May 28-30, 2025 

Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Deadline: April 1, 2025

The 18th Biennial Communication Ethics Conference and the Silver Jubilee Anniversary Conference of the International Communicology Institute will be held May 28-30, 2025. The conference is sponsored by the Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies and the Communication Ethics Institute at Duquesne University and the International Communicology Institute in Washington, DC. 

Theme: Ethical Communicology of the Image and Imagination: Discovering the Ethical as Natural or Artificial, Real or Surreal 

The conference proposes to explore current research on the “image” across the human sciences. We hope to make concrete the ethical, logical, philosophical, and rhetorical foundations of communication as “imagination” in the experience of embodied thinking, speaking, and inscribing as the ecology of culture. We wish to (1) explore current frontiers of natural and artificial sign-systems, (2) encounter diverse manifestations of concrete reality and abstract surreality of human imagination, and (3) discover future domains of conscious experience that found the art and practice of the human sign milieu.

 The domain of the image/imagination includes all the Arts and Sciences of expression and perception, including: (1) Arts of Media: speaking, writing, painting, printing, sculpture, performance, voice; (2) Sciences of Media: social and media ecology, film and video, photography, digital and legacy media; and (3) Technological Media of Artificial Intelligence (AI): ubiquitous computing, robotics, holographics, and applied algorithms. Communication ethics theory, research, and application corresponds with and enriches our understanding of each domain. To assist in their exploration, questions and problematics that presenters may consider include, but are not limited to:

• What questions are raised by recent phenomenological, rhetorical, and critical theories of vision, visuality, perception, expression, and the experience of communication?
  
• Is there a general theory of image ethics? If so, what are its foundations and some of its value limitations (e.g., journalism, cinema, advertising, design, propaganda)?
  
• How is the rhetoric of images impacted by networked and internetworked media?
  
• How does an epidemiological perspective (e.g., transmission, contagion, virality) add to our understanding of the production and circulation of image artifacts as ecology?
  
• What do images want from AI? What does AI want from images? What constitutes personification in/of the media?
  
• What pasts, presents, and futures are imagined by the visualization of data?

We invite completed papers or extended abstracts of 200–500 words. 

We also invite panel proposals of three speakers per panel. Please include a panel title with 250-word rationale, titles and 200-word abstracts for each presentation, and contributor contact information (institutional affiliation and email).

Please send submissions to cec@duq.edu by April 1, 2025

Essential Conference Information 

Location: Located in the heart of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, Duquesne University is a vibrant, private institution known for its commitment to academic excellence and social justice. Duquesne University is home to the Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, a hub for phenomenological research and scholarship, with extensive collections including the archives of prominent phenomenologists.

Transportation: Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) has direct international flights from London and easy connecting flights via New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, Denver, Dallas/Fort Worth and others. The airport is 18 miles (approx. 20 minutes) to city center/Duquesne University.

From airport to conference location (18 miles):

Ride sharing services (Uber, Lyft)

Port Authority Bus #28X Airport Flyer (stops in city center at Liberty Ave @ Wood Street, then approximately 15-minute walk to campus).

Hotels: Nearest walkable (10-15 minutes): Marriott City Center (request the Duquesne University rate), Cambria Hotel (request the conference rate), Double Tree. Also walkable: Omni William Penn, Embassy Suites, Kimpton Hotel Monaco

Parking: parking is available on campus for $20/day