• Globalisation of new media, communications, social networking, internet

• Ethnographic considerations of scene/space and borders
• Political appropriation: re-definitions of ‘anarchism’, ‘ecology’ and anti-authoritarianism

• What role does exogenous and endogenous appropriation have in punk politics, resistance and allegiance around the world?

• In what ways does gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality, disability, class, religious beliefs, and cultural norms shape punk around the world?

• Notion of local/national/international ‘scene’, tribes, counterculture/subculture

• Importation and exportation of punk as a commodity, statement, academic discourse

• Music and the performer: creativity, authorship, identity, problems with definition, crossing musical boundaries.

• Reception: DIY culture, activism.
• Lifestyle: crustpunk, squatter, vegetarianism, animal rights, straight edge etc within different cultural contexts.

• The art of punk: record covers and associated graphic styles.

Punk Scholars Network events and conferences usually mix the conventionally "scholarly" with the more informal or "organic" intellectualism which punks often display. We therefore invite proposals of a non-standard type, including films, performances, Q and As with punks or punk performers and other creative mediums. In other words, you are welcomed and wanted to be a part of this global conference so please don't worry if you've never set foot in a university.

It is intended that this will be an online conference spanning eight days, from December 12th until December 19th 2020 inclusive. Each region with a PSN affiliate is responsible for programming one day. The planned schedule is as follows:

• Saturday 12th December: PSN France
• Sunday 13th December: PSN UK and rest of EU
• Monday 14th December: PSN Australia/Aotearoa (NZ)
• Tuesday 15th December: PSN Indonesia
• Wednesday 16th December: PSN USA
• Thursday 17th December: PSN Iberia
• Friday 18th December: PSN EU and UK
• Saturday 19th December: PSN Colombia

The affiliates will put together a mixed programme for their day based on a mixture of submissions and connections with local punk scenes. If you wish to take part, please submit your proposal to the relevant affiliate, if there is not one in your immediate geographical region then please submit it to the affiliate that aligns with your time zone for ease of inclusion. Proposals should be 350 words maximum (or equivalent, 3 minutes if a video clip for example) and do not have to be in English, please feel that you can use the language of your region if you wish. Proposals should be submitted to the following affiliated branches of the Punk Scholars Network:

Australia and Aotearoa (NZ), proposals to samantha.bennett@anu.edu.au Colombia, proposals to punkscholarsnetworkcolombia@gmail.com UK and the rest of Europe, proposals to psnconference2020@gmail.com (we can support proposals/presentations in French or German and will try to support other languages if we can) Iberia, proposals to punkscholarsnetworkiberia@gmail.com

Indonesia, proposals to psnindonesia15@gmail.com

USA and Canada, proposals to punkscholarsusa@gmail.com

by 30th September 2020 for consideration.

Successful submissions will be notified by 15th October 2020, all submissions will be responded to by 28th October 2020.

East European Film Bulletin

Proposals: November 15, 2020

Papers due: March  1, 2021

Romanian cinema is at the forefront of addressing the challenges that the country faces today, often linking troublesome memories to urban spaces. Recent films such as Radu Jude’s I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History as Barbarians and Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada address collective processes of remembering by linking them to physical places - public as well as private -, thereby exemplifying the way in which memory is dependent on and projected onto the locus of the city. Media artists, such as Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor, have also explored the topographies of memory. At the crossroads of the country’s past and future, architecture is a powerful force for cinematic storytelling, displaying a feeling of “restorative nostalgia” (Svetlana Boym) as well as a desire for change.

As part of its Romanian focus 2021, the East European Film Bulletin is preparing a special issue on the topic of architecture and memory in Romanian cinema, television, video art and experimental film. We are looking for contributions that examine and analyse the diverse relationships between cinema, architecture and memory and their links with Romania’s complex memory, both remote and recent.

We are particularly interested in essays concerning the following topics:

1) Ruins as places of memory

2) Spaces of religious revival (folk, new age, neo-Orthodox)

3) Mall films and/or suburbia

4) Topographies of memories in alternative cinema and video art

5) Urban planning, democratic transition and its possible criticism

6) Romania’s Belle Epoque

7) Memory places: spaces which commemorate historical catastrophes (Romania’sparticipation in the destruction of European Jews; slavery; child gulags)

Proposals of 250 words should be sent to editors@eefb.org by November 15th 2020.

Edited collection

Deadline for submissions: November 1, 2020

full name / name of organization: Georgia Aitaki / Örebro University

contact email: georgia.aitaki@oru.se

Debate around ‘woke television’ has been increasingly more present in popular parlance. Within television criticism, there has been heavy reflecting on (and co-constructing of) a meta-genre of contemporary US television characterized by a particular sensitization to issues of social justice, racial justice, and gender equity and a showcasing of commitment toward denouncing institutional ideologies such as structural poverty, white supremacy, and patriarchy. Indeed, a swell of popular criticism has been quick to discern the micro-contexts of politically alert television fiction, discussing for instance African-American history and white privilege in Atlanta and Dear White People, diversity in Star Trek, progressive reimaginings of classic shows such as Buffy and Charmed, the gender-swap in Doctor Who, LGBTQ pedagogy in the revival of Will & Grace, multidimensional female characters in Glow, complex and unapologetic teen sexuality in Normal People, Big Mouth and Sex Education. These instances inform the notion of “woke television” as the inclusion of relevant and topical themes, blatantly calling out structural inequalities and delivering cultural texts that reify the pleasures and intricacies of ‘woke culture.’

Apart from celebrating contemporary television’s bold engagement with social, racial and gender-related issues, popular critical writing has simultaneously questioned the transformative and empowering implications of woke television, recognizing issues such as the ideological ambiguity of feminist shows (including the impossible-to-ignore whiteness of critically acclaimed The Handmaid’s Tale and the poshness of Fleabag), as well as the problematic representational strategies of gendered violence and rape (for example, in 13 Reasons Why). Concurrently, the popular press has engaged in debates that challenge the legacy of some of television’s most revered cultural monuments, by exposing for example the problematic layers of shows such as Friends and Sex and the City. Criticisms of this kind discuss ‘wokeness’ not only within today’s cultural zeitgeist, but also as a rejuvenating source for contemporary television criticism, thus revealing a climate of close monitoring of television production and heightened expectations from entertainment—and one that specifically invites viewers to position themselves with regard to that wokeness.

‘Wokeness’ is not only addressed as a textual feature of contemporary television but also as part of particular production logic seeking to accommodate audiences in the Trump, BLM, and post-#MeToo era; as such, it genuflects to their needs for more complex takes on everyday realities and experiences, ones that are not exclusively tainted by the requirements of the ‘majority white’ viewers. Industrial perspectives, including Netflix’s commitment to inclusion and diversity and BBC’s strategy of “repurposing” classic novels to cater to contemporary television audiences, reveal a commitment to discussing and advancing social change within the industry itself. However, audiences’ reactions have been ambivalent: ranging from discovering newfound pleasures to complaining about how contemporary television reeks of didacticism and political correctness.

As little attention has been directed toward the concept of woke television within academia, Woke TV aims to gather contributions that further explore how expressions of woke culture translate into the world of television narrative and representation, but also in dimensions of production and reception. This collection is primarily interested in navigating the context of US television; however, studies based on other national/cultural contexts will also be considered. We seek to engage with the following lines of inquiry: (a) industry perspectives, (b) textual (representational/discursive) approaches, (c) issues of audience reception, as well as (d) issues of critical reception. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• white privilege and racism-as-problem narratives (Dear White People, Atlanta, Gentefied)
• revisiting/rewriting history (Glow, Hollywood)
• strong women characters and female camaraderie (Orange Is the New Black)
• quirky femininity (Insecure, Broad City)
• toxic (but self-reflective) masculinity (BoJack Horseman)
• woke teen TV (Euphoria, Sex Education, Big Mouth, Never Have I Ever)
• woke reboots/revivals (Will & Grace, The L Word Gen Q)
• retrospective criticism (Friends, Sex and the City, etc. and whiteness)
• woke TV as queer pedagogy
• LGBTQIA+ superheroes
• industry perspectives such as specific production logics/strategies, questions of casting, programming etc.
• woke TV before ‘woke TV’
• woke TV in international contexts
• woke TV and its audiences
• woke TV in popular criticism
• woke TV and woke capitalism (e.g., woke advertising)

Deadline for proposals: November 1, 2020

Notification of acceptance: November 15, 2020

Deadline for first drafts: February 15, 2021

How to Submit Your Proposal:

Please submit one-page abstracts/proposals to either Georgia Aitaki (georgia.aitaki@oru.se) or Lauren J. DeCarvalho (Lauren.DeCarvalho@du.edu) by November 1, 2020 and be sure to include both a tentative title and short biographical note.

About the Editors:

Georgia Aitaki is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at Örebro University, Sweden.

Lauren J. DeCarvalho is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies at the University of Denver, USA.

Gender, Work and Organisation

Deadline: February 15, 2020

Guest Editors:

• Emmanouela Mandalaki, NEOMA Business School, France
• Noortje van Amsterdam, Utrecht School of Governance, The Netherlands
• Ajnesh Prasad, Academy of Management, United States
• Marianna Fotaki, University of Warwick Business School, UK

This Special Issue encourages academic debate around how social and gendered inequalities exacerbate under times of bio-political and socio-economic crises—such as the COVID-19 pandemic— in an increasingly globalized and transnational world. Exploring interconnections between feminist philosophy, art and activism, we call for a wide range of methodologically disruptive papers, which preferably (though not exclusively) critically analyze diverse gendered experiences in light of intersectional and transnational feminist perspectives on inter-connectedness, relationality and care (e.g., Butler, 2004; Ettinger, 2006; Holvino, 2010; Federici, 2012; Fotaki & Harding, 2017).

The pandemic has called into question certain key premises of the neoliberal ideology—including individualism and the ability for market mechanism to maintain economic fairness—while accentuating issues of gendered power relations, intersectionality, diversity, and inclusion, among others. Nascent COVID-19 research documents disproportionate risks and worsening prospects for women, socially and economically vulnerable populations of the Global South (Wenham et al., 2020; Prasad, 2020; Wasdani & Prasad, 2020) as well as increased instances of feminicide, sexism and racism.

By dramatically reiterating how vulnerabilities are socially recreated and unequally distributed across different bodies situated at varying intersections of race, gender, ethnicity and class in a transnational neoliberal world (hooks, 1984; Apaddurai, 1995) of serial socio-economic crises, COVID-19 has sparked new and pre-existing solidarity initiatives reminding us of the unavoidable conditions of interdependence that sustain human bodies (Fotaki, 2019; Fotaki et al., 2020). Notably, attesting to their political potential to create a free space, where marginalized, transnational identities can be expressed for desired social transformation to be imagined and endeavoured (Fernandes, 2013; Li & Prasad, 2018), artistic and activist initiatives continue to lead efforts to bond different bodies together against neoliberal patriarchies (Mendes, 2020), even under social isolation (Mandalaki & Daou, 2020). Such initiatives propose new forms of knowledge, relationality and resistance, which promise to create possibilities for re-centering care, inclusion of difference and solidarity as foundations of our society.

Thus, COVID-19 presents us with a timely opportunity: to reconceptualize the possible forms of relationality that vitally encompass social life and to understand how these can reframe the paramountcy of individualism that proliferates under the neoliberal order (Fotaki & Prasad, 2015), thereby creating new and perpetuating old forms of inequalities and global poverty (Shiva & Mies, 2014). Underscoring this need, this Special Issue invites a wide range of theoretically informed contributions critically discussing these issues, especially those with a non-conventional format, inspired by art, activism, feminist thought and/or feminist forms of doing and writing research (Fotaki et al., 2014; Prasad, 2016; Pullen et al., 2020). Specifically, we invite poetic accounts (van Amsterdam & van Eck, 2019), short essays/prose, manifestos, activism (Alakavuklar, 2020), reflective accounts of (post)quarantine (Plotnikof et al., 2020), embodied (auto)ethnographies (Prasad, 2014; van Amsterdam, 2015; Mandalaki, 2019), dialogical/multi-voice accounts (Ahonen et al., 2020; MeldgaardKjaer & van Amsterdam, 2020) and arts-based research (e.g., Biehl-Missal, 2015, Ward & Shortt, 2020) engaging with photography, drawing, collage, performance, film/drama, video, dance and others. By encouraging multi-disciplinary connections between feminist philosophy, art and activism, we acknowledge the political capacity of genre-blending, non-traditional methodologies, to create an inclusive space, where different voices can be expressed and heard, to catalyze global debate over the power structures that sustain social inequalities. This promises to enliven organization studies by reconnecting it to situated human experiences of othering in a globalized, neoliberal world and to identify possibilities for social and political transformation. We welcome papers that explore, but are not limited to:

• Gendered experiences on the reification of patriarchal structures amid/post-COVID-19 crises;
• Experiences of diversity, intersectionality and social inclusion/exclusion in a translational (post)pandemic world;
• Construction of diverse/hybrid identities within social, economic, power dynamics, under global crises;
• How COVID-19 links with pre-existing crises and social inequalities to create opportunities for relationality, solidarity and social justice;
• Theoretical or empirical papers informed by feminist philosophy and/or ethics of care addressing broader societal implications of the (post)COVID-19 crisis;
• Feminist writing, activist writing as a catalyst for social change amid global crises;
• Poetic, storytelling or dialogical/multi-voice accounts exposing (post)COVID-19-related experiences;
• Accounts discussing world-changing activist responses intended to counter pre-existing social, racial, gendered inequalities in a post-pandemic world (e.g., Black Lives Matter, WEDO, Me Too);
• Embodied differences: How different bodies navigate times of global crises;
• Arts-based research accounts on (post)COVID-19 related experiences;
• Accounts unveiling the political potential of artistic forms of expression to create possibilities for social change;
• Ethnographies, netnographies, autoethnographies related to (post)pandemic experiences and beyond;
• Activist (post)pandemic responses, including academic activism, research and teaching for desired futures;

Submission Instructions

Submissions should be made electronically through the Scholar One submission system: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/gwo.

Please refer to the Author Guidelines at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/14680432/homepage/forauthors.html prior to submission.

Please select the ‘Special Issue’ article type on submission and select the relevant Special Issue title from the dropdown list where prompted.

For questions about the submission system please contact the Editorial Office at gwooffice@wiley.com

For enquiries about the scope of the Special Issue and article suitability, please contact the Emmanouela Mandalaki (emmanouela.mandalaki@neoma-bs.fr) directly.

Deadline for submissions: 15 February 2021