ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Christian Fuchs

Part of the Critical, Digital and Social Media Studies series

‘An authoritative analysis of the role of communication in contemporary capitalism and an important contribution to debates about the forms of domination and potentials for liberation in today’s capitalist society.’ — Professor Michael Hardt, Duke University, co-author of the tetralogy Empire, Commonwealth, Multitude, and Assembly

‘A comprehensive approach to understanding and transcending the deepening crisis of communicative capitalism. It is a major work of synthesis and essential reading for anyone wanting to know what critical analysis is and why we need it now more than ever.’ — Professor Graham Murdock, Emeritus Professor, University of Loughborough and co-editor of The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications

Communication and Capitalism outlines foundations of a critical theory of communication. Going beyond Jürgen Habermas’ theory of communicative action, Christian Fuchs outlines a communicative materialism that is a critical, dialectical, humanist approach to theorising communication in society and in capitalism. The book renews Marxist Humanism as a critical theory perspective on communication and society.

The author theorises communication and society by engaging with the dialectic, materialism, society, work, labour, technology, the means of communication as means of production, capitalism, class, the public sphere, alienation, ideology, nationalism, racism, authoritarianism, fascism, patriarchy, globalisation, the new imperialism, the commons, love, death, metaphysics, religion, critique, social and class struggles, praxis, and socialism.

Fuchs renews the engagement with the questions of what it means to be a human and a humanist today and what dangers humanity faces today.

Purchase here: https://www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/books/10.16997/book45/

Deadline: June 15, 2020

Editors: Ahmet Atay and Diana Trebing. Under contract with Peter Lang

Editors are looking for a few additional chapters in mentoring related to different cultural contexts. Mentoring occupies a major role in higher education. We mentor students and fellow faculty members, many of whom come from diverse backgrounds, such as first-generation, LGBTQ, and other countries among others. Perhaps as scholars and educators we do not spend or have enough time thinking about mentoring. It might also not be something that we formally discussed in graduate school. As we find ourselves mentoring various groups of people in higher education, we try to model our own mentors who helped us as students or faculty. Due to lack of formal training, perhaps we might use a trial-error approach or simply find spontaneous ways to mentor.

Additionally, we might also spend hours trying to solve a problem or deal with issues regarding students or new faculty colleagues. We mentor these people, despite the fact that we might not be trained, knowledgeable or prepared for specific mentoring situations. Similar to undergraduate and graduate students, junior faculty also need guidance in their teaching and research. However, in some instances, mentoring becomes a secondary issue when, as scholars, we are too busy working with students, teaching our classes, and conducting our research. Thus, we might neglect our responsibilities to mentor students outside the classroom or new faculty who might be struggling with different issues, such as maintaining a research agenda, becoming a good educator, or balancing their work and personal lives. Therefore, mentoring is one of the most crucial aspects of our academic lives.

This book will tackle two interrelated issues: The role and importance of mentoring in our discipline as well as critical/cultural studies and the ways in which we mentor students and junior faculty with diverse backgrounds. We invite authors who will present a position or an issue in regards to mentoring students and faculty or the lack of it in higher education, especially in mentoring new faculty and minority students. Our goal is to generate a scholarly discussion by utilizing different theoretical models, highlight some of the important issues in mentoring as a form of critical and intercultural communication pedagogy, and finally to present guidelines and examples to mentor more effectively.

In this project, we see mentoring as a form of critical communication pedagogy, outlined by Fassett and Warren (2007), and intercultural communication pedagogy, outlined by Atay and Trebing (2017) and Toyosaki and Atay (2018). Hence, borrowing from communication pedagogy and critical cultural scholars, Calafell (2007), Calafell and Gutierrez-Perez (2017) and Chrifi and Calafell (2016), in this book we argue that mentoring as a commitment and practice builds on the ideas of critical dialogue, embodies critical love and intercultural and transnational sense-making, and promotes a web of community that cultivates care and commitment.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

1. Mentoring in international contexts

2. Mentoring in the context of diversity

3. Mentoring and critical race theory

4. Mentoring and disability

Abstracts are due by Thursday, June 15, 2020, with a word length of no more than 250 words, along with pertinent references, contact information, and a short biographic blurb of no more 300 words. Please email your abstracts as Word documents to both Ahmet Atay (aatay AT wooster.edu) and Diana Trebing (dtrebing AT svsu.edu) for an initial review.

Mathias Corvinus Collegium (Budapest, Hungary)

The Hungary Initiatives Foundation, a Washington D.C. based non-profit organization, in partnership with the Mathias Corvinus Collegium in Budapest, Hungary is presently accepting applications for the Budapest Fellowship Program, for the 2020/2021 academic year.

The Budapest Fellowship Program is a full-time, fully-funded transatlantic fellowship opportunity in Budapest, Hungary, for young American scholars and professionals, and it includes a Junior Fellowship aimed for senior graduate students and a Senior Fellowship, for postdoctoral researchers and early career professionals.

The program aims to cultivate the next generation of American policy professionals and equip them with a thorough understanding of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Hungary. The fellows will have an opportunity to conduct independent research on the topic fellows choose while gaining practical experience working at a Hungarian host institution that matches their professional interests.

The Fellowship, through the support of the Hungary Initiatives Foundation will cover all program expenses, including roundtrip airfare to Budapest, Hungary, housing, a monthly stipend as well as health insurance. The opportunity is open for US citizens with a research interest in Central and Eastern Europe and have outstanding research and academic credentials.

You may find more details about the Budapest Fellowship Program on The Hungary Initiatives Foundation's website, at the following link:

https://www.hungaryfoundation.org/budapest-fellowship-program/

The application deadline is June 30, 2020.

Questions regarding the program or the application process may be directed to hif@hungaryfoundation.org.

November 9-10, 2020

Online / Bizkaia Aretoa (Bilbao, Spain)

Deadline: July 31, 2020

Conference website: http://www.ciberpebi.info

Disinformation and credibility in the digital ecosystem is the main theme of the 12th edition of the International Conference on Online Journalism which is held annually in Bilbao.

In this edition, the Conference will be held simultaneously in face-to-face and virtual formats.

Accordingly to this situation, the registration fee has been reduced by 25%.

List of Topics

• Journalism and the Internet.
• Convergence.
• Social Media.
• Web 2.0.
• New professional profiles.
• Citizen participation in the new information environment.
• Ethics and deontology.
• Disinformation.
• Business strategies in digital media.
• New trends and technologies in journalism.
• New genres.
• Teaching learning of journalism and communication.

Organizing committee

• Koldobika Meso Ayerdi
• Irati Agirreazkuenaga Onaindia
• Leyre Eguskiza Sesumaga
• María Ganzabal Learreta
• Ainara Larrondo Ureta
• Terese Mendiguren Galdospin
• Simón Peña Fernandez
• Jesús Ángel Pérez Dasilva

Abstracts

The abstracts of all accepted communications will be published in a Book of Abstracts, with ISBN.

Abstract registration deadline: July 31, 2020

Full Papers

Authors who wish to publish the full text of their communication may choose one of these two options:

• Conference Proceedings

- The full texts of the accepted communications may be published in the Congress Proceedings Book, edited by the UPV/EHU editorial service, with ISBN.

- Texts that do not conform to the style guidelines will be rejected.

• Associated Journals

 - Alternatively, authors may choose to send their texts to one of the two journals associated with the Conference: Mediatika (ISSN 1137-4462) or Hipertext.net (ISSN 1695-5498).

- The texts will be subjected to a peer evaluation, in accordance with the publication standards of each of these magazines

- Full papers submission deadline: October 31, 2020

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to ciberpebi.csc@ehu.eus

Sponsors

• University of The Basque Country
• Basque Government
• Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities

Transformative Works and Cultures

Deadline: January 1, 2021

Fans demonstrate a broad interest in the past, both of their objects of fandom and their own communities. They collect, catalog, preserve, restore, and publicly display historical artifacts and information in their own archives and museums. They study archival materials and collections, interview witnesses, and read historical scholarship, developing historical narratives and theses. Their research materializes in the form of analog and digital nonfiction media such as print and online publications, documentaries, podcasts, video tutorials, and pedagogical initiatives. Through their work, fans historicize their own fandom and tie it into broader historical questions, connecting to issues like heritage, gender, and the nation. While some fans do this as community historians, focused on small and self-financed groups, others work within large and well-known cultural organizations and businesses, bringing this work into the mainstream.

The goal for this special issue of Transformative Works and Cultures is to explore the question of how fans produce knowledge about the past and actively engage with history. We are particularly interested in essays that show what fans do as historians, such as running publicly accessible archives and museums, and using archival materials for the production of nonfiction media. We want to shift direction from the question of why and how fans are collecting to analyses of why, how, and with what impact fans are creating and disseminating knowledge about the past. Such contributions will further our understanding of how central engagements with the past are to individual and collective fan identities, and how fandom connects to historical debates.

We encourage contributions covering all geographies and forms of fandom, including film, television, music, games, sport, fashion, celebrity culture, themed environments, theatre, dance, and opera. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Theorizing fans as historians.
• Fan-produced nonfiction media about the past.
• Use of archival and historical materials in fan works.
• Fan-run archives and museums.
• Memorialization of fandom.
• Transmedial practices in fan-made histories.
• Fan-made histories as fan pedagogy.
• History making and inclusion/exclusion in fandom.
• Fans as historians and the media and/or heritage industries.

Submission guidelines

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC, http://journal.transformativeworks.org/) is an international peer-reviewed online Gold Open Access publication of the nonprofit Organization for Transformative Works copyrighted under a Creative Commons License. TWC aims to provide a publishing outlet that welcomes fan-related topics and to promote dialogue between the academic community and the fan community. TWC accommodates academic articles of varying scope as well as other forms that embrace the technical possibilities of the Web and test the limits of the genre of academic writing.

Theory: Conceptual essays. Peer review, 6,000–8,000 words.

Praxis: Case study essays. Peer review, 5,000–7,000 words.

Symposium: Short commentary. Editorial review, 1,500–2,500 words.

Please visit TWC's website (http://journal.transformativeworks.org/) for complete submission guidelines, or email the TWC Editor (editor [AT] transformativeworks.org).

Contact—Contact guest editors Philipp Dominik Keidl and Abby Waysdorf with any questions or inquiries at fansmakehistory [AT] gmail.com.

Due date—January 1, 2021, for estimated March 15, 2022 publication.

Nordicom Review Special Issue (open access)

Deadline for abstract submissions: November 1, 2020

Special issue editors: Pernilla Severson (Linnaeus University), Sara Leckner (Malmö University), Carl-Gustav Lindén (University of Helsinki)

Note of acceptance: 20 December 2020

Deadline for full paper submissions: 1 May 2021

Media development as an academic field focuses on research questions spanning from technical, economic, and political issues to the social and the cultural spheres. Media development has implications for society in many ways. Since all media today are more or less digital, research has approached digital media by exploring “new” methods, like digital methods (Rogers, 2019) but also as action research methods (Deuze & Witschge, 2020; Wagemans & Witschge, 2019). Action research in, as well as for, media development is part of a transformation where media research is more and more considered to solve societal problems.

Often, action research is practiced in local settings, interacting with stakeholders within a shared place and space and who have a shared concern for issues related to this. Both the local and the digital seem to have stimulated the application and appropriation of more normative projects characterised by the methods and sometimes also ideological foundations that action research utilises. In this realm, several applied projects touch upon research and development and innovation projects, innovation themes in the creative industries, and social innovation and social entrepreneurship.

It seems as though local digital media projects – spanning from business models to technologies like artificial intelligence – aim to create and solve media organisations’ problems through collaboration between researchers, media organisations, and audiences. These kinds of projects exist on other levels too, for example in applied projects from the EU, Vinnova, and so forth.

Action research is an ideological approach as much as a set of methods (Brydon-Miller et al., 2003). It comes with a more or less interventionist and collaborative goal, like collaborative media (Löwgren & Reimer, 2013), participatory communication (Tufte, 2014), alternative journalism (Deuze & Witschge, 2020), and innovation and journalism (Wagemans & Witschge, 2019).

Participant-oriented action research strives for interaction and joint knowledge production where the decisive factor is that some form of social change occurs. The classical theoretical concepts worked with are those such as empowerment, participation, and the commons. At the same time, action research methods seem to be an important driver in the increasing pressure to demonstrate research impact, spurred by innovation and development using collaborative practices.

What do these intersections and boundaries of social change, innovation, and entrepreneurship mean for media scholars using action research in digital media research? And how can scholars meet and deal with the fact that action research is often criticised for the descriptive nature, lack of analysis, and low research contribution?

Hence, as with other methodological approaches, action research methods are developing. It is therefore important to discuss what such approaches mean and can be in relation to these contemporary media developments. The aim of this special issue is to invite a broad discussion of the boundaries of the field: the advantages and challenges with action research focusing on media development in the intersection of social change, innovation, and entrepreneurship. This special issue welcomes articles on all matters pertaining to developing what an action-research approach could and should mean for media development studies.

The purpose of this special issue of Nordicom Review is to define and understand action-oriented research practices in relation to media development, where media, communication, and journalism studies have discipline specificities and cultural contexts that beneficially will enhance understandings of action research. Nordic media development shows strong linkages to the welfare state and particular national culture values. In the commercial field, action research has been rebranded as design thinking and product development (Lundin & Norbäck, 2015). What does that mean in a context where action research is also mainly used as applied research, for improving media services and developing new forms of journalism through experiments and tests? Design thinking has become the main framework for developing commercial service, also in media and journalism. And how is the particular heritage of Scandinavian Participatory Design and participatory action research explored and utilised in relation to more studies now making use of action research, more or less with the ideological standpoint of empowering the weak and making social change?

Contributions to the special issue could address, but are not limited to, action research examples within media, communication, and journalism studies from various disciplines and cultural contexts, aiming to define and describe or critically discuss issues related to this.

Contributions can, for instance, focus on some of the following themes:

• Development of action research methods in digital media studies
• Collaborative development in media organisations
• New audience approaches and participatory business media models
• Inclusion and integration of less-resourced groups
• Contributions to action research theory and method building, for example, ethics.
• Critique of action research and participatory approaches in media, communication, and journalism studies.
• Innovation and entrepreneurship for local media
• Conceptual developments on action research for social change and social innovation.
• Action research as creating “real-life difference”, not always “creating solution”.

The selection of papers to be published will take place according to the following three-step procedure:

- Step 1: Authors are requested to submit the title and abstract (600 words max. incl. references) of their papers along with five to six keywords and short bios (150 words max. for each author) to the special issue editors. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 1 November 2020, and the authors will be notified of the eventual acceptance by 20 December 2020 at the latest.

- Step 2: If an abstract is accepted, the authors will be requested to submit full papers (7,000 words max. inclusive of any front or end matter) anonymised for double-blind review and formatted according to the Nordicom Review guidelines. The deadline for submission of full anonymised papers is 1 May 2021, after which a double-blind peer review will take place. Please note that an accepted abstract is not automatically an accepted article. The special issue editors reserve the right to reject articles that are not in line with Nordicom Review’s aims and scope, where the quality is insufficient, or the guidelines have not been followed.

- Feedback from reviewers will be sent to authors by the end of July 2021 at the latest. The deadline for submission of revised manuscripts is September 2021. Planned publication is January 2022.

For questions as well as abstract submissions, please contact:

Pernilla Severson, pernilla.severson@lnu.se(link sends e-mail)

Sara Leckner, sara.leckner@mau.se(link sends e-mail)

Carl-Gustav Lindén, carl-gustav.linden@helsinki.fi(link sends e-mail)

Kristiania University College in Oslo, Norway

A full-time (100 %) position as Professor is available at The Department of Communication at Kristiania University College in Oslo, Norway. The position will be connected to the ph.d. program in Communication and Leadership which is under development. The starting date for the position is October 15th 2020, at the latest.

The applicant should further have competence within at least two of the following research areas:

- Strategic communication

- Organizational communication

- Crisis communication

- Ethics in relation to media and communication

- Media production

For more information, please see:

https://www.kristiania.no/en/about-kristiania/vacant-positions/?rmpage=job&rmjob=57&rmlang=UK

New documentary on European security and NATO in the 21st century: https://www.deterrencethemovie.com/

Deterrence is a feature-length documentary and learning resource written, directed and produced by Dr Roman Gerodimos and co-created with staff and students at Bournemouth University.

We have made Deterrence available to watch for free as we believe that it tackles issues in the public interest that deserve maximum exposure. The doc is divided into an introduction/outline ('Chapter 0') and 7 core chapters that can be watched in sequence or as stand-alone episodes.

As the world seems to be entering a period of disorder, Deterrence captures the major strategic questions facing us and tracks the conflicting personalities and agendas involved.

We attended the 2019 NATO Leaders' Meeting, interviewed top NATO diplomats and world-leading foreign correspondents, historians and experts from think-tanks such as RUSI and CER. We also interviewed students and then posed their questions and criticisms to NATO officials.

What are the main security challenges facing us today? Are we living through a New Cold War? Can dialogue ​with Putin work? How should we deal with China? Can Trump be trusted with Europe's security? Is NATO 'obsolete' and 'brain-dead' or more important than ever?

What exactly does 'deterrence' even mean? Is it a relic of the Cold War or the most important tool for our physical security? Can deterrence work against cyber and hybrid? Can media literacy counter fake news?

Is NATO an alliance of values or an alliance of power? Are nuclear weapons relevant anymore? How does NATO need to change in order to survive?

These are some of the questions posed and answered during the doc.

The doc also has an educational strand as it introduces and explains key concepts (deterrence, hybrid warfare, the security dilemma, MAD etc) using simple motion graphics. It also outlines the history of deterrence from WW2 to today. The site also features indicative reading and lesson plans, including slide decks for educators and students.

If colleagues are interested in arranging a screening or showcase as part of a class, conference or event, we are available for a live Q&A with students (e.g. via Zoom) both on the substantive issues raised in the documentary and on the process of making the documentary.

Roman Gerodimos

rgerodimos@bournemouth.ac.uk

Special issue of MedieKultur

Deadline for abstracts: October 15, 2020

Streaming is an increasingly used form of content distribution. Content providers from different areas of the media industries have shifted to this digital form of distribution and many users have followed. With this special issue on streaming media, we are looking for articles that study streaming from different perspectives and contribute to a better understanding of how streaming is a phenomenon that deeply affects established media industries such as film, television, gaming, music, radio/podcasts, books and audio books.

Streaming as a technical notion refers to transmitting and receiving digital data over the internet – a process distinguished by the end-user being able to watch, listen, or read content as the file is being transmitted. Streaming as distribution systems hence facilitates on-demand use and consumption of media content. However, as communication and media scholars we are broadly interested in streaming media, that is, the structures, relations and practices including and surrounding streaming as distribution systems. This encompasses (at least) studies of media industries and production, interfaces, content, and use of streaming media.

We have seen the emergence of many new streaming services from global superplayers as well as national streaming providers and small local services. The amount and size of these new streaming services is so substantial that we have yet to analyze many of the platforms that are available (often through both apps and websites) thoroughly. This special issue seeks empirically grounded, conceptual and methodological contributions about the changes and continuities represented by streaming media.

Accordingly, we encourage contributions to the following topics and are grateful for additional perspectives:

- Key concepts and theoretical discussions in research about streaming

- Studies of media industries and the impact of streaming on organizations and productions

- How streaming media transform value creation and value networks in different industries

- The strategies of commercial and public media providers facing the competition from global superplayers

- Streaming media and national and/or regional media policy (e.g. efforts to sustain media diversity; requirements for a certain percentage share of local content)

- To what extent and how streaming impacts content creation

- How specific genres are impacted by streaming

- How audiences/users appropriate and make sense of streaming media, or how streaming media have consequences for what content people choose to consume

- The consequences of algorithms and/or personalization of content (from a service provider perspective; from a content creator perspective; from an interface perspective; from a media user perspective)

- Methodological reflections and discussions about how we should study streaming

- Comparative studies of streaming from different industries (e.g. comparing gaming platforms with music platforms)

- Studies with different data sources on streaming (e.g. comparing insights about users with insights about a particular media industry)

- Transnational studies of streaming

- The promotion and branding of streaming services and content (e.g. trailers, adverts, etc.)

Please submit an extended abstract of approximately 1000 words (including references) by 15th of October on MedieKultur’s website: https://tidsskrift.dk/mediekultur

Authors will be notified of their acceptance by the end of October. The deadline for submission of full papers is 1st of January 2021.

Articles that are accepted for further process by the editors will go into peer-review in January and February 2021. We expect to have decisions on manuscripts and potential further revisions by March. We expect to publish this special issue by Summer 2021.

Guest editors for this special issue: Mads Møller Tommerup Andersen (Aarhus University) and Marika Lüders (University of Oslo).

Deadline: August 10, 2020

Full name / name of organization: Łukasz Muniowski

Contact email: lukasz.muniowski@gmail.com

Abstracts are sought for a peer-reviewed collection of philosophical essays related to the Naughty Dog action-adventure video game series Uncharted (2007-2017). The essays should refer to the games that are considered the canon of the series: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. As the production of the movie adaptation of the game has been once again put on hold, and it seems that Naughty Dog will not develop new entries in the series in the foreseeable future, a book of essays seems rather timely.

Uncharted was a groundbreaking series, which combined great characters, spectacular visuals, engaging puzzles, and captivating storylines to create a movie-like experience unlike that of any video game before it. At first, the game was dubbed “Dude Raider” – and indeed, it made its main character go to exotic locations, look for mythical treasures, and embark on other adventures reminiscent of Tomb Raider. In no time, however, Uncharted’s Nathan Drake was able to create identity dissimilar to that of Lara Croft. The character was portrayed as an everyman: he looked rather unimposing, yet was extremely smart, strong, and had an excellent aim. This dissonance created inevitable frictions between his likable persona presented in the cutscenes and in the game itself, as in the course of gameplay he shot multiple NPCs with no remorse.

All the games in the series followed a three-act structure similar to that of classic Hollywood movies, and at times, they were like interactive movies themselves. In a sense, they were the video game equivalent of the summer blockbuster genre. Throughout the years, the developers created numerous memorable sequences, such as the bar fight in Uncharted 4, the plane catastrophe in Uncharted 3, or the train derailment in Uncharted 2.

The series was already analyzed academically in regard to its violence, narrative, and gender representations. While these issues are worthy of further exploration, the game can also be discussed in the context of ideas such as: determinism, randomness, exploitation, orientalism, racism, tourism, civilization, continuity, consequences, war, addiction, white privilege, categorical imperative, or egotism.

Below are some quotes and questions for you to consider:

• “Greatness from small beginnings” – is Drake’s social/economic/familial background to blame for his obsessive personality?
• “It’s like a camera, you just point and shoot, right?” – why does the violence in the game come so frequently from unlikely characters?
• “This is like trying to find a bride in a brothel” – can the series be regarded as sexist, or did its approach towards female characters change with time?
• “Everything you touch does turn to shit” – how much oppression and damage does Drake actually cause (especially in the developing countries he frequently rampages through during his escapades)?
• “You think that I am a monster, but you’re no different” – are the villains in the series significant? How are they different from its protagonists in terms of violence and chaos they create?
• “You should play the hero more often. Suits you” – could Chloe turn into the true hero of the series in the future?

“You two can hold hands though” – how accurately does the game depict local customs and traditions? Does it exoticize and exploit them or represent them with respect and attention to detail?
“He would go to the ends of the world with you Nate” – is forming real-life bonds with NPCs possible?
“Why Nate? Why this obsession?” – the importance of Francis Drake for the story of the game
“Hey, are you happy?” – relationships, friendship, and family life in the series
“I don’t know why people get into video games” – do we really need an Uncharted movie?

• “Same to you, cowboy” – how does Drake correspond with the cowboy archetype?
• “A parasite who exploits our struggle in order to fatten her pockets” – how much of what the Uncharted’s heroes do is morally questionable?
• “Nice work, partner” – what does the series teach us about cooperation?

Please submit abstracts of about 300 words with brief bios to: unchartedessays@gmail.com

Abstracts due: August 10th, 2020

Notification of accepted abstracts: August 15th, 2020

First draft of papers due: November 30th, 2020.

Final papers: 6,000 – 8,000 words

Łukasz Muniowski – holds a PhD in American Literature from the University of Warsaw, Poland. Co-editor of the collection of essays on the Altered Carbon Netflix series (Sex, Death and Resurrection in Altered Carbon, McFarland, 2020).

Kamil Chrzczonowicz –doctoral student at the Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland.His academic interests include humor theory, history of American satire, and digital humanities.