[ecrea] CFP Special issue on Kurdish media of Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication

Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication

Special issue: “Mapping Kurdish Media and Cultural Production between 
the National and the Transnational”

Edited by Kevin Smets and Ali Fuat Sengül



Ongoing resistance against, and attacks on, Islamic State militias by 
Kurdish armed fighters in northern Iraq and Syria have brought 
international public and media attention to the Kurds’ continuing 
struggle for statehood. The   fighting between the IS and Kurdish 
militias has brought unprecedented media attention to the Kurds and 
their struggle for territory, human rights and identity.  Although it is 
too early to predict what direction the geo-political and national 
struggles will take, it is important to address mediated representations 
and production by and of Kurds and the role that the media play in new 
and multiple geographies and experiences of Kurdishness in changing 
contexts.



The volume and the geographical reach of Kurdish media are expanding 
exponentially, contributing to a shifting Middle Eastern mediascape. A 
number of studies already exist on some aspects of Kurdish media 
production, Kurdish identity and transnational connections and 
implications. However, these studies have either found home in the field 
of Kurdish studies or in transnational media studies without 
contributing, to a certain extent, to dialogues and connections between 
these fields which would certainly improve understandings of what has 
come to be known as the Kurdish question.



This special issue seeks to make a contribution to bridging the gap. We 
therefore invite submissions devoted to empirically grounded, 
historically-contextualized studies on Kurdish media and cultural 
productions and their multiple geographies. We welcome papers from a 
wide range of disciplinary and methodological approaches that focus on 
media broadly defined and on questions of media and cultural production 
while relating these issues to relevant socio-political contexts.



Contributions may address, but should not be limited to, the following 
questions:

 - How is the question of Kurdishness articulated, represented and 
experienced in different geographies?

- How is Kurdish media and cultural production influenced by political 
economic contexts in different geographies?

- How are questions of gender, class and ethnicity articulated and 
negotiated?

- What role do Kurdish media and cultural products play in the relation 
between politics and everyday life?



The deadline for submission of abstracts is 15 March 2015. Abstracts 
should not exceed 500 words and should provide a clear outline of its 
proposed theoretical framework and empirical data, as well as its 
contribution to the themes of the special issue.



Notification of acceptance of abstracts: 20 May 2015.



Deadline for submission of complete manuscripts: 15 October 2015. 
Contributions should be between 6000 and 7000 words and include an 
abstract of 150 words, at least 5 keywords and the author’s affiliation 
and email address.



Please send abstracts by 15 May 2015 to Kevin Smets 
((kevin.smets /at/ uantwerpen.be)) and Ali Fuat Sengül ((afsengul /at/ gmail.com)).



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