ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Deadline: February 15, 2022

Dear friends and colleagues,

We invite scholars, educators, professors, and practitioners from all over the world to write a chapter of the upcoming book about animation to be published January 2023 where the past, present and future of animation will be analyzed. It will be published in English in the USA and Canada and in Spanish for distribution in all Spanish speaking countries. It has broad lines of research. For clarification, it is a research book, not a dissemination book.

The theme is the world of animation cinema in any of its aspects, such as but not limited to:

• Animation and Aesthetics
• Animation and Advertising

• Animation and Culture
• Animation and Discrimination
• Animation and Education
• Animation and Entertainment
• Animation and Ethics
• Animation and Film Festivals
• Animation and Future
• Animation and Law
• Animation and New Communications Developments
• Animation and Other Artistic Expressions
• Animation and Society
• Animation and Technology
• Animation and Violence

ETC…

The characteristics and dates are the following:

Abstract 500 words, February 15, 2022.

Keywords: 7

Article: 7,000-8,000 words

Text in English, when approved the author will send it in Spanish as well in collaboration with the editor.

Chapters that do not follow the APA 7 system can not be considered. For reference: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

Unpublished article/chapter.

At least 30 bibliographic sources not more than 10 years old, unless they are highly justified.

Dates: February 15, 2022, Summary 500 words, Keywords: 7, the proposals are studied, and the selected chapters are reported before the end of the month.

Dates:

Abstract and keywords: February 15, 2022

Accepted Proposals: March 15th, 2022

Article: June 1, 2022

Blind peer review to be in first correction on July 1,2022.

Final Chapter: September 1, 2022

Published in January 2023.

Send you proposals or inquiries to: cartoonresearchersandeducators@gmail.com

Please advise if you would like to be part of the peer review committee.

Thanks for your time.

Raquel Benitez Rojas

Journal of Professions and Organization (special issue)

Deadline: October 1, 2022

Kirstie McAllum, Université de Montréal, Canada; Frédérik Matte, University of Ottawa, Canada; Joshua B. Barbour, University of Texas at Austin, United States; Stephanie Fox, Université de Montréal, Canada; and Sabina Siebert, University of Glasgow, Scotland invite submissions for a special issue of the Journal of Professions and Organization (JPO) (see: https://academic.oup.com/jpo) focused on “Opening up the meanings of “the professional,” professional organizations, and professionalism in communication studies.”

The deadline for initial submissions is October 1, 2022, with scheduled publication in March 2024.

Rather than championing any one definition or perspective, this special issue aims to map out and contextualize the multiple meanings of professionalism and professional organizations, particularly in novel or non-standard contexts. It also seeks to articulate how distinctively communication-centered research can deepen our understanding of professionalism and professional organizations.

Please consult the full call for submissions at https://academic.oup.com/jpo/pages/call-for-papers-communication-studies and contact Dr. Kirstie McAllum (kirstie.mcallum@umontreal.ca) or any of the guest editors with questions or clarifications.

October 18, 2022, 9-17 (CEST)

University of Copenhagen and online (hybrid format).

Abstract deadline: April 1, 2022

ECREA pre-conference

Keynote speaker: Professor Anne Kaun, Södertörn University

Data logging and processing have been fundamental for the development and maintenance of welfare states since the 20th century. Exemplified by key functions such as the assignment of social security numbers, the reporting of tax statements, or the registration of criminal records, state authorities have always been dependent on collecting and organising significant amounts of citizen data. With the digitization of welfare sectors and institutions and the rise of computerised big data, these processes have accelerated, leading to new and comprehensive modes of datafication (Cukier & Mayer-Schoenberger 2013; Kitchin 2014; Mejias & Couldry 2019).

Following this “paradigm shift” in the provision of public services and social welfare (Dencik & Kaun 2020), the pre-conference discusses the growing reliance on data-driven and algorithmic systems across sectors and institutions (Yeung 2018; Eubanks 2018). We are particularly interested in the extensive use of commercially supplied services and in the growing reliance on big tech companies who provide the underlying infrastructure for a wide range of societal functions. Amazon and Microsoft are, for instance, dominant actors in the provision of cloud solutions to public databases and services, while entire app ecologies rely on Google’s third-party services and developer tools. Focusing on the consequences of this inherent and hidden commercialization, the pre-conference welcomes contributions that enquire into the potential conflicts of interests and clashes between market logics and welfare ideologies.

The pre-conference, in other words, seeks to understand the nature of emergent data welfare states (Andreasen et al. 2021) and to critically assess how and why mechanisms of datafication and commodification are being built into the architecture of contemporary welfare states and democracies. It enquires into technical, ethical, and political choices that are made when digital technologies are implemented; the degrees and possibilities of citizen surveillance and data governance; the market structures and political economies around datafied welfare services and sectors; and the material infrastructures that undergird the datafication of the welfare state.

The pre-conference welcomes contributions on, but not limited to:

- Datafication processes and challenges in key welfare sectors (e.g., healthcare, education, social services, policing, media, etc.)

- Conflicts and clashes between welfare ideologies and commercial logics of big tech

- Historical analyses of public datafication processes

- Theoretical discussions on datafication and democracy

- Case studies of e.g., Covid-19 strategies

- Digital public infrastructure projects and public-private partnerships

The ECREA pre-conference is arranged by the Communication & Democracy section, the ERC-funded Datafied Living project and the Data Publics project, funded by the Velux Foundation. The pre-conference is in hybrid format and both speakers and listeners can choose to participate in person or online. Participation is free of charge, but seats are limited, and registration is mandatory. Authors must indicate if they plan to present online or in person. Abstracts of 300-500 words excluding references must be sent to datafiedwelfarestates@hum.ku.dk no later than April 1st, 2022.

Timeline:

• Deadline for submission of abstracts: April 1st, 2022
• Notification of acceptance: June 1st, 2022
• Deadline for registrations: September 1st, 2022
• Pre-conference: October 18th, 2022, 9-17 (CEST)

Sara Balonas, Teresa Ruão and María-Victoria Carrillo (Eds.)

The book Strategic Communication in Context: Theoretical Debates and Applied Research, edited by Sara Balonas, Teresa Ruão and María-Victoria Carrillo, has just been launched.

Strategic communication is becoming more relevant in communication sciences, though it needs to deepen its reflective practices, especially considering its potential in a VUCA world — volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The capillary, holistic and result-oriented nature that portrays this scientific field has led to the imperative of expanding knowledge about the different approaches, methodologies and impacts in all kinds of organisations when strategic communication is applied. Therefore Strategic Communication in Context: Theoretical Debates and Applied Research assembles several studies and essays by renowned authors who explore the topic from different angles, thus testing the elasticity of the concept. Moreover, this group of authors represents various schools of thought and geographies, making this book particularly rich and cross-disciplinary.

April 28 – 29, 2022

Online (Vilnius University, Faculty of Communication, Lithuania)

Deadline (EXTENDED): February 15, 2022

Conference website: VU Faculty of Communication - IKTPR-2022

Department of Organizational Information and Communication Research of the Faculty of Communication, Vilnius University, will hold its annual international scientific conference, the aim of which is to encourage scientists and practitioners to present the results of theoretical and applied research and initiate scientific discussions on relevant information and communication topics. The conference will be organized as a virtual event, with all sessions taking place online.

The conference organizers invite presentations based on the following research areas:

• Information and knowledge management in the organization: assessment of information and knowledge management; creativity and innovation; learning organization; knowledge management systems; organizational culture and knowledge management; the role of information and communication technologies in improving information and knowledge management in the organization, etc.
• Communication management in organizations: strategic and corporate communication; social responsibility and sustainability communication; organizational change communication; intercultural communication in an international organization; the influence of information technology and hybrid workplace on communication in the organization; communication of the organization with stakeholders in the context of risk, etc.
• Gender expression in communication and other socio-cultural contexts: the gender dimension in communication; gender – sensitive language; gender equality and its communication; equal opportunities communication; gender representation in the media; the gender dimension in mass and popular culture; gender and media; gender equality in the media industry; gender expression in the organization, etc.

Application

We invite interested researchers to submit 300-word abstracts in English indicating the abstract topic, 3-5 key words, the relevance of the research, the research problem, objectives, methods (for scientific reports), results and conclusions until 15 February, 2022. You can submit your abstract via the conference website.

The Scientific Committee will review all submitted abstracts. Notification regarding abstract acceptance and scheduling will be sent to the submitting author by 1st March, 2022.

The key dates:

Abstract submission deadline extended to February 15, 2022.

Notice of acceptance will be given until March 1, 2022.

Registration of participants will take place until April 15, 2022.

For more information see the conference website here: VU Faculty of Communication - IKTPR-2022

Papers publication

Selected articles, prepared on the base of presentations, will be published in the scientific journal of Vilnius University "Information Sciences" (ISSN 1392-0561 | eISSN 1392-1487).

Contact

For more information please contact via e-mail: daiva.siudikiene@kf.vu.lt

You are welcome to participate!

February 9, 2022

Online coference

Deadline (for registration): February 6, 2022

13:00 – Opening Session

Evandro Oliveira, ECREA OSC-Chair; Holger Sievert – Macromedia local organiser

13:05 – Welcome Speech - Castulus Kolo, President, Macromedia University

13:15 – Impulse Keynote - Now or Never: Transforming Educational Practices Through Learning Engineering – Peter van Leusen, Arizona State University

14:00 – Homely Coffee-Break

14:10 – Session 1– Strategic Communication Education

Teaching organisational communication through problem-based learning: Comparing offline and online learning environments.

Michael Johann, Universität Augsburg

Disciplinary approaches and theories in Argentinian PR undergraduate programmes.

Gabriel Sadi, Huddersfield Business School

Meaningful applied learning in Spain during the pandemic: An asynchronous collaborative experience.

Andrea Castro-Martínez and Cristina Pérez-Ordóñez, Universidad de Málaga

Teaching strategic communication in Spanish online universities.

Ileana Zeler, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona, Marc Compte Pujol, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

15:00 - Session 2 - Pedagogic strategies in communication

Increasing engagement of students in online teaching: The use of asynchronous video discussions in disseminating knowledge.

Gabor Sarlos, University of Roehampton

Innovative practices in Communication education: the use of biomimicry and the AskNature platform.

María Belén Barroso, Universidad de Málaga & Almanatura Trust; Alejandro Álvarez-Nobell & Isabel Ruiz-Mora, Universidad de Málaga

The 'Coaching Lab': bridging fundamental advertising theories with their practical value.

Sara Vinyals-Mirabent & Cristina Martorell, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona

Approaches to the development of master's programs in the context of digital transformation: the experience of the Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow).

Veronica Yarnykh, Russian State University Moscow

PodCasting as a tool of discourse and qualification on didactics in higher education.

Andreas Hebbel-Seeger & Annette Strauß, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences

16:00 – Homely Coffee-Break

16:20 – Session 3– Intercultural Communication Education

The benefit of VR in teaching intercultural communication competence.

Liane Rothenberger, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt; Yi Xu, Kathrin Knutzen & Irina Tribusean, TU Ilmenau

Hybrid and team teaching of intercultural communication. Theoretical and empirical perspectives on a bilingual case study on communication management within a multi-campus university.

Holger Sievert, Florian Meißner & Dominik Pietzcker, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences

Training intercultural communication competencies with an open approach and movement.

Evandro Oliveira, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona

Peeking at the privates: teaching protest organisations research of the (online) public sphere.

Yulia Belinskaya, Universität Wien

17:10 – Session 4 - New tools and strategies within Digital Environments

Teaching tech to non-techie Media students… online

Danilo Giglitto & Mon Rodriguez-Amat, Sheffield Hallam University

The SCoRe Project: from research-based learning to research-based seeing via video

Marianna Baranovska-Bölter, Andreas Hebbel-Seeger & André Kopischke, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences

Teaching like a YouTuber: Exploring ways of applying YouTubers’ techniques for online lectures

Hantian Zhang, Sheffield Hallam University

Adapting film creative project realisation to Covid teaching conditions.

Susannah Gent, Sheffield Hallam University

18:00 – Homely Coffee-Break

18:30 – Communication Education during and after Corona: A pan European expert panel

Ana Tkalac Verčič, Faculty of Zagreb. Croatia and Slovenia

Evandro Oliveira, ECREA Organizational and Strategic Communication Section Chair. Portugal, Germany and Spain

Ileana Zeler, ECREA Organizational and Strategic Communication Section Vice-Chair. Argentina and Spain.

Ralph Tench, EUPRERA – European Public Relations Education and Research Organisation. UK

Chair: Holger Sievert, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Germany.

This session will be open to public without registration.

19:45 – Virtual get together

Registration as online audience until February 6th. https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/ecrea-osc-2022

25 Euro - online participation (includes a physical conference package sent by mail)

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact ecreaosc@gmail.com. This conference is organised by the ECREA OSC management team (Prof. Dr. Evandro Oliveira, Dr. Joan Ramon Rodriguez-Amat and Prof. Dr. Ileana Lis Zeler), together with Macromedia University and OSC member local organizer Prof. Dr. Holger Sievert.

October 19-22, 2022

Aarhus (Denmark)

Deadline: March 31, 2022

Dear colleagues,

the ECREA Task Force on Practices of Academic Publishing in Communication is organizing a Special Panel during the ECREA Conference taking place in Aarhus (Denmark), 19-22 October 2022.

We are looking for paper abstracts (up to 150 words) analysing the situation in academic publishing, monitoring developments, engaging in debate on publishing ethics and standards in the field. The focus of the paper can be both national (national specifics, interesting cases) and comparative (international trends, comparisons of measures across countries etc.).

(Please, find the more detailed rationale for the Task Force here: https://ecrea.eu/resources/Documents/Task%2↨0Force%20on%20Practices%20of%20Academic%20Publishing%20in%20Communication.pdf)

Suggested topic (not limited to these – feel free to suggest your own topics):

• open access publishing – challenges, practice
• "grey zone" or borderline publishing practices/platforms
• co-authorship and its rules (including papers co-authored by supervisors etc.)

Panel chairs: Lenka Vochocová and Burcu Summer – please send your abstracts to both e-mails listed below:

Lenka Vochocová – lenka.vochocova@fsv.cuni.cz

Burcu Sümer – Burcu.Sumer@media.ankara.edu.tr

Call for chapters

Deadline: March 30, 2022

Editors of the Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Communication are seeking chapters that address different facets of organizational communication in the context of current societal changes - technological, economic, cultural, and the disruptions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a significant shift taking place in the organizations’ environment. The pervasiveness of digital technology in communication has had profound influence on human interactions and relationships. An increasing percentage of communication is now facilitated by digital communication technologies. We live in a world of instantaneous communications, infinite communication platforms, automated messaging and algorithm- driven communication. Innovations in communication technologies continually push the boundaries of organizational communication. A survey by McKinsey & Company offers a glimpse into how Covid-19 pandemic has pushed the companies ‘over the technology tipping point – and transformed business forever”. Responses to COVID-19 containment measures and restrictions have impelled and hastened the speed of the adoption of digital communication technologies. All indications are that most of these changes are here to stay.

This handbook attempts to revisit and fill the gap in the scholarship of organizational communication in the light of ongoing digital transformation processes. We invite contributions that provide a critical review of the current state and also set the agenda for future directions in the field of organization communication. We seek work that reflect upon the most current theory and practice in the field. We also invite chapters that explore regional issues and trends. We encourage theory-driven contributions, applied scholarship and fresh case studies that reflect on the new realities of today’s organizational environment.

We are especially interested in contributions that address the following areas. Topics may include but are not restricted to;

• Theoretical and conceptual issues
• Digital transformation and organizational communication
• Structures and processes of organizational communication
• Intra- and inter- organizational communication in the digital age
• Organizational culture in the digital age
• Digital workplace communication / Communication in distributed Workspaces
• Workplace diversity and communication
• Interaction patterns
• Communication networks in organizations
• Communication behavior in organizations
• Organizational communication in the age of globalization
• Trends in organizational communication research
• The future of work – how Covid-19 has influenced organizational communication
• Re-imagining organizational communication in a post-COVID world
• Best practices in organizational communication
• Regional trends on organizational communication
• Organizational Crisis Communication in the digital age
• Communication and organizational change /development
• Ethical and moral issues in organizational communication

IMPORTANT DATES

• 30 March 2022 - Extended abstract (approximately 500 words) outlining your chapter idea and keywords. Include also a short biographical note of the contributor (s) including institutional affiliation.
• 30 April 2022 – Decisions on the abstracts will be communicated to the authors
• 15 August 2022 – Full paper submission deadline (7000 – 8000 words). All chapters will go through a peer-review process
• End of 2022 – Final Decisions
• 2023 Publication

Please send all expressions of interest to martin.ndlela@inn.no

Special Issue of Communication, Culture & Critique (Vol. 16, No. 2, June 2023)

Paper Abstract Deadline (500 words): April 1, 2022

Complete Manuscript Deadline (6000-7000 words): November 1st, 2022

Editors:  Edgar Gómez Cruz (University of Texas at Austin), Heather Horst (Western Sydney University), Ignacio Siles (Universidad de Costa Rica), Cheryll Ruth Soriano (De La Salle University, Philippines)

In a recent analysis of the field of digital media, Borah (2017) argues that most researchers tend to reproduce and recirculate key concepts (Ogan, 2014). From “filter bubbles,” “platformization” and “fake news,” to “algorithmic cultures,” and “influencers,” concepts that have emerged in the global north have found their way into analyses of the use of digital media in other parts of the world without much critical analysis that reflects upon where the concepts came from and why they are appropriate for a particular set of practices or empirical realities.

To be sure, “importing” concepts generated in other settings is a product of global academic exchanges. It has also made it possible to engage in comparative work and further dialogue between scholars in various places around shared concepts and ideas. It can also lead to the development of approaches that combine complementary frameworks for making sense of multiple settings and practices.

Yet, airdropping one concept into another arena can also be problematic. First, importing concepts runs the risk of reproducing colonial dynamics of dependency, submission, and obedience, thus exacerbating what de Sousa Santos (2007) called “abyssal thinking,” that is a system of thought that is predicated upon making invisible certain “forms of knowledge that cannot be fitted into [this system]” (p. 47). The growing move towards the internationalization of digital communication and media studies (Lim & Soriano, 2016; Thussu, 2009) and the nudge towards a ‘digital decolonial turn’ (Casilli, 2019) attempt to facilitate the expansion of our conceptual tools, recognizing that digital communication everywhere is shaped by local histories, values, infrastructures, rituals, language, policies, and meanings. However, the centrality of predominant theories remains (Shome, 2019). 

Second, incorporating concepts conceived to understand other contexts runs the risk of naturalizing the realities they were meant to describe. As numerous scholars have noted, metaphors, theories, and methods are not only ways to describe realities but also to create them. Adopting certain theoretical frameworks to make sense of digital realities might imply the exclusion of empirical evidence or contextual matters that do not fit well with the theories that are imported. 

Third, this dynamic has been patterned in one particular way: theoretical concepts travel to the global south but usually not the other way around (that is, from the global south to the rest of the world). This is problematic in that it tends to naturalize another colonial trend: while scholars in certain parts of the world are seen as producers of knowledge, researchers in the global south become ambassadors and audiences of the theories developed elsewhere, helping to consolidate them but are not necessarily encouraged to dialogue with, critique, or dismiss concepts that are not relevant. 

And fourth, and equally important, these imported concepts also become solidified in many cases as public policies. As we know from the extensive work carried out in communication for development (e.g., Lennie & Tacchi, 2013) and, more recently the field of ICT4D, governments often apply, fund and support programs that are developed in other places that recipients of funding are encouraged to reproduce and implement. They also tend to treat digital media and technology as the source for innovation and economic development rather than appreciating some of the nuanced ways they are integrated (e.g., Burrell & Oreglia, 2015). 

Against these challenges, this special issue aims to offer insights into work that has produced novel ways to study, theorize, and enact the specific realities of the global south associated with the use of digital media. South, in this context, can be understood “not merely [as] a geographical or geopolitical marker ... but a plural entity subsuming also the different, the underprivileged, the alternative, the resistant, the invisible, and the subversive” (Milan & Treré, 2019, p. 321). This special issue seeks to make a twofold contribution. On the one hand, it intends to extend de-westernization and decolonizing efforts in the case of research on digital media. On the other hand, it invites scholars in and beyond the global south to engage in a collective “epistemic emancipation,” an invitation to rethink and rewrite digital media theory not just as a “theory ‘about’ the south,” but “about the effects of the south itself on theory, the effects of its ex-centrality” (Comaroff & Comaroff, 2012). Following this idea, theorizing emerges not to denote an exception but as a vantage point for understanding the global power relations underscoring our everyday digital realities.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Theoretical and methodological discussions that specifically develop concepts for processes in the global south, how they differ or how they relate to established frameworks for making sense of digital realities.
• Empirical analyses of practices and phenomena that characterize the global south.

• Analyses of concepts that emerged and/or were modified in the global south that are conceptually useful for understanding the global north. 
• Theoretical discussions that problematize the import of theoretical frameworks in the global south.
• Literature reviews of local phenomena associated with the use and development of digital realities in the global south.
• Historical accounts of the implementation of logics or processes that account for the specificities of the global south.
• Discussions of policy implications derived from decolonization analyses. 

References

Borah, P. (2017). Emerging communication technology research: Theoretical and methodological variables in the last 16years and future directions. New Media & Society, 19(4), 616–636.

Burrell, J., & Oreglia, E. (2015). The myth of market price information: Mobile phones and the application of economic knowledge in ICTD. Economy and Society, 44(2), 271–292. doi: 10.1080/03085147.2015.1013742 

Casilli, A. (2017). Digital labor studies go global: Toward a digital decolonial turn. International Journal of Communication, 11, 3934–3954

de Sousa Santos, B. (2007). Beyond Abyssal Thinking: From Global Lines to Ecologies of Knowledges. Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 30(1), 45-89. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40241677

Comaroff, J., & Comaroff, J. (2012). Theory from the South: A rejoinder. Cultural Anthropology. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/theory-from-the-south-a-rejoinder 

Lennie, J. & Tacchi, Jo. (2013. Evaluating Communication for Development: A Framework for Social Change. New York, NY: Routledge.

Lim, S. S. & Soriano, C.R. (2016). A (digital) giant awakens--Invigorating media studies with Asian perspectives. In S.S. Lim & C.R. Soriano (eds.), Asian perspectives on digital cultures: Emerging phenomena, enduring concepts. Routledge.

Machen, R., & Nost, E. (2021). Thinking algorithmically: The making of hegemonic knowledge in climate governance. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.

Milan, S., & Treré, E. (2019). Big data from the south(s): Beyond data universalism. Television & New Media, 20(4), 319–335.

Ogan, C. (2014). Round pegs in square holes: Is mass communication theory a useful tool in conducting Internet research? In R. S. Fortner & P. M. Fackler (Eds.), The handbook of media and mass communication theory (pp. 629–644). Wiley.

Shome, R. (2019). When postcolonial studies interrupts media studies, Communication, Culture and Critique, 12(3), 305–322. https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcz020

Submission Instructions:

Please submit a 500-word abstract as well as a short (2-page) CV by April 1, 2022, to the co-editors of the special issue at edgar.gomezcruz@ischool.utexas.edu, ignacio.siles@ucr.ac.cr, H.Horst@westernsydney.edu.au, cheryll.soriano@dlsu.edu.ph. Please include all co-editors on your email submission.

Authors whose abstracts are selected will be notified by May 1st, 2022 and asked to submit complete manuscripts (6000-7000 words, including notes and references, in Word format, following the 6th APA style) directly to ScholarOne (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cccr) by November 1st, 2022. When submitting your manuscript, please designate the submission as “Original Article” on the “Step 1: Type, Title & Abstract” page. No payment from authors is required.

Acceptance of the abstracts does not guarantee publication of the papers, which will be subject to anonymous peer review. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the co-editors at the above four email addresses.

Guest editors’ bios:

Edgar Gómez Cruz is an Associate Professor at the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. He has published widely on several topics relating to digital culture, particularly in the areas of material visual practices, digital ethnography and critical approaches to digital technologies. His recent publications include the books: Vital Technologies: Thinking Digital Cultures from Latin America (2022), From Kodak Culture to Networked Image: An Ethnography of Digital Photography Practices (2012), and the co-edited volumes Digital Photography and Everyday Life. Empirical Studies on Material Visual Practices (Routledge, 2016) with Asko Lehmuskallio and Refiguring Techniques in Visual Digital Research (Palgrave, 2017), with Shanti Sumartojo and Sarah Pink.

Heather Horst is Professor and Director of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University, Australia. Her research focuses upon material culture and the mediation of social relations through digital media and technology in a range of settings including the Caribbean and the Pacific. Her books focused upon these themes include The Cell Phone: An Anthropology of Communication (Horst and Miller, 2006); Digital Anthropology (Horst and Miller, 2012), Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practice (with Sarah Pink, et al. 2016), The Moral Economy of Mobile Phones: Pacific Island Perspectives (Foster and Horst, eds. 2018), Location Technologies in International Context (Wilken, Goggin and Horst, eds. 2019), among others. Her current research focuses upon the global Fijian fashion system, Fintech and agriculture in Laos and Cambodia and automated decision-making in the global south as part of the ARC Centre of Excellence of Automated Decision-Making and Society.

Ignacio Siles is a professor of media and technology studies in the School of Communication and researcher in the Centro de Investigación en Comunicación (CICOM) at Universidad de Costa Rica. He is the author of A Transnational History of the Internet in Central America, 1985–2000 (2020, Palgrave Macmillan) and Networked Selves: Trajectories of Blogging in the United States and France (2017, Peter Lang), along with several articles on the relationship between technology, communication, and society.

Cheryll Ruth Soriano is Professor in the Department of Communication at De La Salle University, Manila. Her research deals with questions of power, ideology and resistance in digital cultures. Her current work examines the socio-technical politics of content production and the transformations in labor and organizing in the platform economy. She co-edited the book (with S.S. Lim), Asian Perspectives on Digital Culture: Emerging Phenomena, Enduring Concepts (Routledge, 2016), and authors the monograph (with E. Cabalquinto), YouTube and Brokerage Dynamics in Philippine Digital Cultures (Amsterdam University Press, forthcoming).

KU Leuven

Apply here: https://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/jobs/60069121?hl=en&lang=en

(ref. ZAP-2021-119)

The research units Inter-Actions of LUCA School of Arts and the Institute for Media Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences (KU Leuven) jointly have one full-time position vacant. Ninety percent of the position is fulfilled as a lecturer at LUCA School of Arts in Genk (C-Mine), the remaining ten percent as a member of the ‘independent academic staff’ (ZAP) at the Institute for Media Studies on the Social Sciences campus in Leuven.

LUCA School of Arts

The main assignment (90%) within the appointment at LUCA School of Arts includes a clear research and teaching mission. LUCA School of Arts offers space – physically and virtually – to grow and stimulate artistic, technical and design talent. It is a meeting place for many cultures and nationalities, a laboratory where regional and international art is made accessible. To this end, LUCA offers contemporary artistic and design-oriented education with a focus on research. LUCA trains students with a critical view and broadly applicable qualities. Reflection and theoretical foundation are important, as well as coordination with the professional field and the alumni. There is a very diverse range of programmes, profiled around spearheads, and spread across five campuses. LUCA's educational courses include professional, academic and advanced programmes: Product Design, Audiovisual & Visual Arts and Music & Drama and the professional programmes Visual Design, TV-Film, Photography, Interior Design and Construction.

LUCA combines the renowned art colleges Sint-Lucas Ghent, Sint-Lukas Brussels, Narafi (Brussels), Lemmens Institute (Leuven) and campus C-Mine (Genk). Within the campus in Genk, the new colleague will be embedded in the research unit Inter-Actions. Inter-Actions brings together a series of research clusters on topics including sustainable design, meaningful play and care & empathy. The research work at Inter-Actions mainly zooms in on research and creation where the relationship between the maker (designer, animator, filmmaker, etc.), the created artefact (film, photographic work, etc.) and the 'audience' (the user, the viewer, etc.) is questioned.

Institute for Media Studies (IMS) of the KU Leuven

The second part (10%) of the vacant position involves an appointment as a member of the ‘independent academic personnel’ (ZAP) at the Institute for Media Studies, embedded in the KU Leuven Faculty of Social Sciences.

KU Leuven is one of the leading academic institutions in Europe and its mission is to provide excellent academic education, research and service. KU Leuven is a member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU) and is consistently ranked within the top 10 universities in Europe. Leuven is a historic yet dynamic and vibrant city in the centre of Belgium, twenty minutes from Brussels and less than two hours from Paris, London and Amsterdam.

Within the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Institute for Media Studies (IMS), in addition to the School for Mass Communication Research (SMCR), is a research unit dedicated to the study of media and communication in society. The focus is on the analysis of media content, its production, effects and use, usually in relation to society and social issues. Much attention is paid in the research to the consequences of the far-reaching digitisation of communication. The IMS is known for its broad orientation, openness and diversity within the team of employees, and this translates into a variety of theoretical perspectives, questions and quantitative and qualitative methodologies in research.

Website unit

Duties

Research

The research assignment comprises artistically oriented scientific research with a view to developing a research cluster in line with the following context:

Rationale: The digitisation of the photographic medium has caused a disruptive upheaval in contemporary visual culture, leading us to consider the digital image as the norm. The naturalisation of the digital image has made it inseparable from the way we perceive, represent and experience our world, ourselves and others. This hyper-documented world, in which thousands of selfies are uploaded in a fraction of a second, automated cameras record every street corner and algorithms increasingly determine our visual culture, is causing a profound shift in our approach to the image, its relationship to society and our view of reality. This process of progressive digitisation and screen culture therefore not only affects the photographic image, but also the social, political and cultural field. The omnipresence of the visual in our mediated culture, with new forms that did not exist two decades ago (for instance, VR, emoticons, memes, deep fakes, viral social media videos), forces us to ask new research questions on media aesthetics and media experiences, the processing of digital media content, human-technology interactions, visual literacy, and visual communication. We may say that we have entered a post-digital era in which we can critically question and dissect this naturalisation of the digital image.

The research programme of this vacancy aims to investigate how photography moves, changes and transforms in this complex post-digital world, and how it can increase its capacity for action (agency) by blending with other domains, disciplines, participatory design methods and technologies. It examines how photography and contemporary visual culture has changed (in the past), is changing (in the present) or can/will change (as a possible future) as a result of the development of digital cameras and computational photography, leaving room for exploration, deep insights, reflection, experimentation and creation in dialogue with other disciplines, including social sciences, such as communication sciences and media studies, as well as disciplines in science and technology.

In this profile we see a maker and an analytical thinker, with a strong feel for the post-digital visual culture and a great research interest in reflecting on, experimenting with and creating within and beyond the boundaries of what was, is and will be.

Within this context, the intention is to find connections with the research programme of LUCA School of Arts as well as with one or more lines of research of the IMS. In view of the interdisciplinary nature of this vacant position, the explicit intention is to bring research at both locations closer together and to facilitate the added value of interdisciplinary cooperation on both a national and international level.

At both locations, research cooperation can take the form of recruiting external project funding, supervising PhD students, interdisciplinary PhD tracks, postdoc tracks and science dissemination.

Education

The teaching assignment at LUCA School of Arts consists of providing academic art education and supervision. The teaching assignment consists of designing educational activities, study counselling or educational concepts in order to provide education tailored to the needs of the student audience; guiding students in conceiving both the artistic and reflective components of final dissertations and interim research assignments; to be the lecturer and coordinator of a number of course units; to supervise assistants within a course unit or a cluster of course units and to take up teaching assignments, in line with the context of the profile vacancy and to contribute to the development of the learning lines in the Genk Fine Arts programme: Experimental Imaging and Future Framing.

There are also opportunities to join relevant educational activities linked to the two research groups on communication sciences at KU Leuven, IMS and SMCR. These research groups are jointly responsible for the organisation of the Bachelor and Master in Communication Sciences, the English-language Master in Digital Media and Society, the Master in Business Communication and the Master in Journalism. Opportunities to be involved in this educational programme include giving guest lectures and supervising master's theses.

Service

This vacant post also includes scholarly, community and internal service at the LUCA School of Arts and IMS. This manifests itself through constructive contribution to teaching and research as partly collective projects of a team, for example through participation in meetings, teacher days, information events, recruitment activities and exchange programmes). In addition, active participation in the academic debate, for example by taking part in conferences, and in councils or committees (artistic organisations, socio-cultural associations, etc.) and any form of engaging in public debate (about your research) are part of your duties.

Profile

• Holding PhD in the visual arts or a related degree
• Having a strong research file; international research experience is an important asset
• Having strong didactical skills
• Representing an enthusiastic, entrepreneurial trigger with inventive ideas and organisational competences
• Being communicative in Dutch and English in accordance with the language requirements that apply in higher education. The management language of KU Leuven is Dutch. If at the time of recruitment the candidate does not know Dutch or knows it insufficiently, KU Leuven provides a training offer that should allow you to participate in board meetings.

Offer

LUCA School of Arts, C-Mine campus (Genk) offers a 90% permanent appointment and KU Leuven, Faculty of Social Sciences (Leuven) a 10% temporary appointment. The appointment at LUCA School of Arts is at lecturer level (salary scale 528 or 512 if combined with substantial side activities of an artistic nature) and appointment at a later stage is possible according to the existing rules and procedures. At the Institute for Media Studies, appointment as a member of the academic staff (scales 142 / 14) is renewable after a positive evaluation. More information on the salary scales can be found on the website of the Education Department (www.ond.vlaanderen.be).|

Interested?

More information on the link with LUCA School of Arts can be obtained from Niels Hendriks (coordinator research unit Inter-Actions – tel. +32 24471098, Email niels.hendriks@luca-arts.be) and Maarten Vanvolsem (vice-dean of education – maarten.vanvolsem@luca-arts.be). For the KU Leuven part, information can be obtained from Prof. Dr. Baldwin Van Gorp (research coordinator IMS – tel.: +32 16 32 32 79, Email: baldwin.vangorp@kuleuven.be) and Prof. Dr. Steven Eggermont (Dean Faculty of Social Sciences – tel.: +32 16 32 38, Email: steven.eggermont@kuleuven.be).

For more information please contact Dr. Niels Hendriks, tel.: +32 2 447 10 98, mail: niels.hendriks@luca-arts.be or Prof. dr. Baldwin Van Gorp, tel.: +32 16 32 31 79, mail: baldwin.vangorp@kuleuven.be.For problems with online applying, please contact solliciteren@kuleuven.be.

You can apply for this job no later than February 28, 2022 via the online application tool

KU Leuven seeks to foster an environment where all talents can flourish, regardless of gender, age, cultural background, nationality or impairments. If you have any questions relating to accessibility or support, please contact us at diversiteit.HR@kuleuven.be.