ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Odense, Denmark

The Danish Institute for Advanced Study (DIAS) and the Faculty of Humanities are seeking to appoint a DIAS Assistant Professor to contribute to the interdisciplinary field of organisational communication. DIAS Assistant Professor tenure track positions run for up to six years, after which tenure will be offered subject to positive evaluations and reviews. 

Given the central role of commercial, non-profit and governmental organisations in contemporary society – and of practices of ‘organisation’ in increasingly many domains of social life – researching organisational meaning-making practices and outputs is crucial for comprehending their broader societal impact. The ideal candidate will research such issues, recognising that communication is not merely an output of organisations but is also constitutive of them and lends itself to being researched from various perspectives. We are looking for a candidate who can engage with diverse research methodologies and particularly welcome applicants with a background in semiotics, multimodality, or narrative. 

The successful candidate must have an international profile and a strong emerging record of research and funding excellence as well as novel ideas with a clear potential to expand our frontiers of knowledge.

The position is a joint position at DIAS and the Department of Culture and Language at University of Southern Denmark (SDU). The candidate will thus have two affiliations—DIAS and the department—and is expected to contribute to both. Tenure will be offered in the department with continued affiliation with DIAS. 

The starting date for the position is September 1st 2025, or as soon as possible thereafter. 

About DIAS 

DIAS at SDU is a hub for interdisciplinary excellence at and beyond the frontier of knowledge, bringing together outstanding researchers from various disciplines to foster interdisciplinary research and innovation. It hosts Chairs and Fellows from all faculties of the university, fostering an interdisciplinary environment. DIAS encourages and supports curiosity-driven research and fosters the meeting of minds across disciplines and levels of seniority. The center cultivates an ambitious, open-minded and playful environment that nurtures both academic growth and a strong sense of community.   The candidate will be anticipated to contribute actively to DIAS, including but not limited to participation in DIAS activities, promotion of DIAS nationally, internationally and within SDU, as well as through strengthening the bonds between the department/faculty on one hand and DIAS on the other, through interdisciplinary collaborations where meaningful. 

For more information about DIAS activities: https://www.sdu.dk/en/forskning/dias

Contact information

Questions can be addressed to Director of DIAS, Professor Sten Rynning, director-dias@sdu.dk.  

About the Department of Culture and Language

The Department of Culture and Language is located at SDU’s campus in Odense and home for appr. 200 employees, covering a wide range of subjects and research interests, including American Studies, SLT and Audiology, Classical Studies, Communication, Comparative Literature, Culture, Danish, English, German, History, Middle East Studies, Organisational Communication, and the Study of Religion. Our staff is committed to interdisciplinary research and teaching, encouraging students to explore the intersections of language, culture, and society. Our researchers are actively involved in various research centres, groups, and networks, contributing to cutting-edge projects and publications.

Candidates are expected to support the department’s strategic objectives: excellence in research, high-quality teaching, and social impact. 

Contact information

For more information about the department and the position, please contact chair of search committee, Vice Head of Department of Culture and Language Anne Klara Bom, akbom@sdu.dk, or Associate Professor and Head of the Research group Multimodality, Language and Organisation Nina Nørgaard, noergaard@sdu.dk.

Conditions of employment

Appointment to the position will be in accordance with the salary agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. Please check links for more information on salary (only available in Danish) and taxation.

Application

The Faculty expects applicants to read the information "How to apply" before applying. 

Teaching obligations will be reduced compared to a regular Assistant Professor position at SDU.

To qualify for the position as Assistant Professor you must have obtained a PhD degree by the employment date.

The application must include:

• A motivation letter
  
• A detailed Curriculum Vitae
  
• A copy of important certificates/diplomas
  
• A complete list of publications, indicating which publications are most relevant for the position
  
• Up to five of the most relevant publications. Please attach one pdf-file for each publication. In case of co-authorship, a co-author statement must be submitted as part of the pdf-file
  
• Three letters of recommendation from established international researchers. They can be sent separately to Marie-Louise Wethje-Raabe at raabe@sdu.dk  
  
• A research and publication plan for the next three years, including a description of the synergy with the department activities as well as the potential for benefitting from the interdisciplinarity at DIAS
  

Application and all appendices must be in English. Only applications written in English will be accepted for evaluation. Please always include a copy of original diploma/certificates. We only accept files in pdf-format no more than 10 MB per file. All pdf-files must be unlocked and allow binding and may not be password protected. 

The assessment process

Applications will be assessed by an assessment committee and the applicant will receive the part of the evaluation that concerns him/her. The committee may request additional information, and if so, it is the responsibility of the applicant to provide the necessary material.

If the application does not meet the requirements mentioned above, the faculty may reject your application without further notice. Applications received after the deadline will neither be considered nor evaluated.

Shortlisting and tests may be used in the assessment process. You can find more information about shortlisting at SDU on our website Assessment of applicants for academic staff positions. Please note that only a shortlisted applicant will receive an assessment. 

Applications should be sent electronically via the link "apply online". The faculty expects applicants to read the information “How to apply” before applying.

We recommend that as an international applicant, you take the time to visit Work in Denmark where you will find information and facts about moving to, working and living in Denmark, as well as the International Staff Office at SDU.

SDU and DIAS wish our staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background. 

About SDU and Odense

SDU was founded in 1966 and now has more than 27,000 students, almost 20% of whom are from abroad. It has more than 3,800 employees, and 115 different study programmes in the fields of the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences, and engineering. Its main campus is located in Odense, the third largest city in Denmark, but is present also in Kolding, Sønderborg, Esbjerg and Copenhagen. 

The city of Odense provides family-friendly living conditions with the perfect combination of a historic city centre with an urban feel and yet close proximity to beaches and recreational areas. Its location on the beautiful island of Funen is ideal with easy access by train or highway to the bigger cities of Aarhus and Copenhagen. As the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark’s famous fairytale author, the city is home to a vibrant and creative population that hosts numerous festivals and markets throughout the year. 

Application deadline: February 27, 2025 at 12.59 PM/23.59 (CET/CEST). 

Apply: https://fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/da/sites/CX_1001/job/2323 

August 28-30, 2025

Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Deadline: April 1, 2025

Mid-term conference of the European Sociological Association, Research Network 18 - The Sociology of Communications and Media Research 

The small-scale and focused mid-term conferences of the European Sociological Association’s Research Network 18 seek to ensure that the sociological investigation of media and communications is given full focus, distinguishing its work from that of large international associations, which provide important forums for communications and media research but do not have especially sociological concerns. 

The challenges facing societies today seem daunting even by the most volatile historical standards. These include deepening economic inequalities, class antagonisms, the rise of radical right-wing authoritarianism around the world and violent wars that may soon erupt into even wider international conflicts. Generative AI is increasingly reshaping virtually all relations, and digital tech giants are running amok along with their increasingly unhinged owners. Somewhere behind all this, looming on the horizon, is an ecological crisis. While many of these issues are intricately interlinked and, among other things, speak volumes about the deepening power imbalances and crises of liberal institutions, their causes and trajectories may be divergent and contradictory, with outcomes that seem difficult to predict. 

As the conference title suggests, no social issues can be addressed without recourse to communication or capitalism. For Hanno Hardt, critical scholar and former professor in Ljubljana, communication could be considered “the sine qua non of human existence” (1979, 1). In this sense, the study of communication must always be the first stepping stone, but one that is now influenced and shaped in various ways by digital giants and media-as-industries. Similarly, critical authors have historically regarded capitalism as a system that cannot be ignored in a holistic social analysis. Sociologist Wolfgang Streeck has, for instance, asserted “that contemporary society cannot really be understood by a sociology that makes no reference to its capitalist economy” (2012, 1). In other words, the sociology of communications and media must inevitably include or address these two of the most fundamental social relations in its research. 

In line with these premises, the conference will feature a plenary round table on digital platforms and labour and plenary talks by critical scholars who have addressed the dynamic between communication and capitalism throughout their careers: 

• Kylie Jarrett (University College Dublin, Ireland) 
  
• Graham Murdock (Loughborough University, UK) 
  
• and Slavko Splichal (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia). 
  

The Communication and Capital(ism) conference aims to bring together contributions that explore the unpredictable and unstable social terrain in the era of digital capitalism. It seeks to critically engage with these issues and their consequences by focusing on the role of social communication, media, and journalism. We are looking for theoretical and empirical submissions that may include, but are not limited to, the following topics: 

• Theoretical reflections on political economy and cultural studies; 
  
• The role of critique and criticality for the sociology of media; 
  
• Digital capitalism, imperialism and colonialism; 
  
• Digital platforms and tech giants; 
  
• Labour and platformisation of working conditions; 
  
• Capital, class, gender, and race; 
  
• Global media corporations and media-as-industries; 
  
• Capitalism and journalism; 
  
• Sociology of news; 
  
• The material and ideological impact of advertising; 
  
• Transformations in political communication; 
  
• Democracy and democratic transformations; 
  
• The public sphere; 
  
• (Re-)presentations in journalism and the media; 
  
• Possible alternatives to the existing political/economic malaise and 
  
• digital capitalism. 

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION 

• Abstract submission deadline: 1 April 2025 
  
• Notification of selected abstracts: 15 May 2025 
  
• Conference dates: 28-30 August 2025 
  

Abstracts should be sent to The Conference Organising Committee, 

rn18esasubmission@gmail.com 

Abstracts should be sent as an e-mail attachment (400-600 words including title, author name(s), email address(es), and institutional affiliation(s)). Please insert the words “ESA RN18 Submission” in the subject. Although we do not provide a template for the abstract submission, we expect abstracts that include a rationale, research question(s), theoretical and/or empirical methods applied, and potential results and implications. Each abstract will be independently reviewed by two members of the ESA RN18 Board based on the call for papers. 

Deadline: February 28

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has generated a lot of debate on its impact on society, the economy, and the environment. These debates range from the impact of AI in promoting inequality, as espoused by the two recent Nobel Prize winners in Economics, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, in their recent work, Power and Progress (2023)[1], to the more in-depth analysis on the role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by Vinuesa et al. (2020).[2] They found that AI can serve as an enabler on 134 targets (79%) across all SDGs, while 59 targets (35%) may likely experience a negative impact on the SDGs due to the consequences of the development of AI.

These facts emerged at a time when the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, admitted that the SDGs are off-track, with only 15% of the global goals being on course to be achieved by 2030. Yet, the SDGs are the most ambitious development agenda agreed upon by 193 countries at a time when global consensus on issues affecting humanity remains as arduous as it has ever been in history.

While the debate on the role of AI in achieving the SDGs continues, with experts from different fields making scholarly and professional contributions to this phenomenon that would have a reverberating impact on society and the economy, the question to be asked is, what is the role of communication in achieving the SDGs in the age of artificial intelligence? This is the gap that this edited book seeks to fill.

AI is an important enabler that can help to achieve the SDGs. Some additional questions to consider include: What role can AI play in communicating how to alleviate poverty, eradicate hunger, ensure quality education, or address the pressing challenge of climate change? How can AI mitigate the effects of misinformation, which could hinder the realization of the SDGs by undermining peace, partnerships, and other sustainability initiatives? How can AI support the reduction of digital inequality, promote decent work, and serve as an effective platform for stakeholder engagement?

This call for chapters is an opportunity for media and communication scholars/professionals, journalists, and development experts to contribute to the literature on how communication would play a role in achieving the SDGs in the age of artificial intelligence. The book, expected to be published by Palgrave Macmillan, seeks contributions in the following areas, but not limited to these:

• Artificial Intelligence as a tool of communication for development
  
• Communicating SDGs through Artificial Intelligence
  
• Data journalism, Artificial Intelligence, and Sustainable Development Goals
  
• Misinformation, Sustainable Development Goals, and Artificial Intelligence
  
• Role of Artificial Intelligence in mobilizing stakeholders to achieve the SDGs
  
• Communicating climate action through Artificial Intelligence
  
• SDGs, big data, and Artificial Intelligence
  
• Peace Communication and Artificial Intelligence
  
• Energy journalism, SDGs, and Artificial Intelligence
  
• Communication, education, and Artificial Intelligence
  
• Communication, digital inequality, and Artificial Intelligence
  
• Health communication in the age of Artificial Intelligence
  
• Artificial Intelligence, SDGs and Social Media
  

Contributors should submit a 250-300 word abstract to the editor, Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u via email: mjyushau@gmail.com by 28 February 2025.

Abstracts should comprise the following information:

• Name of contributors, affiliation, and contact details
  
• 200-word biography of contributors
  
• Corresponding authors should be specified
  

Contributors whose abstracts meet the high-quality criteria will be notified by 30 March 2025. Full chapters would be expected by 15 June 2025.

[1] Acemoglu, D., & Johnson, S. (2023). Power and progress: Our thousand-year struggle over technology and prosperity. Hachette UK. 

[2] Vinuesa, R., Azizpour, H., Leite, I., Balaam, M., Dignum, V., Domisch, S., ... & Fuso Nerini, F. (2020). The role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Nature communications, 11(1), 1-10.

Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS)

The Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) funds innovative research on the societal opportunities and challenges of digital transformation. We support individual researchers (fellows) and collaborative projects (working groups).

Fellowships: Time and Space for Focus and Inspiration

A fellowship at CAIS provides the freedom to dedicate yourself to your research and the opportunity to engage with a vibrant interdisciplinary community. Step away from your daily work obligations to gain new perspectives and build connections.

As a fellow, you can spend either six or three months in Bochum, Germany. During this time, we will cover your sabbatical leave from work through financial compensation (e.g. for a teaching substitute) or provide grants of up to 2.000 € per month. You can invite guests for collaboration and receive financial support for research expenses. Private offices and meeting rooms with modern facilities offer optimal working conditions. In addition, we will provide a fully furnished apartment free of charge.

Find out more: https://www.cais-research.de/en/cais-college/fellowships/

Working Groups: Boost Your Research Collaboration

A working group at CAIS enables you to assemble your own team of experts from different locations to collaborate in a stimulating environment.

We provide modern meeting facilities and catering for groups of up to ten members. In addition, we will cover travel and accommodation expenses. You can spend up to three weeks in Bochum or get together for several shorter meetings.  

Find out more: https://www.cais-research.de/en/cais-college/working-groups/

Application

The next deadline for applications is 28 February 2025. The earliest possible start date for new fellowships is April 2026. Working groups can currently apply for meetings in 2026. Please use the application forms provided on our website.

The funding program is open to excellent scholars and practitioners at all career stages and from all disciplines. Both fundamental research and applied projects are welcome.

Questions? Please contact esther.laufer@cais-research.de.

October 9-10, 2025

Vilnius University, Lithuania

Deadline: April 30, 2025

We are pleased to invite you to the International Scientific Conference titled “Information and Communication in Organizations: New Forms of Expression”, which will take place at Vilnius University on October 9-10, 2025.

We welcome researchers exploring the following topics:

New forms of organizational and business communication in traditional and digital spaces:

• Sustainability communication;

• Social responsibility communication;

• Inclusive communication;

• AI, Big Data, and other information technologies in communication;

• Social Listening.

Information and Communication in organizations current trends:

• Communication of social business organizations, NGOs, the public sector, and 

• startups;

• Integrated communication;

• Strategic communication in organization;

• Public opinion and reputation;

• Communication value measurements;

• Sustainable leadership;

• Information management and innovations.

Global communication and intercultural cooperation:

• Communicative aspects of intercultural interaction;

• Climate change communication;

• Change communication;

• Risk and crisis communication;

• Diversity, equality, and inclusion communication.

DOCTORAL WORKSHOP

We also invite PhD students to participate in the Doctoral Workshop, which will be held on October 9, 2025. 

IMPORTANT DATES

• REGISTRATION for conference speakers is open until April 30, 2025. 
  
• REGISTRATION for Doctoral Workshop is open until April 30, 2025. 
  
• May 31, 2025: Notification of accepted abstracts and invitations to participate in the conference.
  

PUBLICATION

Participants will have the opportunity to submit their articles for the conference journal.

CONFERENCE FEE

Conference speakers: 70 EUR. Please ensure that the conference fee is paid by June 30.

Speakers from Vilnius University: Fee waived.

Doctoral Workshop: Free for doctoral students.

CONTACT

For inquiries, please contact: conference@kf.vu.lt

Information about the conference: https://bit.ly/4hcgvDY

Lebanese American University

Department: Communication, Mobility, and Identity

Campus: Beirut/Byblos

Expected start date: Fall 2025

Deadline for applying:  Open until filled

The Department of Communication, Mobility, and Identity in the School of Arts and Sciences at the Lebanese American University (LAU) invites applicants to a tenure-track faculty position at all ranks. The department is interested in applicants able to balance theory, research, critical inquiry, journalistic practice, and civic engagement—with strong emphasis on new forms of multimedia, data journalism, or digital innovation in the Arab region and the Global South. Candidates will teach various undergraduate and graduate courses. The department is interested in applicants who can contribute to developing the Multimedia Journalism program, working with the Institute for Media Research and Training (IMRT), and producing research in the field.

Responsibilities

• Teach on both campuses courses in multimedia journalism, data journalism, and digital innovation.
  
• Evidence of scholarship and research as illustrated in high-impact indexed articles.
  
• Advise and mentor students in the Multimedia Journalism track (MA, BA, Minors), support student production and research projects, and help them connect with academic, research, civic engagement, and industry opportunities.
  
• Engage in service to the university and the department, particularly related to developing the Multimedia Journalism program, building connections with the field and industry.
  

Minimum Qualifications

• Ph.D. degree in journalism or media studies.
  
• Strong theoretical and critical grounding.
  
• Professional background in journalism and/or practical journalistic experience, particularly in new forms of multimedia, data journalism and digital innovation.
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Evidence of successful university‑level teaching and training.
  
• A broad professional and/or academic background with experience working in or researching data journalism.
  
• Experience in producing professional journalistic content, using the latest news forms and technologies, especially data journalism and artificial intelligence.
  
• Mastery of various quantitative or qualitative research methods, preferably both.
  
• Ability to teach data journalism, digital innovation, multimedia journalism, data visualization, media analytics, new media business models, media literacy and other specialized research areas.
  
• Evidence of fund-raising abilities and experience in developing and leading major research projects and international programs, such as conferences, study abroad, and exchange programs.
  
• Knowledge of new digital, AI and data methodologies and approaches, both in research and media production.
  
• Evidence of scholarship and research productivity focused preferably on journalism in Lebanon, the Arab world, and the Global South.
  

The Department:

The Department of Communication, Mobility, and Identity (CMI) embraces interdisciplinary education and research about culture, media, and politics drawing on a range of methods and theoretical approaches to teach competencies and skills in professional and academic practices. Our faculty provide superior undergraduate and graduate instruction across programs in Communication (BA), Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (MA), Migration Studies (MA), and Multimedia Journalism (BA & MA). We offer minors in Advertising and PR, Creative Writing and Journalism, Gender Studies, Migration Studies, Multimedia Journalism, and Sociology. The CMI department is committed to fostering academic excellence, professional ethics, and social justice action in the region and the Global South. Students in CMI are prepared for career advancement within diverse sectors and/or postgraduate studies in a changing world.

The University:

The Lebanese American University is an Equal Opportunity Employer operating in Lebanon under a charter from the Regents of the State University of New York. Information about the University can be found at http://www.lau.edu.lb.

LAU is an equal opportunity employer and encourages candidates of all above mentioned backgrounds to apply. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive research environment; thus women and underrepresented minorities are encouraged to apply

Application requirements:

Prospective candidates should apply electronically by sending a letter of interest including a statement of teaching and research interests, an updated CV by email to: soas.careers@lau.edu.lb . The CV should include the names, emails and phone numbers of three references. The university reserves the right to contact additional references with notice given to the candidates at an appropriate time in the process.

Candidates must refer to position no. AS-26-2 in the subject line of the email.

Lebanese American University

Department: Communication, Mobility, and Identity

Campus: Beirut/Byblos

Expected start date: Fall 2025

Deadline for applying:  Open until filled

The Department of Communication, Mobility, and Identity in the School of Arts and Sciences at the Lebanese American University (LAU) invites applicants to a tenure-track faculty position at all ranks.  The department is interested in applicants able to balance theory, research, critical inquiry, communication practice, and civic engagement—with strong emphasis on advertising, public relations, social and political communication, or organizational communication. Candidates will teach various undergraduate and graduate courses across both campuses. The department is interested in applicants who can contribute to developing the Communication program, building industry relations across diverse sectors, and producing research in the field.

Responsibilities                                                              

• Teach on both campuses introductory and advanced communication courses, across three areas: Social and Political Communication, Interpersonal and Organizational Communication, as well as Advertising and Public Relations.
  
• Actively engage in research focused on digital innovation in social and political communication.
  
• Advise and mentor students in the Communication track, support student research and projects, and help them connect with academic, research, and industry opportunities.
  
• Engage in service to the university and the department, particularly related to developing the new Communication program and building connections with the field and industry.
  

Minimum Qualifications

• Ph.D. in communication or related field.
  
• Strong theoretical and critical grounding.
  
• Background in communication and/or practical communication experience, particularly in digital innovation.
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Evidence of successful university‑level teaching and training.
  
• A broad professional and/or academic background with experience working in or researching the communication industry, especially integrated new and social media campaigns, digital activism, artificial intelligence, political or social communication, advertising, or PR.
  
• Experience in social media, digital activism, integrated and corporate communication campaigns, crisis communication management, strategic communication, analytics for communication, and the integration of traditional and new media communication campaigns.
  
• Evidence of scholarly production focused on the Arab communication scene. Mastery of various quantitative or qualitative research methods, ideally both.
  
• Evidence of fund-raising abilities and experience in developing and leading major research projects and international programs, such as festivals and study abroad and exchange programs.
  
• Knowledge of new digital, AI, and data methodologies and approaches, both in research and media production or communication campaigns.
  

The Department:

The Department of Communication, Mobility, and Identity (CMI) embraces interdisciplinary education and research about culture, media, and politics drawing on a range of methods and theoretical approaches to teach competencies and skills in professional and academic practices. Our faculty provide superior undergraduate and graduate instruction across programs in Communication (BA), Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (MA), Migration Studies (MA), and Multimedia Journalism (BA & MA). We offer minors in Advertising and PR, Creative Writing and Journalism, Gender Studies, Migration Studies, Multimedia Journalism, and Sociology. The CMI department is committed to fostering academic excellence, professional ethics, and social justice action in the region and the Global South. Students in CMI are prepared for career advancement within diverse sectors and/or postgraduate studies in a changing world.

The University:

The Lebanese American University is an Equal Opportunity Employer operating in Lebanon under a charter from the Regents of the State University of New York. Information about the University can be found at http://www.lau.edu.lb.

LAU is an equal opportunity employer and encourages candidates of all above mentioned backgrounds to apply. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive research environment; thus women and underrepresented minorities are encouraged to apply.

Application requirements

Prospective candidates should apply electronically by sending a letter of interest including a statement of teaching and research interests, an updated CV by email to: soas.careers@lau.edu.lb. The CV should include the names, emails and phone numbers of three references. The university reserves the right to contact additional references with notice given to the candidates at an appropriate time in the process.

Candidates must refer to position no. AS-26-1 in the subject line of the email.

Renira Rampazzo Gambarato, Johannes Heuman

This book offers a relevant contribution to the studies of streaming media and transmediality with an original approach of cultural sustainability perfectly intertwined with cultural memory beyond borders.

By critically reflecting on popular streaming media series, the book identifies their impact on the global circulation of cultural memory, their learning potential for educational purposes, and the societal challenges and opportunities that emerge from the ubiquitous streaming media penetration and potential for participatory practices. It also investigates how series available worldwide on commercial platforms such as Netflix and Max contribute to the global circulation of cultural memories, in addition to illuminating the ethical, (un)sustainable, and educational concerns involved in the fictionalization of the past.

Drawing on the authors’ expertise in media studies and history, this transdisciplinary book will interest scholars in the fields of media studies, cultural studies, memory studies, history, transmedia studies, education, postdigital studies, television studies, social communication, sociology, and philosophy.

https://www.routledge.com/Streaming-Media-and-Cultural-Memory-in-a-Postdigital-Society/Gambarato-Heuman/p/book/9781032690834?srsltid=AfmBOorZRLTqkqPoL9CjyH35Nnz905LnS7YCoB8WBh19cYqOookQiRZU

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/