ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

ECREA Communication History Section Workshop

September 11-13, 2019

Vienna, Austrian Academy of Sciences

Deadline for submissions (EXTENDED): May 15, 2019

Populism appears to be on the rise for several years now and extreme ideologies as well as radical politics strive for power in many European democracies and around the globe. Public debate and political pundits suggest that there is a link between the proliferation of radical politics, trenches of polarization between political camps and across societies on the one side and contemporary media environments on the other. The emphasis on allegedly new phenomena such as fake news, echo chambers, hate speech or digital platforms as drivers of political polarization and as vessels of agitation, often neglects that mediated communication has always played a vital role in both safeguarding democracy as well as putting it in jeopardy.

For this workshop, the ECREA Communication History Section invites scholarly presentations to shed light on political communication that fosters populist and radical politics in a historical perspective and across various political and cultural settings in Europe and beyond, to learn from the past for contemporary challenges.

The goal is to understand the role media played as potential accomplices or carriers of populist agitation (e.g. in autocratic regimes or out of commercial premises), and as amplifiers of extreme political positions or groups and populist sentiment (e.g. sensationalist and simplistic reporting or excessive coverage for populist tropes). Media and mediated communication can however also act as countering forces and adversaries of radical politics and aim to tame blatant populism or maintain forums for civilized debate. The workshop is also interested in works that help to deconstruct or re-evaluate assumptions about counter publics, alternative media, both for democratically progressive or rather revisionist and reactionary goals, and it aims to assemble a broad portfolio of perspectives on the topic covering a variety of historical periods, national or supranational settings and media involved. We are interested in research that addresses the full scope of media history from early prints to the digital age.

More specifically, this ECREA Communication History Section Workshop will be open to papers dealing with:

- Populist communication strategies over time, spreading mistrust against social, cultural or political elites. We are interested in studies of how this played out in various settings and what communicative strategies were employed by populists from different political camps and for various ends. The anti-elite stance of populist rhetoric includes antagonizing legacy media and the institution of journalism, to discredit information and critical coverage. How was “the press” or were “the media” but also “science” antagonized by populists, and how did in the contrary media portray their own role as an antidote against populism and as guardians of democracy? Did the media contribute to the rise of populism by providing a forum for populist actors or being advocates on behalf of the people, with a critical attitude toward power holders and building on the same principles as populist communication? And for what reasons (power, influence, profit, ideology…)?

- Rumours, myths, lies and conspiracy theories. All of them have a long history of being used as a pretence to spark public outrage, or moral panic, to motivate uprisings or isolate social groups as scapegoats or fall guys for political gain. The workshop is interested in popular myths, catastrophic rumours and allegations as means of political controversy and the strategies and logics of fear mongering.

- Simplistic answers for complex problems. Typically, populist rhetoric is anti-elite and advocating for an ingroup (us) which would be threatened or abused by the elites or a perilous outgroup (them). We are interested in research, highlighting the historical dimension of propaganda against vulnerable social groups, minorities, foreigners, socially weak, handicapped, anti-Semitic or misogynist agitation.

- Persistence and discontinuities in how alternative media reached out and aimed to mobilize, inform or counteract public communication. In how far were the public observation and valuation favourable to such endeavours and when was it critical? How do the features and affordances of certain media support populist agitation, and can populism be linked to specific media ensembles?

- Political extremism and mainstream politics. What is considered a “radical” position is not an absolute but relative and transient. The workshop will thus welcome contributions which address the construction of mainstreams, centres, peripheries and extremes in political debate, public discourse or academic analysis, and how these categories were used to isolate certain positions and how the boundaries of public debate have shifted over time.

- Media governance and democracy. How were media considered responsible for the preservation and defense of democracy in different historical periods and geographies? How did governance institutions and regulatory bodies address issues of media freedom, and how did authorities act against radical agitation or mute legitimate public critic?

- Theoretical reflections on how current theoretical and methodological approaches be transferred to past scenarios. Is the research into populism antagonizing legitimate political voices and critique and contributing to political hegemony by how research approaches subversive forces? How do and did media and communication scholars normalize some communication practices and pathologize others? Which myths and narratives are cultivated by media research, and how do prevalent concepts, eligible methods and accessible sources shape and foster certain understandings of problematic populism or romanticized counter-publics and civic engagement?

Abstracts of 500 words proposing empirical case studies as well as theoretical or methodological contributions should be submitted no later than 30 April 2019. Proposals for full panels (comprising 4 or 5 papers) are also welcome: these should include a 250-word abstract for each individual presentation, and a 300-word rationale for the panel.

Send abstracts to: cohecrea2019@yahoo.com. Authors will be informed regarding acceptance/rejection for the conference no later than 15 June 2019. Early career scholars and graduate students are highly encouraged to submit their work. Please indicate if the research submitted is part of your thesis or dissertation project. The organizers will aim to arrange for discussants to provide an intensive response for graduate students projects.

The conference registration fee will be 150 euros (110 euros Ph.D. and M.A. students) and participants will be asked to cover their own travel expenses. This fee includes two lunches and one conference dinner.

For more information on the workshop please visit: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/cmc/detail/event/ecrea-communication-history-section-workshop-2019/

Local organizer:

Josef Seethaler, josef.seethaler@oeaw.ac.at

Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies (CMC)

Austrian Academy of Sciences

For the section management team:

Gabriele Balbi, gabriele.balbi@usi.ch

Institute of Media and Journalism

USI Università della Svizzera italiana (Switzerland)

Deadline: June 30, 2019

We are offering 2 PhD scholarships (1 based in Sydney and 1 in Perth) as part of the Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project: "The African Diaspora and Pentecostalism in Australia: New Perspectives on Materiality, Media and Religion"

This project investigates the new African Diaspora in Australia and its embrace of Pentecostalism, particularly after arrival. The African community in Australia has often been associated with poor settlement outcomes, and has also been on the receiving end of a racialised moral panic. The project aims: to understand the range of challenges African-Australian communities faces; to determine why so many of their members join Pentecostal churches; to investigate how Pentecostal churches support these communities' translocal and transnational mobility and sense of belonging, and; to contribute to policy efforts to improve outcomes for African new arrivals in Australia.

Within this larger project, the PhD candidates will conduct ethnographic research with Pentecostal churches and African Diasporas in Australia. Both projects will investigate questions such as: how do Pentecostal churches support/hinder processes of settlement and ‘integration’? How do some Pentecostal megachurches generate transnational religious fields – ones which may harness resources from branches elsewhere in the world? And what impact does all of this have on Australian cities’ post-secular social landscapes?

We welcome applicants from a range of backgrounds: anthropology, sociology, religious studies, cultural studies, African studies, Migration studies or a related field. In particular, the project is suitable for candidates with strong interests in the intersections of migration and religion. Applications from students of African heritage are especially welcomed.

Deadline: June 30, 2019

For more details, see:

• Religion and Society Research Cluster, School of Social Sciences and

Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney:

https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/graduate_research_school/grs/scholarships/current_scholarships/current_scholarships/ssap_the_african_diaspora_and_pentecostalism_in_australia

• School of Social Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth:

http://www.scholarships.uwa.edu.au/search?sc_view=1&id=8941

Deadline: May 31, 2019

http://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/

The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum at the University Exeter, UK, is both a public museum and a rich research resource for scholars of moving image history. The museum is named after the renowned filmmaker Bill Douglas and was founded on the extraordinary collection of material he put together with his friend Peter Jewell. In the twenty years since its opening, the museum has received donations from many sources and now has over 80,000 artefacts on the long history of the moving image from the seventeenth century to the present day.

Thanks to the support of the Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell Fund we are delighted to again be able to offer a small number of stipends for 2019-2020 to enable research using the collections at The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum. We are inviting applications for two categories of award:

UK stipends - available to academics, postgraduate students and other researchers based in the UK, and are worth up to £500 each.

International Stipends – available to scholars and other researchers from outside the UK and are worth up to £1500 each.

The monies are to be used for travel and accommodation costs incurred while visiting the Museum to undertake significant research that will be enhanced by access to its collections. Proposed research should contribute to publication or other demonstrable outcomes, such as films or artworks. Successful applicants will be required to write a blog post for the museum’s website about their research following their visit. You will find details of previous years’ stipends and the blogs that stipend holders contributed at http://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/research/research-at-the-bill-douglas-cinema-museum/stipends-at-the-bill-douglas-cinema-museum/ The monies must be spent by April 30th 2020.

The museum’s collections are very diverse, and have the potential to enrich research in histories of film, media and visual culture, cultural and social history, audience and fan studies, media production history, and technological and labour histories of cinema. The collections have particular strengths in ‘Pre-cinema’ optical media, cinema ephemera and material culture and we also hold some production papers relating to key British independent filmmakers: Bill Douglas, Don Boyd, James Mackay and Gavrik Losey. Recent acquisitions include The Pamela Davies Collection of photographs related to the career of one of the British film industry’s leading continuity supervisors and The Townly Cooke Collection of silent film stills and ephemera. We are particularly keen to receive applications for the study of areas of distinctive strength in the collections, such as the following:

• Optical Toys
• Magic lanterns
• Panoramas and Dioramas, including the research papers of Ralph Hyde
• Early Cinema 1895-1914
• Charlie Chaplin
• Silent Cinema, especially in the UK
• Sheet Music
• Star ephemera
• Cinemagoing
• Film and material culture
• Fiction about film
• Film Press-books and campaign material
• The films of Bill Douglas
• Independent cinema in Britain since the 1970s.

To apply:

Please email bdc@exeter.ac.uk with a one page CV covering key academic achievements or publications or previous research and a proposal of up to 1,000 words outlining:

1) Your planned use of the museum’s collections

2) The expected outcomes from the research and its contribution to the field of study, including publication plans.

3) An outline of the expected costings of your visit.

The deadline for applications is 31 May 2019. Applicants will be informed of the decision of the assessment panel within one month and will be expected to undertake their research before the end of April 2020.

Digital Media Research Centre

Deadline: September 1, 2019

We are looking for promising PhD candidates to undertake projects starting in 2020 that align with the DMRC’s overarching mission to conduct world-leading research for a creative, inclusive and fair digital media environment. Applicants with excellent academic track records or equivalent professional research experience may be eligible for competitive PhD scholarships in QUT’s Annual Scholarship Round to undertake study with us.

We welcome expressions of interest for projects that directly address the DMRC’s research priorities of creativity and innovation, inclusion and diversity, and trust and fairness. We are also calling for projects that specifically address the following priority PhD topics linked to funded DMRC research projects:

• Transformations in screen industry development and distribution
• Local and regional game development cultures
• Platform regulation and communications policy
• Digital media, location data, and geoprivacy
• Smart cities, algorithms, and privacy by design

How to apply

All applications must go through an Expression of Interest (EOI) process, which closes on 1 September 2019. The purpose of the EOI process is to identify whether we can match prospective applicants and proposed projects with supervisors, and begin the process of developing the full application. To submit an EOI,

1. check the application and eligibility requirements for QUT’s annual scholarship round
2. review the priority topics above and supervisory interests below, but please avoid contacting potential supervisors directly—you will nominate potential supervisors for your project via the EOI form in step 4.
3. prepare a CV, writing sample, and preliminary research proposal using this document template, and
4. complete the online Expression of Interest form by 1 September 2019. If you are unable to access the online form, please email rtc-soc@qut.edu.au for a Word version.

Expressions of Interest close: 1 September 2019

Final applications due to QUT: 30 September 2019

Supervisors and supervisory interests

• Assoc. Prof. Dan Angus: computational methods for social science and humanities research, algorithmic culture, social media, data journalism, information visualisation, speech and language processing
• Assoc. Prof. John Banks: videogames industry, consumer co-creation
• Prof. Axel Bruns: social media, journalism studies, citizen journalism, Internet studies, media and communication, user-led content creation
• Prof. Jean Burgess: platform studies, algorithms and automation, critical digital methods, online subcultures, feminist and LGBTQ politics
• Assoc. Prof. Susan Carson: cultural tourism, literary and cultural trails, digital applications, Indigenous tourism, Australian studies
• Dr Elija Cassidy: digital diversity and inclusion, everyday digital media use, digital dating/hookup apps, digital LGBTQ cultures, online safety and harassment, participatory reluctance, cultures of non-use and resistant appropriation, digital diasporas
• Prof. Stuart Cunningham: media industries in transition; digital platform studies; creative industries; media convergence; media, arts, communications and cultural policy
• Assoc. Prof. Michael Dezuanni: digital and media literacy, digital inclusion, children’s digital cultures, media education and media arts
• Prof. Terry Flew: creative industries, globalisation and international trade, media convergence, media and citizenship, media in Asia, media policy
• Prof. Marcus Foth: urban informatics, smart cities, human-computer interaction, sustainability, community engagement, design, blockchain
• Dr Timothy Graham: social network analysis, social theory, social media analytics, natural language processing, machine learning
• Assoc. Prof. Stephen Harrington: emergent forms of journalism, entertainment, political citizenship
• Dr Jenny Zhengye Hou: strategic communication in the digital age, public relations theory and practice, intercultural communication, fake news, disaster, risk and crisis communication
• Dr Brendan Keogh: video games, game studies, creative industries, game development, creative labour, digital media, informal labour, game industry, new media
• Prof. Amanda Lotz: media industries, internet-distributed media, television/screen studies, transnational media flows
• Dr Monique Mann: surveillance, privacy, algorithmic justice, biometrics, technology and regulation
• Dr Ariadna Matamoros Fernández: Platform governance and platform studies, digital methods, popular cultures of digital media, race and racism on digital platforms, online harassment, misinformation/disinformation
• Assoc. Prof. Peta Mitchell: locative/mobile/geosocial media, media geography, digital ethics, digital diversity, critical approaches to data, data literacy, everyday digital media use
• Dr Benjamin Nicoll: media history and historiography, platform studies, game studies, critical theory of technology, media and cultural studies
• Dr Kylie Pappalardo: copyright, intellectual property, intermediary liability, open access, online governance, regulation, digital media
• Prof. Matthew Rimmer: intellectual property, digital copyright, clean technologies, and climate change, media and information technology law
• Assoc. Prof. Angela Romano: cultural diversity and journalism, journalism and democracy, journalism in developing countries, public journalism, civic journalism and deliberation, media representations of refugees, women in the media
• Dr Mark Ryan: Film, television, and screen genres; Australian film and television; film and screen industries; health and screen media; blockchain and screen production
• Dr Kevin Sanson: media industries, globalization, creative labour, creative industries, film/television studies
• Dr Aljosha Karim Schapals: journalism studies, political communication, media and democracy, election reporting (Brexit), fake news
• Dr Christina Spurgeon: advertising studies, co-creative media, community media
• Assoc. Prof. Nic Suzor: platform governance; internet regulation; open knowledge, open access, and free culture; digital copyright
• Dr T. J. Thomson: visual communication, visual journalism, journalism studies, self-representation, visual literacy, visual sociology, image culture, mobile media production and distribution, everyday digital media use
• Dr Tess Van Hemert:
• Prof. Patrik Wikström: digital creative economy, cultural economics, music, computational social science

Questions?

Contact rtc-soc@qut.edu.au for further information.

Find us on Twitter and Instagram as @qutdmrc, or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/qutdmrc

More here

Commons Journal, Vol. 8. No. 2 (December 2019)

Deadline: July 1, 2019

Throughout the world it is possible to find undergraduate and postgraduate study programmes that include modules pertaining to the so-called ‘Communication for Social Change’ (CSC) phenomenon. The sociocultural contexts, academic cultures, institutionalisation processes, etc., through which CSC has been incorporated into university curricula are extremely varied. But we now have more than enough experience to take stock of the ground covered to date.

By incorporating CSC in university curricula, students and PhD students completing traineeships can approach research focusing on the efforts of social movements, NGOs and citizen networks to implement social and communication actions aimed at achieving social justice.

Under the rather broad label of CSC, this call for papers focuses on broaching the following curricular issues:

• The relationship between communication, the critique of capitalism and social mobilisation.
• The study of the processes of social mobilisation and transformation from a communication perspective.
• The analysis of the role of community media and other communication mediations led by the citizenry and social movements.
• The introduction of a series of ‘Epistemologies of the South’ (Sousa Santos and Meneses, 2014) that break with the hegemonic models of knowledge construction.
• Proposals for more inclusive social representations that go beyond the stereotypes generated by the dominant cultural industries (the ‘Disney World’ as a paradigmatic example).

Looking back on the progress made, we could beg the following question: is the incorporation of these topics into university curricula leading to critical theoretical research and to transforming practices or, on the contrary, are we witnessing a strict disciplining of a number of issues that, constrained by bureaucratic rationales, lose their critical and transforming capacity? Are authors like Paulo Freire being studied to pass the exam or rather to learn how to transform reality?

This dilemma reflected in the title (disciplining the field /or/ indisciplining universities) allows for other combinations (i.e. disciplining the field /and/, at the same time, indisciplining universities) which we would like contributions to this monograph to examine.

The aim of this number of /Commons /is to map ongoing processes in the largest number of social, geographical and institutional contexts possible.

Papers, which should be submitted before 1 July 2019, should deal with some or other of the aforementioned aspects.

Bibliography

Sousa Santos, Boaventura and Meneses, M.ª Paula (eds.) (2014). Epistemologías del Sur: perspectivas [Epistemologies of the South: perspectives]. Madrid. Akal.

Freire, Paulo (1970). Pedagogía del oprimido [Pedagogy of the oppressed]. Montevideo, Uruguay. Nueva Tierra.

Gumucio-Dagron, Alfonso and Tufte, Thomas (Eds.). (2006). /Communication for social change anthology: Historical and contemporary readings/. New Jersey, EE.UU.CFSC Consortium.

Kaplún, Gabriel. (2005). Indisciplinar la universidad [Indisciplining universities], in /Walsh, Catherine.(comp), Pensamiento crítico y matriz (de) colonial: reflexiones latinoamericana/ [Critical thinking and the (de)colonial matrix: Latin American reflections]/. /Quito, Ecuador. Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar/Abya-Yala.

Marí, V. M. (2018). Análisis de los movimientos-red contemporáneos desde una perspectiva comunicacional y freiriana. Desbordamientos, transformaciones y sujetos colectivos. [Analysis of Contemporary Networked Movements from a Communicational and Freirean Perspective. Overflows, Transformations and Collective Subjects], /Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana/, /23/, 140-147. Disponible en: (PDF) Análisis de los movimientos-red contemporáneos desde una perspectiva comunicacional y freiriana. Desbordamientos, transformaciones y sujetos colectivos.

Walsh, Catherine, Shiwy, Freya and Castro-Gómez, Santiago (eds.) (2002). Indisciplinar las ciencias sociales. Geopolíticas del conocimiento y colonialidad del poder. Perspectivas desde lo andino [Indisciplining social sciences. Geopolitics of knowledge and coloniality of power. Andean perspectives]. Quito, Ecuador. 2002.

Call for papers for edited book

Deadline: June 30, 2019

The editors are in talks with John Benjamins Publishing Company (Amsterdam) and plan to publish the edited volume in the Benjamins’ Discourse Approaches to Politics, Culture and Society series (edited by Jo Angouri and Andreas Musolff). This book series is peer-reviewed and indexed in Scopus.

Discourse Analysis and Conflict Studies

Interest in the broad subject of conflict studies by linguists and language scholars has increased over the years with the growing incidents of conflicts, wars and political violence around the world. There have also been increasing and interesting studies that applied linguistic and discourse approaches to the study of violent protests, activism and political struggles. These studies have given significant insights to the role of language use or discourse in conflict initiation and conflict resolution. From these burgeoning studies, it is clear that there is a strong connection between how what is said or written and how conflict may develop and escalate.

Discourse theorists generally believe that oral or written discourse produced by different people vary with recognizable patterns, depending on their social domains of life (see, for example, Laclau & Mouffe, 1985). The work of a discourse analyst is to analyze these patterns and identify their significance and consequences. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) for example, shows how language works in sociocultural and political contexts, focusing on power relations and ideological perspectives reflected in discourse texts, and their wider implications for the society.

Hence, a critical discourse study of subtle texts such as news reports (or “fake news”), editorials, propaganda, social media publications, etc. in the form of writing, visual or multimodal/video streaming will be very important in contemporary times.

This collection of essays will aim to show the synergy between discourse analysis and conflict studies by showing how topics in conflicts studies and conflict resolution may be researched using methods and approaches in discourse analysis (e.g. CDA, multi-modal discourse analysis, conversation analysis etc.)

This study will attempt to cover all conflict-related topics within the fields of political science, international relations, sociology, media studies, applied linguistics etc., which will include:

• Terrorism and extremism
• Conflict and war
• Political crisis
• Ethnic violence/sectarian crisis
• Activism and violent protest
• Hate speech and verbal war (in the media and the Internet etc.)
• Conflict resolution techniques
• Discourse and peace processes

Contributors are invited to submit chapter proposals (about 200 words) not later than 30th June 2019. Kindly send Abstracts or questions as email attachment to Innocent Chiluwa: innocent.chiluwa@covenantuniversity.edu.ng

IAMCR 2019 Pre-conference

July 5, 2019

Valencia, Spain

Deadline: May 15, 2019

Confirmed key-note speaker:* Dr. Gianpietro Mazzoleni (Università degli Studi di Milano).

The IAMCR 2019 pre-conference *Misinformation and political processes: media strategies and audience attitudes* aims to reflect on the concept of misinformation and its multiple dimensions, as well as the strategies and practices developed around them, particularly those linked to political contexts and electoral processes.

The Oxford Dictionary declared post-truth word of the year in 2016, highlighting a historical and political moment in which disinformation strategies, fake news and lies are exponentially spread through social networks: facilitating, among others, Trump’s rise to power and having an impact also in Brexit debates (Jankowski, 2018). Since then, the role of manipulative messages has increased (Baudrillard, 1981; Wardle, 2017) – rising concern about their effects in political decisions, particularly in times of crisis (Spence, Lachlan, Edwards, & Edwards, 2016).

The potential role of social networks in disseminating misinformation (Woolley & Howard, 2016) grows in importance if we take into account that they have become the main source of information (Shearer & Gottfried, 2017), especially during electoral processes (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). Considering that misinformation takes advantage of the increasing polarization of public opinion (Lewandowsky, Ecker & Cook, 2017; Horta et al,. 2017), its pernicious effects on decision-making and political debate demand a greater knowledge of the motivations behind the dissemination of misinformation (Flynn, Nyhan & Reifler, 2017).

Topics of interest for the conference may be related, but not limited, to the following:

• Genealogy of post-truth and its different expressions: misinformation, disinformation, manipulation, fake-news, conspiracy theories, rumors, memes …
• Origins and historical evolution of misinformation.
• Fact-checking and digital platforms for verifying public discourse: Experiences and results.
• Effects of disinformation on democratic stability
• Polarization and success of misinformation: perception and influence.
• Reception studies of fake-news
• Active audiences and the fight against the spread of false news: counter-narratives and different civic society initiatives.
• Bots and dissemination of fake news: who is behind the massive dissemination of false or manipulative messages?
• Algorithmic transparency: The role of platforms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter in the control of false news.
• Regulation and self-control: viability of regulation
• News transparency and fact-checkers in the newsrooms.
• Reputation of the sources: Value assignment and social credibility.
• Misinformation and human rights
• Media literacy and misinformation
• Methods for the empirical approach to disinformation
• Trends, styles, and narratives of fake news.
• Dynamics of dissemination
• Clickbait and other misinformation strategies
• Important deadlines and other information:*

Call for proposals:

Submissions should include the name(s) and institutional affiliation of the applicant(s), email address and abstracts no longer than 500 words (including references), and a short bio (100 words) in English or Spanish (public presentation will be in English)

Abstracts must be submitted before May 15, 2019 at: misinformation2019iamcr@gmail.com

Participants will be notified about acceptance by June 10.

Participation and registration: Registration will be required.

Registration fee: 20€

The registration fee includes attendance to all events of the conference, coffee breaks & snacks, and lunch.

For more information about the call, click here

The School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds

Deadline: June 10, 2019

Are you an outstanding academic with passion and enthusiasm for your research? Do you want to be part of a thriving media and communication school in a Russell Group University? Are you an experienced academic leader looking for a challenging senior leadership position?

The School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds is a vibrant and highly ranked department with a commitment to excellence in both research and teaching. We are ranked in the top three in the UK for Communication and Media Studies (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018) and 22nd in the world (QS World University Rankings by Subject). In the 2014 REF exercise we were placed in the top ten departments in the UK with 82% of our research judged to be either ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.

We are looking to appoint a Professor or Associate Professor to join us to provide leadership across the range of the School’s activities. The successful candidate will be expected to enhance the School’s research and teaching activities and work with colleagues to build on the School’s reputation for excellence in political communication. We are seeking applicants who can contribute to world-leading research on the relationship between the media and politics, broadly conceived. This may include (but is not limited to): the relationships between communication and political attitudes/behaviour; the civic roles of the media; emerging technologies and forms of political participation; and the significance of news for politics and civil society.

The School is keenly interested in diversifying its staff and welcomes applications from candidates belonging to groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in media and communication, including but not limited to ethnic minorities.

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact:

Dr Kate Nash, Head of School

Tel: +44 (0)113 343 4443, email: K.Nash@leeds.ac.uk

• Location: Leeds - Main Campus
• Faculty/Service: Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Cultures
• School/Institute: School of Media and Communication
• Category: Academic
• Grade: Grade 9 to Grade 10
• Salary: £50,132 to £73,539 p.a.
• Associate Professor, Grade 9 (£50,132– £58,089 p.a.), Professor, Grade 10 (competitive salary)
• Working Time: 100%
• Post Type: Full Time
• Contract Type: Ongoing
• Release Date: Tuesday 05 March 2019
• Closing Date: Monday 10 June 2019
• Reference: AHCMC1037

Download here

September 12-14, 2019 

Portland, Oregon, USA

Deadline: May 15, 2019

Keynotes: Amanda Ann Klein, East Carolina University, and Matt McCormick, Gonzaga University

In holding this year’s conference in downtown Portland, one of the most environmentally conscious cities in the United States, we invite attendees to consider the themes of “repurpose” and “recycle,” broadly conceived. What function—socially, politically, and economically—do sequels, remakes, and reboots serve in media culture? How do reboots and remakes allow creators and audiences to not only revisit, but reimagine familiar narratives? What historical precedents might we return to in our attempts to better understand the nature and influence of series, serials, and (trans)media franchises today? And how might adaptation studies play a vital role in these critical discussions? While we welcome papers on any aspect of adaptation studies, we are especially interested in presentations that address one or more of the following concerns (or similar topics):

• transmedia storytelling
• media franchising
• recombinant culture
• questions of authorship in adaptation
• film genres and genre cycles
• economic and industrial perspectives on remakes
• rebooting television series
• evaluating sequels, remakes, and reboots
• the question of originality and artistry in adaptation
• environmental media and ecocritical perspectives
• ecocinema and ecomedia
• media and the anthropocene
• historical precedents in series, serial, and franchise storytelling
• formalist and narratological approaches to series, serial, and franchise storytelling
• narrative extensions into new media, including video games
• the impact of #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo on reimagining adaptation
• teaching adaptation

The LFA also welcomes work in media studies, more broadly. We have significant interest in broader studies of American and international cinema, film and technology, television, new media, and other cultural or political issues connected to the moving image. In addition to academic papers, presentation proposals about pedagogy or from creative writers, artists, and filmmakers are also welcome.

We are excited to feature two outstanding keynote speakers this year:

Amanda Ann Klein, Associate Professor of Film Studies in the English Department at East Carolina University, is author of American Film Cycles: Reframing Genres, Screening Social Problems, & Defining Subcultures (University of Texas Press, 2011) and co-editor ofMultiplicities: Cycles, Sequels, Remakes and Reboots in Film & Television (University of Texas Press, 2016). Her manuscript, Identity Killed the Video Star: A Cultural History of MTV Reality Programming, is under contract with Duke University Press. Her scholarship has appeared in Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Jump Cut, Film Criticism, Flow, Antenna, Salon, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and The New Yorker.

Matt McCormick has for many years been a key figure in the Portland art and film scene and is currently Assistant Professor of Integrated Media & Art at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA. Matt’s work crosses mediums and defies genre distinctions to fashion witty, abstract observations of contemporary culture and the urban landscape. His films, which include The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal, Some Days Are Better Than Others, The Great Northwest, and Buzz One Four, have screened in venues ranging from the Sundance Film Festival to the Museum of Modern Art, and have been critically acclaimed by The New York Times, Art Forum, and many other media outlets. Matt has also directed music videos for bands including The Shins, Sleater-Kinney, and Broken Bells.

Please submit your proposal via this Google Form by May 15, 2019. If you have any questions or concerns, contact Pete Kunze atlitfilmconference@gmail.com. Accepted presenters will be notified by June 1.

All sessions will be held at the University of Oregon in Portland, located at 70 NW Couch St. in downtown Portland. Limited travel grant support is planned to be available for select graduate students, non-tenure-track faculty, and/or independent scholars and artists. Details for an added application process for such support will be shared following proposal acceptances.

The conference registration fee is $200 ($150 for students and retirees) before August 1, 2019 and $225 ($175 for students and retirees) thereafter. All conference attendees must also be current members of the Literature/Film Association, and all presenters must be registered by September 1 to appear on the final conference program. Annual dues are $20. To register for the conference and pay dues following acceptance of your proposal, visit the Literature/Film Association website at http://litfilm.org/conference and use our PayPal feature.

Presenters will be invited to submit their work to the Literature/Film Quarterly for potential publication. For details on the journal’s submission requirements, visit http://www.salisbury.edu/lfq

Deadline: October 31, 2019

The Professional Wresting Studies Association invites submissions for the inaugural issue of the Professional Wrestling Studies Journal. We welcome scholarly work from any theoretical and methodological lens that is rigorous, insightful, and expands our audience’s understanding of professional wrestling past or present as a cultural, social, political, and/or economic institution.

All submissions must be original scholarly work and free of identifying information for blind review. Written articles should be submitted as Word documents and no more than 8,000 words, inclusive of a 200-word abstract and a reference list. MLA citation style is required. Any images that are not original require copyright clearance. Articles will be converted into PDFs for publication, so hyperlinks should be active. For multimedia productions and experimental scholarship, please contact editor-in-chief Matt Foy (foym38@uiu.edu) to verify length and proper format in which to send the piece.

The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2019 for an April 2020 publication. Please email submissions to prowrestlingstudies@gmail.com. For more information on the Professional Wresting Studies Association, please visit https://prowrestlingstudies.org.