ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Deadline (EXTENDED): February 14, 2025

Dear colleagues,

We would like to share that the deadline for submitting an abstract to the anthology on Postcolonialism & Imperialism in and around Games has been extended to February 14th. You can find the original Call for Papers below: 

This anthology published by Palgrave-Macmillan looks to evaluate post- and decolonial questions in game studies and identify future research trajectories and underexplored areas pertaining to questions of colonialism and imperialism in and around games. We seek submissions that expand on these questions.

The Deadline for abstracts is: 14th of February 2025. Abstract submissions (250-500 words) should be sent to postcolonialgamestudies@gmail.com

Background

The question of colonialism and its historical background radiation has not been relegated to the past. This is perhaps most noticeable today where a settler colony functioning as the beachhead for western imperial powers is conducting a genocide of the indigenous Palestinian people, while terrorizing and invading its neighbouring populations with extensive military and diplomatic support by Western governments despite massive public protests. The historical analogies to previous colonial occupations and conflicts are evident. Meanwhile, media rhetorics reminiscent of past European colonial empires (Trouillot 1995) are once again resurfacing with the depiction of the Other as misogynist terrorists and wealth-leeching refugees (Lean 2012), barbaric orcs (Shlapentokh 2013), and yellow peril (Tchen and Yeats 2014). The West’s descent into barbarism reflects Aimé Césaire’s Discourses on Colonialism (2000) where fascism at home and colonialism abroad are intertwined and explicated through how colonizers ‘decivilize’ themselves and “proceeds toward savagery” (ibid. 37-38). Concurrently, countries in the so-called Global South face further immiseration; military, economic, technological dependencies; and the unhindered challenges of disastrous climate change (Hickel et al., 2024). Modern games are no stranger to such dialectical movements, as they have reflected and reproduced 'the global color line' in their production, their consumption, and their textual representations (Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter 2021; Hammar et al. 2021; T. Mukherjee 2023; S. Mukherjee 2017; Murray 2017).

Since the special issue on Postcolonialist Perspectives in Games (S. Mukherjee and Hammar 2018) and Souvik Mukherjee’s Empire Plays Back (2017), the issue of postcolonialism and its theoretical traditions have deepened and explored in games research such as technodependencies and platforms (T. Mukherjee 2023; Baeza-González 2021; Falcão, Marques, and Mussa 2020; Nieborg, Young, and Joseph 2020); race and orientalism (Fickle 2019; Patterson 2020; Patterson and Fickle 2024); anti-colonial board games (Mochocki 2023), race and play (Trammell 2023); the status of Northern indigenous culture in and around games (O. Laiti et al. 2021; O. K. Laiti and Harrer 2023); and Indian boardgames (Rizvi and Kar 2024) and their colonial avatars (S. Mukherjee 2025), just to name a few. Game makers have also expanded on issues of colonialism in games (inkle 2021; Nidal Nijm Games 2022), and move towards what LaPensee, Laiti & Longboat (2022) call ‘sovereign games’. While the problem for game studies remains that the primary centers of knowledge production reside in the Global North (Penix-Tadsen and Frasca 2019), we fully acknowledge the contributions in the spaces in and around games and their study by people across the world in bringing fundamental question of history and present-day (post)colonialism as seen in cases such as South America (Falcão, Marques, and Mussa 2020; King 2024), South East Asia (Jiwandono 2024; 2023) and Africa (Opoku-Agyemang 2015; Randle 2024; Amoah and Tawia 2024).

Therefore, additional accounts if not critiques of the (mis)representation of Orientalist attitudes, race, delinking, hybridity, subalternity, Afro- and Indofuturism, notions of space and the fragmented postcolonial identities, dependency theory and unequal exchange, and evaluations of nationalisms in the Global South are consistently required. Indeed, commercial analogue and digital games would not exist in their current forms if not for the global division of the world between North and South. It is therefore imperative that games research inquire and identify aspects of postcolonialism and imperialism in and around games.

We seek submissions that expand on the established research and/or provide new and underexplored topics pertaining to postcolonialism and imperialism in and around games. 

The Deadline for abstracts is: 14th of February 2025. Abstract submissions should be sent to postcolonialgamestudies@gmail.com. 

Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:

·         Colonialism / Neocolonialism / Postcolonialism

·         The Other / Alterity

·         Delinking / decoloniality

·         Decolonization

·         Orientalism

·         Postcolonial praxis

·         Imperialism / global capitalism / political economy

·         Self-representation / voice / agency

·         Third-Worldism

·         Subalternity

·         Nationalisms in the Global South

·         Indigenous culture

·         Religion(s) / Language(s) / Nationalism(s)

·         Thirdspace

·         Unequal exchange and the game industry

·         Eurocentrism

·         Game studies & politics of knowledge

·         Ecology, colonialism, and game production

·         Game platforms and colonialism

·         Dependency theory and games

·         Fascism as colonialism turned inward: Reactionary politics and games

Abstract submissions should comprise of:

Abstract (250-500 words)

Author information (short biographical statement of 200 words)

Abstract submissions should be sent to postcolonialgamestudies@gmail.com. Abstract submissions will then undergo an editorial review process. Authors will be notified of the outcome as soon as reports are received.

Timeline

Deadline for abstracts: 14th of February 2025

Notification of accepted abstracts: End of February 2025

Deadline for full articles: 23rd of May 2025

Chapter submissions should comprise of

Full-length article (5-8000 words) including references and a short bibliography.

Author information (short biographical statement of 200 words)

Best regards,

Dr. Souvik Mukherjee, Department of English, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, Kolkata, India

Dr. Emil Lundedal Hammar, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark. 

Bibliography

Amoah, Lloyd G. Adu, and Eyram Tawia. 2024. “Africa and the Global Video Games Industry: Ties, Tensions, and Tomorrow.” In Examining the Rapid Advance of Digital Technology in Africa, 42–60. IGI Global. https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/africa-and-the-global-video-games-industry/339981.

Baeza-González, Sebastián. 2021. “Video Games Development in the Periphery: Cultural Dependency?” Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 103 (1): 39–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.2021.1894077.

Césaire, Aimé. 2000. Discourse on Colonialism. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Dyer-Witheford, Nick, and Greig de Peuter. 2021. “Postscript: Gaming While Empire Burns.” Games and Culture 16 (3): 371–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412020954998.

Falcão, Thiago, Daniel Marques, and Ivan Mussa. 2020. “# BOYCOTTBLIZZARD: Capitalismo de Plataforma e a Colonização Do Jogo.” Contracampo 39 (2). https://www.academia.edu/download/96394515/pdf.pdf.

Fickle, Tara. 2019. The Race Card: From Gaming Technologies to Model Minorities. New York: NYU Press.

Hammar, Emil Lundedal, Lars de Wildt, Souvik Mukherjee, and Caroline Pelletier. 2021. “Politics of Production: Videogames 10 Years after Games of Empire.” Games and Culture 16 (3): 287–93. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412020954996.

Hickel, Jason, Morena Hanbury Lemos, and Felix Barbour. 2024. “Unequal Exchange of Labour in the World Economy.” Nature Communications 15 (1): 6298. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49687-y.

inkle. 2021. “Heaven’s Vault.” PC. United Kingdom.

Jiwandono, Haryo Pambuko. 2023. “The White Peril. Colonial Expressions in Digital Games.” Gamevironments, no. 18, 38–74.

———. 2024. “Mobile Game Esports as an Indonesian National Identity.” In Asian Histories and Heritages in Video Games, 159–75. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003461319-10/mobile-game-esports-indonesian-national-identity-haryo-pambuko-jiwandono.

King, Edward. 2024. “Gaming Race in Brazil: Video Games and Algorithmic Racism.” Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 33 (1): 149–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569325.2024.2307540.

Laiti, Outi, Sabine Harrer, Satu Uusiautti, and Annakaisa Kultima. 2021. “Sustaining Intangible Heritage through Video Game Storytelling - the Case of the Sami Game Jam.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 27 (3): 296–311. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2020.1747103.

Laiti, Outi Kaarina, and Sabine Harrer. 2023. ““A Tale of Two Paths": Approaching Difference in Game Research Collaboration through Gulahalan.” In Race in Games and Game Studies Conference. https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/publications/a-tale-of-two-paths-approaching-difference-in-game-research-colla.

LaPensée, Elizabeth A, Outi Laiti, and Maize Longboat. 2022. “Towards Sovereign Games.” Games and Culture 17 (3): 328–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120211029195.

Lean, Nathan Chapman. 2012. The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims. Edited by John L. Esposito. Pluto Press London.

Mochocki, Michal, ed. 2023. Heritage, Memory and Identity in Postcolonial Board Games. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003356318.

Mukherjee, Souvik. 2017. Videogames and Postcolonialism: Empire Plays Back. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

———. 2025. Indian Boardgames, Colonial Avatars: Transculturation, Colonialism and Boardgames. Oldenbourg: De Gruyter. https://www.degruyter.com/document/isbn/9783110758627/html.

Mukherjee, Souvik, and Emil Lundedal Hammar. 2018. “Introduction to the Special Issue on Postcolonial Perspectives in Game Studies.” Open Library of Humanities, Postcolonial Perspectives in Game Studies, .

Mukherjee, Tathagata. 2023. “Videogame Distribution and Steam’s Imperialist Practices: Platform Coloniality in Game Distribution.” Journal of Games Criticism (blog). August 23, 2023. https://gamescriticism.org/2023/08/23/mukherjee-5-a/.

Murray, Soraya. 2017. On Video Games: The Visual Politics of Race, Gender and Space. London New York: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd.

Nidal Nijm Games. 2022. “Fursan Al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” PC. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1714420/Fursan_alAqsa_The_Knights_of_the_AlAqsa_Mosque/.

Nieborg, David, Chris J. Young, and Daniel Joseph. 2020. “App Imperialism: The Political Economy of the Canadian App Store.” Social Media + Society 6 (2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120933293.

Opoku-Agyemang, Kwabena. 2015. “Lost/Gained in Translation: Oware 3D, Ananse: The Origin and Questions of Hegemony.” Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds 7 (2): 155–68. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw.7.2.155_1.

Patterson, Christopher B. 2020. Open World Empire: Race, Erotics, and the Global Rise of Video Games. New York: NYU Press.

Patterson, Christopher B., and Tara Fickle, eds. 2024. Made in Asia/America: Why Video Games Were Never (Really) about Us. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478059264.

Penix-Tadsen, Phillip, and Gonzalo Frasca, eds. 2019. Video Games and the Global South. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University.

Randle, Oluwarotimi. 2024. “An Indigenized Framework for Game Design Curriculum for African Universities.” Jurnal Bidang Pendidikan Dasar 8 (1): 25–33. https://doi.org/10.21067/jbpd.v8i1.9316.

Rizvi, Zahra, and Souvik Kar. 2024. “Curating a Boardgames Museum in India: The Case of the Gautam Sen Memorial Boardgames Museum; An Interview with Souvik Mukherjee and Amrita Sen.” Press Start 10 (2): 52–66.

Shlapentokh, Dmitry. 2013. “Russians as Asiatics: Memory about the Present.” European Review 21 (1): 41–55. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1062798712000269.

Tchen, John Kuo Wei, and Dylan Yeats. 2014. Yellow Peril!: An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear. Verso Books.

Trammell, Aaron. 2023. Repairing Play: A Black Phenomenology. MIT Press.

Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. 1995. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Boston, Massachuetts: Beacon Press.

September 9-12, 2025

Šibenik, Croatia

Deadline: April 1, 2025

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

• Micky Lee, Suffolk University, USA
  
• Mandy Troeger, University of Tuebingen, Germany
  

COURSE DIRECTORS

• Thomas Allmer, Paderborn University, Germany
  
• Paško Bilić, Institute for Development and International Relations, Croatia
  
• Benjamin Birkinbine, University of Wisconsin, USA
  
• Jernej Amon Prodnik, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  
• Jaka Primorac, Institute for Development and International Relations, Croatia
  
• Toni Prug, University of Rijeka, Croatia
  
• Aleksander Slaček-Brlek, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

ECTS ACCREDITATION:

University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (10 ECTS points for PhD students upon full completion of the course)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The media are central institutions of modern societies, providing channels for corporate and political control and public space for disseminating and consuming communication on systemic changes in politics, culture, and economics to the public. The media underwent massive restructuring through neoliberal policies in the 1970s. Introducing new communication technologies such as satellite and cable television, internet, and web platforms went hand in hand with market liberalisation and communication commercialisation. The multiplication of channels and media outlets was accompanied by concentration and centralisation of ownership. Recently, large transnational digital platforms have solidified their position as core companies within contemporary capitalism, restructuring the distribution of media advertising investments, speeding up the circulation of capital, automating global consumption patterns, avoiding national taxes, and siphoning revenues to offshore entities. At the same time, they benefit from automated management of their diversified and essentially precarious workforces of content moderators, warehouse workers, and gig workers, as well as from software inputs from free and open source communities (FLOSS) communities.

The rise of platforms reshapes traditional institutional mechanisms that broadly safeguard freedom of expression, media pluralism, and public interests. An open political issue is how these mechanisms will be reconsidered and how private interests will shape markets and societies. Alternatives are envisioned in areas ranging from platform cooperatives and commons projects to strategic calls for technological sovereignty and public wealth creation. However, such initiatives usually need broader political support from the public already accustomed to the commercial logic of the media. The commodification of everyday life through data capture, surveillance and privacy intrusion is easily dismissed by citizens as a minor side effect of free usage and flexibility of ubiquitous digital services.

This biennial course aims to explore traditional (e.g. ownership, production, content, consumption, labour, regulation) and contemporary (e.g. algorithms, platforms, data, artificial intelligence) perspectives on the media from the lens of critical political economy. The course will explore how capital and the state(s) control, regulate and form the media (broadly conceived as ranging from traditional printed press to algorithms and software) in societies shaped by persistent social inequalities. The level of analysis can vary from macro phenomena of geopolitics, transnational, national and institutional dynamics, through mid-range phenomena of the structure(s) of the public sphere(s) to micro-phenomena of class-based conditions shaping inequalities of access and skill for using the media in everyday life and for work.

The course will include presentations from keynote speakers and course directors and presentations by advanced MA and PhD students. Through lectures and discussions with international experts, students will gain in-depth knowledge about recent communication, media, and journalism developments from a critical political economy perspective. Methods and analytical tools commonly used in the approach will be explained and discussed. Presentation of the research papers (considered work in progress) will lead to comprehensive feedback that will help students develop their projects further and result in publishable academic writing. Discussions will be carried out collaboratively, with reciprocal assessment by students.

SUMMER SCHOOL VENUE

St. John's Fortress in Šibenik, Croatia, was built in 1646 in just 58 days as the main point of the city's new defence system just before a major attack by the Ottoman army. The city residents built the fortress with their own hands and resources, and it was named after the church that once stood there. The fortress renovation was completed in 2022, with the fortress walls completely restored and new features introduced, including an underground campus below the so-called pliers, the northern part of the fortress. The campus is equipped with interactive classrooms, bedrooms and conference rooms. More info is available at: https://www.tvrdjava-kulture.hr/en/st-johns-fortress/plan-your-visit/

DEADLINES

* The course is open to advanced MA and PhD students. Please submit your CV (maximum two pages), title and an extended abstract of your presentation (maximum two pages with references) by 1 April 2025 to political.economies.of.the.media@gmail.com

* Course directors will review applications and final decisions on acceptance will be sent by 1 May 2025.

* Accepted applicants will be invited to submit 6 to 9,000-word research papers by 1 July 2025. After completing the course, they will be encouraged to submit their manuscripts for review in an international peer-reviewed journal in the field of political economy.

* Note: only PhD students can receive 10 ECTS points upon course completion, which entails a submitted research paper, paper presentation and full-week active attendance participation in the course (more information will be published on the course website).

* Please note that all participants pay a registration fee of 60 EUR. A limited number of partial stipends and registration waivers will be available. If you need participation support, please indicate this in your application.

* All further details about the course will be available at http://www.poleconmed.net/

 Dear Colleagues,

We are conducting a study on the usage and perception of generative AI in research among communication scholars (broadly construed) and the best practices to minimizing the risks of such use. The goal of the study is to write a guideline for best practices in using generative AI in research based on the consensus among the field (if any). 

Link to the survey: https://uva.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0Mwl409scAMC4oS

We expect the survey to take no more than 10 minutes. We will not collect any personal information, but there will be a field to leave your contact details if you are happy for us to contact you for further questions. The survey will remain open until 10 February. 

Please feel free to distribution the survey invitation with any colleagues whom might be interested!

Digital Communication Methods Lab, 

Amsterdam School of Communication Research

Call for Chapters

Deadline (EXTENDED): January 30, 2025

This edited volume seeks contributions from scholars whose subject matter, methods, or researcher identities resonate with what might be considered peripheral in communication studies. We aim to explore how diverse perspectives—often shaped by specific contexts, marginalized identities or cases, or alternative approaches—can challenge, expand or be an alternative to traditional paradigms, perspectives and cases in the field. The concept of the periphery is not defined here as a rigid geographic or socio-political category, nor is it a simple counterpoint to the North or Western paradigms. Instead, we understand the periphery as a space where various ‘ways of being’ and ‘ways of doing’ emerge, offering insights into communication processes and practices. We define the periphery in three interconnected ways. First, it can reflect geographic and contextual realities rooted in specific locations and their challenges. Second, it may describe the researcher's identity, which, while often tied to context, can stand apart from geographic definitions. Third, it relates to the subject matter and theoretical gaze, especially when these are understudied, overlooked, challenge dominant paradigms, or offer alternative epistemologies. The full call text is available at ipcc.bilgi.edu.tr/call-for-chapters/

We welcome submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

Researcher Situatedness and Methodology

- Reflections on how researchers’ contexts, identities, or positionalities influence their approaches, perspectives, and contributions to media and communication studies.

- Explorations of methodologies that embrace situatedness, such as autoethnography or reflective practices, as a means to deepen our understanding of communication phenomena.

Diverse or Transgressive Communication Spaces and Practices

- Analyses of how communicative practices—particularly in less conventional or transgressive spaces like digital sex work, hacktivism, or grassroots art movements—shape identity, expression, and community.

- Studies highlighting understudied or alternative communication practices, including those rooted in indigenous knowledge systems, oral traditions, and embodied performances.

Expanding Theoretical Boundaries in Communication Studies

- Contributions that challenge, extend, or reimagine dominant theories in media and communication studies.

- Theoretical insights from underrepresented regions or traditions, such as Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, or Latin America.

- Understudied areas of communication, including theories or methods from other disciplines—such as ethics, political science, or performative arts.

Non-Human Subjectivity and Communication

- Investigations into the role of non-human subjectivities (e.g., animals, plants, or artificial intelligence) in communication processes and how these subjectivities challenge traditional human-centered paradigms, especially in non-Western contexts.

- Analyses and case studies of embodied, non-verbal, or other-than-human communicative practices that engage with human-animal, human-environment relationships, or offer theoretical and practical implications of decentering the human gaze.

Beyond the Digital Turn

- Explorations of non-digital communication spaces and practices—such as those in architecture, urban spaces, theater, or other embodied forms—and their contributions to the discipline.

- Research that revisits non-digital media to expand the understanding of communication in a digital-first world.

Economic Class and Communication

- Inquiries into how economic class shapes communication practices, representation, and access in varied contexts.

- Perspectives that place economic inequality at the forefront of communication studies, offering alternative ways of thinking about class and media.

Knowledge Production in Communication Studies

- Discussions on the structural biases in academic publishing and scholarship that influence which voices and perspectives are elevated or marginalized. Implications of working in authoritarian contexts.

- Critical engagements with global and local knowledge hierarchies, offering alternatives to reductive binaries and promoting diverse epistemologies.

Perspectives and Challenges of Early-career Scholars

- Considerations of the experiences of early-career researchers in regard to academic and professional challenges, particularly in peripheral or undervalued contexts.

- Innovations in methodology or theory that arise from the particular perspectives of early-career scholars.

Submission Guidelines and Contributions Sought

We aim to hold an online (closed) workshop on March 22, 2025 (subject to change) in order to facilitate discussion among the potential authors. The workshop will be a medium for the authors to debate their argument with each other as well as making themselves familiar with other contributions through informal paper presentations. The target publisher (e.g. Springer, Brill Books, Routledge, Lexington Books) will also be decided during the workshop. After the workshop, the authors will have 4 months to finalize the contributions. Full chapters will be around 6,000 words including the bibliography. There will not be any fee for the workshop nor the publication for the authors.

You can send the abstracts around 500-600 words (including the references) and a 100-word author bio to cansu.koc04@bilgiedu.net by January 30, 2025 (new and final deadline). The abstract should clearly outline the theoretical framework, specific context(s), and the broader implications of the proposed chapter for communication studies. The authors will be notified about the selection results by February 20, 2025.

Editors: Cansu Koç (Istanbul Bilgi University), Ezgi Altınöz (Istanbul Bilgi University), Yusuf Yüksekdağ (Istanbul Bilgi University)

This project is stemming from the Interdisciplinary PhD Communication Conference series at Istanbul Bilgi University. The previous edited collection, Collaboration in Media Studies, was published by Routledge in 2024. 

The Urbanism/Geography/Architecture SIG is seeking submissions for its graduate student writing award to honor the exciting scholarship coming from our graduate student members. The winning article will be published in Mediapolis. Deadline for submission is January 31.

For more details, please see: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15Hg1WmhxmyUp1h3ZSc9GEXwgJHPvDhRM0R-Na7u7Cjo/edit?tab=t.0

NECSUS Special Section

Deadline: March 1, 2025

Edited by Luis Freijo (King’s College London), Asja Makarević (Goethe University), and Belén Vidal (King’s College London) 

This NECSUS Special Section invites submissions that engage with ageing in relation to the life cycles of human subjects. The section seeks bio-social, cultural, technological, philosophical and/or political reflections around questions of age and the ageing process through a critical focus on visual media that engages with this topic at the level of production, textuality and/or circulation. 

While gerontology has experienced a cultural turn in the last decade (Twigg and Martin, 2015), ageing has been an object of enquiry in cultural theory for some time (e.g. Woodward 1999; Gullette 2004), with a particular focus on images and narratives of ageing and old age (e.g. Featherstone and Wernick, eds. 1995). In contrast, media scholars have been slower to turn their attention to ageing other than as a subset of gender studies and feminist theory, with early interventions by Simone de Beauvoir (in her book-length essay La Vieillesse/The Coming of Age, originally published in 1970) and Susan Sontag (“The Double Standard of Aging”, from 1972) often credited with opening the debate and providing inspiration in relation to methods (such as anocriticism or, the theorization of age/gender intersections, Haring 2023) and approaches to the ways in which we are “aged by culture,” as Margaret M. Gullette puts it in her 2004 book of the same title.

The intense public scrutiny (after the #blacklivesmatter and #metoo global movements) of the ways gendered and racial forms of discrimination have historically structured film and media has galvanized new waves of activist and critical thought on the relation between bodies, subjectivities and modes of agency. Once more, identities have been pushed to the critical centre stage. The deconstruction of ageism in visual culture is accruing urgency in a different way. Demographic trends signal the progressive ageing of the global population (the WHO predicts that “by 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged 60 years or over, and the number of persons aged 80 years or older is expected to triple between 2020 and 2050 to reach 426 million” (“Ageing and health”, www.who.int, 1/10/2022), giving ageing subjects a new visibility at the centre of policy and governance. Narratives of decline and the crisis of care dominate the news media coverage of topics related to the third and fourth ages, even if the experience and the social standing of the ageing subject varies widely according to factors such as cultural location, access to services and disposable income. Parallel to this state of affairs, film industries worldwide continue to trade in a visual economy normatively biased towards youth, even if in some regions (Europe most prominently) audiences are ageing in tune with demographic trends (with the long-term impact of the Covid pandemic and the expansion of streaming on the habits of older cinemagoers still under assessment).

This is just one of many paradoxes confronted by scholars concerned with the longer histories of representation and stereotyping of ageing in film and television (notably Cohen-Shalev 2009; Oró-Piqueras and Wohlmann 2016; Dolan 2017; Chivers 2019, or Tracy and Schrage-Früh 2021). New forms of theorisation (for example De Falco 2009; Gravagne 2013) point at the complex role of screen media as, in the words of Medina Bañón and Zecchi (2020), a technology of age, regulating and reproducing normative ideas about age and gender. In this regard, the focus on aging femininities has driven the critical agenda (e.g. see key studies by Dolan and Tincknell, 2012; Jermyn and Holmes 2015) while recent reports on gender inequality suggest that women remain mostly underrepresented in creative roles, such as film director, producer and screenwriter (Prommer and Loist 2020; Coles and Verhoeven 2021).

Conversely, some forms of film and media have become aligned with particular age groups; in this respect, more research is needed to debunk myths about social media being the preserve of those who have grown with it from a young age, while the intersections of ageing and celebrity cultures constitute an expanding field (cf Jermyn and Holmes 2015). Finally, ageing raises temporal questions of performance, creativity and late style (Bolton and Lobalzo Wright, 2016; Richardson 2019; Deng 2024) as part of wider cycles of maturity and obsolescence. Time entangles senescent creators and spectators in ways that lead us to ask how cinema and other forms of screen media registers age, and how it ages with its audiences.

We invite research contributions (including video essays) dealing with, but not limited to the following perspectives on #ageing:

• old age, third age, and fourth age in film and media
  
• performing and reading age in film and visual media
  
• narrating age
  
• transitions and ageing
  
• intergenerational relations
  
• ageing media/film cultures and industries
  
• intersectional approaches to ageing
  
• challenging narratives of decline
  
• critical approaches to successful aging
  
• ageing, illness, well-being
  
• dementia and time in film and media
  
• narratives of care
  
• old age and living arrangements on screen
  
• the care home in film and media
  
• old age and social media
  
• ageing in relation to stardom, celebrity, nostalgia and/or cinephilia
  

We look forward to receiving abstracts of 300 words, 3-5 bibliographic references, and a short biography of 100 words by 1 March 2025 via this online form. On the basis of selected abstracts, authors will be invited to submit full manuscripts by 15 July 2025 (5,000-8,000 words, revised abstract, 4-5 keywords) which will subsequently go through a blind peer review process before final acceptance for publication (expected December 2025).

Please check the guidelines at: https://necsus-ejms.org/guidelines-for-submission/. For all queries on the call for papers and the submission of abstracts, please contact Belén Vidal at belen.vidal@kcl.ac.uk.  

References  

Anonymous. ‘Ageing and health’, World Health Organization, 1 October 2022 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health

Bolton, Lucy and Julie Lobalzo Wright (eds.) 2016. Lasting Screen Stars. Images that Fade and Personas that Endure. London: Palgrave.

Chivers, Sally. 2019. The Silvering Screen: Old Age and Disability in Cinema. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Cohen-Shalev, Amir. 2009. Visions of Aging: Images of the Elderly in Film. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press.

Coles, Amanda and Deb Verhoeven. 2021. Deciding on Diversity: Covid-19, Risk and Intersectional Inequality in the Canadian Film and Television Industry. Women in Film and Television Canada Coalition, Toronto.

De Beauvoir, Simone. 1972. The Coming of Age. London: Penguin.

Deng, MaoHui. 2024. Ageing, Dementia and Time in Film: Temporal Performances. Edinburgh University Press.

Dolan, Josephine and Estella Tincknell (eds.) 2012. Aging Femininities. Troubling Representations. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Dolan, Josephine. 2017. Contemporary Cinema and ‘Old Age’: Gender and the Silvering of Stardom. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Featherstone and Wernick (eds.) 1995. Images of Aging: Cultural Representations of Later Life. New York: Routledge.

Gravagne, Pamela H. 2013. The Becoming of Age: Cinematic Visions of Mind, Body and Identity in Later Life. Jefferson: McFarland & Company.

Gullette, Margaret Morganroth. 2004. Aged by Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Haring, Nicola. ‘Intersectional Ageing. An Anocritical Reading.’ 2023. In Nicole Haring, Roberta Maierhofer, Barbara Ratzenböck (eds.) Gender and Age/Aging in Popular Culture. Representations in Film, Music, Literature, and Social Media, 135-152. Aging Studies 22. Bielefeld: Transcript.

Jermyn, Deborah and Sue Holmes (eds.), 2015. Women, Celebrity, and Cultures of Ageing: Freeze Frame. London: Palgrave MacMillan.

Medina Bañón, Raquel, and Barbara Zecchi. 2020. ‘Technologies of Age: The Intersection of Feminist Film Theory and Aging Studies’. Investigaciones Feministas 11 (2): 251–62. Oró-Piqueras, Maricel, and Anita Wolhmann (eds.) 2016. Serializing Age: Aging and Old Age in TV Series. Aging Studies 7. Bielefeld: Transcript.

Sontag, Susan. 1972. ‘The Double Standard of Aging.’ Saturday Review of the Society LV (39): 29–38.

Prommer E, and Skadi Loist. 2020. ‘Where are the Female Creatives? The Status Quo of the German Screen Industry’. Women in the International Film Industry: Policy, Practice and Power. Liddy S (ed.), 43–60. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke.

Richardson, Niall. 2019. Aging Femininity on Screen: The Older Woman in Contemporary Cinema. London: I.B. Tauris.

Tracy, Tony and Michaela Schrage-Früh (eds.) 2022. Ageing Masculinities in Contemporary European and Anglophone Cinema. London, New York: Routledge.

Twigg, Julia and Wendy Martin (eds.) 2015. Routledge Handbook of Cultural Gerontology. London, New York: Routledge.

Woodward, Kathleen (ed.) 1999. Figuring Age: Women, Bodies, Generations. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

June 5-6, 2025

Lisbon, Portugal

Deadline: February 28, 2025

2025 ECREA Workshop of the Temporary Working Group Affect, Emotion & Media

From climate change awareness to political engagement, media have always played an essential role in giving people the tools to make informed decisions to potentially enhance their quality of life and that of their communities. However, in an era where multiple layers of content and information from different sources and players coexist, it can be challenging to develop shared visions for improved quality of life and change oneself, communities, cities, the environment, and governments for the better. Emotion and affect are powerful tools to bridge this gap, capturing attention and inspiring engagement with critical quality-of-life issues.

This workshop explores the intersection of affect, emotion, and media in addressing contemporary societal challenges with impacts on well-being and the good life, focusing on quality-of-life topics such as healthy media use, climate action, equity, democracy, mobility, and responsible cities, among others. We welcome interdisciplinary approaches that combine media and communication studies with psychology, sociology, political science, and other relevant fields. Presentations may address, but are not limited to:

• Theoretical frameworks and empirical approaches for understanding affect in media communication;
  
• Empirical studies on the impact of affect and emotion in news dissemination and reception;
  
• Case studies of successful or failed affective strategies in, e.g., journalism, PR, advertisement, political campaigns, or influencer relationships;
  
• Ethical considerations in leveraging emotion for media engagement;
  
• Expressions of affect and emotion in visual communication
  
• Affect, emotions, and the role of algorithms and AI;
  
• Innovative methodologies for measuring and analyzing emotional responses to media content.
  
• Historical analyses of affect and emotion in media and their impact on society
  

Location & Date: NOVA University of Lisbon (NOVA FCSH), Av. de Berna Campus | 5 and 6 June 2025

Submission deadline: 28 February 2025

Submit an abstract (only in English) of no more than 300 words (excl. bibliography) by 28 February 2025 to dorasantossilva@fcsh.unl.pt

One file should contain no identifying information on the authors (only abstract proposal and respective title), as each abstract will be subjected to peer review. In addition, we request authors to submit – in a separate file – the title of the abstract, the authors and affiliations (plus a short bio). Notification of acceptance/rejection will be given by 10 March. 

Members and non-members of ECREA are equally welcome to submit an abstract. Proposals from PhD students and early career researchers are especially encouraged. A registration fee of €90 for researchers and €25 for PhDs students will, as of now, be required. This value includes two days of lunches and coffee breaks.

Dora Santos-Silva

Gabriela Ferreira 

Manuel Menke

Dominique Wirz

May 28-30, 2025

Universidade Nova de Lisboa, ICNOVA-FCSH-UNL, Lisbon

Deadline: January 24, 2025

This conference is hosted by the Communication Institute of Universidade Nova, FCSH.

It will have a double-blind peer review and publication of selected papers for RCL [Revista de Comunicação e Linguagens].

The arts and artistic practices create specific modes and mediations that involve variations in attention. They perform a “tuning [of] the attention” if we are to use Lisa Nelson’s formulation in Tuning Scores (2003), which generates cadences, movements and intensities between different types of focus of fluctuating, and varyingly disinterested or distracted attention. Attention is always in movement, and according to Paul Ricoeur, it is always more or less at the service of a desire, an intention, a task, a need or a volition.

The study of variations in attention in the arts, notably performance and cinema, is also linked to how we see the world and choose what we want to show. Sensitivity is refined to give visibility to something confused with the landscape, highlighting it or co-composing with it.  When we choose a cutout, a framework for what we are going to share, we create a surplus—everything we choose not to show—and a margin—which is within the cutout of what is shown but is not reinforced as “the most relevant.” 

These choices also reveal some common ground between art and politics—the choice between what is considered relevant to be seen and made visible and what is left out of the attention with resulting implications. What we do not see (or hear, or smell) of the figure/background, such as context and focus, movement, drag, or blur, is very broad and requires a great deal of “attention training” to play, describe, and live in the arts, sciences, and ordinary everyday life.

On the other hand, the word “cadence” has a procedural and dynamic dimension that relates not only to modulations and rhythms but also to falls. “Cadere,” the word behind “cadence,” contains the idea of falling.  Falling in or out of a specific type of attention, a curiosity, a passion, or floating in attention through falls, as happens in surfing or Contact Improvisation, perfectly describes the way we live in constant “improvisation.”

For the conference Cadences: Attentional Moves in the Arts and Everyday Life, we invite talks with and about modes and “echologies” of attention—thinking of the “echo” of sound resonance—and the ecology of relationships as an intricate web of inter-affections. We invite reflections on framings, postures, positions and positionalities. We invite reflections on affection and care, craftsmanship and hospitality. 

What words, tools, movements, and cadences do we use to practice attention?

What subjectivities and communities are generated from certain practices of attention? What is left out of focus?

When we say “focus,” do we put ourselves in the place of a lens that focuses, as in the case of photography and cinema?

We accept proposals on attentional moves linked to the arts and everyday life. We invite scholars, researchers, artists, and curators to submit proposals for a 20-minute in-person presentation in English, or Portuguese.

Suggested topics (may include but are not limited to)

-Technogenetic attention.

-Tuning of attention.

-Movements of attention.

-Attention mediation.

-Attention capture and attention deficit.

-Arts. 

– Crafts, handicrafts and workshops.

– Performance studies. 

– Performance and cognition.

– Dramaturgies of attention.

– Attention, affection and care.

– Transindividual attention and community.

– Performativity of attention.

– Queer studies.

– Gender and Feminist studies.

– Black studies and Race studies.

– Disability studies.

Keynote speakers:

Yves Citton (Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint Denis), 

Bojana Cvejic (Oslo National Academy of Arts),

Jonathan Burrows (Centre for Dance Research Coventry University), 

Carla Fernandes (ICNOVA, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa).

Fees:

Researchers / Speakers: €120

Students: € 60

Submission guidelines

The proposals should include:

Title of the proposal; Author’s identification (name, institutional affiliation, country and e-mail); Conference topics and 3 to 5 keywords. Extended abstract (300 – 500 words), 1 or 2 images (optional), References (3 to 5), Short bio (150 words max).

Proposals must be sent in PDF format by e-mail to:  cadencesattentionalmoves@gmail.com

Conference website: http://cadencesattentionalmoves.fcsh.unl.pt

Texts and presentations must be delivered in English or Portuguese.

Selection process

Proposals can be submitted until 24 January 2025.

Proposals are assessed by double-blind peer review.

The note of acceptance will be sent by 24 February 2025.

Deadline for registration: 24 March.

A selection of conference papers will be included in RCL [Revista de Comunicação e Linguagens], to be published in 2026 by the Institute of Communication of Nova, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.

Further instructions for publication of the complete papers will be sent directly to the selected authors.

September 18-19, 2025

Nova University of Lisbon (Portugal)

Deadline: January 31, 2025

https://womcomrights25.fcsh.unl.pt

In 2025, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), an international policy framework adopted at the Fourth UN World Conference on Women in 1995, which established global objectives for advancing gender equality. Section J deals with gender equality in the media and calls for the participation of women in media roles and a balanced, non-stereotypical portrayal of women. It took decades of feminist activism to include Section J in the Platform. These initiatives led to the launch of the Global Media Monitoring Project, a comprehensive analysis of the portrayal of women in the news in different countries.

Despite this foundation, gender and intersectional inequalities still exist. The media landscape of the last 30 years has seen a concentration of ownership, a decline in budgets for journalism, the rise of large tech companies and a challenging regulatory environment — all of which emphasise the need for initiatives on gender and intersectionality in the media. Although Section J advocates for women’s participation, stereotypical representations are still prevalent and women are often excluded from media decision-making processes. Gender-based violence online has increased as digital platforms have failed to effectively combat misogyny and protect women’s digital rights. This has added new forms of abuse, especially for those belonging to different minority groups and facing other forms of discrimination such as ableism, racism, lgtbqphobia, aporophobia, classism or ageism.

At a time when rights are under threat, it is necessary to continue to develop strategies for action and exchange ideas on methods to support demands for a fairer media environment. This conference aims to foster a dialogue on changes, challenges and future directions in realising gender and intersectional equality in the media. 

Format

We invite scholars, policymakers, journalists, media professionals and activists to submit a contribution on topics such as feminist media policy, digital harassment, intersectional discrimination, media representation and the role of feminist movements in shaping media policy or other topics mentioned below. Contributions dealing with intersectional and comparative approaches to media and gender issues are particularly welcome. Presentations can be inspired by research, creative, media, activist, and interdisciplinary practices and will be arranged in thematic sessions by the organising team.

Potential topics could include (but are not limited to): 

· The role of feminist movements in media and gender policy-making

· Gender and media regulation

· Online gendered harassment and abuse

· Gender and intersectional issues in media production

· Manifestations of misogyny in digital and popular media

· Gendered implications of AI / automated technologies and algorithmic communications

· Intersections of sexism, ableism, racism, lgtbqphobia, ageism, classism and other forms of oppression

· Shortcomings and possibilities of the Beijing Platform for Action 

· Pervasiveness of (neo)colonial framings in the global representation of women

· The role of affect, emotion, and authenticity within gender and communication

· Disinformation, misinformation, malinformation and threats to gender and intersectional equality

· Far-right communication, social media and women’s rights

· Alternative feminist media practices 

· Possibilities for building solidarity in and through the media, especially within the Global South and the Global North

· Specific policy issues such as privacy, surveillance, issues of data justice and others

· Feminist utopias in media production and representation.

Submission 

https://easychair.org/cfp/WomComRights25

Please submit your proposal by 31st January 2025, 23:59 (CET) and highlight how your work relates to the conference topic, methods used, and perspectives you would like to bring to the discussion. Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words. 

Registration

The cost of (in-person) attendance is 100 euros for salaried academics and other professionals, and 50 euros for students and unwaged participants. Requests for fee exemption will be handled case-by-case by the organizing committee. 

This covers conference registration and coffee breaks. Booking for the conference dinner will be available once registration is opened.

Organisation

This conference is co-organised by ICNOVA (Lisbon) and ECREA’s Gender, Sexuality and Communication Section with the support of the Digital Culture and Communication Section. The conference is partially supported by National Funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology under Project refª: UIDB/05021/2020.

Hosted and sponsored by ICNOVA (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa).

For questions, please email us at WomComRights25@fcsh.unl.pt

URL: https://womcomrights25.fcsh.unl.pt

Edited by: Giuliana Sorce and Tanja Thomas (University of Tübingen)

https://www.routledge.com/New-Digital-Feminist-Interventions-Speaking-Up-Talking-Back/Sorce-Thomas/p/book/9781032795010?srsltid=AfmBOoql-fYOYTY_Ol1rdJ6TecQfDABDjMRUIEaE6glZk0fdUE_wmkjm

Drawing on the influential work of bell hooks, this edited collection highlights social justice interventions by feminist/queer/decolonial actors, groups, and collectives who recover the digital as a space for activist organizing and campaigning. In presenting a variety of sociocultural issues, such as gender violence, queer discrimination, or migrant hostility, the book centers empowerment practices in their digital forms, showcasing interventions in Asia, Europe, and the Americas—thereby critically examining the conditions for marginalized voices to speak up, talk back, and be heard in digital publics. 

The chapters in this book are organized into four sections: The first section on Activist Practices zooms in on what activists do with digital media to speak up and talk back. The second section centers various Activist Formats, engaging with different types of digital media as spaces for intervention and resistance. The third section, Activist Experience, covers the costs of doing digital feminist work. The fourth section, Activist Scholarship, speaks to the politics of researching and publishing queer and feminist digital activism in our field.