ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

C. L. Bernardi

"Women and the Digitally-Mediated Revolution in the Middle East" applies digital methods to the study of the impact of digital technologies on the social and political spheres of women in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The author discusses what could be called the silent revolution of these women online. By combining software studies, feminist Quranic revisionism, Actor Network Theory and digital methods, the book explores how 'women's issues' in Egypt and Saudi Arabia arise, transform and manifest in the digital sphere, in English and Arabic. The book is published by Routledge and is part of the Routledge Studies in New Media and Cuberculture.

University of Brighton - School of Sport and Service Management

Deadline: July 24, 2019

Location: Eastbourne

Salary: £35,211 to £42,036 per annum (pro-rata)

Hours: Part Time

Contract Type: Fixed-Term/Contract

Placed On: 5th July 2019

Closes: 24th July 2019

Job Ref: EV3130-19-261

Contract Length: 12 months

Located in Eastbourne, the School of Sport and Service Management draw together a range of disciplines of which Sport Journalism/Journalism plays an integral role. The School is a vibrant and outward facing community of staff and students built on transparency and trust, with the student experience at the heart of everything we do.

This is an exciting opportunity to join an established and proactive team of academics dedicated to the learning and teaching of Sport Journalism/Journalism students. We are looking for an experienced Journalism lecturer who will teach on our undergraduate degree on our Journalism/Sport Journalism courses. You will be required to teach practical components of the syllabus with particular focus on NCTJ delivery.

To be successful in this role you will have:

• An undergraduate degree
• NCTJ qualifications

Experience of working in a related field are essential as well as having up to date knowledge of the subject.

The University of Brighton is committed to equality and embraces diversity in our working, learning, research and teaching environment. We welcome all applicants and are committed to providing a supportive and flexible working environment.

This is a part time contract of 12 months with a 0.5fte.

The School is proud to hold a national Athena Swan award for our work in promoting gender equality in the workplace.

In return, we offer a generous package including annual leave starting at 35 days, paid bank holidays, additional paid leave during the Christmas period, travel loans and pension schemes.

Further details:

The University of Brighton is committed to equality and embraces diversity in our working, learning, research and teaching environment. We welcome all applicants and are committed to providing a supportive and flexible working environment.

Further information about working for us, as well as the wide range of benefits we offer, can be found in the "working here" section of our vacancies page.

Closing Date: Wednesday 24 July 2019

Interview Date: Monday 19 August 2019

Apply here.

October 24-25, 2019

Erich-Brost Institute, Dortmund, Germany

Extended deadline for proposal submission: July 20, 2019

Joint conference of the section International and Intercultural Communication (DGPuK) and the network Media Structures

Affiliation: Institute for Media Studies (IfM), Ruhr-University, Bochum (Germany)

The disruptive transformations of the media ecology are in the focus of media scholars and politicians world-wide. Technological and cultural changes as well as major shifts in audience behaviour are core drivers of these transformations, which can be observed in various sectors, refer to different aspects of media systems, and are based on intertwined, but often contradictory and dialectical dynamics (D'Haenens, Sousa & Trappel 2018). Transformations of the media ecology have to be considered in a wider scope of challenges of democracies in the digital age. The planned conference aims to bring together research that addresses current developments and challenges with regard to four dimensions:

1. Media policy, strategies and regulation are crucially challenged by meta-narratives such as globalization and digitization, since they have historically evolved through national regulatory routines (Holtz-Bacha 1994). Scholars and politicians alike critically assess questions whether the information available to citizens is sufficient to build an informed citizenry and what kind of regulation of digital media contributes to plurality and diversity. Moreover, civil society demands for more involvement and participation in content creation and regulation. Contributions to the planned conference will debate the (re-)formulation of public service media (PSM and the extent to what a „Civic Commons Online“ is necessary. A possible point of discussion is whether public service media (PSM) are in the position to establish such a deliberative space complementing both public sphere and parliamentary debate (e.g. Ramsey 2013; Schweizer 2016).

2. At the economic and innovations level, commercial media in Europe have always been challenged to balance between fulfilling the professional norms of journalism by acting as a watchdog to the government while at the same time making profit. However, with the loss in revenues, this tension became more intense. Many media institutions cut costs and reduced the number of staff, which in consequence limited the ability of the media to act as a watchdog (McChesney & Nichols, 2010; Pickard, 2011; Siles & Boczkowski, 2012; Starkman, 2014). Conference contributions are asked to address commonalities and differences of economic challenges in the private and PSM sector and discuss alternative funding schemes (Kiefer 2011, Schweizer & Puppis 2018). The question to what extent the nexus between economy and media quality is addressed in media strategies will be of interest.

3. At the content level, despite the described crisis in journalism, it has never been easier for the audience to receive and publish information, while at the same time it has never been more difficult to evaluate the quality of information gained. The number of digital media outlets, blogs and social media posts seems to be expanding continuously and technological innovations such as recommender systems allow for personalized user experience, audience interaction and may also foster user participation on the content level.However, the establishment of so called social networks has been accompanied by undesired developments such as the rise of hate speech, an increased influence of populist spin on the formation of public opinion (Sponholz 2018) and disinformation (Report of the High-Level Group on Fake News and online disinformation 2018). Paradoxically, while governments and regulators discuss how to hold social networks accountable, established and publicly funded media have become customers of these companies in the meantime, because they enable, for example, PSM to reach younger audiences in order to fulfil their public remit (Sehl, Cornia & Kleis Nielsen 2018). Conference contributions are asked to assess content innovations, public value and the ethics of journalism in the digital media world. Contributions may inquire in how far gamification or the automatization of journalistic content is in the public interest and address advantages and disadvantages of personalized information. What kind of debates and measures are necessary to tackle the future of the public remit of media in general and PSM in particular?

4. On an international comparative level, it is important to analyze how different media systems adapt to the current changes in the media landscape. In the non-Western world, digitization causes different problems and advantages; e.g. in post-conflict and developing countries well-established regulation structures and strategies do not exist. Comparative research can shed light on the question, in how far the digital era challenges the establishment of regulation patterns in various countries and regions (Sousa et al. 2013). We welcome conference contributions that discuss the most pressing challenges and/or innovations for deliberation, political representation and participation in the media in international comparison. We further invite contributions that aim at identifying patterns of similarities and differences across countries concerning press freedom, media subsidies, and the framework in which media act.

This international conference, hence, aims to bring together scholars and practitioners working on a variety of theoretical, methodological and practical issues arising from the investigation of media policy and regulation in digital environments. Questions to be discussed during the conference should be rooted in theoretical approaches and at the same time inform these approaches to broaden not only the scope of research, but also deliver key factors and messages to media practitioners, policy makers and regulators. The conference especially welcomes international comparative research, but is not limited to it, as case studies may be crucial to understand trends. Also, proposals with a transnational perspective dealing with trends and topics crossing borders are welcome.

The call is open to theoretical contributions as well as various empirical designs.

There will be two lines of submission:

Proposals for individual papers: abstracts of no more than 500 words addressing one of the issues outlined below.

Proposals for panels with 4-5 papers in a panel: abstracts of no more than 1000 words.

Activating formats (i.e. Worldcafe, Workshop) are welcome.

Submissions in English via email to: iic-conference2019@rub.de

Conference organizers:

• Dr. Christine Horz (Ruhr University Bochum),
• Dr. Julia Lönnendonker (Vrije Universiteit Brussels)
• Dr. Florian Meissner (Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf)

January 17, 2020

Village Berlin

Deadline: October 18, 2019

Following on from the success of our network launch at BCU in May 2019 themed around masculinity and body image our next network event in Berlin in January 2020 takes the topic of Masculinity and National Identity as a starting point for conversation around some of the following themes:

• National/regional masculinities
• The sexualisation of regional/ethnic masculinity
• Masculinity and national identities and intersections of sexuality, racial, religious, ethnic, class, etc. identities
• Intra/international constructions and articulations of masculinity and national identity
• Politics & ideology (incl. far-left and far-right articulations), including but not limited to: extremism, populism, activism, nationalism, separatism, neoliberalism
• On/offline representation(s) and performance(s) of masculinity and national identity
• Media discourses of masculinity and national identity
• Men’s (online) groups and forums

We invite individual papers, pre-constituted panels, poster presentations, video presentations, or short performance pieces that address the theme of the symposium. We intend to convene several roundtable discussions so we particularly welcome 5 to 10 min position papers on topics related to masculinity and national identity in the 21st century from any field of study. These are topics that relate popular debate and media reportage, educators and policy makers and we are keen to involve practitioners and non-academics in our discussions and events.

Please send a 300-word abstract and short bio (max. 100 words) to Charlie Sarson charlie.sarson@bcu.ac.uk or enquiries to Professor John Mercer john.mercer@bcu.ac.uk and Professor Clarissa Smith clarissa.smith@sunderland.ac.uk

Deadline for proposals 18th October 2019

Attendance will be free.

MASCNET is a 24-month AHRC funded research network to explore the pervasiveness of sexualized masculine embodiment across contemporary popular culture, and sets an ambitious agenda for subsequent research.

The network steering group includes Begonya Enguix, Joao Florencio, Jamie Hakim, Mark McGlashan, Peter Rehberg and Florian Voros.

Special issue of Journal of Multicultural Discourses

Deadline: September 1, 2019

Guest editors Elena Vartanova & Anna Gladkova, Lomonosov Moscow State University

Today, we observe how Russia, Brazil, India, China, South Africa and other countries (Argentina, Australia, Colombia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and others) the term ‘Emerging States’ has been sometimes applied to, are fast becoming important players on the international stage (Jaffrelot, 2009). The historical path of ‘Emerging States’, accompanied by major social and political transformations, territorial shifts and changes of political regimes in the 20 th century, as well as the growing presence of these countries in global economy, politics, culture and communication, defined by scholars as ‘the rise of the ‘rest’ (Amsden, 2001), make them an interesting and timely case to study.

Yet often, scholars approach multicultural discourses in ‘Emerging States’ from a ‘Western’ perspective which is not always applicable or suitable to countries with a different historical path of development, as well as political, social and cultural legacy. In this special issue, we will discuss how social, political, economic, technological and cultural transformations ‘Emerging States’ evolved in 20-21st centuries influenced cross-cultural communication in these countries from a cultural discourse studies perspective (Shi-xu, 2015), as well as the impact these major events had upon people’s identities (e.g. Wojnowski, 2015; Davies, 1997; Tishkov, 2008). Furthermore, we argue that regardless of national specifics and current peculiarities of ‘Emerging States’’ communication systems, there are challenges in all multicultural/multi-ethnic societies in that region that they are facing under ongoing digitalization process.

In this special issue, we will look at communication in the multicultural societies of ‘Emerging States’ through the following lenses:

• Social, political, economic, cultural, technological transformations of ‘Emerging States’, and their impact upon cultural discourses;
• Digital communication as a dimension of ‘soft power’ in ‘Emerging States’;
• Diasporas and multicultural discourses;
• Digital inequalities in access/skills/benefits of cultural and ethnic groups leading to new social divides;
• Development of multiculturalism models in ‘Emerging States’ under current digitalization process;
• Constructing ethnic/cultural/linguistic/religious identities in ‘Emerging States’;
• Ethnic media in the new digital environment: audiences, content strategies, roles and functions of journalists;
• Digital media consumption of cultural and ethnic groups, the rise of digital natives;
• Communication policy and its role in supporting intercultural communication across various groups in the society / between societies on a global level.

We welcome contributions from diverse fields of study and methodologies. The special issue is open for general submissions and decisions about inclusion will be quality based, relying on peer reviewing.

Deadline for abstract submission (300-500 words indicating central questions, methodology, and theoretical framework): 1 September 2019.

More details and submission guidelines available here: https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/ah-rmmd-2019-si1/?utm_source=CPB_think&utm_medium=cms&utm_campaign=JOG10274

University of Greenwich

The School of Design at the University of Greenwich is announcing a  fully funded PhD scholarship for an interdisciplinary research project exploring the interplay between urban space, visual media and digital  technologies on a variety of different levels. 

The PhD project will review mechanisms by which new technologies can  change our understanding and experience of cities, as well as the ways  in which processes of urbanisation shape increasing use of digital  screens, based on the idea of touch, haptic and interactions. The PhD  will explore the use of screen media as a methodology to construct  narratives in and about the cities, as well as tracing the emergence of  such narratives from the earlier technologies in the 19th and 20th  centuries. 

The PhD project will be open to a range of disciplines, across art,  architecture, design and social sciences, as well as to wide  geographical contexts. The project may be pursued through either  research or practice-based investigations. 

Questions/Areas that can be explored within this project include, but  are not limited to: 

• Cities, screens and non-spaces 
• Digital utopias 
• Creative practice and the city 
• Urban walking on/off/with screen 
• Data, AI, automation and cities 

The supervisory team includes Prof Steve Kennedy (Head of School of  Design), Dr Maria Korolkova (Academic Portfolio Lead Media), and Dr Ed  Wall (Academic Portfolio Lead Landscape and Urbanism), combining the  expertise from Media and Landscape portfolios.

The project will also provide a catalyst from which to establish a new  research centre, in which the PhD candidate will be expected to take the  a major role. 

For further information please contact the supervisors: Dr Ed Wall  e.wall@gre.ac.uk  and Dr Maria Korolkova, m.korolkova@gre.ac.uk ​ 

For additional information about the scholarship please go to: http://www.gre.ac.uk/research/study/research-studentships-and-scholarships

Applications need to be made online via http://www.gre.ac.uk/research/study/apply/application-process

No  other form of application will be considered.

March 26-27, 2020 

Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands 

Deadline: October 1, 2019

The conference ‘The Stage of War’ focuses on academic and popular  representations of war and other large-scale conflicts. Nowadays, the  cultural engagement with the history of violent conflicts spans a  multitude of academic and above all popular genres, including (graphic)  novels, films, tourism, musicals, games, exhibitions and re-enactments. 

Producers of popular genres try to bring the past closer to the public  through interaction, performance and multi-sensory experience, often to  the discontent of academic historians who fear for a distorted or  trivialized past. Nonetheless, research indicates that these popular  genres can significantly affect and enhance our understanding of the past. 

The unique aim of this conference is to stimulate an exchange between  academic and popular approaches to the representation of violent  conflicts. Instead of just criticizing popular historical culture, we  call on academic historians to suggest what a responsible approach to  the past might entail. Simultaneously, we ask producers to clarify what  the practical and ethical limitations and opportunities are of  representing violent pasts in contemporary society. How can we learn  from each other? To what extent can critical historical thinking be  stimulated through popular productions? This two-day conference is  comprised of academic lectures, presentations, roundtable discussions,  and a battlefield tour in Rotterdam by military history specialists. 

Target groups 

         Historians, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists 

         PhD and ReMa students 

         Military specialists 

         Memory / heritage specialists 

         Popular culture specialists 

         Tourism professionals 

         Producers of historical musicals, films, video games,  exhibitions, websites 

         Script writers, curators, game developers, graphic novel authors 

         Trainers, heritage educators, history teachers 

Thematic scope 

Contributors are invited to submit papers on topics as 

         Diversification of war experiences 

         Embodiment and bodily understanding 

         The commercialization of war heritage 

         Creating immediacy, direct contact with the past 

         Battlefield representations for education, tourism and  military training 

         Representing and experiencing authenticity 

         Marginal perspectives / multiperspectivity 

         Commemoration and reenactments 

Keynote speakers 

Alison Landsberg (George Mason University, USA) 

Robin de Levita (Robin de Levita Productions, The Netherlands) 

Stefan Berger (Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany) 

Please send abstracts of max. 300 words and a short biographical  statement of  max. 50 words to thestageofwar@eshcc.eur.nl before 1 October 2019. 

All abstracts will be reviewed. Notification of acceptance: 1 December 2019. 

Location and organization 

The venue of this conference will be campus Woudestein Erasmus  University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The conference is an outcome of  the Research Excellence Initiative 'War! Popular Culture and European  Heritage of Major Armed Conflicts', directed by prof.dr. Maria Grever  and prof.dr. Stijn Reijnders at the Erasmus School of History, Culture  and Communication (ESHCC). See also  http://www.eur.nl/en/eshcc/research/popular-culture-and-war-heritage

Website:  https://www.eur.nl/en/eshcc/stage-war-2020

Contact  thestageofwar@eshcc.eur.nl 

Fees 

         Early bird €70, - 

         After 1 February 2020 €100,- 

         Students €25,- 

         Dinner €35,- 

Our organisation committee consists of Prof.dr. Maria Grever, Prof.dr.  Stijn Reijnders, Prof.dr. Jeroen Jansz, Prof.dr. Kees Ribbens, dr. Susan  Hogervorst, Siri Driessen, Pieter van den Heede, dr. Laurie  Slegtenhorst, Lise Zurné, dr. Robbert-Jan Adriaansen and Prof.dr.  Franciska de Jong. 

The University of Bremen

Application deadline: September 1, 2019

The University of Bremen invites applications for a university professorship at the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) in Faculty 9, Cultural Studies.

Tenured Professorship

- Salary group W2 - in the subject area Communication and Media Studies with the focus ‘Media Society’

Reference number: P902/19

Applicants should have a successful record in the field of empirical communication and media research with a focus on social communication and the impact of media on social processes. Research should be carried out with a cross-media perspective in the following thematic areas: The appropriation and use of digital media; cultural, social and economic contexts of digital media; chances and risks of digital traces. Applicants should be experienced in the use of qualitative methods of digital communication research. The successful candidate will be expected to participate in the research cluster ‘Media Change’ in the Faculty of Cultural Studies, the acquisition of third-party funding, as well as in interdisciplinary research cooperation at the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) and its research group ‘Communicative Figurations’ (with the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans Bredow Institute and the University of Hamburg). The position holder will teach Communication and Media Studies in courses offered by the Faculty and, in addition to thematic courses on social communication and the media influence of social processes, be able to offer foundation courses in the field of communication and media science and its methods. Duties will also include participation in the development of a structured doctoral program.

The University of Bremen is committed to increasing the share of women working in science and particularly welcomes applications from female academics. Applications from candidates with a migration background as well as candidates from other countries are likewise very welcome. Severely handicapped applicants with essentially the same professional and personal suitability as other applicants will be given priority.

The University offers a wide range of services to support newly appointed professors, such as a Welcome Center, childcare and dual career opportunities, as well as personnel development and continuing education.

In addition to the legal requirements for civil servants, a professionally relevant and outstanding doctorate and other relevant academic achievements of outstanding quality are expected, such as a successful junior professorship or habilitation-equivalent achievements. Suitable pedagogical-didactical aptitude, which should be documented by experience in teaching, is prerequisite. Non-German-speaking applicants will be expected to reach proficiency in the German-language after a period of 2-3 years. The appointment is based on Section 18 of the Bremen Higher Education Act (Bremisches Hochschulgesetz) and Section 116 of the Bremen Civil Service Act (Bremisches Beamtengesetz).

For further information, feel free to contact the leader of the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp.

Please send your application, stating the reference number and accompanied by the usual supporting documents (C.V., list of publications, record of teaching and research activities, certificates), to the address below or by e-mail to the Dean of Faculty, Prof. Dr. Dorle Dracklé (bewerbungenfb9uni-bremen.de) by September 1, 2019.

Further information on appointment procedures at the University of Bremen can be found at: http://www.uni-bremen.de/de/berufungsverfahren.html

Die Dekanin des Fachbereichs 9 – Kulturwissenschaften

Frau Prof. Dr. Dorle Dracklé

Universität Bremen

Postfach 330 440

28334 Bremen

Germany

www.uni-bremen.de

Download here

SOAS, University of London, UK

September 2020

Deadline: January 15, 2020

“A way of apprehending the world based on my experience, my education, my culture and my environment. Mantisme is a system of thought that we virtually assimilate to a language that is unique to each individual. A language that I permanently “negotiate” with the language of the “other” with whom I would share an experience, education, culture and a similar environment.”

(Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Africa for the Future: sortir un nouveau monde du cinema [2009], cited and translated by P. Julie Papaioannou, “‘Qu’elle aille explorer le possible!’ Or African Cinema according to Jean-Pierre Bekolo, in Harrow and Garritano, eds, A Companion to African Cinema, Wiley Blackwell, 2018, p.405)

In September 2020, a three-day, fully-funded workshop will be held at SOAS, University of London as part of the ERC-funded project “African Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies”. In the broadest sense, the workshop is designed to facilitate and inspire collaborative dialogue and work on creative African screen media texts and contexts among scholars working in this field in different parts of the world and – in particular – within Africa. To facilitate this, all transport, accommodation, visa, and meal costs will be fully covered for the selected participants, regardless of where they will be traveling from. In a more specific sense, the focus of the event will be collectively workshopping and developing pre-submitted chapters for publication in an edited volume titled African Screen Worlds. There will be several inspiring keynote presentations by leading African screen media scholars, practitioners and creative researchers.

All submissions will need to engage, in some way, with the concept of “screen worlds”, which we put forward as a heuristic device to encourage creative, provocative approaches and angles of analysis in relation to African screen media. Our reasons for suggesting this concept are twofold. First, we would like to put the emphasis on the importance of analysing screen cultures through the diverse “worldviews” of particular locations and individual artists, acknowledging that films are significantly influenced by the ways that filmmakers constantly negotiate their subjective experiences of the world with the contexts in which their films are conceptualised, made, circulated and viewed. Second, we wish to interrogate the possibilities and tensions that manifest themselves in the creation and circulation of diverse “screen worlds” in a variety of formats (feature fiction films, short films, creative documentaries, web series) in our era of digital flows as well as barriers, of mediated border-crossings as well as geo-blocking and censorship. For example, as mobile data becomes cheaper in Africa, the possibilities for streaming African-made content via phones could become transformative for people’s viewing experiences, and platforms such as iRoko, ShowMax, Sodere and Netflix are responding to these opportunities. And if African films are growing in popularity and accessibility, this perhaps means that even “arthouse” films might be able to break out of the international film festival circuit on which they have been dependent for so long, moving beyond the “world cinema” category to which they have often been consigned, for better or worse.

This workshop asks participants to consider these recent developments in African screen cultures and technology in relation to one or more of the following: specific “worldviews” (both on the African continent and in Africa’s diverse diasporas); contemporary, mainstream theorising around screen cultures and experiences (e.g. the work of Giuliana Bruno, William Uricchio, Haidee Wasson); the representational forms African films currently take and might take in the near future; and the ways in which African films are made, circulated and viewed. In each case we encourage authors to foreground something about their own identity, positionality and/or lived experience in relation to the subject matter (in line with Bekolo’s idea of “mantisme”). We wish to be clear that we hold no preconceived or fixed views on how the concept of “screen worlds” should be theorised; we suggest this concept as a prompt to see how different scholars of African screen media choose to theorise/translate/argue against/reject this concept in relation to particular cinematic texts and/or their contexts of production and consumption. We are particularly interested in chapters from Africa-based researchers grounded in local perspectives and experiences, and based on long-term research. We strongly encourage submissions from both established and early career researchers. 

In addition to the issues raised above, chapters might address the following questions (although this list is by no means exhaustive):

-          How do African filmmakers conceptualise screen content depending on whether they are targeting “big screen” or “small screen” cinema audiences?

-          How are the melodramatic, low-production-value “screen worlds” that are common across commercial film industries in Africa changing under new industrial conditions of film production, distribution and exhibition?

-          How do audiences in diverse African and diasporic contexts experience the diegetic “screen worlds” of different African films?

-          What are the relationships between film and television in African and diasporic contexts, particularly in relation to Moradewun Adejunmobi’s groundbreaking theorisation of the “televisual turn” in African screen media (2015), and the general global turn to television?

-          How are video on demand platforms such as ShowMax, Sodere, and Netflix, as well as phone apps such as iRoko, changing the forms, modes and routes of African screen media?

-          Are chasms developing or closing between “popular” cinema and “film festival” cinema in Africa and elsewhere because of the different kinds of screens on which these forms of cinema tend to be watched?

-          What does the popularity of certain film genres across and beyond Africa, as well as the emergence of popular local film genres in specific African contexts, tell us about the local/global nature of “screen worlds”?

-          What kind of new genres of filmmaking, and convergence of artistic forms beyond cinema, are evident in recent creative African screen media texts, both in the continent and beyond?  

-          Does “world cinema” remain an important category of analysis when it comes to contemporary African screen media and why/why not?

Submissions need to include:

i)                    a draft chapter of between 6,000 – 8,000 words (word count includes footnotes but excludes bibliography)

ii)                  a chapter abstract of 300 words

iii)                a biography of 300 words

Please use the Harvard style referencing system and UK rather than US spelling. If you quote something in an African language (which is encouraged), please make sure that you also provide an English translation. 

Please note that the workshop will take place either directly before or after the 2020 African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) conference at Cardiff University, Wales, to make it easier for participants to potentially attend both events. We strongly encourage our participants to also submit abstract/panel proposals to this conference when the Call for Papers is published. Please note, however, that we cannot cover participants’ costs for attending ASAUK.

Deadline: 15 January 2020

Submit to: Dr Lindiwe Dovey (LD18@SOAS.AC.UK) and Dr Michael W. Thomas (MT97@SOAS.AC.UK)

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 819236).

Dr Michael W. ThomasPostdoctoral Research Fellow

ERC funded project - African Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film Studies

co-editor of Cine-Ethiopia: The History and Politics of Film in the Horn of Africa

G|A|M|E, n. 8/2019

Deadline (extended): July 30, 2019

The new issue of G|A|M|E proposes a re-examination of the concept of agency in games. We welcome contributions that address the idea of agency from a variety of academic perspectives, taking into account its interdisciplinary history and application, in order to expand our critical understanding of the concept more broadly. We therefore invite scholars from all fields to reflect on different notions of agency, not only in relation to physical and digital games, but also to other media and art forms as they impact on games and game studies.At the end of the influential first-person shooter Bioshock (2K Games, 2007), its critique of the rhetoric of choice and freedom emerges from the dialogue between the protagonist Jack and the visionary despot of Rapture, Andrew Rayan. Rayan’s seemingly innocent question ‘Would You Kindly?’ conceals a cognitive trigger that casts a shadow over the protagonist’s actions.By shattering the illusion of free will for both character and player, the game breaks the fourth wall and confronts the user with the question: who is being/has been controlled?

Already central to the fields of Human-Computer Interaction as well as that of design (e.g. Sherry Turkle, 1984; Brenda Laurel, 1991), agency was redefined more than twenty years ago in Janet Murray’s seminal volume Hamlet on the Holodeck (1996, p. 123) as ‘the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices’. To this day, the concept of agency is still prominent in scholarly debates on video game and game design: to describe a key ontological category that delineates the multiplicity of paths as well as the breadth of choices made available by interactive texts; and also –closer to Murray’s acceptation– to define a primary category of video game aesthetics, a textual effect attached to the pleasure of taking meaningful decisions within virtual environments.

On one level, agency informs media objects, texts and devices. Agency can be observed in relation to old and new game genres (adventure games with branching narratives, interactive movies, sandbox and open-world games); degrees of agency are provided by the affordances of VR/AR and mixed reality technologies (Oculus, PlayStationVR, HoloLens etc.); forms of agency are conceptualised across diverse media and art forms (interactive design, experimental film, on- demand TV, experiential theatre, museum installations) as well as in physical and digital hypertexts (Choose You Own Adventure books); agency is reallocated through new modes of distribution and fruition (VoD, streaming platforms and digital piracy); and agency is also embedded in sub-cultural practices and products (machinima, fan-fiction etc.).

On another level, agency is crucial to debating conceptual categories relevant to interactive digital media. Digital artefacts are immersed in a cross- and trans-media landscape, in which the interface constantly brings into question the relationship between objects, developers and users, blurring the boundaries between authors and audiences and questioning the sovereignty over these objects on multiple fronts. Here, agency provides an opening to explore aesthetic, social and political tensions (gender, race, class), and can be used to analyse discourses that challenge the role of the spectator/reader/player in relation to media object and their creators (art and exhibition, authorship, fandom, prosumer culture).

With its eighth issue, G|A|M|E wants to investigate the agency afforded by games, software and interfaces, as well as the agency claimed by players, users and spectators. Exceeding Murray’s original aesthetic understanding of the term, we intend to expand our examination of agency within and beyond the virtual borders of game studies. Agency is, in fact, a pivotal concept in philosophy, adopted to address relations of intentionality and causality between actors and actions (e.g. Anscombe, 1957; Davidson, 1963); as well as in social sciences, which locate agency within material and immaterial networks between human and non-human agents (Latour, 2005). In light of the vast interdisciplinary history of this concept, we seek contributions that can productively inform and renew our understandings of agency in gaming and play, while also using game agency to inform larger political, philosophical and cultural issues, developing current critical debates in game studies and in other disciplines.

Topics may include:

• agency in game studies
• agency and gaming technologies (VR, AR, mixed reality)
• agency and interactivity
• agency in video game criticism
• close textual analysis of games in relation to agency
• player reception and agency: modding, fandom etc.
• agency in traditional games: board games, sports etc.
• video game agency and issues of authorship
• agency as interdisciplinary concept, from games to: arts, social sciences, law and philosophy
• game agency in relation to other cultural forms (experimental film, cinema, art, architecture, design)
• agency and non-linear textuality
• politics (race, class, sexuality, gender, geopolitics) and video game agency
• agency and media ecologies

Scholars are invited to submit an extended abstract (between 500-1,000 words excluding references) or full papers by Friday the 19th of July, 2019 to editors@gamejournal.it

New extended Abstract deadline: 30th of July 2019; new Notification of acceptance: 10th of August 2019

All accepted authors will be asked to submit the full paper by the 30th of October 2019. We expect to release this issue in Winter 2019

Editors: Ivan Girina (Brunel University London), Berenike Jung (University of Tübingen)