CfP ?What is Communication History? ? European Answers?
Special issue of medien&zeit [media&time]
medien&zeit is an interdisciplinary,
Vienna-based journal that welcomes contributions
addressing theories, methods and issues of
communication history. Number 3/2011 will be
guest edited by the ECREA Communication History Section.
This special issue aims to assemble statements
and articles (3000 ? 6000 words) focusing on two
aspects: firstly on the actual state of
Communication History in the authors' respective
national settings and cultural areas, secondly
on their efforts to foster European
perspectives, e.g. by doing collaborative
research or by engaging with European issues.
Thereby we want to explore whether there is a
common core in terms of theories used, methods
applied and research topics in focus. Thus we
intend to lay a foundation for mapping the field
of Communication History in Europe. This mapping
of structures, interconnections, shared points
of reference and common spaces of understanding
should help to identify whether a European
Communication History exists or whether we are
primarily faced with multiple National
Communication Histories with occasional
references to Europe or certain parts of it.
Questions to be addressed include but are not limited to topics like:
* What does or should Communication History
mean? In how far does historical communication
research differ from research on contemporary
communication processes or research on history
in general? How should an understanding of
Communication History be defined with respect
to media change towards the digital?
* To what end are we doing Communication
History? Who is doing Communication History in
terms of disciplinary backgrounds and what is
driving the field of research? What role do
certain fields of communication history play
like the history of (media) technology, the
history of media institutions, the history of
the public sphere or the history of mediated
interpersonal communication? How is the field
of communication history related to the
academic disciplines of history, communication studies and media studies?
* What paradigms, ideas and methodologies
are present and deployed in historical
communication research? Are there mega-trends,
meta-narratives or big intellectual themes to
be identified in Communication History across Europe?
* What could be considered European about
European Communication History? What concepts
of Europe are referred to and what
differentiations are made between Communication
History in Europe, Communication History of
Europe, and other ways of contextualizing European Communication History?
* How does European communication
historiography differ from international or
global communication historiographies?
* To what extent could Communication History
be uncoupled from frameworks of the
nation-state? Is overcoming national histories becoming necessary?
* How similar and how different are the
institutional settings of researchers who work
in the field of Communication History? What is
the status of Communication History as an academic research area?
* Does the trans-boundary character of
broadcasting and digital communication affect
the field of Communication History? Does it
foster transnational academic collaborations
and a rethinking of (national) research interests?
Authors who would like to contribute to the
special issue of medien&zeit should first submit
an extended abstract (in English, max. 800 words) by January 15, 2011.
Editors will review these proposals within two
weeks of receipt. Authors whose proposals are
accepted will be asked to submit full papers (in
English, 3000 ? 6000 words) by May 15, 2011.
Papers must be original, and should not be
published or be under review in other journals. All papers are peer-reviewed.
Abstracts should be submitted electronically via
email as Microsoft Word or PDF attachments and
should include a cover sheet containing
corresponding author's name, paper title, affiliation and email address.
Submissions should be sent to
<mailto:(c.schwarzenegger /at/ isk.rwth-aachen.de)>(c.schwarzenegger /at/ isk.rwth-aachen.de).
For any further information concerning the CfP
and the special issue feel free to contact either of the three guest editors:
<mailto:(s.kinnebrock /at/ isk.rwth-aachen.de)>(s.kinnebrock /at/ isk.rwth-aachen.de)
(Prof. Dr. Susanne Kinnebrock, RWTH University
Aachen and Vice-Chair of the ECREA Communication History Section)
<mailto:(c.schwarzenegger /at/ isk.rwth-aachen.de)>(c.schwarzenegger /at/ isk.rwth-aachen.de)
(Christian Schwarzenegger MA, RWTH Aachen
University, YECREA Representative in the ECREA Communication History Section)
<mailto:(emclusk /at/ boisestate.edu)>(emclusk /at/ boisestate.edu)
(Prof. Dr. Ed McLuskie, Boise State University)
