ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Coventry University

The Centre for Postdigital Cultures (CPC) at Coventry University invites Expressions of Interest from prospective PhD students, with view to a starting date of September 2021 (submission deadline is Wednesday 30th September 2020): https://www.coventry.ac.uk/…es/.

We are offering to support the development of PhD proposals for the AHRC M4C (Midlands 4 Cities) consortium fully funded bursary scheme (https://www.midlands4cities.ac.uk/…spx).

These prestigious, competitive studentships offer a fee waiver and a maintenance grant for 3.5 years (full time) or 7 years (part time), as well as access to unparalleled training, additional funding and networking opportunities.

Although we will support the development of your proposal we cannot guarantee your success. All applications are assessed by the consortium committee and it is a highly competitive process.

You will need to make an application for PhD study via the Coventry University platform PGR+ (https://pgrplus.coventry.ac.uk/).

In the section for the research proposal please state that this is an ‘EOI for M4C Studentship at the Centre for Postdigital Cultures’.

* 1000 words (max) statement providing a short description of your planned PhD project, including key bibliographical/artistic references;

* 500 words (max) explaining why you would like to do your PhD at the CPC (potential supervisory team members that might have attracted you to our Faculty Research Centre);

* 500 words (max) resume, detailing your background (be it academic, professional, or both) and explaining why it is relevant to this project.

In case you have previous experience which you deem relevant to the project (publications, artworks, etc), please feel free to add your CV and images of your work, if appropriate.

Please note that the submission deadline is Wednesday 30th September 2020.

The Centre for Postdigital Cultures

The CPC investigates alternative forms for society in the 21st century. Exploring issues of collaboration, community, and the commons, the Centre facilitates new articulations of culture that call for a radical rethinking of the relationship between the human, technology, economy and the environment. Along with conventional arts and humanities methods, we support PhD projects adopting a range of mixed methods, including various practice-orientated methodologies, visual argumentation, case studies and ethnography.

We encourage applications from suitably qualified candidates keen on developing a doctoral research in any of the following research areas:

* Digital Arts, Humanities and Posthumanities

* Affirmative Disruption and Open Media

* Data Cities and the Politics of Care

* Art, Space and the City

* Immersive Cultures and International Heritage

* AI and Algorithmic Cultures

Further information about the Centre and our staff are available on our website (https://www.coventry.ac.uk/…es/).

For an overview of our PGR offer please see our Study With Us pages (https://www.coventry.ac.uk/…dc/).

Prospective PGRs are eligible for this studentship if based in the UK or EU and if they have an MA qualification (or nearing completion), or relevant professional experience.

Please note that candidates who do not meet the eligibility criteria for M4C PhD funding scheme, but who are interested in PhD study at the Centre for Postdigital Cultures, are encouraged to contact Prof. Mel Jordan (mel.jordan@coventry.ac.uk) and Dr. Miriam De Rosa (miriam.derosa@coventry.ac.uk). We welcome applications from all sectors of the community and we encourage those currently under-represented in the Centre to apply.

IT University in Copenhagen

Extended deadline for application: now September 15, 2020*

At the IT University in Copenhagen, a position as Assistant or Associate Professor in Digital Data Analysis and Computational User Studies is available. International applicants are very welcome to apply.

The candidate should have a relevant background in computational social science methods, digital data analysis and quantitative methods applied to digital user studies. Moreover, strong qualifications in computational research methods applied to the analysis and design of digital platforms and interactive technologies or relevant experience in data-aware design are important for this position. To be considered, candidates should be able to demonstrate research and teaching qualifications in two or more of the following areas:

- Computational methods applied to the understanding of digital platforms and users’ practices

- Data visualization and visual data exploration

- Digital social sciences applied to online platforms

- Data-aware design and data analytics applied to the design of digital technologies

At the Digital Design Department, we have a broad understanding of digital technologies and digital platforms. In the context of this position, we seek candidates who have strong interest and experience in working with an interdisciplinary approach. We seek candidates who use digital technologies and computational methods to investigate online societal and human dynamics.

A good candidate is someone who is interested in people and their interplay with digital technologies but also motivated to describe the impacts and consequences digitalization may have on society at large. She/he is also interested in the intersection of data and design and in strengthening the computational research carried out within the Digital Platforms and Data research group.

For full position announcement, please see: https://candidate.hr-manager.net/…d=5

Freie Universität Berlin

We are looking for a post-doc (100% TV-13 L) to work in a project on the reception and acceptance of COVID-related public information despite polarization. Design and run a three-wave panel survey with experimental modules with us! The contract will run until 31.12.2021. The position is situated at the Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science at the Free University in Berlin. Very good knowledge of German and experience in survey research are required.

Deadline: August 31, 2020

31.08.2020.

https://www.polsoz.fu-berlin.de/polwiss/forschung/systeme/empsoz/news/stellenausschreibung_rapid-covid.html

Please feel free to contact: David Schieferdecker (d.schieferdecker@fu-berlin.de)

Teaching Media Quarterly

Deadline: October 6, 2020

Since the global pandemic altered higher education as we once knew it, academic institutions have called upon instructors to transform face-to-face courses into effective remote learning experiences--often with very little guidance and, for so many contingent faculty, by dint of unpaid and precarious labor. Like instructors in other fields, media instructors are often left on their own to sift through their experiences and research to decipher what methods are best, all while managing challenges of living, let alone working, during a pandemic. Yet media instructors have also long made pedagogical use of the affordances of media technologies--digital and otherwise--which places us in a unique position as we adjust to hybrid, remote and online teaching.

Teaching Media Quarterly is seeking submissions of lesson plans not only to address the dearth of published resources for online and remote critical media education but also to provide a platform to celebrate and share the excellent pedagogical work happening within our field as we adapt to the pandemic era. The editorial board is interested in lesson plans addressing questions such as the following: How are you adjusting critical media content for remote and online learning? What activities--synchronous and/or asynchronous--have you developed to engage students during this time? How are you supporting research remotely? Facilitating discussion and group activities online? What lessons and activities have you developed to cope with the digital divide among students? How are you addressing the politics of the pandemic in your critical media courses?

November 6-7, 2020

Rhode Island, Rhode Island (USA)

Deadline: September 7, 2020

While we are in the midst of the global health pandemic, with the consequent economic crisis and increased calls for social justice, the Northeast Media Literacy Conference would like to invite the media education community to submit academic presentations on the effect of the pandemic on best practices as well as the impact of the physical isolation and remote engagement on the future of media education.

We define media education as including any learning process (formal/informal/connected learning/third space) that involves either analyzing media or/and producing media. In contrast to educational technology, online or blended learning, we look for proposals highlighting the process of media practice to enhance learners’ abilities to access information and tools; analyze media representation, revealing the power dynamics behind systems, structures and concepts; create meaningful media messages; reflect on media use; be socially responsible and advance society toward the common good.

We welcome proposals, using qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and critical cultural approaches, from multidisciplinary educators around the world who have experience in teaching media education during this pandemic. Following a peer reviewed process, the accepted proposals will be scheduled to engage in a real time video conference presentation as an intercultural dialogue. The dialogue would be the basis of a larger discussion at the conference regarding the future of media education as a result of the pandemic. Presenters will be encouraged to submit full papers as chapter proposals (4,000-6,000 words including references using APA style) of an upcoming edited book. All submissions must be original work and have not been previously published. (Note: acceptance to the conference does not guarantee acceptance as a chapter for the edited book).

To submit a proposal, please complete this proposal by September 7. Notifications will be sent by October 1. If you have any questions or would like to brainstorm an idea, feel free to reach out to the associate editors:

Usha Raman, University of Hyderabad, India usharaman@uohyd.ac.in

Igor Kanižaj, University of Zagreb, Croatia ikanizaj@fpzg.hr

Grace Choi, Columbia College Chicago, U.S.A. grchoi@colum.edu

For more information: http://www.northeastmedialit.com/

Frontiers in Communication

Deadline: October 10, 2020

https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/15553/evidence-based-science-communication-in-the-covid-19-era

For science communication to be effective and inclusive, we need to understand and apply what works and why. Decades of social and behavioural science research provides us with a breadth of relevant evidence, alongside decades of lessons learned from experimenting with certain approaches in practice.

The coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 was a drastic reminder about the importance of science communication. Policy-makers and researchers, communication practitioners and affected citizens have seen that measures to contain the spread of the virus will only be socially accepted if the communication between such stakeholders is effective. Weighing economic interests against public health concerns, and safety issues against data privacy concerns, has required regulatory trade-offs under conditions that have been described as ‘post normal science’. That is, the situation has called for urgent decisions with values in dispute while the stakes are high and facts uncertain.

These reflections are deeply embedded in the bigger picture of discussing the overall goals and taken-for-granted practices of science communication. In particular, the pandemic has provided a stark reminder of how important it is for science communication to more effectively put public interests at the heart of how scientific knowledge is produced, shared, and applied.

Initiatives such as the "Science of Science Communication" (SOSC, https://www.nap.edu/catalog/23674/communicating-science-effectively-a-research-agenda) and "Evidence-based Science Communication" (EBSC, https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2019.00078) aim to combine professional experience from practice with the best available evidence from systematic social research, suggesting ways to address research/practice disconnects. Submissions will be expected to explicitly engage with specific aspects of the arguments/findings presented in SOSC and/or EBSC publications (with quotations/citations for particular aspects).

This Research Topic will address questions associated with the development and application of SOSC and EBSC in two consecutive Research Topics. This first Research Topic provides a space for theoretical, conceptual and methodological challenges and solutions to be discussed. A second Research Topic, coming soon, will gather together case studies and synthesis reviews of SOSC and EBSC in action. Contributions to the first series of articles (the ‘Debate’) are particularly welcome on the following topics:

• General conceptual aspects of effective knowledge exchange between research and practice
• How issues of social inclusion (broadly defined, including dimensions such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality, social class and intersectionality) can be addressed more effectively with SOSC/EBSC
• How and why to effectively integrate theoretical or empirical evidence into practice
• How science communication research can effectively address evidence needs that are being encountered in practice, including reviews or commentaries highlighting research gaps from a communication practice point of view
• Ways of determining the practical relevance of different types of science communication evidence and advice, including the role of issues such as methodological rigor and generalizability
• Systemic barriers to SOSC/EBSC such as closed access publishing and institutional competition criteria for career promotion
• Models for co-creating evidence between science communication research and practice, such as funding schemes incentivising collaborative research
• How evidence can be used to determine and compare the effectiveness of different activities in practice
• How evidence can be used to reflect on, critically assess and compare established and potential communication goals
• Arguments for / against integration of SOSC/EBSC within research funding programs, especially including those primarily aimed at natural, physical, engineering or medical sciences
• Ways for research funding organisations to specify the communication goals for funded research projects and/or institutional funding, including monitoring of the compliance with these prescriptions
• Arguments for / against (and ways to implement) research-funding organisations to determine and/or specify the communication competency among applicants, for instance by means of accreditation / certification

• Reflection on a potential lack of methodological expertise in science communication to design robust social research, and the related implications
• Opportunities and challenges for teaching and training of science communication, including the role of social science methods in curricula and the nature and extent to which evidence comprises the content of science communication curricula (as compared to anecdotal advice).

The accepted abstracts will be shared among the authors of the special issue to encourage cross-references and collaboration.

Learning from best practice: Contributions from science communication practitioners are particularly encouraged. We would highlight the submission option of 'Perspective' articles, which can be short (e.g. 500-700 words) and do not require academic citations.

Submission Deadlines:

Abstracts until 10 October 2020;

invited manuscripts until 22 February 2021

Stuart N. Brotman

The COVID-19 pandemic has expanded the online world of work at home to record levels. Our most personal and confidential data is being collected from multiple digital devices and stored, disseminated, and sold to governments and commercial organizations, often without our knowledge, consent, or control. We are all now in privacy’s perfect storm, which includes recent efforts by the European Union and in the United States to set new legal boundaries. Stuart N. Brotman offers a thoughtful guide to achieving better digital privacy protection in these turbulent times.

His book, Privacy’s Perfect Storm: Digital Policy for Post-Pandemic Times, is available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939282489.

October 16-17, 2020

Ghent, Belgium

Deadline: August 15, 2020

UPDATE: Our conference is going ahead, online. We will continue to adapt to the changing world. Based on abstract submissions Screening Censorship Conference will continue to adjust to circumstances, and implement best practices of virtual attendance to ensure the safety and comfort of delegates, presenters and attendees. The new deadline for abstracts is August 15, 2020. For more information, please contact (daniel.biltereyst@ugent.be ) and/or Ernest Mathijs (ernest.mathijs@ubc.ca).

Throughout the history of film and cinema, censorship has existed everywhere–in all kinds of shapes, colors, and dimensions. The act of restricting the free production, circulation, screening and consumption of movies was never unique to authoritarian regimes. Age restrictions, film cuttings, bans, industry discouragements, and other types of censorial interventions also occurred in countries where media freedom and the freedom of speech were and are highly regarded principles.

Censorship has had far-reaching implications on filmmakers, distributors, exhibitors, and audiences across generations, and across genres. Hard, strict institutional censorship often came alongside implied or ‘suggested’ forms of soft censorship, including, importantly, the self-censorship or audiences disciplined into particular viewership positions.

Today, soft and hard censorship co-exist in even more fluid forms. The acts of banning, regulating, trimming, and tailoring films for ‘harmless’ consumption, by bureaucracies, pressure groups and activists, are frequently embedded within wider debates about media use. But film nonetheless remains a ‘banner issue’, a point of reference for what constitutes screen censorship.

Keynote participations will be a combination of live, virtual and recorded addresses.

Academic keynote speakers:

• Professor Richard Maltby (Flinders University, Australia)
• Professor Linda Williams (University of California, Berkeley, USA)

Professional keynote speakers:

• Manuel Mozos (filmmaker, Portugal)
• Rachel Talalay (film director/producer, US/Canada)

From the long tradition of investigating film censorship onwards, this conference aims at reflecting upon recent changes in policies, strategies and practices of film censorship, both in the past and in today’s media landscape. Amongst the many questions, this conference asks:

• What are film history’s lessons from censorship?
• What are the contours of censorship today?
• Is censorship still a useful concept? How has it changed?
• How do new or renewed sensitivities influence censorship today, in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, ageism, ableism? 
• How do censorships compare, across time, space, genre, and technologies?
• What is the role of social media in debates about censorship? How do we define film censorship in times of massive content moderation on social media platforms?
• How does film censorship work on different screens: in the theatre, on television, on in-flight, mobile, across multitudes of digital screens?
• What are the ‘aesthetics’ of censorship today and what is the function of pastiche, subversion, ‘just joking’, and other kinds of boundary-challenging work?
• What do recent controversies and provocations reveal about the evolution of censorship?
• What is the relationship between incidents and interventions in production culture, artistic integrity, and censorship?
• What is censorship’s relationship with ‘hardcore’ and explicit material, past and now? If censorship is not always a simple matter of repression from above, but of conflicting discursive constructions arising from below, how do we account for the history of the emergence of hard-core pornography beyond thinking of it as the liberalization of censorship?

Screening Censorship also invites reflections on the changing research environment:

• What are the tools for studying censorship today?
• How have digital technologies affected the study of censorship?
• What is the influence of new film and cinema historiography in exploring practices of distributing, screening, consuming and audience’s experiences of film and screen censorship?

Screening Censorship aims to showcase academic and industry voices on the issue of the shifting practices of censoring films on the different screens. The four keynote addresses confirmed for the symposium reflect that goal. The conference//is organized in tandem with the 47th International Film Fest Ghent (FIAPF accredited, Variety’s top-50 must-attend), and aims to examine how film and cinema censorship, as a concept and as a practice (ad hoc and post hoc), functions 20 years into the 21st Century.

Screening Censorship welcomes contributions for 20-minute presentations from scholars, artists and practitioners whose work pertains to topics and themes of film and screen censorship. We are seeking abstracts for individual papers and panels of three or four contributors on topics including, but not limited to:

• Theories, concepts, and discourses on film censorship, control, discipline, silencing, content moderation
• New film censorship policies, strategies, tactics, practices
• The aesthetics of film censorship, subversion, pastiche
• Activism and resistance
• Film censorship, audiences and reception
• Institutions and power
• Comparison, entangled history, histoire croisée
• Film censorship and the museum: archives, heritage, platforms
• Artistic integrity, interventions, re-use
• Film censorship cases, controversies, panics
• Digital tools and new methods for doing film censorship research today

Please send *abstracts of 300 words and a 100-word biography  to Daniel Biltereyst (daniel.biltereyst@ugent.be ) and Ernest Mathijs (ernest.mathijs@ubc.ca) by August 15th, 2020, and address any queries to the same addresses. Abstracts should be submitted following this order: (a) author(s); (b) affiliation; (c) email address; (d) title of abstract; (e) body of abstract; (f) bibliography. E-mails should carry the subject line: /Screening Censorship/ Abstract Submission.

Conference sponsored by Digital Cinema Studies (DICIS, FWO Flanders) in collaboration with The Centre for Cinema and Media Studies (UBC). Conference website: www.censorship-symposium.org

Deadline: September 30, 2020

Call for Chapter

A new edited collection on true crime in 21st century American visual and audio media invites proposals for chapters.

This new book seeks to present original scholarship on the structure, themes and consumption of true crime in today’s visual/audio media landscape.

From sober documentary film through ‘binge-worthy’ streaming of podcasts and television series, true crime appears in a wide variety of styles and attracts an equally varied array of responses. This book hopes to reflect as many approaches as possible.

While the central focus will be on American films and series of the21st century, the collection would also benefit from discussions on the global reach and/or influences of such media, so proposals on such topics are welcomed.

The following list is a guide to the variety of true crime content the book will consider:

• Legal Procedures (including police procedural, courtroom practices, appeals, probation services)
• Injustice Narratives (including false confessions, wrongful imprisonment as well as general criticisms of the American justice system)
• Organized Crime (history of the mafia, political corruption, gangster celebrities)
• Interviews with Convicts (including high profile cases, serial killers)
• Victims (including support and reconciliation programs)
• Unsolved crime (including missing persons, ongoing investigations)
• Crimes made sensational (including property violations, neighbor disputes, traffic stops)

A list of possible approaches: 

• Documentary styles and aesthetics (including re-enactment, docudrama)
• Character creation and/or sensationalist narrative practices including: the presentation of law enforcement, prosecutors, defense teams and/or the legal system in general the presentation of crime victims and their families the presentations of race, gender and sexualities
• The social purpose of true crime documentaries
• Transmedial and /or transglobal responses to American true crime narratives
• Production practices and ethics
• Finance, marketing and/or distribution practices and experiences

Routledge has expressed interest in the project (Approx. 12 chapters of 6-8,000 words each).

Please send a 300-400 word abstract of your proposed chapter and a 100-word author bio statement to George S. Larke-Walsh at george.larke-walsh@unt.edu by September 30th 2020.

Tampere University

Tampere University and Tampere University of Applied Sciences create a unique environment for multidisciplinary, inspirational and high-impact research and education. Our universities community has its competitive edges in technology, health and society. www.tuni.fi/en

The Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies (CoE GameCult) is a leading centre in the study of games, play and game cultures (see: https://coe-gamecult.org). As a joint initiative of Tampere University, University of Turku and University of Jyväskylä, it brings together over 40 researchers from the humanities, social sciences and technical sciences, who are jointly engaged in the inquiry of game cultures. Bringing together leading game research teams, the CoE GameCult aims to integrate the multidisciplinary research carried out in game culture studies, and to develop original theoretical and empirical approaches that are crucial for understanding, anticipating and influencing the direction and impact games have on contemporary and future developments in culture and society

Based on a long research history and successful collaboration of the three universities, the CoE GameCult has started its operation in January 2018, in the Academy of Finland’s Centres of Excellence program, and (subject to a successful mid-term evaluation) will continue up to the end of eight-year period, the end of year 2025.

In the CoE GameCult, the interconnected dimensions of game cultures are addressed through four integrated themes that organise the research work carried out in the CoE: Theme 1: Meaning and Form of Games (coord. University of Jyväskylä, prof. Raine Koskimaa), Theme 2: Creation and Production of Games (coord. Tampere University, assoc. prof. Olli Sotamaa), Theme 3: Players and Player Communities (coord. Tampere University, prof. Frans Mäyrä), Theme 4: Societal Framing of Games (coord. University of Turku, prof. Jaakko Suominen).

In this fall 2020 a call for 2-4 Postdoctoral Research Fellow or University Researcher (senior researcher) positions are available in the Tampere University Game Research Lab team, in the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences. The new researcher positions advertised in this call are particularly related to the Tampere University-led research themes 2 and 3.

Job descriptions

The researchers hired into the Centre of Excellence will be capable of independently pursuing high quality research in their area of specialization, and of multidisciplinary collaborative work with other CoE researchers and other research partners. Filling of both postdoctoral or senior researcher positions will be based on consideration of the overall skills profiles of CoE research teams, and the number and length of researcher service contracts will be subject for negotiation.

The successful applicants will have both strong research profiles in games, player or game culture studies, well formulated individual research agendas, as well as evidence of capabilities for interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork.

The more specific skill profiles that CoE is particularly looking for are experts in:

• various game cultural forms
• game production studies
• critical game design research
• new forms of work, focusing on the changing relations between play and work
• gaming communities and various player subcultures and diverse player groups
• player experiences, player motivations and social play, or play in society
• games as sites of identity politics and resistance

Particular emphasis will be put on multidisciplinary skill profiles, and for candidates who show evidence or promise for bridge building between two or more, currently disconnected research fields related to games, play, game players, design and development of games and research of those societal and cultural contexts.

Applicants are asked to specify in their application, which one, or which ones, of the above skill profiles they most closely identify with.

Requirements

The postdoctoral position is intended for recently graduated researchers, so that they may gain further experience and advance their careers. The senior researcher position is intended for more experienced, early to mid-career researchers. A successful candidate should have evidence of original research related to games, play and/or game cultures in society more generally, and a PhD degree in game studies, humanities, social sciences, design studies, or other games-related subject area. We expect a competence to pursue independent scientific work and adequate teaching skills. You should be fluent in spoken and written English. We appreciate experience of studying and working abroad and contacts to international research community.

We are looking for versatile and independent researchers with a solid background in games and play related research, and the ability to supervise MA and PhD students would be considered an advantage. The position will involve some teaching duties.

We offer

The positions will be filled for fixed-term periods, ranging 1-4 years. The planned starting date is January 4, 2021 or earlier, as mutually agreed. A trial period of six (6) months applies to all our new employees.

The salary will be based on both the job requirement and the employee's personal performance in accordance with the Finnish University Salary System. In this system, the position of a Postdoctoral Research Fellow is placed on the job demand levels 5-6, and the University Researcher (senior researcher) on levels 5-7 (teaching and research staff category). A typical starting salary of Postdoctoral Research Fellow is around €3500 and €4500, and the salary of a University Researcher will typically range between €4000 and €5000 a month.

We offer a wide range of staff benefits, such as occupational health care, flexible working hours, excellent sports facilities on campus and several restaurants and cafés on campus with staff discounts. Please read more about working at Tampere University. For more information on Finland and Tampere, please check these sites, for example: Tampere University, InfoFinland and This is Finland.

Study of games is recognized as a leading-edge research area of Tampere University. We offer a world-class research environment in internationally recognized research groups. We have strong collaborative networks and offer great opportunities for researchers to develop their careers in an international setting.

How to apply

Please submit your application through our online recruitment system. The closing date for applications is 13 September 2020 (at 23.59 EEST / 20.59 UTC). Please write your application and all accompanying documents in English and attach them in PDF format.

Applications should include the following documents:

• Curriculum Vitae according to TENK guidelines (DOCX)
• List of publications according to Academy of Finland guidelines
• Motivation letter (max 2 pages) in which you set out the reasons why you are applying for the post and why you are particularly suited to it
• A research plan (max 3 pages), outlining your proposed research within the CoE research themes
• The names, positions and contact details of two referees who can support your application

For more information, please contact:

Professor, CoE Director Frans Mäyrä, frans.mayra@tuni.fi (tel. +358 50 336 7650)

Associate Professor, CoE Team Leader Olli Sotamaa, olli.sotamaa@tuni.fi (tel. +358 50 420 1472)