Archive for January 2014

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[ecrea] ICA Preconference CfP: The Cultural Politics of Protest

Thu Jan 09 00:55:36 GMT 2014




The Cultural Politics of Protest – Confronting Social Justice and Inequality in Communication Studies

Ethnicity and Race in Communication (ERIC) Division.
Endorsed by the Popular Communication Division
International Communication Association (ICA) 2014,
Seattle, Washington, USA
Thursday, 22 May 2014
http://www.icahdq.org/conf/2014/culturalpoliticscfp.asp

Call for Papers

The 1999 WTO protests in Seattle - also known as 'The Battle of Seattle' - was the largest and one of the most important public demonstrations in US modern history. The protest became a critical intervention, in drawing attention to a form of corporate governance that had previously gone unquestioned, and more broadly, exposing the inner-workings of neoliberal capitalism and the rampant inequality it produces across the globe. What was striking about the protest was that it was not organized by a specific group, or based upon a singular set of political aims. Rather, the protest consisted of a disparate and diverse range of groups and interests, from NGOs, anti-globalization activists, unions, and environmentalists, who came together and organized one of the largest protests of its kind, leading to the collapse of the WTO talks, and arguably, the transformation of international trade.

Inspired by this moment, this pre-conference imagines what a similar politics of protest and solidarity might look like for the social and cultural movements of the 21st century. For many, the anti-globalization movement lost its momentum following 9/11 and the shift in the agenda towards an almost exclusive focus on terrorism, Islamism, and homeland security. In light of this shift from corporate to ethnic governance, the pre-conference asks, how do politics of ethnicity and race, as well as its intersections with gender, class, sexuality etc. figure in the new politics of protest?

The recent Occupy movement is clearly significant here, but the preconference will consider also other forms of action and protest. The purpose is to foreground issues of social justice and inequality in communications studies. It is particularly interested in engaging scholars researching social and cultural identities in relation to popular communication and the media. Too often scholars in this field have been criticized for contributing to a type of identity politics that is trivial and marginal, and more decisively, neglects issues of political economy and redistribution. This preconference aims to address these criticisms directly and situate cultural and identity politics in the political economy within which they are embedded. Drawing thematic links to the 2014 conference theme, “Communication and ‘The Good Life’,” the preconference explores how minority groups, through staging different forms of protest against social injustice and inequality, can build alliances and solidarities that lead to heightened forms of community and collective flourishing.

The preconference is broadly based upon the following question: how can communication studies of racial, ethnic, gendered and sexual identities better address questions of social justice and inequality? For this purpose, rather than full research papers, participants will be invited to produce critical interventions in the shape of extended abstracts or position papers lasting no longer than five minutes. Following keynote talks, the one-day event will be made up of three roundtable sessions that will each consist of around ten short presentations. Each of the three sessions will be chaired by one of the preconference conveners and include invited speakers who will deliver short position talks to open the session. Based on the session themes, these invited speakers have been selected from prominent names working in the field (academics and/or activists-artists). In order to maximize discussion, the short papers by presenters will be distributed beforehand.

The roundtable session themes are:

I. From Trayvon Martin to the March on Washington at 50: Race and Protest
In the wake of the July 2013 “not guilty” verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman – charged with the shooting murder of unarmed African-American teenager Trayvon Martin - in Florida, over 100 rallies and vigils were held across the US to protest the verdict, and to push for the repeal of so-called “Stand Your Ground” laws. Later that summer of 2013, the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was marked with a wide variety of speeches and performances reflecting upon the half-century since the original event (and Martin Luther King’s famous ”I Have a Dream Speech”). In this roundtable, authors are asked to consider the role and use of contemporary protest and demonstration in the service of highlighting/fighting racism and socio-economic inequality, as well as the representation(s) of such demonstrations. The examples given above – the Trayvon Martin vigils and the March on Washington anniversary – are very different phenomena: one a more spontaneous, grassroots response, the other a highly orchestrated, potentially co-opted affair. Presenters are free to discuss all aspects of protests, as well as their representation(s), and how they fit within the sphere of not only Race & Ethnicity Studies, but also Popular Communication.

I. Media, Human Rights and Social Justice
This session seeks to register and examine the construction and articulation of human rights and social justice discourses in media around the globe. To do so, it seeks papers that explore how, within today’s highly mobile, networked media landscape, the relationship between cultural production and consumption has been altered to neutralize the state’s capacity to disregard ‘inconvenient’ human rights violations and challenge the traditional press’s role as gatekeeper of what gets defined and reported as a human rights issue and what does not. Of central concern is the question: How have mobile, social and entertainment forms of media served as tools through which human rights are being defined, civic discourse constituted and activated, and social justice sought, particularly as these tie into questions of recognition and agency. Panelists will pursue this question by examining the potential for human rights media to operate both vertically to produce outcomes and horizontally to stimulate ‘structures of feeling’ (Galchinsky (2012) around the globe; that is, as vehicles to vertically “reach up” from individuals and communities to challenge government bodies and other power holders to enact new policy or take action, and horizontally as tools through which citizens, activists, and artists speak to each other, represent their concerns and seek recognition.

I. Popular Music and Radical Politics: Where are Today’s Protest Songs?
Taking the late 1970s and early 1980s as a point of departure, and in particular Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s 1982 “The Message” (widely considered to be the first ”political” rap song), in this roundtable, authors are asked to address the question: “Where are today’s Protest Songs?” Following in the footsteps of “The Message” rap and hip hop artists such as Public Enemy, N.W.A., Ice Cube, Tupac, and Mos Def continued the tradition of politicized music which highlighted social inequality, police violence and racism. While a number of these seminal musicians continue to perform, we ask authors to consider how the next generation of musicians has taken the baton from their predecessors. Presentations are not limited to research on rap and hip hop (these are used as examples), but are open to research on all contemporary musical forms utilized in the service of social change.

In the final session, participants will attempt to draw up a working set of questions and propositions that, in light of the day’s discussions, they believe protest movements needs to address. The aim is to underscore what communications and media studies can bring to the discussion on the politics of protest.

Please join us to share your insights and expertise.

How to Participate

*** Submit an Abstract to Present Your Work during the Preconference
Deadline: 25 January 2014
Notification of Acceptance: February 5, 2014

PLEASE INDICATE WHICH OF THE THREE SESSIONS YOU ARE SUBMITTING TO!!!

We invite five minute presentations are based on abstract submissions (250 words). Again, applicants are asked to specify which of the three sessions they are submitting to. If accepted, the participants will be asked to circulate short position papers prior to the preconference (deadline 30 April, 2014). While the preconference is designed to be of interest primarily to media and communications researchers, due to the highly interdisciplinary nature of its topic we invite submissions from neighboring disciplines as well as from activist networks and the creative industry. We will particularly encourage creative and experimental formats.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:
-Racial/ethnic/gendered/sexual identities in protest movements
-Cultural politics in the neoliberal era
-Representation post 9/11
-The media and social justice
-Popular culture and resistance
-Media studies, anti-racist politics and intersectionality
-Representing protest
-New media activism
-Social movements and media strategies
-The politics of representation/recognition/redistribution
-Mediated forms of solidarity and commonality
-Contesting 'neoliberalism'

Please include the following information in your submission:
- Title of presentation
- Name(s), affiliation(s), and email address(es) of author(s)
- On co-authored submissions, the name, affiliation, and email address of the author who will be presenting the work at the Preconference - A 1 page (250 words excluding notes and references) abstract in 12 pt. Times New Roman in Word doc/docx format - For each author, a 100-word-maximum description of the author’s area(s) of research interest in 12 pt. Times New Roman in a separate Word doc/docx format file

Please email your submission to the ERIC Chair Miyase Christensen and to Preconference Co-conveners Patrick Murphy (Popular Communication, Temple University) and Anamik Saha (ERIC, Goldsmiths, University of London). E-mails: (miyase.christensen /at/ ims.su.se); (murphy.p /at/ temple.edu);(a.saha /at/ gold.ac.uk).

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SEND YOUR SUBMISSION TO MIYASE; PATRICK AND ANAMIK SIMULTANEOUSLY!

If you would like to just attend the Preconference to join in the dialogue without any other involvement, please email the Preconference Organizer, Miyase Christensen, (miyase.christensen /at/ ims.su.se), to indicate your intention so that we can include you in all emails of Preconference announcements.

Please contact Miyase Christensen, (miyase.christensen /at/ ims.su.se), for any other questions or further information.

About ERIC --

The Ethnicity and Race in Communication Division is concerned with methodological approaches and research that apply, extend or develop communication theory and analysis through an examination of race and ethnicity within local, international and transnational contexts.

The division also works to advocate for the improved status, representation and opportunities for underrepresented scholars in communication.

About Popular Communication –

Popular Communication is concerned with providing a forum for scholarly investigation, analysis, and dialogue among communication researchers interested in a wide variety of communication symbols, forms, phenomena and strategic systems of symbols within the context of contemporary popular culture.

Division members encourage and employ a variety of empirical and critical methodologies with application to diverse human communication acts, processes, products and artifacts which have informational, entertainment, or suasory potential or effect among mass audiences.

About the International Communication Association (ICA) --

ICA is an academic association for scholars interested in the study, teaching, and application of all aspects of human and mediated communication and is a truly international association with more than 4,800 members in 77 countries. Since 2003, ICA has been officially associated with the United Nations as a non-governmental association (NGO).

Further information about ICA is available at http://www.icahdq.org/ and complete details about ICA's 64th Annual Conference in Seattle, 22-26 May 2014, are available at http://www.icahdq.org/conf/index.asp.



Dr Anamik Saha
Lecturer in Media, Communications and Promotion
Department of Media and Communications
Goldsmiths, University of London
SE14 6NW

0207 717 3258



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