ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

The symposium has now been rescheduled for 28-29 September, 2020.

Centre for Media & Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, Netherlands

Deadline: POSTPONED

Check: https://www.rug.nl/research/icog/news/2020-02-24-cfp-political-journalism-and-impact-of-the-market

Confirmed speakers include: Marcel Broersma, Martin Conboy, Sophie Knowles , Victor Pickard, Helle Sjøvaag

Organizer: Chrysi Dagoula

Aims of the symposium

This symposium aims to examine the effects of the market on political journalism in democratic societies in Europe, covering various national contexts with different political and financial circumstances. The measures of austerity that have been imposed either directly or indirectly on various economies in Europe and subsequently on political journalism are at the very core of what the symposium seeks to explore, as it aims to examine the effect of these policies on key areas, such as media business models, working conditions, new regulations, and perceptions of journalistic identity.

The symposium poses the question of whether the current challenges are a result of the digitization and the inclusion of a variety of platforms in the media ecology, that directly affected the economic media models across Europe, or whether these challenges reflect established market mechanisms.

Due to financial, political and technological reasons, journalism is undergoing a continuous process of redefining itself. At the same time, journalism continues to be regarded as an integral part of modern democratic societies, but also as a major historical force that contributes to important ways to so-called “epistemological politics”, according to which the politics of what we know and how we act as citizens is linked to the politics of how we know.

Main themes

Drawing on this perception of journalism and by taking into account factors both external (such as political instability) and internal to the media, as well as the fact that current media environments are characterized by a multiplicity of networks and arenas where a plethora of actors constantly act, react and interact, the symposium will focus on:

• What definitions of market logic(s) are currently being used and developed?
• How can the manifestations of market logic(s) be understood through specific neoliberal policies, austerity measures, and memoranda regulations?
• In what stages or areas of journalistic processes does market logic(s) have the most significant effect?
• What are the opportunities and challenges for political journalism presently?
• To what extent does market logic(s) allow journalists to perform their democratic role, and what is the overall effect of market logic(s) on the relationship between journalism and democracy?

Confirmed speakers

Confirmed speakers include:

• Marcel Broersma, Professor of Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen
• Martin Conboy, Professor of Journalism History, The University of Sheffield
• Sophie Knowles , Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Middlesex University
• Victor Pickard, Associate Professor of Communication, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
• Helle Sjøvaag, Professor, Media and Social Sciences, University of Stavanger

Contact

The symposium welcomes theoretical discussions as well as methodological contributions that enhance the understanding of the effect of financial policies on political journalism, as well as the variations of this effect in a cross-national setting. For informal inquiries or for further information, please contact the organiser, Dr Chrysi Dagoula at c.dagoula@rug.nl

Send your abstracts (300 words max) at c.dagoula@rug.nl (Chrysi Dagoula)

VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture

Deadline: June 1, 2020

VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture is currently open for proposals for its next special issue on Race and Europe’s TV Histories, set to be published in fall 2021.

Co-edited by Aniko Imre and Sudeep Dasgupta, this special issue will begin the work of documenting and understanding the many ways in which television has both perpetuated and critically interrogated racialized regimes in Europe and in European countries’ ongoing relationships to their postcolonial geopolitical spheres. With this framework in mind, we welcome proposals that explore how postwar television in Europe has naturalized, confirmed and challenged racial categories and racialized relations in the course of the medium’s history, including its extended, postcolonial dimensions.

Those contributors engaging with issues of nation, region, ethnicity and culture are encouraged to situate/emphasize/explore the relation with race in their proposals.

Possible directions include:

• Representing racialized histories and racial encounters in European broadcasting
• The normalization of whiteness in and on European TV
• Race in fictional and current affairs programming
• Reality TV/ documentary programming’s engagement with multiculturalism and race
• TV’s migration crisis
• Sports programming and race
• Race and multiculturalism in the history of advertising
• Race and/in comedy
• East-West (Europe) differences in TV’s approaches to race
• The impact of American engagements with race and diversity in European TV
• Romani (on) TV
• Race, TV and the “War on Terror”
• Race, fake news, propaganda
• Race and nationalism in national broadcasting
• Streaming, quality drama and the localization of racial categories
• TV and the Holocaust
• Intersectional approaches to race
• Racialized reception histories
• Race and labor in the TV industries
• Racial policies: public broadcasting, EU policies
• Color-blind casting
• News anchors as representatives of racialized publics
• The roles of film stock and video technologies in representing people of color
• Meghan and Harry

Contributions are encouraged from authors with different kinds of expertise and interests in media studies, television and media history.

You can submit your article proposal (max. 500 words) by June 1st, 2020 and should be sent to the managing editor through e-mail: journal@euscreen.eu All articles will be peer-reviewed.

Visit our website for more information https://viewjournal.eu/announcement/

VIEW is an open-access e-journal dedicated to sharing research on European Television History and Culture. VIEW is supported by the EUscreen Network and published by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in collaboration with Utrecht University, Royal Holloway University of London, and the University of Luxembourg.

Montse Morcate y Rebeca Pardo (Ed.)

ISBN:978-84-120097-4-3

THE UNVEILED IMAGE. Photographic practices in illness, death and grief is a book published in Spanish with international collaborations by experts as Tony Walter, Stanley B. Burns, Elizabeth A. Burns, Jason L. Burns, Susana de Noronha, Pelin Aytemiz, Jorge Moreno Andrés, Carmen Ortiz García, Montse Morcate and Rebeca Pardo.

Illness, death and grief have been very present in photography since the birth of the medium. Nevertheless, these images have generated different responses over time, ranging between acceptance and rejection, depending on the historical and cultural context. The appearance of the digital image and the Internet, as well as new ways of understanding the processes of mourning/grief, dying and the illness narratives, have led to a resurgence of these images, their social uses and their meaning.

This book provides insights into one of the most exciting and unknown areas of photography through an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural analysis of these practices that are often reviled and hidden.

Montse Morcate is a Lecturer in Photography in the Department of Visual Arts, Arts Faculty, University of Barcelona, Spain. Her research focuses on photography, grief and death.

Rebeca Pardo is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Audiovisual Communication, Communication Faculty, International University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain. She is the Principal Investigator of the research project (2019-2021) Visibilizing pain: illness visual narratives and storytelling transmedia. Her research focuses on visual representation of illness, death and anticipatory grief.

Purchase here: https://www.sanssoleil.es/tienda/la-imagen-desvelada-practicas-fotograficas-en-la-enfermedad-la-muerte-y-el-duelo-montse-morcate-y-rebeca-pardo-ed/

Social Movement Studies

Deadline: May 30, 2020

Guest editors:

• Stefania Milan, DATACTIVE, Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, s.milan@uva.nl
• Davide Beraldo, DATACTIVE, Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, beraldo@uva.nl

Datafication is changing the conditions under which contemporary social movements operate, opening up new terrains of contention. As a result, grassroots initiatives in the realm of data activism, data justice, algorithmic accountability and/or resistance to mass surveillance mushrooms in liberal and authoritarian regimes alike. These initiatives vary by scale, organizational forms, tactics, political visions and technological imaginaries. They may take data “as repertoires”, whereby data and data-based tactics are mobilized as constituents of innovative tactics, or “as stakes”, that is to say issues or objects of political struggle in their own right. However, they share an emphasis on the contentious politics of data.

While many instances of the contentious politics of data have come under the spotlight of specialists of digital politics and culture, social movement scholars are only starting to investigate the consequences of datafication on organized collective action. Yet datafication represents a paradigm change able to radically transform “social movement society”, urging social movements scholars to reflect on how it intersects with known social movement dynamics.

This Special Issue invites scholars of social movements and critical data studies to engage with i) case studies and ii) theoretical reflections illustrating the evolution of collective action vis-à-vis datafication. We are particularly interested in (interdisciplinary) theory development: fostering a dialogue across disciplinary boundaries, the Special Issue wants to bring the question of datafication -broadly defined -to bear on social movement scholarship, with the ambition of addressing what has been to date a “blind spot” in social movement literature, and cross-fertilizing disciplinary fields that have long remained disconnected.

Consequently, we welcome papers (max 8,000 words) engaging with the following:

Unfamiliar empirical cases of: social movements’ critical engagement with the datafication agenda (e.g., Hong Kong activists dismantling lamp posts with surveillance cameras); creative incorporation of data-based practices and tactics in social movements’ repertoires (e.g., citizen-led collection of pollution data); social movements engaging in struggles around data issues (e.g., algorithmic accountability); examples of conflation between data as constituents of action repertoires and data as a contentious issue in its own right.

Theoretical perspectives on, for instance, data activism, data justice, artificial intelligence, the relation between protest and social structures in the age of datafication, etc. as they intersect social movements and collective action processes, concepts, and research questions.

Theoretical contributions on, e.g., the relation between data and the means-ends continuum in social movements, oriented to theory development in the field of social movement studies.

Looking to Publish your Research?

We aim to make publishing with Taylor & Francis a rewarding experience for all our authors. Please visit our Author Services website for more information and guidance, and do contact us if there is anything we can help with!

Submission Instructions

Interested authors should submit an abstract to Bukola Faturoti (b.faturoti@herts.ac.uk), no later than 30th May 2020. The Guest Editor is also available for discussion via email. Authors will be notified of the acceptance of their abstract no later than 15th June 2020.

The submissions deadline is 1st November 2020. All submissions will be subject to double-blind peer-review. Articles of up to 10,000 words (inclusive of footnotes) will be considered.

Deadline for final submission of papers is 3rd January 2021.

Brock University

Apply here: https://brocku.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/brocku_careers/job/St-Catharines-Main-Campus/Assistant-Professor--Business---Media-Communication_JR-1005212

This position is part of the BUFA (Employee Group)

Careers are Built at Brock.

As a Top Employer in Hamilton-Niagara, Brock University offers unique opportunities in leadership, teaching, research, student support services, and administration. We have a history of developing the strength and career potential of our employees.

We are on the cusp of something new and exciting. We are launching into our next 50 years and are looking for people with passion, energy, and a strong desire to help our students achieve their goals.

Experience Brock, experience success.

Experience the Benefits of Working at Brock.

Learning and career development are natural elements of an academic environment. At Brock, career development is ingrained in our culture. On average, 45- 60% of our staff position hires are a result of internal movement**. Our Senior Leadership, Staff, and Faculty help drive our collaborative culture. Learn more about how our employees feel about their employment experience at Brock University by visiting http://www.brocku.ca/careers/testmonials.

** 2016 metrics

Post End Date:

Note to all candidates: This posting will close at 12:01 am on the date listed .

April 6, 2020

About the position

The Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film at Brock University invites applications for a full time tenure track position in Media and Communication Studies at the rank of Assistant Professor to begin July 1, 2020. This position is subject to final budgetary approval.

The Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film offers four interdisciplinary undergraduate programs. Two of these programs — Business Communication and Media & Communication — are home to 650 majors. The BA in Business Communication is offered in collaboration with the Goodman School of Business.

Qualifications

The successful candidate must have a PhD in communication, media studies, business, or a related discipline and a strong record of research and teaching that addresses digital technologies and practices at the intersection of business communication and media industries. Expertise in the areas of digital platforms and media analytics is of particular interest. Experience with online, blended, and applied/experiential pedagogy would be an asset.

Notes

Review of applications will begin March 31, 2020. Applications should be submitted electronically and include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, and teaching dossier (relevant course outlines, evaluations, and a statement of teaching philosophy).

Two confidential letters of reference should be sent via email to:

Dr. Dale Bradley, Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film, Brock University

dbradley@brocku.ca

About Brock University

The Brock University experience is second to none in Canada. Located in historic Niagara region, Brock offers all the benefits of a young and modern university in a safe, community-minded city, with beautiful natural surroundings. With over 18,000 students and more than 100 undergraduate and graduate programs in seven diverse Faculties, Brock excels at providing exceptional experiential learning opportunities and highly rated student and campus life experiences.

Our Geography

Brock University’s main campus is situated atop the Niagara Escarpment, within a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, overlooking the city of St. Catharines, in the heart of Niagara wine country. The Niagara region is dotted with landmarks that recognize our nation’s history and features breathtaking natural beauty and world-famous attractions. St. Catharines is home to vibrant arts and entertainment venues, and is a short drive from Toronto, Niagara Falls, and Buffalo, New York. With one of the warmest climates in Canada, clean, safe communities, and surprisingly affordable real estate, Niagara is an exceptional location to call home.

What we Offer

Brock University offers competitive salary and benefits and ample support for research and sabbaticals. Research resources include; conference support, start-up funding, subscriptions to major databases and access to various research funding vehicles. For candidates considering relocation, moving expenses will be administered according to the Faculty Association Collective Agreement.

Brock University is actively committed to diversity and the principles of employment equity and invites applications from all qualified candidates. Women, Aboriginal peoples, members of visible minorities, people with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) persons are encouraged to apply and to voluntarily self-identify as a member of a designated group as part of their application. Candidates who wish to be considered as a member of one or more designated groups can fill out the Self-Identification questions included in the questionnaire at the time of application.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority.

We will accommodate the needs of the applicants and the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) throughout all stages of the selection process, as outlined in the Employee Accommodation Policy https://brocku.ca/policies/wp-content/uploads/sites/94/Employment-Accommodation-Policy.pdf.

Please advise:

Ali Rilstone, Talent Acquisition Consultant, arilstone@brocku.ca to ensure your accessibility needs are accommodated through this process. Information received relating to accommodation measures will be addressed confidentially.

It is Brock University’s policy to give consideration to qualified internal applicants.

We appreciate all applications received; however, only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

Learn more about Brock University by visiting www.brocku.ca

Laval University

Chair in Science Journalism

Deadline: April 15, 2020

Number: 6877

Workplace: Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Department of Information and Communication,

General information

The Department of Information and Communication of the Faculty of Letters and Humanities at Laval University invites applications for a tenure-track professorship position which includes directing its Chair in science journalism.

Job Description

• Teach at BSc, MSc, and PhD levels;
• Assume leadership of the Chair in science journalism and implement its research and training agenda focusing at the science/media interface;
• Secure the Chair’s role as catalyst in the re-interpretation of the shared challenges facing scientists and journalists in the ongoing mediascape through identification of the best emerging practices, including through its own research laboratory;
• Participate in the governance and administration of the Department and of the Faculty of Letters and Humanities.

Priorities of the Chair in Science Journalism of Laval University

The Chairholder will need to focus on and develop one or several of the three following research themes:

• Journalism and communication related to science-driven societal issues: role of the media in the coverage of societal issues that involve science, particularly conflicting science, and in the curation of public debates relating to the environment and climate, public health, big data, privacy and surveillance, artificial intelligence, automation and robots, transhumanism, etc.);
• Interplay of the respective legitimacy of journalism and science in the public sphere: intellectual authority in the public sphere of journalistic and scientific actors as pertaining to credibility, veracity, and authority in matters of information and knowledge;
• Professional and discursive practices in science issues: analysis and evaluation of journalistic and scientific discourse and postures in public debates. Development of innovative editorial strategies and journalistic practices as well as communication strategies appropriate to the ongoing contemporary flow of information.

Selection criterias

• PhD or PhD near completion in communication or related domain.
• Specialization in the public communication of science.
• Specialization in the study of media and the public sphere.

Additional information

Career interruptions

In accordance with its commitment to diversity and equity, Laval University acknowledges that career interruptions like parental leave, extended sick leave, care of a family member, gender transition as well as a handicap situation or other unplanned circumstances can affect productivity and research undertakings, volunteer work, and social commitments.

Candidates are therefore invited to state, where appropriate, such situations as well as evaluate their impact on their career track since the obtention of their PhD, in order that it be accounted for in the evaluation of their candidacy.

As well, adaptation measures can be offered to persons in handicap situations regarding their special needs in the context of this position offer, in complete confidentiality. If you require such adaptation measures, you are welcome to contact the equity personnel of the Faculty of Letters and Humanities: RH@flsh.ulaval.ca (attention: Mr. Nicolas Diotte).

Teaching language requirement

Courses at Laval University are taught in French. The University offers support to its professors to achieve a functional command of spoken and written French.

Candidature

Application must be written in French and formatted as a PDF document, including:

• a cover letter of introduction;
• an up to date CV referencing three to five significant publications;
• a research program outline (six pages maximum, bibliography excluded), with a vision statement outlining structural effects of the Chair at the scale of the Department and University; and
• three letters of recommendation (sent by the respondents directly to direction@com.ulaval.ca).

More information on the Chair can be found at: https://www.cjs.ulaval.ca/

More information on the Information and Communication Department at: http://www.com.ulaval.ca

Applications should reach the Director of the Information and Communication Department, Dr. Thierry Belleguic (direction@com.ulaval.ca) at the latest on April 15th, 2020, 13:00 (Eastern Standard Time Canada).

Starting date: July 1st, 2020.

Valuing equity, diversity and excellence, Université Laval is strongly committed to provide an inclusive work and living environment for all its employees. For Université Laval, diversity is a source of wealth, and we encourage qualified individuals of all origins, sexes, sexual orientations, gender identities or expressions, as well as persons with disabilities, to apply.

Université Laval also subscribes to an equal access to employment program for women, members of visible or ethnic minorities, Aboriginal persons and persons with disabilities. Adaptation of the selection tools can be offered to persons with disabilities according to their needs and in complete confidentiality. In accordance with Canadian immigration requirements, priority will be given to qualified individuals with Canadian citizenship or permanent residency.

Deadline: April 1, 2020

Edited Collection by Stephanie Patrick and Mythili Rajiva

Publisher: TBD

Since the explosion of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements in late 2017, gendered and sexual violence have never been more visible, discussed, and debated in Western culture. While a survey of recent television and film texts might demonstrate a related shift in how some stories of sexual violence are told, these texts do not necessarily represent a shift in the power structures of media production, the demographics of those telling such stories, or even a more nuanced understanding of rape and rape culture (Byrne & Toddeo, 2019; Jermyn, 2017; Pinedo, 2019).

As Sarah Projansky so powerfully argued in her classic text /Watching Rape /(2001), the media is a site in which ideas about sexual violence are not only reflected but, also, socially and culturally constructed. The recent growth in feminist scholarship on sexual and gendered violence in the media (Boyle, 2019; Clarke, 2014; Horeck, 2018; Joy, 2019; Magestro, 2015; Oliver, 2016; Phillips, 2016) points to a growing understanding of the relationship between rape culture and culture more broadly. However, such an understanding seems to have little effect on the amount of dead or raped girls showing up on our screens. In fact, the trope of the victimized young woman is more popular than ever, mobilized in a range of contemporary, “post-television” texts spanning a variety of genres, including shows such as /Game of Thrones/,/Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt/, /You/, /The Fall/, /Thirteen Reasons Why/, /Unbelievable/,/Outlander/, and /The Handmaid’s Tale/.

Furthermore, while these shows may represent a more diverse view of gendered violence in Western popular culture, they are still centered on the victimization of white, middle class, able-bodied, heteronormative women. Feminist media scholarship has, thus far, reflected this preoccupation, demonstrating few extended engagements with representations of gendered and sexual violence against women who are at the margins of Western society (notable exceptions include Moorti, 2001, Abdurraqib, 2017, Millward, Dodd, and Fubara-Manuel, 2017).

The following edited collection seeks to fill this gap by examining representations of violence against girls or women that are currently missing from the conversation. This collection will work the margins for those subjects whose victimization is forgotten or erased in mainstream representations of and/or scholarship about sexual and gendered violence.

Topics for chapters can include (but are not limited to):

• Representations of sexual and gendered violence against girls or women who are not white, able-bodied, cis-gendered, or heteronormative; for example, LGBTQ+ people, racialized women, disabled women, poor or working class women, immigrant women, Indigenous women
• Analysis of the ways that white femininity operates in texts to sideline racialized women’s experiences. How are such representations mobilized post-#MeToo – a phrase that often invokes the victimization of white (and famous) women, while erasing the victimization of women of colour (and the work of activist Tarana Burke, who coined the phrase in 2006 ) (Garcia, 2017)?
• Depictions of violence against women outside the traditional noir and crime genres (in sketch/comedy, sitcoms, fantasy, historical, reality television, teen drama, etc.)
• The politics of sexual violence on Reality TV shows
• Depictions of violence against sex workers
• Production/economic analyses of representations of violence against women
• Representations of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements (particularly in fictionalized formats)
• Sexual violence against celebrities that are not white, heteronormative, able-bodied women.
• “Post-truth” or “threshold” texts that “radically destabilize incommensurable political stances such as feminism/misogyny” (Rajiva and Patrick, 2019)
• Audience reactions to consuming such imagery (particularly audiences and fandoms beyond white, cis/straight girls and women)

Instructions for Submission:

Please submit an abstract (maximum 300 words) along with a title, author bio(s), and keywords (up to five) via email to Stephanie Patrick at spatr045@uottawa.ca by April 1 , 2020.

Authors will be notified of their selection by May 1^st , 2020 and, once chapters have been selected, a press will be solicited.

University Leipzig

Within an internationally renowned team, we are looking to hire a Postdoc to harness the possibilities afforded by AI to help local journalism. While applying, you may choose to be based at LMU Munich (with Neil Thurman), the University of Amsterdam (with Natali Helberger), the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (with Wouter van Atteveldt), or Leipzig University (with Mario Haim).

Journalism is going through challenging times, with the decline of trust in institutional journalism, the competitive pressure of free online news, and the emergence of decentralized gate-keeping through social media and news aggregators. Journalism has adapted to the digital ecosystem, where algorithms and AI direct audience traffic and help determine revenue, with differing degrees of success. Large, national news companies, such as The Guardian and The New York Times, have been able to adapt, and leverage technology to reach a global audience. For local (and regional) news providers it has been much more difficult to remain innovative and sustainable because of the inherently limited local market and a lack of resources. Moreover, many of the innovations powering the modern news ecosystem, such as automatic curation and news algorithms for personalized news delivery, are fuelling concerns about filter bubbles and polarization.

This postdoc position is part of a project to harness the possibilities afforded by AI to help local journalism cope with these challenges, while taking the journalistic norms and values that are central to its role in democratic societies as a central design principle. The project is an interdisciplinary, international cooperation between Professor Neil Thurman (LMU Munich), a renowned expert on the adoption and implications of computational journalism; Professor Helle Sjovaag (U of Stavanger), an expert on journalism and the media industry; Professor Natali Helberger (U of Amsterdam) an expert on media law and value sensitive design; Junior Professor Mario Haim (U of Leipzig), an expert in communication science and computational journalism; Dr Antske Fokkens (VU Amsterdam) an associate professor of computational linguistics; and Dr Wouter van Atteveldt, (VU Amsterdam) an associate professor of communication science and computational communication science.

Together with this team of PIs, the tasks of the postdoc will be to:

• Help identify the most promising applications of AI in the local journalistic process, in cooperation with a local journalism organization.
• Map the use of AI in journalism, with a focus on local journalism.
• Help preparing a funding application.
• Help preparing a journal publication in a high ranking academic journal.
• Depending on the successful candidate’s preference, the post can be based at: LMU Munich (with Neil Thurman), the University of Amsterdam (with Natali Helberger), the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (with Wouter van Atteveldt), or Leipzig University (with Mario Haim).

The successful candidate will have:

• A degree and/or PhD in journalism, media studies, human-computer interaction, or other related discipline.
• Strong affinity with the subject matter.
• Some experience with ethnographic and qualitative research methods.
• Preferably: some experience of drafting funding applications.
• Good communication and writing skills.
• Good organization skills.
• Enthusiasm for, and ideally experience of, working in a highly interdisciplinary (computer science, journalism studies, communication science, and law) and international setting.
• Fluency in English, and preferably another European language (German, Dutch, Norwegian).
• Ability to work independently and yet be a team player.

Note: the position may involve travelling.

Full-time, fixed term (12 months) position based at LMU Munich, the University of Amsterdam, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam or Leipzig University. Starting October 2020. If based at LMU Munich or Leipzig University salary scale E 13 TV-L (€3837 - €5622 per month depending on experience). If based at the University of Amsterdam or Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam salary scale 10-11 (€2709 - €4911 depending on experience). Schwerbehinderte Personen werden bei ansonsten im Wesentlichen gleicher Eignung bevorzugt.

Your application (in English only) should include:

• a motivation letter (including whether you would want to be based at LMU Munich, the University of Amsterdam, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam or Leipzig University)
• your CV with publication list
• the names and contact details of two references
• copy of degree certificates
• transcript of grades

Please also include a link to sole or first authored publication/s and your Master’s or PhD thesis. Complete applications should be submitted as a single PDF document to: ai-in-local-journalism@haim.it by 15 May 2020.

In case of questions, please contact Jun.-Prof. Dr. Mario Haim.

June 3-5, 2021

Paris 3 - Sorbonne nouvelle

Deadline: September 30, 2020

This is the first conference ever organized on the theme of Artificial Intelligence in fiction (literature, series, films, comics, video games): the focus will be on representations of AI and their meanings, as well as the creative uses of AI to produce and understand fiction.

A road trip entirely written by an artificial intelligence embedded in a car, Ross Goodwin's /1 the road/ has joined at the start of the 2019 literary season a whole series of texts whose common point was to stage and act out a dream of automation and artificialization of literary language, whose genealogy goes back at least to the first automatic writings of Oulipo: artificial intelligence is no longer just a fiction but a tool for producing fiction. Hito Steyerl revisits the narrative power of documentary film using deep learning algorithms to better question its ability to shape reality; /Second Earth /by Gregory Chatonsky takes us into a new world whose automatically generated images already tell the story, while by associating two images to a logical connector he shows the power of an algorithm to create a small story (/If... then/, 2009).

Embodied in figures, familiar, AI now offers incarnations that cannot be resolved on the apocalyptic horizon of robots waiting for the hour of singularity to triumph over the human species. AI is no longer just the object of a fantasy but is gradually becoming an everyday tool through facial recognition or personal assistants, while the first tools of predictive writing and cultural recommendation are emerging and it is announced that a story produced by an artificial intelligence would have been a finalist for a literary prize in Japan. We already knew the very rich mythology of AI in cinema, from 2001's /Odyssey of Space to Spielberg's /A.I. Artificial Intelligence/, via /Terminator /or /Her/: each time, the political, ethical and social stakes of AI open up avenues for deep critical reflection and question the most essential

philosophical categories by which we think about mankind and our place

in the world. But AI is now taking on a concrete presence.

/Databiographie /by Charly Delwart proposes to retrace a destiny based on digital data and their visualisations; /Le_zéro_et_le_un.txt /by Josselin Bordat tries to stage an artificial intelligence in the process of awakening to the world, /Kétamine /by Zoé Sagan sets a scene of a "predictive" journalist centred on data: never have we been so close to artificial agents that are integrated into our lives.

Moving from fantasy to computer tools, the fictional representations of AI are thus added to the fictional representations of the emerging uses of narrative AI by opening up a field of opportunity and fear for culture: on the one hand, creation by AI or assisted by AI can offer a major experimental field of interest to both conceptual writers and storytelling practitioners.

On the other hand, the way in which culture is "dated" and the way in which these dates are analyzed can profoundly affect the fiction industry and its attention control, further multiplying our perplexity about the emergence of artificial narrative intelligence.

Contributors are invited to consider one or other of these topics:

• examples of fictions produced by AI: tools, projects, applications, games;
• the computer methods used: GAN, machine learning, deep learning;
• AI's fiction: robots, cyborgs, computers;
• the themes of post-humanism, singularity, utopias and dystopias of AI;
• the cultural history of representations of AI and its inventors (Alan Turing for example);
• criticism produced by AI: audience analysis, scenario analysis, cultural recommendation algorithms;
• the analysis of fiction by AI methods in the field of Digital Humanities;
• the legal problems induced by creation: law, data sharing, tax system;
• the narrative aesthetics of AI, the link with conceptual art and performance literature;
• the transformation of theoretical categories by AI and the modification of the vocabulary of criticism and aesthetic philosophy, from the notion of narration to that of literature;
• the representation of psychological, ethical and political problems induced by AI, from Asimov's three laws of robotics to /Westworld/;
• the philosophical dimension of fictional reflection on AI: the problem of freedom, consciousness, agentivity, autonomy;
• - AI as a way of questioning the question of minorities, the topic of vulnerability, the frontiers of the human, the frontier of gender, the frontier of species.

The conference will take place at the Maison de la recherche of the University of Paris 3 - Sorbonne nouvelle, Maison de la recherche, 3 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris, from 3 to 5 June 2021.

Proposals in English or French (1 page + 1 short bio-bibliography) should be sent to ia.fiction.2021@gmail.com before 30 September 2020

Conference organized by Alexandre Gefen ((CNRS/Paris 3) with Marida di Crosta (Marge, Université de Lyon III), Ksenia Ermoshina (CNRS, Centre Internet et Société), Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel (University of Geneva), Léa-Saint-Raymond (ENS).

Abstract submission deadline: April 15, 2020

Full chapters due: October 15, 2020

Editors: Ehab Galal, Mostafa Shehata and Claus Valling Pedersen

The pace of immigration from the Middle East has accelerated over the past decade, and for many reasons. The most notable of these is the political instability triggered by the failure of the 2011 Arab uprisings. The region has also seen significant political transformations in addition to these pivotal uprisings, such as the 2009 Iranian Green revolution, the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, and the continuing Kurdish and Palestinian struggles for independence.

2019 presents the rebirth of Arab uprisings in some other countries (Sudan, Algeria, Lebanon and Iraq), and the acceleration of political and economic oppression in others. There are many Iranian towns which are experiencing new waves of demonstrations, and, in Turkey, new laws have been passed to stabilise the regime after the coup d'état attempt. The possibility of yet another rise in immigration to Western countries and elsewhere has therefore increased, adding to the importance of diasporic communities. Based on this premise, we invite researchers to examine the role and influence of Middle Eastern diasporic communities on the political developments in their countries of heritage and of residence.

These diasporic communities, in light of post-uprising authoritarianism, have acted as opposition groups which seek to support a democratic transition in their countries of heritage. The role of digital media has consequently been with their countries of heritage and of residence. The political role of digital media in the Middle Eastern diaspora, however, has become increasingly ambivalent. Contesting the authoritarian rule of Middle East countries, on the one hand, and the rise of fake news, misinformation, and digital authoritarianism on the other, has had an impact on the oppositional role of digital media.

The impending new decade presents the need for an empirical-based theorisation of how political communication works in diaspora, and its influence on transnational mobilisation has become more urgent. The importance of this work increases in light of four significant considerations:

(i) The change of digital media’s political role within the last few years, compared to its intense role in the early 2010s.

(ii) The rise of new voices calling for democracy in the Middle East in the so-called second wave of the Arab uprisings.

(iii) The lack of holistic works that theorise political communication in diaspora, and its transnational influence. The diaspora has mainly been investigated from an inter-cultural communication perspective, focusing on globalisation, hybridity, integration, belonging, and so on. An embodied political communication perspective has, however, been disregarded. This perspective would be unique if followed, to handle the diaspora’s transnational political participation, contentious politics, political campaigns, voting behaviour, and so on.

(iv) The transformations of global immigration policies that have led to a conflict between pro-and-anti-immigration positions.

We invite authors to suggest chapters for two kinds of contributions:

• Theoretical chapters addressing one or more of the following concepts: Mediatisation, Diaspora, Multimodality, Contentious Action Formation, and how each of these concepts relates to political communication among (Middle East) diasporas.
• Empirically-based chapters that examine one or more Middle East diasporas, and how these diasporas use traditional and (or) digital media to politically mobilise and transnationally connect.

Research questions

This book asks fundamental and critical questions about media (both traditional and new) and politics in the diaspora, such as:

• What is diasporic political communication?
• How political communication comes closer with intercultural communication and organisational communication in the diaspora?
• What is the role of media technology in diaspora’s contentious politics?
• How do media politically disconnect or re-connect users to their countries of heritage?
• How do media shape a diasporic political identity?
• How do misinformation and digital authoritarianism affect the political role of diaspora?
• How might digital media change the collective identity of diasporic communities?
• How do media facilitate connection with their countries of heritage and of residence?
• How do diasporic media activities empower or disempower democratic actors residing in the Middle East?
• How do media facilitate the diaspora’s participation in the politics of the country of residence?
• How do diasporic communities contribute to their countries of heritage during a crisis?
• Why are diasporic communities interested in matters of their countries of heritage, regardless of whether they have or have not lived in or visited those countries (second and subsequent generations)?

Topics

Contributions include but are not limited to the following topics:

• Conceptualising diasporic political communication.
• Political communication in relation to inter-cultural and organisational communication in diaspora.
• Media and diasporic empowerment.
• Media and diasporic contentious actions.
• Media and diasporic political identity.
• Media and integration into the country of residence, and sense of belonging to their country of heritage.
• Transnational digital authoritarianism.

Format

This edited book will be a combination of invited contributions and chapters from this open call.

The book will be published, subject to peer reviews with no author fees.

TIMETABLE

• 15 April 2020: Deadline for abstracts (approx. 500 words).
• 1 May 2020: Editors’ response to abstracts.
• 15 October 2020: Deadline for full chapters (8,000 words).
• 15 December 2020: Authors receive reviews.
• 15 January 2021: Deadline for revised chapters.
• Summer 2021: Publication of edited book.

MORE INFORMATION & CONTACT DETAILS

Please send your abstract of approx. 500 words to this email: mediasp@hum.ku.dk by 15 April 2020.

Book editors

1. Dr. Ehab Galal

Ehab is an Associate Professor at the department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Copenhagen University. He has approached research questions from a cross-disciplinary perspective inspired by media as well as ethnographic, cultural, and religious studies. He has been leading a research team working on a project (Mediatised Diaspora) since 2018. This research investigates transnational media and contentious politics among the Arab diaspora in Europe. For more information about Ehab, please follow this link: https://ccrs.ku.dk/staff/?pure=en/persons/164164

2. Dr. Mostafa Shehata

Mostafa is an Associate Researcher with the University of Copenhagen, and an Assistant Professor at Menoufia University. He holds both a Master’s and Ph.D. degree in mass communication. His research addresses a broad spectrum of issues in political communication and diaspora, such as contentious politics, collective action and mediatisation. His current research within the project of Mediatised Diaspora focuses on the transnational media and contentious politics among Tunisians in Europe. For more information about Mostafa, please follow this link: https://ccrs.ku.dk/staff/?pure=en/persons/644713

3. Dr. Claus Valling Pedersen

Claus is an Associate Professor in Persian Studies at the department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Copenhagen University. He specialises in Persian language and literature. Claus is currently conducting research on literature written by the Iranian diaspora in Europe and the U.S. The literature is written in both Persian and the language of the country of residence. For more information about Claus, please follow this link: https://ccrs.ku.dk/staff/?pure=en/persons/165592