ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Metz, France

Body in which the person concerned is destined to be appointed: University Professor

Publication profile (title of the contract and the position concerned): Digital communication, games, public health

Location: Metz, France

Job profile and EURAXESS (maximum two-line summary of the profile in English):

At the intersection of social sciences and humanities, engineering and medicine, the researcher will explore in an interdisciplinary way the applications and relationships between game and health. Euraxess research fields (see coding table in the annexed documents): Communication sciences

Job profile:

Nature and purpose of the research project:

Searching for innovative solutions in the domain of health is one of the six major challenges of Université de Lorraine. The mission related to the Junior Professorship Chair will be carried out in the field of game studies, in which the Centre for Research on Mediations (CREM - UR 3476) is a pioneer and driving force in France. At the intersection of social sciences and humanities, engineering and medicine, the researcher will explore, in an interdisciplinary way, the applications and relationships between game and health: gamification, mediation of health problems, relationship between e-sport and health, acquisition of knowledge on certain subjects from game experiences (human relationships, psychological disorders, resilience), etc.

CREM has developed expertise in “expressive games”. The latter refer to games that allow players to put themselves in the shoes of others to explore psycho-social and cultural problems. The “Expressive Gamelab” (created by CREM), offers an appropriate environment and the necessary equipment for the analysis of digital games and their applications, and the development of new scientific perspectives in the field of game studies. Eight doctoral projects are currently being conducted within the lab. The latter also aims to strengthen relations with the general public and the local institutions. CREM’s next five-year program focuses on the theme of “living together”, and takes a special interest on making life better for the most vulnerable, those suffering from health problems. Research is already being carried out on mediation in the health sector.

The position is located in Metz, an attractive city with cultural venues (e.g. Pompidou Centre) and prestigious schools (Georgia Tech) and located 1 hour and 20 minutes away from Paris by high-speed train (TGV). It offers a favorable environment for international collaborations, being located near Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium.

The colleague will be recruited in the frame of a newly-opened Junior Professorship Chair in Digital Communication, Gamification and Public Health.

The Junior Professor contract is for a period of 5 years, after which it can be transformed into a full professor tenure position.

The junior professor’s missions will be primarily oriented towards research (only 64 hours of teaching per year).

In order to encourage the development of this research area, the recruitment will be carried out with the support of a doctoral student whose work will develop game design and gamification methods applied to the health sector. Financial support will also be provided for the acquisition of equipment for the implementation of research & development experiments.

The missions will be in line with these different axes:

Scientific production:

• Organization of an international conference on the theme of the Chair.
• Publication of articles in peer-reviewed academic journals:
• • in the field of game studies (e.g. Game & culture, Gamestudies.org, Game Science);
  • (e.g. European Journal of Health Communication, Health Communication, Social science and medicine);
  • Information and communication sciences (e.g. Communication Research, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, New Media & Society).

NB: CREM runs the internationally renowned journal Questions de communication (on OpenEdition Journals) and the Publictionnaire. Encyclopaedic and critical dictionary of publics (hosted by TGIR Huma-Num) which welcome contributions on the theme.

• Participation in the professional and academic network Games for health Europe.
• International papers at the annual conferences of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), the International Communication Association (ICA) or the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).
• Within the 5th year of the opening of the position, the colleague will have to defend a

Habilitation to direct research (which is a French degree required to be a PHD supervisor).

Science and society:

• Seminars for the general public will be organized every six months to report on the progress of the Chair's work. These seminars will be an opportunity to invite private and public actors on a national and international level in connection with gamification of activities in the domain of health.
• Organization of a conference on games and health for a variety of actors from the professional and institutional world in the domain of health.
• Implementation of a monthly streaming channel (Twitch) on the Chair's themes and subsequent broadcasting in the form of podcasts with the creation of a dedicated broadcasting channel (YouTube or other).

Dissemination of research:

• Development of an operational digital game at the end of the mission, in partnership with academic and institutional actors and health professionals.
• Application to the European Research Council (ERC) for an individual Starting Grant.
• Submission of an international research program such as Interreg (European interregional program) or ANR “Collaborative research project – international” (PRCI), in order to develop international partnerships on the Chair's themes.
• Participation in the EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation “Europe Horizon”, in particular the axis Games and culture shaping our society within the theme Innovative Research on the European Cultural Heritage and the Cultural and Creative Industries.
• Corpus of videos and articles, linked to the activities of the streaming channel dedicated to the Chair.

Nature and purpose of the proposed teaching project:

The colleague will address the issue of the relationship between gamification, games, digital devices and health. He/she will follow students’ professional projects, contributing to the development of regional, national and international partnerships with the socio-economic sector, and to the attractiveness of the department’s diplomas (BA, MA). He/she will be involved in the tutoring of theses on the Chair's themes. In addition, he/she will contribute to curricula such as the University Diploma (DU) in telemedicine, health training (the faculties of medicine and pharmacy have confirmed their interest), computer science or psychology. He/she will also strengthen the researcheducation relation by offering a “gamification of health and research” course to students in the domain of health, in order to encourage doctoral projects in this field.

Anticipated contract duration: 5 years

Minimum monthly salary: €3 443.50 (gross)

Teaching profile:

The researcher will primarily teach game design courses within the Master’s “Audiovisual and Digital Interactive Media” program in Metz. This MA’s objective is to provide students with skills in the field of games and their applications. Courses will also be taught in the “Information-communication” Bachelor’s curriculum. They will focus on theoretical and applied learning related to game design, video games, gamification, interactive narration, etc., applying them to the health sector. An investment in the tutoring of master's theses and tutored projects is also expected.

Keywords: information and communication sciences / game studies / health

Department/University: UFR SHS - Metz

Teaching department: Information - Communication Department

Place(s) of work: Metz

Teaching team:

Name of Department Director: Sébastien Genvo

Tel. Department Director: +33 6 89 68 07 34

Email Department Director: sebastien.genvo@univ-lorraine.fr

URL dept:

Research profile:

The person recruited will have research experience on the relationship between games and health. He/she will join CREM’s Pixel team “Digital devices and uses, game studies, traces and data”. He/she will participate in R&D and action-research projects, e.g. with Mercy Hospital-CHR Metz-Thionville; CHRU-Nancy, with the Pierre Janet Centre for innovative post-trauma treatments, or the research centre APEMAC, specializing in public health. He/she will collaborate with other CREM teams, e.g. Praxis specializing in “Institutional communication, health/environment, sciences in society”. In addition, he/she will develop collaborations with researchers from French and foreign research units (including within the program “Science and Society”, coordinated by Université de Lorraine).

In order to encourage recruitment, the position will be open to non-French speakers. They will have to commit to acquiring a level of French C1 within 5 years.

Keywords: Mediation / game design / health, environment, science and society / action-research / research - creation / gamification

Laboratory name: Centre for Research on Mediations (CREM)

Laboratory unit number: UR 3476

Place(s) of work: Metz

Name Lab Director: Angeliki Monnier

Tel Lab Director:

Email Lab Director: angeliki.monnier@univ-lorraine.fr

Lab URL: http://crem.univ-lorraine.fr/

Laboratory description: A research unit of Université de Lorraine, CREM has more than 200 members: approximately 80 full professors and associate professors, more than 90 doctoral students, more than 20 associate researchers, and 7 administrative officers. CREM is a member of the scientific pole “Knowledge, Language, Communication, Society” (CLCS) of Université de Lorraine, and a member of the “Humanités Nouvelles-Fernand Braudel” doctoral school, as well as a partner of the “Maison des sciences de l'homme Lorraine”. Its researchers belong to 11 disciplines: nearly 90% to information and communication sciences, language sciences, French language and literature studies and art sciences; approximately 10% to English and Anglo-Saxon, Arabic, Germanic and Romance languages and literature studies, anthropology, psychology and sociology.

Unit’s project description:

CREM researchers study the processes and forms of mediation that interpret and give meaning to social, cultural, artistic and technological mutations. CREM is structured into six teams with specific scientific orientations and themes:

• “Passages” (culture, heritage, memory)
• “Pixel” (digital devices and uses, game studies, traces and data)
• “Praximedia” (journalism, public space, representations)
• “Praxis” (institutional communication, health, science/society)
• “Praxitele” (aesthetics, plastic arts, cinema and audiovisual)
• “Praxitext” (language, text and discourse)

Additional information:

Requirements for applicants:

- Hold a doctorate or an equivalent degree (upon recognition by UL Scientific Committee).

In addition, it is recommended:

- To have completed at least 3 years of scientific activity after the PhD thesis.

- For holders of a doctorate in France, to have a significant experience of mobility abroad (at least two years).

The list of supporting documents to be attached to the application file will be sent shortly by the Ministry. You can find it on the University of Lorraine website.

Applications must be submitted on the Galaxie platform (FIDIS module) according to the calendar available on the Université de Lorraine website.

Only those candidates who have been selected by the recruitment committee on the basis of their applications will be invited to the audition.

*When searching for positions, Junior Professorships will be distinguished from others by the recruitment article (JPC).

How auditions are organized:

Professional situation:

yes X no

“The audition may include [...] one or more on-site or remote works, in particular in the form of one or more lessons on a free or imposed theme, a seminar for the presentation of research work or a meeting with students or teachers-researchers, researchers or similar staff of the research or teaching unit in which the position is open.

This work may be public under the conditions laid down in the recruitment notice.

During these simulation phases, the selection committee acts as an observer and only intervenes to ensure that the simulation runs smoothly.” art.10 of decree n° 2021-1710 of 17 December 2021

If yes:

public non-public

In the form of:

of lesson(s)

research presentation seminar

meetings (with students or teachers/researchers/researchers of the research or teaching unit in which the post is open)

Other information:

The position for which you are applying is likely to be located in a “restricted area” within the meaning of article R 413-5-1 of the penal code. If this is the case, your appointment and/or assignment can only take place after authorization of access issued by the head of the establishment, in accordance with the provisions of article 20-4 of decree n°84-431 of 6 June 1984.

Dublin City University

Deadline: March 31, 2022

The School of Communications at Dublin City University is now inviting applications from qualified candidates for up to four PhD Scholarships.

The School of Communications at DCU is home to almost 1,000 students at undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD levels. With a tradition stretching back more than 40 years, the School is defined by excellence in both teaching and research in communication, journalism and multimedia studies. In the QS global subject rankings in 2021 DCU was in the top 150 (of almost 1,500) universities worldwide in the area of communications. DCU is ranked number 1 nationally in Communications & Media Studies.

The School’s academics undertake research that contributes to national and international debates and public policy formation. They also lead research projects supported by national and international funders. This cutting-edge research is across a range of (inter)disciplinary fields including (new) media studies, media history, journalism studies, science communication, political communication, social media studies, film and television studies, music industry studies, advertising, and cultural studies. In the past six years, the School has supported approximately 40 doctoral students to achieve PhD awards through this scheme.

The School now has an opening for up to four funded PhD scholarships (across a four-year duration). As well as an annual tax-free stipend of €16,500 plus fees, we also support our students with funding for conference travel and offer PhD candidates opportunities to gain teaching experience.

In this call, we invite applications in the following areas / themes:

Digital Challenges for Journalism and Politics: Fellowship(s) in this area will ideally focus on the social, political, economic, and democratic impact of recent changes in the media environment. Particularly relevant are (cross-country) comparative studies on the relationship between social media platforms and news organisations, algorithmic power, political polarization, changing media systems, media coverage of corruption, and investigative journalism. (For further information contact Dr. Alessio Cornia – alessio.cornia@dcu.ie)

Science, Technology and Environmental Journalism: Fellowship(s) in this area will ideally focus on the broad area of science, technology, and environmental journalism. We especially welcome proposals to research journalism about energy and climate change, including journalism related to the transition to low-carbon societies. We also welcome proposals to research the political economy of science, technology, and environmental journalism, and journalism about the financial dimensions of sustainability, as well proposals to research journalistic portrayals of the technological dimensions of the energy transition. (For further information contact Dr. Declan Fahy – declan.fahy@dcu.ie)

Journalism & Objectivity: Fellowship(s) in this area will ideally focus on the challenges to objectivity and impartiality that are inherent in contemporary journalism. Particularly relevant are proposals relating to the nature of the public sphere, contemporary journalistic practices and norms, news values, media regulation, new media, cancel culture, and moral certainty. (For further information contact Dr. Mark O’Brien – mark.obrien@dcu.ie)

Interdisciplinary Digital Communications Research: Fellowship(s) in this area will ideally focus on interdisciplinary digital research, grounded in Communications and incorporating / developing novel methods. Of particular interest are (a) studies of discourse and participation in online spaces, particularly within established and emerging social media platforms; (b) studies exploring the technological mediation of public discourse, community building, or collaborative learning; or (c) explorations of the ethics within such online digital communications research. Proposals for monograph thesis PhD projects, as well as practice-based doctoral projects in these thematic areas will be considered. Applicants should directly address the interdisciplinary elements of their proposed research (or practice) and discuss their intended methodological approach(es). (For further information contact Dr. Dónal Mulligan – donal.mulligan@dcu.ie)

NB. Applications should consist of a 2,000 word research proposal as well as a brief CV detailing academic qualifications and professional experience to date.

NB. Applicants must contact the relevant supervisor prior to submitting an application.

NB. All applications should be submitted to Ms. Eileen Myers, Secretary, School of Communications, DCU (eileen.myers@dcu.ie), clearly indicating the theme under which they are applying.

We intend to shortlist and interview selected candidates either in person or online over April and May. Successful candidates then will be required to apply formally to be admitted as PhD students and may also need to show proficiency in the English language. Successful candidates will begin their studies in October 2022 and are required to be normally resident in Dublin for the duration of their studies.

Closing date for applications: Thursday 31st March 2022

East European Film Bulletin

Proposals: June 15, 2022

Papers due: November, 15 2022

In the late 1950s and 1960s, experimental cinema in the Balkans developed away from the mainstream despite occasional official support. Experimental cinema often originated in socalled amateur film, and flourished in numerous cinema clubs in all major cities of the former Yugoslavian federation. However, the cinema clubs were also part of the socialist project of spreading art to all layers of society. In the 1970s artistic activity and forms of provocation continued to be produced clandestinely despite the reinforcement of censorship of Marshal Tito’s regime. The "New Art Practice", a generation of artists active in Yugoslavia in the late 1960s and the 1970s, practiced experimentation in art, turning the traditional studio to artist-run spaces, creating multimedia performances in the street, as well as experimental publications. The concept of “anti-films” thrived, especially supported by the Genre Experimental Film Festival (GEFF). With the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, cinematic practices branched out to a questioning of memory and identity, often through an ethno-anthropological gaze. In recent years, questions of ethnic identity remain relevant, but experimental cinema has expanded into diverse forms and subjects – gender, ecology, a return to folk mythology among others. Much of this has been approached through contemporary technological explorations of digitality or analogue media.

As part of its 2022 Balkans focus, the East European Film Bulletin is preparing a special issue on experimental cinema, including experimental documentary, video and moving-image art and new media. We are looking for essay-length contributions that should discuss current and past trends of these art forms in the Balkans (or of Balkan artists from abroad) and/or contributions that focus on the work(s) of a particular artist.

We are particularly interested in discussions on the work(s) of: Marina Abramović., Neša Paripović, Sanja Iveković, Dalibor Martinis, Maria Kourkouta, Marianna Christofide, Goran Trbuljak, Igor Toholj, Jurij Meden

Publications should be in English.

Proposals should be sent to editors@eefb.org

Stylistic guidelines for essays published in our journal can be found here.

East European Film Bulletin | 22 rue des Envierges, 75020 Paris | Facebook | eefb.org

June 16-18, 2022

Online Conference 

Deadline for extended abstracts: April 3, 2022

Conference website: www.mediatingscale.com

Confirmed keynote speakers:

• Prof Benjamin Bratton (University of California, San Diego)
• Prof Kathryn Yusoff (Queen Mary University of London)
• Dr Joshua DiCaglio (Texas A&M University)
• Dr Zachary Horton (University of Pittsburgh)
• Dr Bogna Konior (NYU Shanghai)
• Dr Thomas Moynihan (University of Oxford)

The problem of scale has historically been discussed primarily within the confines of specific disciplinary contexts (biology, geography, mathematics, etc.), however it is increasingly emerging as a transdisciplinary concern. Similarly to the ways in which contemporary problems exceed disciplinary boundaries, and require heterogeneous approaches in order to be productively understood, the future orientation of our strategies for addressing those problems must engage with the full scalar spectrum of our planetary existence. Global crises such as pandemics or climate change disturb the human comfort of the mesoscale and require us to grapple with the underlying material reality, including molecular as well as global processes.

The COVID-19 pandemic proved that the biological, chemical, and epidemiological reality is indifferent to the cultural and political narratives conjectured by the human vectors of transmission. A post-pandemic world needs to learn the lessons from this ‘revenge of the real’ (Bratton, 2021) and recognise the complexity of the world which cannot be reduced to myopic projections and illusions. As Dipesh Chakrabarty points out: ‘the coming together of human and nonhuman scales produces the political in the form of a paradox that calls into question previous ways of thinking about and using that category’ (2021, p. 8). As global society is affected by ‘mega processes’, our orientation towards the future should be guided by reason, and a planetary politics which exceeds the logics of the nation-state and includes the whole physical universe (Mbembe, 2019).

In order to access different scalar perspectives, humans have always constructed mediating devices. Instruments such as the telescope or the microscope provided an insight into the scale of reality beyond human visual perception, and demonstrated that ‘the invisible makes up a continuum of reality with the visible’ (Blumenberg, 1987, p. 618). More recent examples of scalar media include the James Webb Space Telescope, mediating the spatial and temporal scale of the universe through an analysis of infrared light, as well as potentially shedding light on the local condition of far-off planets. It contributes to a wider process in which scientists use numerical data from telescopes and satellites to help imagine worlds and places which can be made sense of on a human scale (Messeri, 2016). Computational technologies also help us conceptualise some of the most pressing scalar problems. Inequalities related to labour relations and the distribution of resources can be traced through the mineral materialities of media devices and the cartographies of electronic waste (Parikka, 2015), whilst the concept of ‘climate change’ is an epistemological accomplishment of planetary-scale computation (Bratton, 2019). The history of media and technologies is a history of evolving modes and scales of perception and knowledge, and cultural texts such as Powers of Ten, Fantastic Voyage, Alice in Wonderland, and Gulliver’s Travels have been discussed as motivating thinking about scale (Horton, 2013, 2020; DiCaglio, 2020, 2021). Recent scholarship has also emphasized the necessity for developing a theory and a vocabulary of scale itself, foregrounding the ongoing negotiations between scalar alterity and scalar access (Horton, 2020), and placing scale ‘at the intersection of a transformation of the world and a transformation of ourselves’ (DiCaglio, 2021, p. 9).

With this conference, our ambition is to map the broad spectrum of frameworks and attitudes towards scale, reflecting on how scalar thinking should orient our visions towards the future. We are interested in the role of scalar media, technologies, scientific theories, models and concepts in confronting the scalar disjunction between human sensory and cognitive capacities, and the scale of reality independent of our perception. We believe these questions are crucial to developing the multi-scalar thinking required to address some of the most urgent global issues including automation, planetary governance, or the climate crisis. This conference will therefore explore ways of framing the problem of mediating scale, and the stakes involved in addressing epistemological barriers to facing contemporary problems at an appropriate scale.

We welcome contributions from across disciplines whose work is relevant to the question of mediating scale.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• approaches to scale in media studies
• history and archaeology of scalar media
• politics of scale in visual cultures
• scale and political tactics (including local vs global organising)
• planetary politics and governance
• existential risks, including climate change
• the science and politics of geoengineering
• scientific models and model-world relations
• reductionism, antireductionism, and complexity theory
• theories of scale, rhetoric of scale
• timescales, geologic time, deep time, longtermism

Submission guidelines:

We are inviting submissions for 30-minute talks in English that address the conference theme.

Please send an extended abstract of 600-900 words and a short biography to mediatingscale@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is Sunday April 3rd 2022. Responses will be sent out in mid-April.

Conference details:

This online conference will be free to attend but registration will be required. The conference will be streamed live with recordings of the keynote presentations available afterwards on YouTube. For more information, please see the conference website: www.mediatingscale.com and if you have any questions, please email mediatingscale@gmail.com

Organised by Dr Oliver Kenny (Institute of Communication Studies (ISTC), Université Catholique de Lille) and Magdalena Krysztoforska (University of Nottingham).

The event is hosted and funded by the Institute of Communication Studies (ISTC), Université Catholique de Lille.

Bibliography:

Blumenberg, H. (1987). The Genesis of the Copernican World. MIT Press.

Bratton, B. H. (2019). The Terraforming. Strelka Press.

Bratton, B. H. (2021). The Revenge of the Real: Politics for a Post-Pandemic World. Verso.

Chakrabarty, D. (2021). The Climate of History in a Planetary Age. The University of Chicago Press.

DiCaglio, J. (2020). Scale Tricks and God Tricks, or The Power of Scale in Powers of Ten. Configurations, 28(4), 459–490.

DiCaglio, J. (2021). Scale Theory: A Nondisciplinary Inquiry. University of Minnesota Press.

Horton, Z. (2013). Collapsing Scale: Nanotechnology and Geoengineering as Speculative Media. In K. Konrad, C. Coenen, A. Dijkstra, C. Milburn, & H. van Lente (Eds.), Shaping Emerging Technologies: Governance, Innovation, Discourse (pp. 203–218). IOS Press / AKA.

Horton, Z. (2020). The Cosmic Zoom: Scale, Knowledge, and Mediation. The University of Chicago Press.

Mbembe, A. (2019). Bodies as Borders. From the European South: A Transdisciplinary Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 4, 5–18.

Messeri, L. (2016). Placing Outer Space: An Earthly Ethnography of Other Worlds. Duke University Press.

Parikka, J. (2015). A Geology of Media. University of Minnesota Press.

June 27- July 1

Virtual Online Conference (Conference Platform: Webex)

Deadline: March 27, 2022

The 27th International Conference of the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies

Conference Hosts: The University of Toledo; Department of World Languages and Cultures

When COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, it interrupted almost every aspect of life around the globe. Intercultural communication, social interaction, education, international and local travel, healthcare systems, supply chains and economy were all affected and impacted at different levels. Global lockdowns, lack of social interaction and extended “shelter in place” orders caused sharp rise in conflicts, domestic violence, stress, anxiety, mental health breakdowns and even suicide. However, the same pandemic opened new opportunities and even forced many people to communicate beyond their comfort zones as some had to learn new ways of communicating and rely on virtual communication-technology. It even offered opportunities for new and emerging businesses. As we look beyond the pandemic, what lessons did we learn? How are we moving forward? How do we re-create communities and resolve conflicts in complicated religious, linguistic, educational, and cultural contexts? What linguistic choices are emerging? And how priorities, education, healthcare systems and even life are being reformatted? The theme of this conference seeks to address these issues, among many others, in the context of Intercultural and intra-cultural communication.

The International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies (IAICS) invites scholars, educators, administrators, graduate and undergraduate students from all disciplines of cultural sciences, and related fields, to submit proposals to this conference. All submissions will be considered. All authors of accepted proposals will have the choice to submit their papers to a special issue of IAICS journal.

Conference registration: registration will be waived for all participants and attendees that have IAICS membership (The new introductory rate is $30) Click below to sign up:

https://utep.questionpro.com/a/TakeSurvey?tt=qg0IsHqxx7I%3D

About IAICS

The International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies consists of scholars from a range of the cultural sciences who are dedicated to doing research on communication across cultures. Its membership is made up of participants from over 32 countries. These participants meet annually at different locations around the world to discuss common research interests. The results of their investigations are published in the journal of the organization, Intercultural Communication Studies (ICS).

Conference Goals

• To provide scholars, educators and practitioners from different cultural communities with opportunities to interact, network and benefit from each other’s research and expertise related to intercultural communication issues
• To synthesize research perspectives and foster interdisciplinary scholarly dialogues for developing integrated approaches to complex problems of communication across cultures
• To advance the methodology for intercultural communication research and disseminate practical findings to facilitate understanding across cultures
• To foster global intercultural sensitivity and involve educators, business professionals, students and other stakeholders worldwide in discourses about diversity and transcultural communication issues.

Conference Topics

Conference topic areas are broadly defined as, but not limited to, the following:

• Communication during and post pandemics
• Intercultural communication in the healthcare systems
• Cosmopolitanism in culture
• Intercultural communication and cosmopolitanism
• Shifts in Linguistics
• Time and space in culture / literature
• Language and culture
• Intercultural communication and nationality
• Language and identity
• Comparative culture
• Cultural identity
• Interculturality in literature
• Cultural hybridity
• Diversity studies
• Intercultural communication and interculturality
• Language Teaching and Intercultural Communication
• Mediated intercultural communication
• Virtual intercultural communication
• Multi cultures and interculturality
• Intercultural communication competence
• Culture and travel
• Intercultural education
• Cross cultural encounters
• Indigenous cultures
• Comparative poetics
• Public policy
• Comparative literature
• Transnational enterprises and intercultural communication
• Social media and culture
• Cultural study theories
• Literature and religion
• Culture and diplomacy
• Literature and film
• Language planning and policy
• Translation studies
• Intercultural pragmatics
• Communication, stress and anxiety
• Communication and therapy
• Computer assisted learning and teaching

Guidelines for Submissions

• Abstract, 100-150 words in English, Please include positions, affiliations, email addresses for all authors. Please use Times New Roman 12 point font size, single spaced.
• Panel proposals reflecting the conference theme or topic areas may be submitted. Panel proposals should include title of panel, a 100-150 word abstract of each panelist’s paper (as above). Panel proposals must include positions, affiliations, email addresses for all authors. Please use Times New Roman 12 point font size, single spaced.

Contact: Please submit abstracts, panel proposals, to the following web address:

https://utep.questionpro.com/a/TakeSurvey?tt=prQmzAFMKi0%3D

Conference email: IAICS@utoledo.edu

Conference Webpage: https://www.utoledo.edu/al/world-languages-and-cultures/iaics-conference/

Conference Registration & IAICS Membership Application : https://utep.questionpro.com/a/TakeSurvey?tt=qg0IsHqxx7I%3D

Deadline: Please submit abstracts and panel proposals by March 27, 2022

Proposals acceptance: Scholars will be informed of acceptance decisions before or by May 1, 2022.

Conference program will be emailed and available online by or before May 30, 2022

Conference Working Language: Abstracts should be submitted using English. Oral presentations could be in the author’s language of choice.

For questions related to the conference contact conference chair: IAICS@utoledo.edu

For questions concerning payment of IAICS dues contact Kenneth Yang.

For general questions related to IAICS contact Keith Lloyd or Joanna Radwanska Williams

COMMUNICATIONS – The European Journal of Communication Research (special Issue)

Deadline: March 31, 2022

https://euromediapp.org

Guest editors: Josef Trappel, Tales Tomaz (University of Salzburg)

Since October 2020, the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet network “European Media and Platform Policy” (EuromediApp) addresses the ongoing fundamental transition from the post-World War II media order to a truly global communication network and platform order. Digital communication promises to bring enormous benefits to citizens and businesses and to improve the wellbeing of citizens. However, its set-up is no longer dominated by national or European players, but by global oligopolies, mostly originating in the United States. These digital platforms increasingly determine European communication at all levels, from political communication to economic, cultural, sports and everyday-life communication. This special issue therefore asks: What is the European answer?

We invite contributions to this special issue in four distinct, but interrelated topics:

1. Regulatory context: Internet governance in general and platform governance in particular can be discussed from a global, European and national perspectives. In this topic of the special issue, contributions are welcome that deal with private-commercial governance rules, as well as national and European regulatory patterns. For example, the design and effectiveness of the German Network Enforcement Act (2017), the modernisation and strengthening of antitrust abuse control, European and national competition rules in the area of digital platforms, such as the proposed Digital Markets Act (DMA), as well as the European Commission's draft Digital Services Act (DSA) are all up for discussion. Contributors can discuss the chances of success of efforts to create a safer digital space in Europe where, on the one hand, users' fundamental rights are protected and, on the other hand, a level playing field for information and communication-based platform companies is established. Keywords are: European and national regulation; platform regulation, platform governance, digital intermediaries, self-regulation, co-regulation, external regulation, government regulation, state regulation, multi-level governance, good platform governance.

2. Economic policy context: Digital platforms were initially conceived by their developers as forums for exchange between individuals, independent of the mass media. With their wide dissemination, a competitive relationship has quickly developed. Due to the economic two-sidedness, digital platforms today compete with mass media in terms of both usage time and advertising sales. In the past decade, digital platforms succeeded in gaining competitive advantages in both areas. Especially younger cohorts spend more time using digital platforms than mass media, and personalized advertising provides digital platforms additional advantages. As a result, mass media advertising revenues have eroded, affecting the financial viability of journalism. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated and accelerated this trend. Contributions are welcome addressing fair competition, regulatory responses to oligopolistic or monopolistic concentration of power and its abuse. Keywords are: competition, concentration of power, platform power and abuse, bequest, manipulation, propaganda; antitrust policy, protecting fundamental rights protection, privacy.

3. Corporate policy context: Mass media and digital platforms create public spheres and shape public discourse by producing or moderating content. While mass media are responsible for the top end of the relevant value chain, thus the generation of content, digital platforms delegate this step to their users in order to intervene in a moderating capacity only later - often only when necessary. In both cases, the operators socially responsible as well as accountable. Contributions should discuss the diversity of procedures in the production and dissemination of content, as well as justified variations of regulatory regimes. Who bears responsibility for algorithm-driven or algorithm-generated content? What requirements, if any, should be placed on self-regulation within the industry and on individual platform companies? Keywords are: accountability, transparency obligation, responsibility, algorithms, accountability, infrastructures

4. Journalistic and editorial context: The platformisation of democracy, the public sphere and journalism has fuelled the debate on the power of commercial technology corporations and digital platform operators such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Contributions are welcome on issues of governance and regulation regarding the power and influence of private media and platform corporations on public and political democratic discourses. Keywords are hate speech, all kinds of legal or illegal mis- and disinformation, structural and situational violation of privacy, restrictions on access to content (gatekeeping), lack of labelling of advertising and propaganda, etc.

Contributions should not exceed 8000 words (including references, tables, footnotes, excluding appendices and supplementary material) for articles and 4000 words for Research in Brief or a Debate. The language style should be American English, quotation style (APA) should be applied. Interested scholars are invited to submit two-page abstracts by the end of March 2022. Selected abstracts are invited to submit full papers. COMMUNICATIONS is a double-blind peer reviewed journal and contributions are accepted only after this process.

Timing:

• Abstracts (2 pages including five key words): 31 March 2022
• Invitation to submit full paper: 25 April 2022
• Full paper submission: 30 September 2022
• End of review process: 31 March 2023
• Final version of articles: 30 April 2023
• Publication of the special issue: September 2023

Submission address: tales.tomaz@plus.ac.at

Please note that your text should be anonymized. Author name(s), institutional affiliation(s) and contact information should be sent on a separate file or on the body of the e-mail.

Editors: Jorge Vázquez-HerreroAlba Silva-RodríguezMaría-Cruz Negreira-ReyCarlos Toural-BranXosé López-García

This book aims to explore the diverse landscape of journalism in the third decade of the twenty-first century, constantly changing and still dealing with the consequences of a global pandemic. ‘Total journalism’ is the concept that refers to the renewed and current journalism that employs all available techniques, technologies, and platforms.

Authors discuss the innovative nature of journalism, the influence of big data and information disorders, models, professionals and audiences, as well as the challenges of artificial intelligence. The book gives an up-to-date overview of these perspectives on journalistic production and distribution. The effects of misinformation and the challenge of artificial intelligence are of specific relevance in this book.

Readers can enjoy with contributions from 50 prestigious experts and researchers who make this book an interesting resource for media professionals and researchers in media and communication studies.

Link: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-88028-6

June 20-22, 2022

Loughborough University, UK

Deadline: February 27, 2022

10th International Digital Storytelling Conference

Call For Papers and Presentation Proposals

We invite you to join us at Loughborough University, UK, in the coming Summer for an amazing gathering of digital storytelling professionals, academics, museum educators, students, community partners, and activists.

Our conference is part of a multi-institutional, multinational, three-year process and programme, started last year with our successful 24hour online marathon – organised by Loughborough University (UK), StoryCenter (US) UMBC – University of Maryland Baltimore County (US), Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology (US), Montgomery College (US), Patient Voices (UK) – that includes a face-to-face event in Loughborough in June 2022 and a series of follow-on activities in the Washington, D.C. area and in Maryland, USA, in 2023.

Our conference will host various events (both in person and online) in its structure for inclusion of diverse perspectives and voices. In addition to academic papers, workshops, and roundtable discussions, we encourage practitioners from community settings, artists and students to contribute and express their creativity through various formats (short performances, artworks, video/audio submissions, etc.).

Within the umbrella theme of Story Work for a Just Future ,explored across our three-year programme of events, and in response to the current pandemic, for DST 2022 Rise Up! we are particularly interested in proposals with a focus on how our Story Work could help us and our communities Reconnect, Rebuild, Recreate.

To frame your ideas you could also consider (but not limited to) the following Re-words and use them as lenses through which look at context, content or practice:

• Revive
• Restore
• Recover
• Rewrite

All interested conference contributors are invited to share their work through six types of contributions, but we also welcome other formats.

Conference Formats:

• Academic paper (15 minutes)
• Workshop (45 minutes)
• Roundtable discussion (45 minutes)
• Short performance (to be defined on a one-to-one basis)
• Artwork (to be defined on a one-to-one basis)
• Video/Audio submission

Other: If you think you don't fit into one of these formats, please email us with your idea!

Submission guidelines & key dates:

250-word abstract to describe your proposal (please, specify which format)

Include a title, your name, email address, and affiliation if applicable

Submit your proposal via email to Saedstorytelling@lboro.ac.uk

• Deadline for abstract submission: 27th February 2022
• Notification of acceptance: 31st March 2022
• Early bird registration opens: 15th March 2022
• General Registration opens: 15th April 2022
• Registration closes: 30th May 2022

Conference presentations, videos, materials to be sent in advance by 5th June 2022. Special arrangements will be made on a one-to-one basis for other formats.

Early bird: £180 (£80 student and practitioner rate)

Regular registration: £220 (£100 student and practitioner rate; £60 day rate)

Digital participation: It is our intention to make digital participation possible. Please write to Sally Bellman for more information.

Included in the Registration fee are coffee and tea breaks, lunch, access to all conference sessions, social activity (true-life storytelling club) during the opening evening, publication of the abstract in online conference proceedings.

Additional and optional social activity will be booked separately by each participant.

For further submission requirements and information on accommodation, please write to the Storytelling Research Team at Loughborough University: Saedstorytelling@lboro.ac.uk

Conference Chairs: Antonia Liguori and Michael Wilson (Loughborough University, UK)

Conference Committee Members: Lyndsey Bakewell (DeMontfort University, UK), Jessica Berman (University of Maryland, Baltimore County UMBC, US), Bev Bickel (UMBC, US), Matthew Decker (Montgomery College, US), Patrick Desloge (Hong Kong University), Lindsay DiCuirci (UMBC, US), Sara Bachman Ducey (Montgomery College, US), Mark Dunford (University of Westminster/DigiTales, UK), Daniela Gachago (Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa), Jamie Gillan (Montgomery College, US), Pip Hardy (Patient Voices, UK), Grete Jamissen (OsloMet, Norway), Tricia Jenkins (DigiTales, UK), Charlotte Keniston (UMBC, US), Joe Lambert (StoryCenter, US), Michalis Meimaris (University of Athens, Greece), Daniel Onyango (HopeRaisers, Kenya), Ngozi Oparah (Loughborough University, UK / StoryCenter, US), Philippa Rappoport (Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology, US), Bill Shewbridge (UMBC, US), Burcu Simsek (Hacettepe University, Turkey), Tony Sumner (Patient Voices, UK), Pam Sykes (University of the Western Cape, South Africa), Chris Thomson (Jisc, UK).

***

Story Work for a Just Future

Exploring Diverse Experiences and Methods within an International Community of Practice

Storytelling has been defined as 'the artform of social interaction' (Wilson, 1998), not only for its inner dynamics, but also for its power to unlock grass-roots knowledge, explore dilemmas, develop community resilience, engender change.

Stories can generate empathy and trust in the audience and at the same time demonstrate their usefulness because they have the power to give meaning to human behaviors and to trigger emotions (Bourbonnais and Michaud, 2018). 'This happens because stories are perceived as vectors of truth. They also challenge the meaning of truth itself and suggest a deeper reflection on how various perspectives embedded in personal narratives about contested themes and events can generate multiple truths' (Liguori, 2020).

Yet we acknowledge the existence of multiple truths when we recognise, as the Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie observes, 'the danger of a single story' (2009). As she describes, 'because our lives and our cultures are composed of a series of overlapping stories, if we hear only a single story about another person, culture, or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding'. In a time of worrying 'critical misunderstandings' worldwide, we want to explore with you the value of Applied Storytelling as a tool to co/re-develop 'A Just Future'.

Conference website: dst2022.org

The main contact for the DST Conference 2022 in Loughborough is Antonia Liguori.

October 10, 2022

Online conference

Deadline: June 10, 2022

Joint event of ECREA Central and Eastern European Network and IPSA RC 22 – Political Communication

Co-organisers:

• Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, University of Szeged, Hungary
• Faculty of Political Science and Journalism, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland
• Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
• Institute of Journalism, Media and Social Communication, Faculty of Management and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland

In the post-socialist Central and Eastern European region the first democratic election campaigns took place more than 30 years ago. In parallel with this, political communication as a field of research emerged in the region’s scientific community. Since then, phenomena such as the changes in voters’ levels of volatility (Blumler 2016; Blumler and Kavanagh 1999; Swanson 2004), the shift of communication and in news consumption (Thomassen 2005), the appearance of ‘modern’ political marketing (Maarek 2011), and long-term relationship between political actors and electorate as a strategy (Wring 1996) shaped the directions of research in political communication. Although these symptoms are widely studied in Western democracies, the situation is different in the CEE region. However, the processes mentioned above have also conquered political campaigns in the region (Eibl and Gregor 2019). Seeing that their voters live their everyday lives on social media, political actors have ‘moved up’ to the leading platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and nowadays Instagram and TikTok. This process has to be reflected in research on political communication. The new platforms demand different communication techniques. The significance of personalized politics has increased too (Bennett 2012). The basics of political communication have not changed in response to new platforms. However, the density of communication means of interaction and a constant race for attention have resulted in a significant turnaround. Populist-illiberal parties, the decline in media freedom in the region, and – inevitably – the heightened public opposition to the governmental decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is sometimes interspersed with fake news and conspiracy theories caused by the epidemic and vaccinations have further contributed to the changes in political communication.

KEY QUESTIONS

The event’s focal point is the conceptual and practical overview of political communication scholarship in Central and Eastern Europe. The organizers look forward to presentations in (but not limited to) the following areas of interest:

- patterns of political communication research in the region,

- features of the communication patterns,

- digital communication,

- personalisation of the content,

- challenges to political marketing in the region

- illiberal/anti-liberal tendencies in the user-generated content

- polarization of public discourses in the region

- future of political communication in the CEE region.

Abstracts (with maximum length of 350 words) will be evaluated by members of the Scientific

Committee. Please include the name, affiliation and email address of author(s).

Upload your abstract here: https://shorturl.at/ceFOX

Deadline: June 10, 2022

Organizing Committee:

• Norbert Merkovity (University of Szeged, Hungary)
• Magdalena Musiał-Karg (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland)
• Lenka Vochocová (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic)
• Małgorzata Winiarska-Brodowska (Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland)

May 4-6, 2022

University of Minho (Braga, Portugal)

Deadline (EXTENDED): February 22, 2022

As part of the research project Festivity - Festival, Cultural Heritage and Community Sustainability, we are organizing the International Congress Festivals, Cultures and Communities: Heritage and Sustainability, which will take place at the University of Minho (Braga, Portugal), on the 4th, 5th and 6h May, 2022. This scientific meeting aims to disseminate and discuss the research carried out on traditional festivities, namely their revitalization and re-signification associated with the transformation of festive cultures and the policies of patrimonialization of the festivities, among other topics.

https://www.festivity.pt/congresso/