Sent: 20 September 2012 11:30
To:(j.postill /at/ shu.ac.uk)
Subject: CfP: Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism in European Media and Film
Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism in European Media and Film: Rights,
Responsibilities, Representations
International Conference, The University of Manchester, UK
23-25 May 2013
The recent explosion of migration flows across the world, the crisis in
which established models of multiculturalism find themselves in Europe and
elsewhere, and the current global financial and economic crisis have
combined to raise the prominence of issues of ethnicity, race and
nationalism in most countries. Speeches made in 2011 by Angela Merkel and
David Cameron, and controversies over the expulsion of gypsies and the
wearing of religious attire in public places in France, indicate a common
crisis in European tolerance. Eastern Europe demonstrates similar
difficulties in managing ethnic diversity in the face of global mass
population movements, of which the shocking outbreak of racial violence in
Moscow in 2010 is just one example.
The European media play a crucial role both in exacerbating the tensions
which inter-ethnic relations arouse (the spread of racial hate language and
nationalist extremism on the internet; the use of ethnic profiling and
racial stereotyping in crime reporting), and in fostering inter-ethnic
cohesion and harmony (national policies on promoting diversity and equality
in broadcasting). This conference aims to facilitate a cross-cultural,
comparative study of the impact of media and film on the playing out of the
“crisis of multiculturalism” in West and East European societies, and to
analyse the similarities and differences in media and cinematic approaches
to ethnic cohesion issues throughout Europe.
We now have five excellent keynote speakers in place:
• John Downing, Professor Emeritus at the Department of
Radio-Television, Southern Illinois University, USA. One of the preeminent
scholars in media studies, Prof. Downing is co-author with Charles Husband
of the highly influential Representing Race: Racism, Ethnicity and the
Media (London: Sage, 2005). He has also worked on alternative and social
media, and on the media in post-communist societies.
• Marie Gillespie, Professor in Sociology, The Open University, UK.
Author of pioneering books on ethnicity and television, media and diaspora
communities, transnational audiences, and media and the politics of
security, Professor Gillespie is Director of media research at the ESRC
Centre for Research on Socio-cultural change.
• Henri Nickels, Programme Manager for Research (Social Science) at
the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights in Vienna. Dr. Nickels
analyses racism and xenophobia, combining research and policy work. He has
published on media coverage of ethnic minorities in European societies.
• Sabrina P. Ramet, Professor of Political Science at the Norwegian
University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. Prof. Ramet is the
author of twelve books and numerous articles on the history and current
developments in the Balkans, where among other things she explores the role
of ethnic relations and nationalist ideologies in the region.
• Richard Stone OBE. Dr. Stone was a panel member of the 'Stephen
Lawrence Inquiry' into racism in policing (1997/99) as Adviser to the judge
Sir William Macpherson. He is currently writing a book called 'Hidden
stories of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry - how the agenda of a major Inquiry
gets undermined'.
The conference will address questions such as:
* In what senses are various types of media, including those reliant on
new communication technologies, aggravating inter-ethnic tensions in Europe?
* How serious a threat to social cohesion in European societies are
extremist websites, blogs and other new media forms of global and national
provenance?
* Are ethnic and racial minorities accorded appropriate rights to
representation in national broadcasting systems?
* To what extent are representations of ethnicity, race and nationhood,
and the coverage of issues pertaining to ethnic cohesion,dependent on
national context?
* What are the conceptual frames to which journalists and film-makers in
various European societies resort when covering this area and what are
their origins and consequences?
* How are European broadcasters with national responsibility dealing
with the rise of the anti-immigration, Islamophobic right on one hand, and
with the loss of faith in official multicultural policies on the other?
* What role does non-news broadcasting (drama serials; documentary
programming; situation comedy; light entertainment genres) play in the
representational process?
* How have cinematic imaginations of national and European identity
refracted the shifting consensus on values of ethnic diversity?
It is intended that selected papers from the conference will form the basis
for special issues of one or more prominent journals in the field. We
already have an initial agreement with Europe-Asia Studies.
Please email your proposals (250 words) for papers of up to 20 minutes in
length and your one-page CVs to the conference organisers (Professors
Stephen Hutchings and Vera Tolz) (atRRRMediaConference /at/ manchester.ac.uk)
<mailto:(RRRMediaConference /at/ manchester.ac.uk)>by 30 September 2012.
