ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

The Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG), Faculty of Communication Sciences, Università Svizzera italiana (USI), Lugano

Deadline: September 15, 2019

Profile of the Faculty and of the Institute

The Faculty of Communication Sciences is committed to research and teaching excellence in innovative communication and media areas, with strong societal and cultural import. We consider communication as a fundamental process of the organizing of social endeavours, which we approach from multiple disciplines both within the social sciences and humanities. The Faculty is embedded within a diverse, dynamic, and highly international university, fostering collaborations across faculties (Architecture, Biomedical Sciences, Economics and Informatics).

The Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG) was created in 2004 within the Faculty of Communication Sciences. The Institute contributes to the teaching activities at Bachelor level, particularly by providing the area of specialization in Comunicazione e media (Communication and Media), at the Master level, by running the Master in 'Media Management and by offering Ph.D. level supervision. IMeG engages in research activities in the following areas: organizational analysis and business strategies adopted by media companies; the historical evolution of media production processes and the media use within different socio-political, economic and cultural contexts; and the evolution of media-related professions, with particular regard to journalism; the history of media technologies; digital usage among young people; and climate change communications. The Director of the Institute is Professor Matthew Hibberd.

Candidate Profile

The Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG) wishes to appoint a suitably qualified and experienced candidate at Assistant Professor level to undertake academic research, service existing undergraduate module/s and to develop a new Master-level course in Digital Journalism. The successful candidate will already hold a Ph.D. and will have experience in publishing in peer-reviewed journals. S/he will have teaching experience at undergraduate and postgraduate level, including coordinating and managing modules, allowing the successful candidate the opportunity to participate in both undergraduate and master-level programmes by developing specialist journalism provision. The successful candidate will take the lead role in developing a new Master's programme in the area of Digital Journalism at USI and will also help supervise doctoral student/s. IMeG currently hosts the European Journalism Observatory’s (EJO) Italian web site and the successful candidate will

have the opportunity to work with EJO colleagues. Applications will be welcome from those who have teaching and research specialisms in a range of areas across digital journalism, including practice-based teaching, especially in the following areas:

• Journalist research and practice in Switzerland and Europe.
• News Reporting and understanding of key techniques and issues used across multi-platform journalism, including key standards, issues of journalistic balance and media ethics.
• Journalism and the use of big data, artificial intelligence and algorithm processing including knowledge of recent media controversies surrounding WikiLeaks, etc.
• Social media and the use of alternative forms of journalism.

The ideal candidate will have:

• potential to research in his/her field at an international level;
• experience in teaching including managing modules;

The ability to teach and work in various languages and a commitment to service to the University and to the academic profession are a plus.

Job Description

This post offers the opportunity and resources for a young scholar of excellence to become an important member of a vibrant research group and be involved in the Institute’s research and teaching programmes.

The successful candidate will be expected to:

• promote research internationally and locally. Switzerland provides the opportunity of accessing relevant research funds provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and similar institutions;
• teach courses and hold seminars on digital journalism at different levels: Bachelor, Master and Doctoral (9 ECTS per year);
• co-ordinate an assistant’s activities and act in an advisory capacity for PhD candidates; actively participate in the work of the Faculty Council and related ad-hoc committees.

The position involves 60% research, 30% teaching, and 10% service, and will start in April 2020 or as soon as thereafter. The employment package is competitive according to international standards, including also one fully funded Ph.D. position with generous travel funds.

Residence and Language

The professor should normally take residence in Ticino (Italian-speaking part of Switzerland). The University’s postgraduate programmes are taught mainly in English, while most Bachelor classes are taught in Italian. Fluency in Italian is preferential, but is required within three years of taking up the post. B2 level of French and/or German is desirable.

Application and Required Documentation:

Applicants should submit:

• a letter of motivation addressed to the Dean of the Faculty;
• a detailed CV including a list of publications, together with documentation of relevant academic qualifications, teaching, service and professional experience;
• copies of a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 10 publications of relevance for the position;
• names and contacts of three referees.

Please send the application in digital form to concorsi.com@usi.com

Since USI aims to increase the percentage of women in research and teaching, women academics are particularly encouraged to apply.

Deadline

Applications received by 15th September 2019 will be given priority.

Please send your electronic application to the Dean of Faculty by e-mail, addressed to:

Prof. Andrea Rocci

Facoltà di scienze della comunicazione

Università della Svizzera italiana

Via Giuseppe Buffi 13

CH-6904 Lugano

E-mail: concorsi.com@usi.ch

For further information, please contact Prof. Matthew Hibberd Vice-Dean and Director of the Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG). Phone 0041 586664725. Email matthew.hibberd@usi.ch.

Dmitry Chernobrov

How do people make sense of distant, but disturbing international events? Why are some representations more appealing than others? What do th

nalysis of political imagining and perception at the level of accuracy, this book reveals how self-conceptions are unconsciously, but centrally present in judgments and representations of international others.ey mean for the perceiver’s own sense of self? Going beyond conventional a

Edinburgh Napier University

Application closing date: July 22, 2019

Salary: GBP 39,609 - GBP 48,677 per annum (Grade 6)

Package: Excellent benefit package

Job description

We are looking for an enthusiastic individual to join our undergraduate film and television team on a part time basis. We are a top 5 UK University for Film Production & Photography (5th of 67 - The Guardian Guide 2019).   We are based at our Merchiston Campus, in the School of Arts & Creative Industries (SACI), located in the beautiful and historic heart of Morningside, Edinburgh. The School hosts a range of undergraduate and post-graduate programmes, and plays an active part in the creative industries in Scotland. To find more information about SACI please click here.  

The Role  

You will contribute mainly to the delivery of our successful BA (Hons) Film programme, working alongside other specialist practitioners within the practical film production curriculum. You will primarily be responsible for teaching at undergraduate level and may also be asked to contribute to our MA programmes.  

You will be expected to contribute to the development, design and delivery of a student centred learning experience that is underpinned by professional practice and academic scholarship, within your assigned areas of responsibility. You will also act as Personal Tutor for students.  

This role is predominantly concerned with teaching of professional film and television practices and while a specific role is not stipulated, we are particularly interested in applicants with drama production experience.  

What Are We Looking For  

You must have practical experience within a film and/or television environment, with a professional and academic profile commensurate with the stage of your career. You will demonstrate a commitment to sustained continuous professional and academic development and develop and maintain links with media industries in order to strengthen teaching programmes, research and associated activities. You will demonstrate experience in developing, designing and delivering teaching and student-centred learning, with a knowledge of industry standards and regulations. We are looking for a colleague with the enthusiasm required to contribute to the teaching of drama production, in order to successfully develop the next generation of film makers.You must be equally comfortable working independently as you are collaborating as part of our successful film education team.  

A doctoral level qualification in the relevant discipline is desirable but not required.  

To view the full job description click here

Benefits We Offer  

Salary: GBP 39,609 - GBP 48,677 per annum (Grade 6)

Further information about our benefits can be found here.  

Additional Information 

• Start Date: September 2019
• Application Closing Date:  22nd July 2019  
• Interviews will be held in mid august

Please also note that the successful candidate must have permission to work in the UK by the start of their employment, as we are unable to sponsor any candidate for this role.   

The University is committed to inclusion, demonstrated through our work in respect of our diversity awards and accreditations (Advance HE's Athena SWAN Charter) and holds Disability Confident, Carer Positive and Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champion status. 

University College London

Deadline: July 16, 2019

Part time (0.6 FTE)

Salary £43,884 - £51,769 per annum (inclusive of London allowance)

Closing date: 16 July 2019

Interview date: 24 July 2019

UCL is seeking to appoint a Lecturer in Media Studies to join our faculty at the Department of Culture, Communication and Media (CCM) and contribute to our expanding MA in Digital Media: Critical Studies.

MA Digital Media: Critical Studies is one of three digital media programmes at UCL along with MA Digital Media: Education and MA Digital Media: Production. This post is specifically for our Critical Studies programme and the post holder will work in a team of scholars with diverse backgrounds in the broader fields of media and cultural Studies, and media and communications.

Applicants should have a doctorate (completed or close to completion) in media studies or similar fields; experience of teaching in these areas, ideally at MA level; and an emerging research and publication record.

Please note that the closing date is less than two weeks away (16 July 2019), and the interviews are scheduled to take place on the 24th of July 2019.

A detailed job description and person specification can be accessed at UCL HR recruitment website here.

Roger Williams University

Roger Williams University, located on the coast of Bristol, RI, is a forward-thinking private university with 45 undergraduate majors and more than a dozen graduate programs spanning the liberal arts and the professions, where students become community-minded citizens through project-based, experiential learning. With small classes, direct access to faculty and boundless opportunities for real-world projects, RWU students develop the ability to think critically while simultaneously building the practical skills that today's employers demand. In addition to its 4,000 undergraduates and 300 graduate students, RWU is home to a thriving University College based in Providence as well as Rhode Island's only law school.

Roger Williams University is committed to creating and supporting an intellectual community devoted to teaching and learning and providing the opportunity for personal and intellectual growth for students, faculty and staff. The University credits much of its growth and success to the hard work and dedication of its employees.

Job Description:

The Department of Communication Graphic Design and Web Development at the Feinstein School of Humanities, Arts and Education (SHAE) at Roger Williams University invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track faculty position in Journalism. The primary responsibilities of this faculty member will be to teach undergraduate courses in news writing and reporting, as well as foundation courses in the digital-first Journalism major. The ideal candidate will be a teacher/scholar who is able to work collaboratively with faculty across disciplines in SHAE and at other RWU schools on teaching, program development, and community- engaged experiential learning.

Responsibilities include advising and mentoring undergraduate Journalism majors, service to the department, and service to the university community. The ability to support, promote and develop initiatives around student diversity and inclusion, in both pedagogy and curricular development, is also a responsibility associated with this position.

The Department of Communication Graphic Design and Web Development includes the following majors: Journalism, Communication and Media Studies, Graphic Design Communication, Public Relations, and Web Development, and a minor in Film Studies.

Requirements:

The ideal candidate will hold a Ph.D. in Journalism, Communication, or a related discipline at the time of appointment, have at least two years of teaching experience at the undergraduate level, and a solid record of scholarly or professional activity. The search committee will consider extraordinarily qualified Ph.D. candidates (ABD) with the condition that they will have completed their dissertation defense by the time of appointment. Professional experience and/or ability to use technology to teach data analysis, visualization, or mobile and multi-platform environments is highly desirable.

Additional Information:

As an institution committed to strengthening society through engaged teaching and learning as well as building the university that the world needs now, Roger Williams University values inclusion, seeks to reflect the diversity of the region and create access to higher education and career success.

The University seeks candidates who, through their work and life experiences, service to the community, and teaching or research, can contribute to our diversity, inclusivity, and equity goals.

Roger Williams University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and committed to a diverse workforce. All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable state and federal law.

For information on our Non-discrimination and Title IX policy, visit: http://rwu.edu/NDT9

Application Instructions:

Qualified applicants should submit materials electronically, including:

1) In your cover letter/letter of interest, in addition to listing how your qualifications meet the requirements of the position, please include information about how you would be able to contribute to RWU's diversity, inclusivity, and equity goals ;

2) a current vita;

3) representative sample syllabi;

4) evidence of teaching experience including student evaluations (if available); and

5) name and contact information for at least three references.

Review of applications will begin on September 30, 2019 and continue until the position is filled.

For further information please contact the chair of the search committee Paola Prado, Ph.D., pprado@rwu.edu

Special issue of About Journalism

Deadline: December 1, 2019

Website: https://surlejournalisme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/CFP-DeadAbout-Journalism-narrative-journalism-and-socialism.pdf

Editors of this special issue:

Pablo Calvi (Stony Brook University, NY, United States), William Dow (American University of Paris, Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, France), Roberto Herrscher (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile), Isabelle Meuret (Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium) & Isabel Soares (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal).

From Jack London to George Orwell, from Upton Sinclair to Gabriel García Márquez, from José Martí to Elena Poniatowska, from Joseph Roth to Günter Walraff, literary journalists have often pursued a socialist agenda. Undercover reporters, muckrakers and, increasingly, whistleblowers share a common dedication and commitment to social justice and progress. Because it explores the extraordinary lives of ordinary people, narrative or literary journalism falls within the traditions of History from Below (United Kingdom), Alltagsgeschichte (Germany), or microstoria (Italy) of the past century, all of which have a staunch socialist or Marxist allegiance. Poverty, precarity, unemployment, displacement, imprisonment, malady, i.e. the many plagues that affect the downtrodden, feature as essential topics in Anglo-American literary journalism, French grand reportage, and Hispano-Portuguese crónicas. By way of illustration, Ted Conover follows Mexican migrants crossing the border to the United States, Adrienne Nicole Leblanc reports on a Puerto Rican family in the Bronx drug underworld, William T. Vollmann investigates poverty across the world, while in France, Florence Aubenas tells the stories of precarious workers and dropouts, and in Portugal Mário and Pedro Patrocínio tell of lives in Brazilian favelas and Angolan urban ghettoes.

With the rise of populisms and right extremisms, movements from the left, far-left, and even beyond the left side of the political spectrum, have also gained in visibility. Socialism today, drawing either from its Marxist heritage or as a legacy of a pluralist Left, takes different directions, including radicalization or direct action. Grass-roots movement are thriving, whether they originate from the political sphere or civil society. The dramatic comeback of socialism is also characterized by the popularity of some politicians who totally assume this new turn to the left, from Bernie Sanders in the United States to Jeremy Corbyn in the United Kingdom. The nature of this socialism is not homogeneous; it comes in a variety of forms. Growing inequalities between elites and citizens, big bosses and minimum wage earners, and the shameless exploitation of vulnerable populations, cause considerable discontent on a worldwide scale. A global conversation allows for new ideas to emerge on the management and action levels, and “conscientization” (Paulo Freire) remains an important key to understand the prevailing climate, to untangle problems, to imagine viable solutions or even pedagogical projects. However, if radical imagination and direct action are undeniably back in favor, socialism does not necessarily mean radicalism or anarchism, nor Marxism, nor communism.

Movements for social justice have always been supported and performed through storytelling. This issue of About Journalism will interrogate the specificities of such stories, which prompt and convey meaning to action, in a diachronic perspective. It will highlight the roots, convergences and divergences, but also the prospects for socialism in the twenty-first century, as well as the manner in which it is revisited and modernized by future generations. It will aim at understanding how narrative journalism, or literary reportage, allows for a better understanding of the stakes, promises, and values of socialism today, in a transcultural and interdisciplinary perspective. This issue will deal with the main motivations and subjects of socialism, now that it is actively resisting, and will define the journalistic and literary practices and strategies used to reflect such realities. It will analyze the poetics, poietics, and politics of narrative journalism when it specifically reports on the people from below, those whom we have come to call the new poor, the underprivileged, or poorly-paid workers.

From a purely journalistic point of view, it is a fact that the political press is losing momentum and is being supplanted by pluralistic and nonpartisan media. Therefore, it is worth considering the vacuum left by many newspapers that explicitly assumed their left-wing alignment, be it simply socialist, progressive, or else, not to mention those who are still, strictly speaking, the official organs of a party – Le Peuple in Belgium, L’Humanité in France, Pravda in the Soviet Union, People’s Daily in China – to name just a few. This void is now filled by editorialists and polemicists of all kinds who are providing opinions and commentaries, while social networks offer space to vent off anger, hatred, and abuse. Conversely, literary journalists propose an alternative path where long-researched and well-crafted stories disclose the details of felt lives and reveal the humanness of complicated realities.

Papers for this special issue of the journal will reflect the variety of definitions, conceptualizations, representations, and interpretations of socialism, along the following lines:

• Activism, radicalism, direct action, journalism
• Ethics and aesthetics of literary/narrative journalism
• Literary/Narrative journalism and social justice
• Literary/Narrative journalism in immersion
• Politically committed journalism, journalism of attachment
• Active literature and positive journalism
• Militant and pedagogical practices through the media
• Representations of struggles and revolutions in media productions

The deadline for submitting the final manuscripts (30 to 50,000 characters, including notes and bibliography) is 1st December 2019, at: Isabelle.Meuret@ulb.ac.be Manuscripts may be written in English, French, Portuguese or Spanish. Double blind review.

Organized by the ECREA Mediatization and Philosophy of Communication Sections

November 1–2, 2019

University of Bonn, Germany (Department of Media Studies)

Deadline (EXTENDED): July 15, 2019

The rapid development of technologies in the last decades has undeniable impacts on the social, cultural and political processes in contemporary societies and on the everyday lives of their members. Digital platforms became the new spaces of social action, and data has turned into a value system of its own. These transformations, which in the framework of mediatization theory have been described as a ‘metaprocess’ of social change, may promise the increase of efficiency of human performance, but they might as well mean a loss of control or a new landscape for work, privacy or democracy, just to name some of the man contexts involved. No doubt, these processes are in need of critical reflections on the changing relationships between humans and technology.

Particularly two developments currently seem to characterize mediatization processes: Datafication and the introduction of ‘digital machines’ into everyday life.

Datafication understood as the process of translating information about the social practices of individuals (such as everyday and private communication or consumption) and institutional actors and organisations (such as in politics, the world of work, commerce or the health system) into digital data, refers to the comprehensive collection, storage, archiving and use of digital data in all areas of society (micro, meso and macro levels). As one of the central consequences of digitization, the relevance of data archiving is therefore increasing in all areas and poses major challenges, especially to democratically constituted, liberal societies. Digitization and data archiving mark both a technological and cultural change in society as a whole, the effects of which will have a decisive influence not only on the future of democracy but also on it. In the public discourse, contemporary diagnoses and, in particular, prognoses for the future of democratic society usually oscillate between optimistic-utopian perspectives on the one hand and pessimistic-dystopian scenarios on the other.

As one of the most visible consequences of datafication, the role of the ‘machine’ has come into focus recently. It is not only the ubiquity of algorithms and AI, it is as well the explosion of usage contexts for robots, which far exceeds the long-known industrial robots. Even considering that people's relationships to technology and to 'machines' has always been ambivalent, the current development touches on new limitations - machines stand for progress and threat alike. In the course of human history, emotional charging, mythical exaggeration or demonisation and the political interpretation of machines have almost always accompanied the relationship to technological innovations. With new machines like social robots or autonomous weapons, ethical conflicts are inevitable.

These often conflicting relationships between (wo)man and machines mark leaps in the development of social change, since these conflicts illustrate how people reorganize themselves around technology.

In view of the described massive technological changes, it becomes clear that machines can no longer be reduced to a physical object, but can also be program codes, algorithms or artificial intelligence. These processes of change point to the necessity to detach the concept of the machine from its materiality.

Such “invasion” of the machines at the very heart of the social invites media scholars and philosophers to rethink and reconceptualize the core elements the traditional social thought.

Hence, we invite papers to the following themes.

• Is the technologically permeated society qualitatively different from its earlier forms?
• What are the principles of human-machine interaction?
• What is the nature of agency, is there any sense of applying this concept to the functions performed by machines?
• Historical and recent perspectives on machines
• Datafication as mediatization
• Ethical and political perspectives on machines
• New understanding of the machine concept and artificial intelligence, machine ethics, robot ethics,
• Politics, technology and equality, e.g. models of ‘digital feudalism’
• Images of machines in journalistic (mass) media
• Changes in society due to datafication
• The meaning of being human in the technologized society

Please note that we invite contributions in various formats, e.g. workshops, panels and individual presentations.

Proposals should consist of an abstract max. 500 words, not including references).

Please submit an abstract outlining the state of the study or project, as well as the research question(s) or hypotheses, findings and conclusion(s).

We also encourage submitting theoretical papers, work in progress, e.g. new theoretical, methodological or didactic ideas.

Presentations can be either short pitch/poster sessions or traditional presentations (feel free to be creative).

Panelsconsist of various presentations addressing a common topic from different perspectives. Panels are scheduled for one hour, including discussions. Panel proposals should include a description of the topic and an overall panel goal, addressing the relevance of the topic to the conference theme (400 words). The proposal should also suggesta chair to serve as moderator and should include a short abstract of each of the presentations (max. 200 words each).

Deadline for submissions: Saturday, July 15, 2019

Official Website: http://www.ecrea-bonn2019.uni-bonn.de

Please include your author information (name, institution, contact) in the accompanying e-mail.

Accepted presenters will be informed by 1st of August, 2019.

Please submit abstracts as anonymized word or pdf-documents to:

Prof. Dr. Caja Thimm (thimm@uni-bonn.de)

January 7-11, 2020

Lisbon, Portugal

Deadline: July 22, 2019

Jointly organized by the Faculty of Human Sciences (Universidade Católica Portuguesa), the Center for Media@Risk at the Annenberg School for Communication (University of Pennsylvania), the School of Journalism and Communication (Chinese University of Hong Kong), the Department of Media and Communications (London School of Economics and Political Science) and the Faculty of Social Sciences (University of Helsinki), the Second Lisbon Winter School for the Study of Communication will take a comparative and global approach to the study of media and uncertainty across time.

CONFIRMED LECTURERS

• Dominique Brossard, University of Wisconcin-Madison
• Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics and Political Science
• Victor Pickard, University of Pennsylvania
• Teresa Ashe, Open University
• Carla Ganito, Universidade Católica Portuguesa
• Fathali Moghaddam, George Washington University
• Saskia Witteborn, Chinese University of Hong Kong

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The media today are troubled by uncertainty.

Externally, a growing sense of uncertainty draws from deep-seated questions about identity formation, increasing angst over the viability of familiar cultural, political and social formations and intensifying social and economic precarity and inequality. Ultimately, the risks and challenges posed by climate change expose an even deeper sense of risk, calling into question the usual cyclical social imaginations about risk, crisis and renewal.

Within media environments, uncertainty builds from the rapid unfolding and often unforeseen ramifications of digital technology, the collapse of traditional business models, new degrees of irrelevance, the emergence of new players and platforms, the development of new reception practices, changing expectations of what media are for and a shift in the very relationship of the media to the outside world in an era marked by widespread dis- and mis-information.The viability of media as we know them is up for grabs.

How and in what ways will the media – as institutions, as occupational and professional contexts, as a diverse set of practices – adapt to this age of uncertainty? Will the media continue to produce meaningful content, and if so in which ways? How will the media push back against political assault? Who will fund the media’s continued presence? Will new business models allow the media to play a central role in democratic societies, producing investigative journalism and relevant information on current affairs? How do we move forward in rebuilding public trust in the media, ensuring that they help sustain some kind of inclusive public space?How will audiences relate to and engage with different media platforms? How will new forms of media change and disrupt legacy media platforms? How will journalism report about uncertain and risky futures? How will political powers be held accountable?

Questions like these fuel the imaginary that uncertainty introduces into considerations of the media, demanding global approaches to the different occupational, professional, economic, political, cultural and environmental contexts in which the media operate. Thus, the Second Lisbon Winter School for the Study of Communicationwill consider how uncertainty is molding the media in different geographies and how societies rely on the media to deal with moments of uncertainty.

The Lisbon Winter School invites proposals by doctoral students and early career post-docs from all over the world that address, though may not be not be strictly limited to, the topic of media and uncertainty as it relates to:

• Media and digital transformation
• Emergent cultural, political and social formations
• New business models
• New notions of risk and resistance to it
• Media and uncertainty throughout history
• Online harassment
• Alternative media forms and outlets
• Media activism
• Reporting uncertainty
• Authoritarian media
• Media and political accountability
• Dis- and misinformation, fake news and hate speech
• Environmental precarity

PAPER PROPOSALS

Proposals should be sent to lisbonwinterschool@gmail.comno later than July 22, 2019 and include a paper title, extended abstract in English (700 words), name, e-mail address, institutional affiliation and a brief bio (max. 100 words) mentioning ongoing research. Applicants will be informed of the result of their submissions by September 20, 2019.

FULL PAPER SUBMISSION

Presenters will be required to send in full papers (max. 20 pages, 1.5 spacing) by November 22, 2019.

For more information please visit the Winter School website: https://www.lisbonwinterschool.com/

Special issue of Journal of Popular Romance Studies

Deadline: September 1, 2019

Eds. Eftihia Mihelakis and Jonathan A. Allan

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a person in possession of a cell phone will sext. One study notes that, “of 870 U.S. adults aged 18-72 … 88% had sexted in their lifetime.” This special call for papers seeks to explore the ways that sexting has affected our ideas of romance and intimacy. How has sexting influenced the popular romance novel, the chick flick, or the soap opera? How has sexting changed how we think about romance and love? We welcome papers that engage with these topics, and encourage interdisciplinary approaches.

This special call for papers understands sexting quite broadly, ranging from the flirtatious email sent to a partner at home through to the unsolicited dick pic sent over Tinder.

For the special issue, we welcome proposals for original research articles (5000-10,000 words) that explore sexting, romance, and intimacy. Topics may include:

Sexting and gender

Sexting and courtship, dating, marriage, etc.

Sexting and virginity or “sexual inexperience”

Sexting and scandalTechnology, sexting, and romance media (movies, films, TV, music videos, memes, etc.)

Pornification and romanceRomance and the virtual landscape

The deadline for 250-word abstracts is due September 1, 2019 with full drafts due by March 1, 2020. Please send abstracts and direct any enquiries to Dr. Eftihia Mihelakis at MihelakisE@brandonu.ca and Dr. Jonathan A. Allan at AllanJ@brandonu.ca.

About the Editors

Dr. Eftihia Mihelakis is Assistant Professor of French. She is the author of Virginité en question, ou les jeunes filles sans âge.

Dr. Jonathan A. Allan is Canada Research Chair in Queer Theory and Professor of English and Creative Writing. He is the author of Reading from Behind: A Cultural Analysis of the Anus and co-editor of Virgin Envy: The Cultural (In)Significance of the Hymen.

Together, Dr. Mihelakis and Dr. Allan are lead investigators on “The Joy of Texting: Mapping the Significance of Sexting in the Digital World,” funded by Research Manitoba.

Please see our Topics of Interest page for a non-exhaustive list of subjects covered by our journal, and our regular Submissions page for additional information on submitting your work.

Special edition of the open access Digital Culture and Education journal

Full paper submission deadline: November, 30, 2019

This 2020 special issue of the Digital Culture and Education open access, online journal explores contemporary issues in digital eco-pedagogy, particularly in relation to the education of children.

The worldwide youth climate strike on March 15 reflects young people’s growing frustrations with the lack of political response to the escalating ecological crisis. It also reflects the impact of efforts already underway to highlight environmental concerns. The ecological turn has been gaining ground in social and theoretical discourse since at least the 1970s. During that time environmental education has been a concept in progress. Early debates concerning the notion of eco-citizenship and even the definition of nature itself express the growing realisation that environmental stewardship in the age of the Anthropocene (when humans dominate the earth) is a multi-dimensional cultural project incorporating everything from emotional re-learning of nature connectivity, through to eco-media literacy training, scientific witnessing, philosophical/economic reassessment and citizen action.

Alongside this, the growing ubiquity of digital culture has fuelled concern. In Last Child in the Woods (2008) Richard Louv blames the rise of digital screen culture for what he calls children’s ‘nature-deficit disorder’. Indeed, a 2013 study revealed that only 1 in 5 UK children felt sufficiently connected with nature (rspb.org.uk/connectionmeasure), raising the question of potential consequences for those 40% of the world's species already at risk of extinction and reliant upon human passion and dedication to save them.

Nevertheless, the role that digital culture plays in this crisis is still unclear and also in flux. Büscher’s (2016) concept of Nature 2.0 to describe the emerging digital representations of nature and networked engagements with the natural world points to the growing research interest in eco-digital cultures. Indeed, as Dobrin (2014: 205) observes, digital environments are “themselves natures … environments in and with which humans and non-humans forge relationships”. The ways that digital culture and nature are becoming increasingly enmeshed invites more discussion, particularly in relation to the role that eco-pedagogies play within thesesocial and material assemblages. Recent provocations include Fletcher’s (2017) discussion of the “environmental values behaviour” gap between the mediated appreciation for nature, versus the lack of societal commitment to conservation action. Whilst nature-relatedness research (Richardson 2015, 2018) indicates that in order to build a joyous connection with nature, children in particular will often need to do so by focusing on the positives, free from the impending fear of environmental collapse. More evidence is required to help better understand the role that digital eco-pedagogy plays regarding these sorts of tensions.

This special issue invites researchers to explore these contemporary issues in digital eco-pedagogy.

Empirical studies are particularly welcome. Topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Engaging pedagogy with mediated experiences of nature relatedness
• Interplays of real/virtual, action/simulation, inside/outside, the physical world and digital space in environmental education
• Eco-media literacy, including awareness of the creative, economic and material modes of digital production
• Progressive and social constructions of ecological citizenship
• Navigating the limits, as well as the potential benefits of digital nature connections
• The intercultural, multi-dimensional, interdisciplinary and/or inter-generational dimensions to eco-citizenship
• Digital eco-pedagogy and cultural theory
• The digital mediation of inter-species relationships
• Digital representations of climate change e.g. abstraction, versus digital photo-realism
• Links between mediated play, expectations of nature and off-line behaviours
• Digital green-washing
• Testing the educational and social impact of digital nature connections across genres and platforms
• The use of portable, personalised, automated and/or ubiquitous technologies in digital eco-pedagogy
• Digital eco-feminist interventions
• Digital citizen science initiatives
• Collaborative Design of digital nature

There is no charge to submit, or publish papers in the Digital Culture and Education journal, which is a non-commercial, open access academic journal that is distributed freely, at no charge.

5000 – 7000 word paper submission is due Nov 30, 2019. For author guidelines please see https://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/submit-your-paper-1

Please direct your questions to Bronwin Patrickson at floatingblueseen@gmail.com in the first instance, or alternately Alexander Schmoelz at alexander.schmoeltz@univie.ac.at