ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

 September 8th-9th, 2025 

Università di Bologna, Dipartimento delle Arti – DAMSLab

Deadline: March 31, 2025

ECREA Film Studies and Television Studies Sections 2025 Conference

Organised by Luca Barra, Marco Cucco (Università di Bologna, Italy), Cathrin Bengesser (Aarhus University, Denmark), Deborah Castro (University of Groningen, Netherlands), Miguel Fernández Labayen (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain), Jono Van Belle (Örebro University, Sweden).

The development and rapid diffusion of audiovisual streaming platforms has undoubtedly been one of the most important events that happened in the film and television landscape over the last thirty years. Specialized companies such as Netflix have emerged, becoming leaders in the market and establishing practices and models soon adopted by other players. Digital retailers like Amazon started producing and distributing film and television products as part of their multifaceted activity. Production companies, film distributors and broadcasters that have long operated in the sector have been forced to rethink both their long-term strategies and their daily operations. Viewers have grown accustomed to different modes of domestic consumption, including lower access prices, the easy availability of a supposedly large choice of content, the accessibility to films and shows anytime and anywhere, and the possibility of binge-viewing to overcome the limits of television schedules and theatrical distribution. All these changes, often presented as revolutionary, have received great attention from film and television scholars around the world, including Europe, stimulating rich and diversified research in many areas: attention has been given to national and global markets, to business models, to changes in production practices and in distribution patterns, to varied audience habits and engagement, to regulatory policies, and so on. As a result, the evolutions in digital screen media have been widely studied at their local, transnational and international levels.

While the evolving markets, industries, technologies and audiences have been at the center of the analysis on audiovisual platforms, the cultural and textual dimensions have sometimes been overlooked. Therefore, this year two ECREA Sections, Film Studies and Television Studies, exceptionally join forces to organize this conference. It aims to stimulate research contributions on the lesser explored impact that digital audiovisual platforms have had, and still have, on films, on television series, on television shows, and on other screen content (e.g., documentaries, or video-based digital media) through their on-demand logic, catalogues and interfaces. Key questions we ask are: How are new forms of distribution and viewing practices impacting the ways film and television content is created, written, developed, and produced? In which ways are the industrial, regulatory and technological developments changing the aesthetics and textuality of film and television? 

We encourage submissions covering diverse topics, approaches and methodologies, including:

-       the impact of streaming platforms on the format of film and/or television texts;

-       recurrent aesthetic traits tied to, or even fostered by, digital distribution;

-       changes in narrative structures, characters and storylines;

-       the redefinition of genres, and the establishment of new, specific sub-genres;

-       the consequences of changing viewing practices on film and television development;

-       the different value of film, television series and television shows in digital libraries;

-       emerging labels, or the redefinition of previous ones (i.e. quality and prestige content, straight-to-video and made-for-TV movies, serial documentaries and reality television, …);

-       changing production models and changing distribution practices;

-       how the redefinition of policies for the digital market influences film and television texts;

-       the historical development of streaming texts, and possible antecedents in film and TV history;

-       the negotiations between global trends and local specificities;

-       transnational and trans-European case histories in film and television;

-       theoretical frameworks and methodological tools to study change at both textual and contextual level.

Abstracts should be up to 300 words, plus key references. Proposals should add a short biographical note of the author (max. 150 words). Evaluation will focus on relevance to the conference topic, selection of research objects and clarity in the use of methodology. Only one abstract per author can be submitted. 

The conference will be in person, with no option for remote presentation. Submission should be made to both email addresses: filmstudiesecrea@gmail.com and ecreaTVstudies@gmail.com, by March 31st, 2025. Notification of acceptance will be sent by April 28th, 2025.

Moreover, the conference lobby will host a posters exhibition devoted to international research projects funded by national and/or international institutions and other funding bodies. Projects need to involve at least two universities from different countries. Poster proposals should include: project title, name of the funding body, list of partners, project summary (up to 300 words), short bio of the PI/project leader and/or the researchers attending the conference (max 150 words).

ECREA membership is not required to participate in the conference. A registration fee will be requested upon acceptance (approximately €100) and will include coffee breaks and two lunches. 

The call for papers is available on the ECREA website: https://ecrea.eu/event-6025195.

Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague

The Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Charles University in Prague calls for candidates for the following PhD projects (each supported by a scholarship), for its English-language PhD programme in Media and Communication Studies: 

1. Post-structuralist Communication Studies 

Post-structuralism has slowly entered the field of Communication and Media Studies, offering a series of relevant theoretical frameworks for the theoretical and empirical study of communication. This PhD position is for PhD students who focus on one of the many post-structuralist frameworks, e.g., Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory or Foucauldian discourse theory, to support the research into a particular communication assemblage or into particular representational practices. 

While in this PhD position the theoretical framework needs to be post-structuralism, the object of study can be freely chosen. 

Proposed supervisor: Nico Carpentier, nico.carpentier@fsv.cuni.cz 

2. Analyzing the Impact of Strategic Communication on Public Health in the Czech Republic: A Mixed-Methods Approach 

This PhD position aims to investigate the effectiveness of strategic communication in influencing public health behavior in the Czech Republic. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods, the research will examine contemporary communication strategies used in public health campaigns. The project will include a comprehensive survey to quantify public awareness and behavioral changes in response to these campaigns. In-depth interviews and focus groups will qualitatively explore individual perceptions and attitudes towards these communications. Special attention will be given to the role of digital media in disseminating health information. This project, requiring prior consultation with the proposed PhD supervisor, seeks to provide valuable insights into how strategic communication can be optimized for public health promotion in the Czech context. Proficient knowledge of both Czech and English language is a condition for this research project due to the study of local language materials. 

Proposed supervisor: Denisa Hejlová, denisa.hejlova@fsv.cuni.cz 

3. Marketing communication and tobacco control 

The Department of Marketing Communication and Public Relations welcomes Czech or international scholars focusing on primary research in tobacco control from the standpoint of marketing and strategic communication (e.g. research of new strategies and tactics employed by tobacco companies, targeting customers, online and social media marketing, stealth marketing, lobbying, public affairs, influencer marketing, etc.). Our goal is to analyze and present marketing and communication strategies and tactics by the tobacco industry which prevent consumers from tobacco or nicotine cessation and undermine public health. We especially focus on campaigns or tools aimed at adolescents and youth, incl. new forms of tobacco or nicotine products (HTP, pouches, vapes, etc.). Close cooperation with the Addictology Dept. of 1st Medical Faculty, Charles University, is needed. 

Proposed supervisor: Denisa Hejlová, denisa.hejlova@fsv.cuni.cz 

4. The Para-Social Relationships and Experiences of Youth with the Online Engagement in these: Post-Humanist Perspective 

Traditional human relationships in the experiences of children and young people experienced during their childhoods, such as youth-adult relationships, have been also complemented by the 'Para-Social Relationships with the media figures. Traditionally, public figures from the media environment (TV, Film, Newspapers) or imaginary figures from books, cartoons and films provided developmental functions for children and young people, such as role-modelling. Recently, the rise of new technologies (ChatGPT) and social media that allow active participation of media users, created a space for a new form of relationships - digital relationships in the online environment, mediated e.g. via the 'digital empathy' (Unay-Gerhard et al., 2022). Participation in the digital interactions, dynamics and functions of digital relationships and types of these being formed with humans as well as with machines (e.g. chatbots = ChatGPT, social robots) with a focus on current young people (11-18 years) will be the subject of exploration of the PhD. the study, contributing to the emergent line of the research in media the post-humanist perspective. 

Proposed supervisor: Tereza Javornícky Brumovská, 93330901@fsv.cuni.cz 

5. Constructing history on social media 

The aim of this PhD position is to explore how history is constructed by communication on social media. Examples could be narratives about historical facts or events (also anniversaries of historical events), how they are constructed by different social groups and for which purpose different imaginaries of history are constructed. The research should focus on critical inquiry of online communication from an interdisciplinary perspective. Connected topics, such as how historical places that might have turned to museums or places of remembrance use social media to promote their messages, will also be considered. 

Proposed supervisor: Christine Trültzsch-Wijnen, christine.trultzsch-wijnen@fsv.cuni.cz 

6. Domestication of artificial intelligence (AI) 

The aim of this PhD position is to explore how people integrate artificial intelligence services in their daily lives. The focus of the research can be on social entities as for example families or on specific age groups like children, adolescents, young adults, elderly people etc. Besides the question of how artificial intelligence is domesticated, this project should also look into whether and how artificial intelligence services are recognised as such and how people understand and address them (e.g. algorithms, issues of privacy etc.). Research should be interdisciplinary in nature and might be grounded in domestication theory, theories of (media) socialization, cultural studies, and beyond. 

Proposed supervisor: Christine Trültzsch-Wijnen, christine.trultzsch-wijnen@fsv.cuni.cz 

7. Media genres in the late modern media environment 

The evolution of the different genres of actualities in electronic media, since the first radio news broadcast to a contemporary online documentary on a streaming platform, reflects the dynamic adaptation to the continuously changing media environment. In the analogue context, genres were interpreted and categorized “within the boundaries of a single medium” (McQuail, 2014, 374) but because of the recent changes in the media environment, the boundaries of genres are merging and genres may be recognized as multi-platform genres, transcending the boundaries of a single medium. This topic is focused on changes of genres in the converged media environment and its impact on genres in online video journalism and the field of documentary media. We invite applications from candidates interested in researching the evaluation of collective identity of genres in the late modern media environment, examining the boundaries between genres of actualities at film, television and online platforms. The study will deploy methodologies of media content analysis. 

Proposed supervisor: Györgyi Rétfalvi, gyorgyi.retfalvi@fsv.cuni.cz 

++++ 

Interested candidates should submit their applications, using the online application system, which will be open from 1st January to 30th April 2025. Interest in a particular PhD project should be mentioned in the motivation letter, together with a more developed proposal on the PhD project. 

All relevant information, including the link to the online application system, can be found at here:https://fsv.cuni.cz/en/admissions/phd-programmes/media-and-communication-studies 

Please download the form for filling your dissertation project proposal:  https://iksz.fsv.cuni.cz/en/admissions/phd-programme-media-and-communication-studies/how-apply 

For general questions, please contact the Centre of PhD Studies, at cds.iksz@fsv.cuni.cz. 

For questions about particular projects, please contact the proposed supervisors. 

The Open Doors Day for PhD Study in Media and Communication Studies Studies will take place on 26 February 2025 at 12:30 PM CET. It will be organised online. If you wish to participate, please email the Centre of PhD Studies, at cds.iksz@fsv.cuni.cz, asap. 

September 18-19, 2025

Brussels, Belgium

Deadline: March 15, 2025

The “Communication Law and Policy” Section of the European Communications Research and Education Association (ECREA) invites abstracts for theoretical and empirical papers to be presented at its next workshop Media Freedom and Pluralism in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Platforms: A New Era for Media Policy/Regulation? This two-day workshop will be a unique opportunity to bring together those researchers investigating the processes of regulating media sectors under the influence of online platforms in Europe and beyond. The workshop will take place in Brussels, Belgium, on 18-19 September 2025. It is hosted by the imec-SMIT research centre and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

The workshop invites contributions dealing with media and communication law and policy, and its implementation. This includes submissions from political economy, policy and govern-ance studies, media and communication law, among others. We welcome theoretical, methodological and empirical submissions, case studies and comparative work. Innovative use of methods, and in particular interdisciplinary approaches, are encouraged. See the full call for papers here: https://smit.research.vub.be/en/ecrea-communication-law-and-policy-conference-at-vub-brussels-on-18-19-september-2025

Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted for blind peer review in DOCX or ODT directly to the organizers of the conference by March 15th, 2025 at the following e-mail address CLPBrussels2025@vub.be.

May 2-3, 2025

Grand Hotel & Gamla Rådhuset, Jönköping

Deadline: January 27, 2025

Organisers: Annette Hill (MKV, Jönköping University) and Hario Priambodho (MKV, Lund University)

Media atmospheres are under pressure. There are scientific and metaphorical meanings of atmospheres as related to both climate and infrastructures and emotions and experiences. From the political economic forces applied to media industries, the representation of different climates in film and media, to the feeling of atmospheres surrounding political and cultural engagement, it is timely to question the generation of atmospheres by media technologies and institutions, texts and artefacts, and citizens and audiences.

How can we forge links between established and new theories and methods for media and the environment? We use the concept of ‘media atmospheres’ to promote engagement on this crucial set of topics. For example, media devices, infrastructures and systems impact on atmospheres, including the forces applied to the financing, regulation, production and distribution of media in society and the detrimental impact of media on the climate and environment. How various media create atmospheres is also of significance, from the mood of certain genres in film, TV, podcasts and streaming media, to the political and emotional climate of social media, campaigns and activism.

This multidisciplinary symposium addresses the role of media in generating various atmospheres, both positive and negative, material and symbolic. We invite international researchers to critically examine the theme of media atmospheres through empirical and theoretical research across media and communications, critical infrastructures and technologies, climate and the environment, culture and society.

Core questions for this symposium include 1) What different kinds of atmospheres are generated in media and communications, culture and society? 2) How do media atmospheres generate power and social (in)equalities? 3) Which methodologies and methods can be applied to critically analyse media atmospheres?

The symposium addresses a range of areas, including:

• Phenomenology of atmospheres and media, communication and cultural studies;
  
• Atmospheres and critical infrastructures studies, critical data studies and science and technology studies;
  
• Atmospheres in audience studies, fan studies, and film and reception studies;
  
• Atmospheres and eco media studies, environmental communication and sustainable society;
  
• Creating atmospheres in arts, film, radio, television, social media and web series;
  
• Atmospheres and organisations, work, and labour relations;
  
• Political atmospheres in news, documentary, information, disinformation and
  
• polarization, and campaigns;
  
•  
  
• Atmospheres in live events, social media, drama, film, radio, podcasting and television studies;
  
• Atmospheres in mobility, transnational communication and transportation of goods and services, humans and non humans.
  

The programme for the symposium across two days includes three keynote panels with invited speakers and open parallel panels. There will be a dedicated website, video and podcasts of keynote panels, and selected papers from the symposium will be edited in an international academic publication. The senior editors at Intellect Press and Routledge will be present, chairing an interactive roundtable on academic publishing for scientific books and journals.

International invited speakers include Julia Brockley (Intellect Press), Simon Dawes (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France), Natalie Foster (Routledge), Christine Geraghty (Glasgow University, UK), Joke Hermes (InHolland University, Netherlands), Annette Hill (Jönköping University, Sweden), Peter Lunt (Leicester University, UK), and Dylan Mulvin (LSE, UK), Hario Priambodho (Lund University, Sweden). 

Please submit an abstract of 300 words in English by extended deadline January 27, 2025 to Hario Priambodho (hario.priambodho@kom.lu.se). For further information please consult our website https://ju.se/Media%20Atmospheres%20international%20symposium

There is a registration fee of 2800 SEK. The fee covers lunches, beverages and snacks over two days, and a grand three course meal at the end of symposium at Grand Hotel.

Universität Bremen

Open to unconventional approaches in research and teaching, the University of Bremen has retained its character as a place for closely connecting people and ideas since its foundation in 1971. We combine exceptional performance and innovative potential in a broad spectrum of subjects. As an ambitious research university, we stand for research-based learning approaches and a pronounced interdisciplinary orientation. We actively pursue international scientific cooperation in a spirit of global partnership.

Today, around 23,000 people learn, teach, research and work on our international campus. In research and teaching, administration and operations, we are strongly committed to the goals of sustainability, climate justice and climate neutrality. Our Bremen spirit is expressed in the courage to explore new things in cooperation, respect and appreciation for each other. With our study and research profile as well as with our cooperation within the European YUFE network, we assume social responsibility in the region, in Europe and in the world.

The University of Bremen is seeking to fill a professorship in Communication and Media Studies in Faculty 9 Cultural Studies as soon as possible with the following profile:

Tenure-Track-Professor (f/m/x) with tenure-track after W2

(Salary Level W1)

for the subject area

Media, Society and the Good Life

– Reference number: JP902/25 –

The professorship is initially offered for a fixed term of three years. Following an interim evaluation of an orienting nature, it will be extended for an additional three years. If the final evaluation after six years is positive, the position will be converted into a permanent W2 lifetime professorship as a civil servant. To support the academic establishment of tenure-track professors, a phased introduction to teaching is guaranteed.

Applicants should be early-career researchers with demonstrated national and international visibility in the field of empirical research on media, communication, and data practices within their social contexts. Solid expertise in qualitative methods of research on digital communication is required.

The existing research profile of the University of Bremen, particularly the Center for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI, www.zemki.uni-bremen.de), offers excellent opportunities for your own academic development as professor, with the aim of establishing a unique research and training profile on media, society, and the good life as a key aspect of sustainability. The ZeMKI provides a highly stimulating research environment, addressing questions surrounding the digital transformation of media and communication. Key research areas include datafication and communicative AI, as well as digital gaming. As a candidate, you should show interest in contributing to one of these two areas. Additionally, a willingness to acquire third-party funding, participate in collaborative research, and engage in the structured doctoral training of the ZeMKI is expected.

The responsibilities of the professorship include teaching in the bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in communication and media studies, in accordance with the teaching obligations and teaching certificate regulations (LVNV) of the University of Bremen. You are expected to offer courses in both German and English; if proficiency in one of these languages is lacking, it should be acquired within three years, with support provided by the university. Additionally, you should have an interest in “research-based teaching and learning”, in exploring new technologies for teaching and learning, and in pursuing further training in higher education didactics.

In addition to fulfilling the general appointment requirements under civil service law, the prerequisites for employment include a relevant academic university or college degree, subject-relevant degree and a particular aptitude for scientific work, proven by a relevant high-ranking doctorate in the subject area. We expect pedagogical aptitude and didactic commitment as well as a willingness to undergo further training in higher education didactics. Experience in academic self-administration is desirable.

Tenure-track professors are relieved of some of their teaching duties at the beginning of their employment in order to be able to develop their academic profile. The appointment is based on §§ 18, 18a BremHG and § 117 BremBG. According to these, the doctoral and employment phases together should not have lasted more than six years. Applicants who have already completed their doctorate in Bremen must have changed universities after completing their doctorate or have worked outside the University of Bremen for at least two years.

The university is committed to increasing the proportion of women in science and strongly encourages female scientists to apply. The university has been awarded the title “Excellence in Gender Equality” within the framework of the female professors’ program of the federal and state governments. Applications from scientists with a migration background as well as international applications are expressly welcomed. In case of substantially equal professional and personal qualifications, candidates with severe disabilities will be given preferential consideration.

For further information, please contact the spokesperson of the Center for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp (andreas.hepp@uni-bremen.de). Applications with the usual documents (letter of motivation, curriculum vitae with publication list, teaching and research statements, copies of academic degree certificates, etc.) must be sent by February 6th, 2025, referencing the reference number JP902/25, as a PDF file by unencrypted electronic mail to the Dean, Prof. Dr. Dagmar Borchers (bewerbungen.fb9@vw.uni-bremen.de) or by post to:

Dekanin des Fachbereichs 9 – Kulturwissenschaften

Frau Prof. Dr. Dagmar Borchers

Universität Bremen

Postfach 330 440

28334 Bremen

www.fb9.uni-bremen.de

The University of Bremen provides detailed information on the appointment procedure and negotiations at https://www.uni-bremen.de/berufungsverfahren.

Download the job advertisement

Universität Bremen

(CALL CLOSES ON JANUARY 31, 2025, 23:59 CET)

Come and work with us!

Our Fellowship Program invites international researchers to Bremen for four weeks to deepen and connect their research in the transformation of media, communication, and information. We are looking for established scholars who want to enjoy the thriving interdisciplinary research environment at ZeMKI. Disciplines include media and communication studies, computer science, film studies, educational science, studies in religion, and history. Since mid-2017, ZeMKI has regularly hosted colleagues from all over the world.

What we expect:

The duration of the fellowship is one month. Applicants should demonstrate experience in their respective field of research and a strong interest in working jointly with principal investigators at ZeMKI to develop new ideas together. The main focus of the ZeMKI Visiting Research Fellowship is to pursue a joint project with at least two ZeMKI Labs (find all descriptions here: https://zemki.uni-bremen.de/en/research/labs/). The joint project can take various forms and should aim to have an impact on academic and public debates in their respective area of scholarly focus.

The following outputs are expected:

• a research paper submitted to the peer-reviewed ZeMKI Working Paper Series
  
• a public presentation in the ZeMKI Research Seminar
  

For a successful application it is highly recommended to inform oneself thoroughly about current activities in the ZeMKI Labs of interest and the work of principal investigators at ZeMKI.

What we offer:

• Research Resources: Fellows are welcome and encouraged to make use of and connect with ZeMKI’s research resources in the context of their collaboration with ZeMKI labs, including the research studios, IT pools/technical equipment, cooperatives, and initiatives.
  
• Access to the State and University Library Bremen: All fellows will be provided with access to the central academic library of the University of Bremen.
  
• Courses: Fellows are eligible to participate as listeners or guest lecturers in courses in the diverse media study programmes at ZeMKI. They have to individually ask for permission directly from the professor or lecturer.
  
• A honorarium of 3,000 euros plus a budget for research-related expenses of up to 1,500 euros
  

Please fill out all fields of the application form and submit it in order to apply by January 31, 2025 (23:59 CET).

Chinese Journal of Communication (SPECIAL ISSUE)

Deadline: July 31, 2025

This special issue of the Chinese Journal of Communication aims to expand our understanding of transnational migration in the digital age, especially as it relates to platforms, publics, and policies. It explores how digital platforms (Chinese and non-Chinese), their sociotechnical affordances, and the discourses they produce (or censor) bear upon transnational migration between China and various parts of the world, including Southeast Asia, Oceania, Africa, and Latin America, as well as North America, Europe and the rest of Asia.

READ MORE

Friday, 24 January 2025, 12pm EST/6pm GMT

Zoom

Dear colleagues,

As Urbanism/Geography/Architecture SIG at SCMS, we are pleased to invite you to our third online event of 2024-25, focusing on the theme of 'Home on Screen.'

Join us for a conversation with editors and contributors of "Home as a Site of Resistance", Alphaville Special Issue 26.

We are delighted to have Professor Laura Rascaroli (University College Cork), Editor-in Chief of Alphaville, as respondent.

Editors will briefly introduce the special issue, followed by a response and Q&A.

Panelists include: editors Liz Patton and Anna Viola Sborgi and contributors Mariana Liz, Julie Le Hegarat, Jenny Gunn, Conn Holohan, Lauren S. Berliner, Francianne dos Santos Velho, Sabine Haenni.

About the Special Issue 

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how we view the concept of home. This shift has highlighted various societal disparities, including those based on race, gender, sexuality, and economic status. While the idea of the mediated home has been a growing topic of study (Schleier; Wojcik; Rhodes; Barnwell; Baschiera and De Rosa; Palmer; Patton; Price), this issue of Alphaville narrows its focus on the home as a space of resistance across different geographies and periods, from the 1960s to today. Considering debates from fields such as home movie studies, virtual reality, media activism, and the relationship between film and urbanism, the articles in this issue demonstrate how film and media can address resistance centred around the concept of home. 

Please find all the info on the event and register at this link: 

https://lu.ma/sm2kv17l

Looking forward to seeing many of you there!

The Urbanism/Geography/Architecture Scholarly Interest Group Co-chairs

For more info and Contacts:

https://www.cmstudies.org/page/groups_urban

https://www.facebook.com/groups/UrbanStudiesSIG

scmsurbanism@gmail.com

April 24-26, 2025

University of Vienna (Austria)

Deadline: January 15, 2025

Dear ECREA Community,

This is a reminder that the submission deadline for COMPTEXT 2025 is January 15. Please submit your abstracts (250 words) at: https://www.conftool.org/comptext2025/

You can find the Call for Papers, Panels, and Data Presentations here: https://www.comptextconference.org/7th-annual-comptext-conference-2025/

As always, an exciting line-up of tutorials is being planned for the first day of the conference. Whether you are a beginner or looking to advance your skills, you will have the opportunity to learn about:

• Donations and digital trace data collection
  
• Narratives in large datasets
  
• Visual data analysis
  
• Creative text analysis toolkits
  
• Bayesian text analysis
  
• ...and more!

For any questions, please contact us at comptext25@comptextconference.org.

We look forward to welcoming you to Vienna this April!

Best regards,

Anna Maria Planitzer on behalf of the organisers

__________________________________________

Call for Papers and Panels

COMPTEXT 2025

The Seventh International and Interdisciplinary COMPTEXT Conference on the Quantitative and Computational Analysis of Text, Image and Video as Data will be held at The University of Vienna, Austria, on 24-26 April 2025.

COMPTEXT is an international community of scholars working on the Quantitative and Computational Analysis of Text, Image, and Video as Data. COMPTEXT conferences offer opportunities to obtain useful feedback on ongoing research, present new data and methods, network with scholars working on similar themes, and participate in workshops. 

The increasing use of large language models (LLMs) in computational text analysis presents opportunities and challenges for the social sciences. At COMPTEXT 2025, two critical issues will be explored in depth: first, the evolving infrastructures needed to support LLMs and their impact on open science; second, strategies to mitigate bias and improve the representation of marginalized voices in computational text analysis. With that in mind, we are pleased to announce two engaging roundtable discussions at COMPTEXT 2025 in Vienna:

1. Collaborative Futures: Infrastructures and Open Science in the Age of LLMs
   
2. Beyond the Margins: Addressing Bias and Amplifying Marginalized Voices in Computational Text Analysis
   

While these round tables will focus on specific themes, paper, panel, and data presentation submissions can, but are not required to, adhere to these topics.

PAPERS. For COMPTEXT 2025 in Vienna, we are seeking paper submissions that

• Rely on image, video, text, or other digital trace data to study social and political phenomena broadly construed
  
• Propose, present, or evaluate new computational methods, tools, or datasets
  
• Offer methodological comparisons, reflections, or critiques of existing computational approaches
  
• Apply computational methods to make contributions at the intersection of social science and computer science
  

We accept both substantive and methodological papers for presentation. Substantive papers may be on any studies in the social sciences or humanities that utilize computational methods, while methodological papers may describe new computational methods, tools, datasets, and approaches.

PANELS. We also accept full panel presentations of three or four papers engaging with overlapping themes from a substantive or methodological perspective. 

DATA PRESENTATIONS. We invite data presentations on publicly available resources to be featured in one of the conference's plenary sessions. 

WORKSHOPS. In keeping with our tradition, the first day of the conference (April 24) is dedicated to a series of methods training workshops for registered participants. Courses will be offered for both beginner and advanced-level participants.

Submission formats: 

Paper Proposals. Abstracts of max. 250 words and three substantive and/or methods-related keywords.

Panel Proposals: Title, abstract of max. 250 words summarizing the panel's topic and three substantive and/or methods-related keywords. Further, abstracts of max. 250 words for three or four papers included in the panel.

Data Presentation Proposals:  Abstracts of max. 250 words and three substantive and/or methods-related keywords.

Please submit your proposals at https://www.conftool.org/comptext2025/ 

Timeline:

• Submission deadline: 15 January 2025
  
• Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 15 February 2025.
  
• The conference programme will be published, and registration will open by 15 March 2025.
  
• Full paper upload by April 8. 2025.
  

Please be advised that a conference fee will be charged for participants with accepted papers and for workshop participants. Reduced rates will be available for early career researchers (up to 4 years since Ph.D).

The Program Committee of COMPTEXT 2025 consists of:

• Fabienne Lind (University of Vienna, Vienna)
  
• Miklós Sebők (HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, Budapest)
  
• Petro Tolochko (University of Vienna, Vienna)
  

The COMPEXT 2025 Conference is organized by the University of Vienna with the Local Organizing Committee: Fabienne Lind and Hajo G. Boomgaarden together with Jana Bernhard-Harrer, Dominika Betakova, Hannah Greber, Veronika Ebner, Sarah Epp-Kampl, Jean Kalunseviko, Azade Kakavand, Claudia Koska, Aytalina Kulichkina, Noelle Lebernegg, Jula Lühring, Meike Müller, Anna Maria Planitzer, Moritz Sedlatschek, Sebastian Sherrah, Apeksha Shetty, Marvin Stecker, Petro Tolochko, Annie Waldherr, Daniel Wiesner (Department of Communication, University of Vienna)

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: COMPTEXT is committed to creating an inclusive conference where diversity is celebrated, and everyone is afforded equal opportunity. We welcome applications from everyone, including those who identify with any of the protected characteristics that are set out in University of Vienna 2025 Development Plan, p. 58 https://www.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/startseite/Dokumente/Entwicklungsplan2025_EN.pdf. We especially encourage scholars from traditionally underrepresented groups, female scholars, and early-career researchers to apply.

Green Meeting: The aim is to organize the event in accordance with the criteria of the Austrian Ecolabel for Green Meetings. We hope that you welcome these efforts and support us in the implementation of this green event. If you have any questions, please contact the Green Meeting officer Alexandra Wassipaul (alexandra[dot]wassipaul[at]univie[dot]ac[dot]at).

Questions related to COMPTEXT Vienna 2025 should be directed to comptext25[at]comptextconference[dot]org

Best regards,

The Organizers

Paris-Lodron University Salzburg, Austria

Ph.D. Position at the Paris-Lodron University Salzburg, Department of Communication/ Transcultural Communication:

A PhD position is available at the Department of Communication Studies/ Transcultural Communication division, starting 1st April 2025. The successful candidate will be offered a four- year position at the University of Salzburg, Austria.

Main duties and responsibilities

• supporting the research and teaching endeavours of the transcultural communication division

• taking on administrative duties

• carrying out individual research

• teaching duties comprise two hours a week from year three onwards

• the PhD thesis has to be defended and published within 4 years

Qualification requirements

We are looking for a highly motivated candidate with experiences in intercultural communication & competence (theories & methods), intercultural trainings (training design & evaluation), cultural studies, empirical data analysis as well as interest in the concept of resilience and various interdisciplinary avenues regarding communication.

The applicant must hold a master’s degree in communication studies or an affiliated discipline. The applicants need proof of language competence in German and English: B2 level (European reference frame) – language proof needs to be submitted by the end of the first year of employment (December 2025).

Personal characteristics

Agreeable, conscientious, flexible, industrious and adaptable to new environments.

We offer

• exciting and stimulating tasks in a strong international academic environment (see: https://kowi.uni-salzburg.at)

• an inspiring work environment with dedicated colleagues

Salary and conditions

PhD candidates work 30hrs a week and are remunerated € 2.786,10 (14x per year). The place of work is Salzburg City, Austria, home office days upon request.

For further information please call Assoc.Prof. Dr. Birgit Breninger: +43 (0)662 8044-41-72 and see: https://www.plus.ac.at/mitteilungsblatt

About the application:

The application comprises:

• CV including information on educational background, work experience, preprints and publications.

• Full list of publications.

• Certified copies of relevant transcripts and diplomas.

• Contact information for at least two references.

• Documentation of fluency (B2 level) in English and German: TOEFL score, IELTS, or equivalent language proof. This needs to be submitted latest by the end of the first year of employment.  

Other documents which the applicant finds relevant may also be included. We might ask for further documents when necessary during the hiring process.

General information about working at the PLUS can be found here: https://www.plus.ac.at/personalentwicklung/jobportal/

Please submit your application electronically to bewerbung@plus.ac.at Please refer to application number: GZ A 0005/1-2025 in your covering letter.

Application deadline: 29th January 2025