Below is a list of Call for Papers that I have put together that I think look interesting. Feel free to post related CFPs below.
August 31st, 2011
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Conference Founders: Curry Malott, John Elmore, and Brad Porfilio
Date: November 18th and 19th 2011
Proposals for papers, panels, performances, workshops, and other multimedia presentations should include title(s) and names and contact information for presenter(s). The deadline for sending prooposals is August 31, 2011. The Steering Committee will email acceptance or rejection notices by September 8, 2011. The proposal formats available to the presenters are as follows:
The general purpose of the West Chester Critical Theory Conference is to promote and support critical scholarship within students, and to advance critical theory and pedagogy more generally. By “advance” we mean to expose more people to critical practices and understandings as part of the process of the development of theory. Through this focus we hope to work toward unifying and strengthening the sub-genres of critical pedagogy from Marxism, critical race theory, to critical neo-colonial studies. This goal is approached through the conferences internal pedagogy and therefore through a horizontal rather than a vertical organizing structure; by including students and classroom teachers in the critical pedagogical work dominated by professors; and by attempting to create a space where criticalists who do not usually work together can create meaningful unity, respect, and common goals. Since the dominant form of power in the twenty first century—neoliberal capitalist power—is both multicultural and global, critical pedagogy must too become more multicultural and global if it is to pose a significant challenge to it for a more democratic life after capitalism.
Because critical theory is concerned with not only understanding the world, but with transforming it, the conference is focused on not only understanding the consequences of an unjust social and economic system (i.e. corporate take-over of schools, high stakes testing and behaviorist pedagogy, micro classroom aggressions and bullying, poverty, racism, sexism, white supremacy, homophobia, perpetual war, ableism, etc.), but with transforming or dissolving their root causes (i.e. neoliberal capitalism and settler-state, Euro-centric oppression and their patriarchal, homophobic, racist, etc. hegemonies). As part of this goal the conference will hopefully provide introductory discussions and presentations on critical pedagogy and critical theory.
SUBMISSIONS
Proposal Formats
Individual Proposal: (45 minutes)
The conference committee welcomes individual paper proposals, with the understanding that those accepted will be grouped together around common or overlapping themes, Presenters will have approximately 45 minutes to present or summarize their individual papers. Individual paper submissions will be considered for panels with the same topic/theme. If you would prefer to present your paper/research individually you should consider the alternative format proposal. A 300-500 word abstract of the paper will be peer reviewed for acceptance to the conference.
Symposium Proposal: (90 minutes)
Presenters are also welcomed to submit proposals for a symposium. A symposium is typically composed of a chair and discussant and three to five participants who present or summarize their papers. Each symposium is organized around a common theme. Each participant will have between 15 and 45 minutes to present their papers, depending upon the number of participants involved in the symposium. A 300-500 word abstract of the symposium will be peer reviewed for acceptance to the conference.
Panel Proposal: (90 minutes)
A panel discussion is another venue available presenters. A panel discussion is typically composed of three to six participants who discuss their scholarly work within the context of a dialogue or conversation on a topic or theme related to the conference theme. Typically, each panelist is given 10-15 minutes to discuss the topic, present theoretical ideas, and/or point to relevant research. A chair should be identified who introduces the panel and frames the issues and questions being addressed. In addition to the chair, we encourage (but do not require) organizers of panels to include a discussant who responds to the comments of the panelists. Individual proposal submissions will be combined into panels with the same theme/topic. A 300-500 word abstract of the panel discussion will be peer reviewed for acceptance to the conference.
Alternative Format and Special Interest Groups (90 minutes)
Alternative proposals that do not fit into the above categories, such as workshops, performances, video and multimedia presentations, and round-table dialogues, are encouraged. We also welcome proposals for the organization of special interest groups. A 150-250 word abstract of the panel discussion will be peer reviewed for acceptance to the conference.
Email proposals to conference coordinators Brad Porfilio (porfilio16@aol.com) and Curry Malott (currymalott@hotmail.com) by August 31, 2011.
Journal – Sept. 1, 2011
Eco-logics, Issue 13
Hermaphroditic polar bears, melting ice caps, water shortages, rising sea levels, crop failures, and catastrophic storms: these are just a few of the consequences and predicted effects of global warming. Scientists cite buildings as the source of between 35% and 50% of greenhouse gas emissions annually, a fact which places architects at the center of the problem, but also mandates a disciplinary response. Most of the current debate surrounding sustainability relies on negative rhetoric (scare tactics) that incentivise immediate, realizable, pragmatic responses (LEED), rather than more radical and visionary solutions. Praxis 13 invites submissions of projects and essays that consider how architecture might use the logics of ecologies to move beyond received notions of sustainability. Submission deadline: September 1
Praxis welcomes submissions of essays, projects and responses to articles presented herein. Materials submitted are subject to editorial review and/ or external refereeing. We regret that we cannot return submissions unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped return envelope. All issues of Praxis issues are themed, so projects or articles are selected in light of each issueís particular subject.
Conference Sept. 14, 2011
Session Proposal for the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, New York City, Feb 24th-28th 2012
Abstracts due September 14, 2011
David Harvey’s Spaces of Hope (2000) suggests that there is a desperate need in critical geography and critical theory to return to small, medium and large scale reconstructive visions so as to envisage alternative productions of social natures. Design – as a deeply materialist, agential and often utopian social practice, could play an important role in this discussion. Yet, Spaces of Hope tends to read the history of design primarily as the history of technocratic and ‘design fix’ modes of thinking. Progressive and working class traditions of social design (as championed by Colin Ward and others) tend to be sidelined. Little attention is given to traditions of ‘liberatory design’ as advocated by Bookchin or Illich or the increased interweaving between design activism and ‘rights to the city’ discussions. Indeed, design ultimately plays a minimal role in Harvey vision of an alternative future. In contrast to Harvey, Bruno Latour (2008) has recently argued in more open ended ways that in a ‘made world’, a social politics of design could potentially become central to the materialization of the parliament of things and the politics of social nature. Design, it is argued could play a central role in ‘making things public’. Such interests in possible points of engagement between design, art, the politics of space and the politics of making have indeed have become central to the thinking of Doreen Massey, Nigel Thrift, and Matthais Gross and many others of late.
In this session we would like to consider the genuine tensions as well as possibilities that design activism and the idea of social design politics generates for a politics of space and possibly a new politics of the environment. Modernist design has always been centrally linked to the consumer economy and technocratic modes of thinking. Nevertheless, it could be observed that in contrast to the maudlin and exhausted feel of much radical left and green politics, the interface between design and diverse struggles for social, spatial and environmental justice and appears relatively buoyant, optimistic about the progressive potential for human agency and imbued with a sense of possibility about the opportunities for ‘remaking reality’. How can we politically evaluate the new design activism? Could a new social and democratic politics of design –beyond technocratic and reductive ‘design fix’ modes of thinking – provide some kind of material substance to a new progressive politics of the environment? Could historical and contemporary engagements with design bring real content to the endlessly iterated but materially unsubstantiated and institutionally vague request in political ecology for a ‘democratic politics of nature’ (Smith, 1984; Braun and Castree,1998, Swyngedowu, 1996/2004)? Could a focus on design and the ‘politics of making’ add material content to the suggestive but often decorative and rather exclusive feel to the politics advocated by a-modern and post human geographers (Barry, 2001; Whatmore 2003; Thrift 2004; Hinchliffe 2010)?
This session will explore how geographers, radical artist/designers, design theorists and other fellow travelers can find productive and critical ways to engage with any of the following topics:
explorations of the utopian and dystopian geographies of historical and contemporary modes of eco-design and design activism –from counterculture ventures to contemporary forms of community design and architecture;
examples and discussions of urban social movements and eco-urban social movements and other design activist movements that have productively transformed or helped rethink the relationship between the built environment, diverse ecologies, non humans and democracy;
sociological and geographical explorations of phenomena like the Transition Towns movement and forms of design politics/activism motivated by fetishized dystopia-avoidance;
implications for spatial, social and environmental justice of the new politics of design based on scenario based design; shareability.net; living labs; community design; the utopian possibilities of design beyond the object; ‘rights to the city’ activism;
reflections on the relationships between design, design activism, the construction of democratic experiments (eg:Latour/Stengers/Gross) and ideas of alternative hedonism/the new politics of pleasure (Kate Soper);
historical and contemporary reflections on potential relations between the field of design, the writings of radical design theorists such as Tony Fry, John Thackara, Victor Margolin etc and discussions in geography around ‘the democratic production of nature’ and the politics of posthumanism a/modernism.
Format: A paper based session consisting of 15 minute papers to leave time for discussion.
Please submit an abstract of c200-250 words together with the title of their proposed paper and the names and affiliation of authors not later than September 14th 2011 to:
Session Organizers:
Damian White, Associate Professor of Sociology, The Rhode Island School of Design; 2 College Building, Providence, Rhode Island 02903-0480, USA, dwhite01@risd.edu; 1 434 202 9159.
Cameron Tonkinwise, Associate Dean for Sustainability, Parsons, The New School for Design, 72 Fifth Ave, NY 10011, USA, Tonkinwc@newschool.edu, 1 212 229 5321 ext 3416.
Conference – Sept. 15, 2011
http://www.iapl.info/conferencesubmissions.php
Tracing memories / tracing spaces
Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia
Journal – Sept. 30, 2011
Marx is Back: The Importance of Marxist Theory and Research for Critical Communication Studies Today
Call for Papers for a Special Issue of tripleC – Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society.
Edited by Christian Fuchs and Vincent Mosco
For inquiries, please contact the two editors.
In light of the global capitalist crisis, there is renewed interest in Karl Marx’s works and in concepts like class, exploitation and surplus value. Slavoj Žižek argues that the antagonisms of contemporary capitalism in the context of the ecological crisis, the massive expansion of intellectual property, biogenetics, new forms of apartheid and growing world poverty show that we still need the Marxian notion of class. He concludes that there is an urgent need to renew Marxism and to defend its lost causes in order to render problematic capitalism as the only alternative (Žižek 2008, 6) and the new forms of a soft capitalism that promise, and in its rhetoric makes use of, ideals like participation, self-organization, and co-operation, without realizing them. Žižek (2010, chapter 3) argues that the global capitalist crisis clearly demonstrates the need to return to the critique of political economy. Göran Therborn suggests that the “new constellations of power and new possibilities of resistance” in the 21st century require retaining the “Marxian idea that human emancipation from exploitation, oppression, discrimination and the inevitable linkage between privilege and misery can only come from struggle by the exploited and disadvantaged themselves” (Therborn 2008, 61). Eric Hobsbawm (2011, 12f) insists that for understanding the global dimension of contemporary capitalism, its contradictions and crises, and the persistence of socio-economic inequality, we “must ask Marx’s questions” (13).
This special issue will publish articles that address the importance of Karl Marx’s works for Critical Media and Communication Studies, what it means to ask Marx’s questions in 21st century informational capitalism, how Marxian theory can be used for critically analyzing and transforming media and communication today, and what the implications of the revival of the interest in Marx are for the field of Media and Communication Studies.
Questions that can be explored in contributions include, but are not limited to:
* What is Marxist Media and Communication Studies? Why is it needed today? What are the main assumptions, legacies, tasks, methods and categories of Marxist Media and Communication Studies and how do they relate to Karl Marx’s theory? What are the different types of Marxist Media/Communication Studies, how do they differ, what are their commonalities?
* What is the role of Karl Marx’s theory in different fields, subfields and approaches of Media and Communication Studies? How have the role, status, and importance of Marx’s theory for Media and Communication Studies evolved historically, especially since the 1960s?
* In addition to his work as a theorist and activist, Marx was a practicing journalist throughout his career. What can we learn from his journalism about the practice of journalism today, about journalism theory, journalism education and alternative media?
* What have been the structural conditions, limits and problems for conducting Marxian-inspired Media and Communication Research and for carrying out university teaching in the era of neoliberalism? What are actual or potential effects of the new capitalist crisis on these conditions?
* What is the relevance of Marxian thinking in an age of capitalist crisis for analyzing the role of media and communication in society?
* How can the Marxian notions of class, class struggle, surplus value, exploitation, commodity/commodification, alienation, globalization, labour, capitalism, militarism and war, ideology/ideology critique, fetishism, and communism best be used for analyzing, transforming and criticizing the role of media, knowledge production and communication in contemporary capitalism?
* How are media, communication, and information addressed in Marx’s work?
* What are commonalities and differences between contemporary approaches in the interpretation of Marx’s analyses of media, communication, knowledge, knowledge labour and technology?
* What is the role of dialectical philosophy and dialectical analysis as epistemological and methodological tools for Marxian-inspired Media and Communication Studies?
* What were central assumptions of Marx about media, communication, information, knowledge production, culture and how can these insights be used today for the critical analysis of capitalism?
* What is the relevance of Marx’s work for an understanding of social media?
* Which of Marx’s works can best be used today to theorize media and communication? Why and how?
* Terry Eagleton (2011) demonstrates that the 10 most common held prejudices against Marx are wrong. What prejudices against Marx can be found in Media and Communication Studies today? What have been the consequences of such prejudices? How can they best be contested? Are there continuities and/or discontinuities of prejudices against Marx in light of the new capitalist crisis?
All contributions shall genuinely deal with Karl Marx’s original works and discuss their relevance for contemporary Critical Media/Communication Studies.
Eagleton Terry. 2011. Why Marx was right. London: Yale University Press.
Hobsbawm, Eric. 2011. How to change the world. Marx and Marxism 1840-2011. London: Little, Brown.
Therborn, Göran. 2008. From Marxism to post-Marxism? London: Verso.
Žižek, Slavoj. 2008. In defense of lost causes. London: Verso.
Žižek, Slavoj. 2010. Living in the end times. London: Verso.
Editors: Christian Fuchs and Vincent Mosco
Publication Schedule and Submission
Structured Abstracts for potential contributions shall be submitted to both editors (christian.fuchs@im.uu.se, moscov@mac.com) per e-mail until September 30th, 2011 (submission deadline). The authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to write full papers that are due five months after the feedback from the editors. Full papers must then be submitted to tripleC. Please do not instantly submit full papers, but only structured abstracts to the editors.
The abstracts should have a maximum of 1 200 words and should be structured by dealing separately with each of the following five dimensions:
1) Purpose and main questions of the paper
2) Description of the way taken for answering the posed questions
3) Relevance of the topic in relation to the CfP
4) Main expected outcomes and new insights of the paper
5) Contribution to the engagement with Marx’s works and to Marxian-inspired Media and Communication Studies.
Conference – Sept. 30, 2011
Friday 9th March – Sunday 11th March 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine, explore and critically engage with issues related to urban life. The project will promote the ongoing analysis of the varied creative trends and alternative cultural movements that comprise urban popultures and subcultures. In particular the conference will encourage equally theoretical and practical debates which surround the cultural and political contexts within which alternative urban subcultures are flourishing.
Papers, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:
1. Popular, Alternative, and Underground Music Cultures
Alternative and Underground Dance, Electronica, Hip Hop, Gothic, Punk and Post-Rock Scenes. Local, Regional, and Global Scenes. The Mass-Appropriation of Underground Music. Independent Music Cultures. Popular Music Theory.
2. Subcultures, Communities, and Codes
Underground and Alternative Ideologies and Lifestyles. Issues of Gender, Sexuality, and Identity. The Avantgarde and Urban Codes. Urban Religion and Religious Expressions. D.I.Y.
3. Theories and Critical Studies of Popular Culture
Histories, Representations, and Discourses on Independent Scenes. The Frankfurt School. The Visual Turn. Urban Intertextualities and Intermedialities. Cultural Appropriations. Postmodernity and Beyond.
4. Popular and Subversive Expressions in Fashion, Art, Film, and Literature
Urban and Contemporary Life and Themes Considered in Music, Literature, Art and Film. Urban Fashion, Style, and Branding. Pop Art. Graffiti. Low vs. High Culture.
5. The City as Creative Subject/Object
Virtual Urbanity – Online Communities and the Impact of Social Networking. Urban Identity and Membership. Globalization/Localization of Urban Experience. Recent trends in Copyright/Copyleft. The Role of Internet in the Transformation of Music Industry. The Impact of User-generated Content.
6. Conflict, Popular Revolt, and Politics
Music and Politics. Race and Music Styles. Music Revolutions. Generational Conflicts. Class Divisions. Ageing Music Fans and Cross-generational Cool. New Schools vs. Old Schools.
7. Popular Culture Online and in Massmedia
The Visual Aspects of Urban Entertainment. The Evolution of Music and Thematic Television. Media Structure of Music Video. Explicit TV and Censorship.
300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 30th September 2011. All submissions are minimally double blind peer reviewed where appropriate. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday27th January 2012. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract f) up to 10 key words
E-mails should be entitled: Urban Popcultures Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year.
All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Jordan Copeland
La Salle University,
Philadelphia, USA
Daniel Riha
Hub Leader (Cyber), Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Charles University,
Prague, Czech Republic
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, UK
The conference is part of the ‘Critical Issues’ programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
All papers accepted for and presented at this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited for development for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s) or for inclusion in a new Cyber journal (launching 2011).
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