Call for proposals

 

 

Deadline to submit a proposal is Friday, May 25, 2018

Email submissions to: MediatingChangeConference@gmail.com

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From the Arab Spring movements, to #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, and #OscarsSoWhite, to the DACA Scholars app, or high school students organizing mass walkouts in support of gun control, it is not difficult to find examples of diverse populations utilizing media as tools to enact change. Whether it’s through hashtag activism, community documentaries, multimediated campaign efforts, or on-the-ground reporting, we know that media and storytelling play a vital role in shaping discourse and public perceptions, raising awareness, and organizing movements of accountability and change.

 

Minoritized populations (Benitez, 2010) have always used whatever tools available to communicate and organize. Within our contemporary participatory culture of networked publics (Ito, 2008; Jenkins, 2006), the creative tools have become accessible to even more diverse networks and causes. People can and do use media to disrupt unjust systems of oppression, but as Fuchs (2017) reminds us, the very tools and platforms we use to challenge power are also embedded within capitalistic systems shaped by commercial constraints. Thus, it is imperative we continue to interrogate the tools, processes, and outcomes of our collective efforts to mediate change.

 

 

Conference Goals

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The interdisciplinary conference focuses on the roles of media in creating a more equitable, inclusive, sustainable, and just society. The goal is to bring scholars, media practitioners, educators, and/or activists together in one space so that we can all learn from and about each other’s research, creative projects, tools, and strategies.

 

 

Scope

 

Anyone whose work focuses on the intersections of media and justice is invited to apply; we are particularly interested in research, creative projects, pedagogy, and activism with a specific local or regional focus. We are also interested in collaborative and community-based research or creative projects; we encourage workshops and panels that include diverse populations including students, youth, and community leaders.

 

We are conceptualizing both media and justice  in the broadest senses of the words.

 

We are open to media forms and practices that include, but are not limited to:

• film, TV, podcasts or radio programs, digital and social media, webisodes, advertising and PR campaigns, mediated performances, augmented reality, video games, photography, zines, etc.

 

Because we are interested in changes on multiple levels and in various sectors, we are conceptualizing justice to include issues such as, but not limited to:

• intersectional social justice (e.g. gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, ability), environmental justice, youth justice, criminal justice, immigration justice, media industry practices, representational inclusivity and equity, etc.

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Submissions

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We are seeking submissions in 3 categories: paper presentations/pre-constituted panels, workshops, and creative exhibitions. Click here for submission guidelines.