Call for Papers: Special Issue of Communication Studies
Discourse of the Middle East: Communication, Culture, Media
Special issue editor: Mehdi Semati (Northern Illinois University)
Submission Deadline: March 1, 2010
Submissions are invited for a special issue of
Communication Studies offering a communicative
inquiry into the (re)emergence of 'the Middle
East' in the Western/Northern political and
cultural imaginaries. Among the factors that
have contributed to this (re)emergence are the following:
ï?? the end of the Cold War and its bipolar geopolitical framework
ï?? the role of the regionâ??s energy resources in the world economy
ï?? the possibility of a new nuclear arms race in the Middle East
ï?? regional conflicts and Euro-American involvements therein
ï?? the Euro-American Middle East foreign policies
ï?? the terrorism complex
ï?? immigration and population movements
ï?? globalization
ï?? the proliferation of media in the Middle East
ï?? the flow and contra-flow of media and
cultural forms to and from the region
ï?? the explosion of communication
technologies and digital networks worldwide
ï?? growing middle classes and their demands in the region
ï?? domestic cultures and global youth cultures
ï?? the proliferation of Western media
outlasts with insatiable appetite for content in
the form of commentary, analysis, op-eds and controversies
ï?? the rise of religious fundamentalisms worldwide
ï?? the expansion of social movements and their global audiences
ï?? a more vociferous local and global
constituency for issues in gender and human rights
On the one hand, communication media and
cultures, and communication technologies have
played their role in these developments and
their respective political, cultural and
ideological frameworks. On the other, these
developments have contributed to the formation
of the Western political and cultural
imaginaries in which â??the Middle Eastâ?? is an
intelligible and constructed object in various discourses.
This special issue is devoted to the exploration
of these discourses, their epistemological and
ontological formations and histories, the
politics of their formations and the functions
they might perform in a variety of domains. Here
the concept of â??discourseâ?? is deployed
broadly, inviting contributions from diverse
intellectual, methodological and disciplinary
affiliations and orientations that have
contributed to communication and cultural
studies. Regardless of their orientations, the
contributions are expected to address the
literatures and problematics of concern to
communication, media and cultural studies. The
aforementioned list of developments, as they
relate to such problematics, suggests a range of
topics of interest to this special issue.
Queries regarding the special issue may be
directed to guest editor Mehdi Semati
((msemati /at/ niu.edu)) or journal editor Kimberly Powell ((commstudies /at/ luther.edu)).
Submission guidelines:
Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with
the most recent edition of the Publication
Manual of the American Psychological Association
or the Chicago Manual of Style. Submissions
should contain no more than 7500 words total
(including tables, references, endnotes, and
appendices). Send an electronic file of the
manuscript prepared for blind review in MWord or
rtf and a separate file with author contact
information, title of the manuscript, and brief
author bio to (commstudies /at/ luther.edu). Additional
journal guidelines are available at
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/10510974.asp.
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