[ecrea] Call for papers: Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture

*Call for papers *

*/Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture/*

*Special Issue on Race and Ethnicity in Cultural Production *

*Editors: David Hesmondhalgh and Anamik Saha***

Within media and cultural studies, questions of race and cultural 
difference in popular culture have tended to be explored through textual 
analysis, in relation to what Stuart Hall (1988) called "the politics of 
representation," in terms of how they either reinforce or challenge 
essentialist notions of race and ethnic identity. Some of the most 
important recent interventions in cultural studies however, are those 
that have gone beyond the text and have focused on the production of 
culture and identity as constituted in, and by, global transformations 
(Clarke and Thomas, 2006; Niranjana, 2006). Yet far less attention has 
been paid to the production and circulation of representations of 
difference in popular culture. The aim of this special issue of /Popular 
Communication/ is to address race and ethnicity in terms of how they are 
experienced in cultural production, in both its everyday and industrial 
contexts, and in terms of how they influence the production and 
distribution of cultural goods.

We/ /invite papers that reflect on the cultural politics of difference 
with a focus on cultural production and/or circulation. These could 
include studies of creative and artistic practice, the experience of 
race and ethnicity within the cultural industries, commodification and 
the politics of representation, and related subjects. We invite work 
from scholars researching racism in the media, treating it not as an 
aberration that can be simply eradicated by increasing participation 
from racialized minorities (as policy tends to assert), but as deeply 
entrenched in modern capitalist societies, and which manifests in 
cultural production in very particular ways. Indeed, as the cultural 
industries continue to operate in highly marketized environments, in 
what ways do neo-liberal models of governance manage knowledge about 
race and ethnicity through symbol production and creative work?

We invite abstracts for papers based on research on all sectors of the 
media and popular culture, from music to video games, news to 
entertainment. We particularly welcome papers based upon research from 
non-Western contexts.

* *

Papers can be on any topic related to 'race' and ethnicity in relation 
to media and cultural production, among which might be the following:

   * The production of race and ethnicity in popular culture
   * Cultural difference in creative work
   * The media, multiculturalism and citizenship
   * Cultural policy and subsidising minority arts
   * Institutional racism in the cultural industries
   * 'Glass ceilings' and the politics of quotas and diversity
     initiatives in the media
   * The marketing and distribution of minority arts
   * Race, ethnicity and subcultural practices
   * New media and cultural identity
   * Islamophobia and the reporting/representation of the 'War on Terror'
   * Anti-racist media activism

To submit an abstract (500 words) please email Anamik Saha 
((a.saha /at/ leeds.ac.uk) <mailto:(a.saha /at/ leeds.ac.uk)>). The deadline for 
abstracts is 31st March 2012. We anticipate completed manuscripts by 
31^st December, 2012.//

*References*

Clarke, K.M. and Thomas, D.A. (eds.) (2006). /Globalization and Race: 
Transformations in the Cultural Production of Blackness/. Durham and 
London: Duke University Press.

Hall, S. (1988). New Ethnicities. In K. Mercer (ed.), /Black Film, 
British Cinema/ (pp. 27-31). London: British Film Institute / Institute 
of Contemporary Arts.**

Niranjana, T. (2006). /Mobilizing India: Women, Music, and Migration 
between India and Trinidad/. Durham and London: Duke University Press.**

Sarita

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/ /

/Dr Sarita Malik/

/Sociology/Communications/

/School of Social Sciences/

/Brunel University/

/Uxbridge/

/Middlesex, UB8 3PH, UK/

/Tel: +44 (0)1895 266874/

mailto:(sarita.malik /at/ brunel.ac.uk)

http://www.brunel.ac.uk/sss/sociology/staff-profiles/sarita-malik