[ecrea] CFA: "Theorising Media and Conflict" workshop, Vienna, 23-24 Oct 2015

Call for Abstracts: "Theorising Media and Conflict" workshop
Media Anthropology Network
European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)
Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology
University of Vienna, Austria
23-24 October 2015

** Financial assistance available, see below **

In a recent survey of the interdisciplinary literature on media and
conflict, Schoemaker and Stremlau (2014) found that most existing studies
display Western-centric biases, normative assumptions and unsubstantiated
claims about the impact of media in conflict situations. With their
ethnographic methods and ground-up theorising, anthropologists are
therefore well placed to make a strong contribution to the advancement of
this area of scholarship. Although a growing number of anthropologists have
studied media in conflict and post-conflict contexts – working on diverse
topics such as media representations, cyberwar, internet activism, social
protest, video-making, or radio dramas – so far they have done so in
relative isolation from one another. The result is a fragmentation of the
field and a dissipation of efforts.

The aim of this workshop is to remedy this situation by bringing together
media anthropologists and other media and communication scholars working on
the complex relationship between media and conflict.

Having presented and discussed their own research (Day 1), workshop
participants will then ask the following collective questions (Day 2):

   1. What is the present state of anthropological and interdisciplinary
   knowledge on media and conflict?
   2. What are the main questions in need of urgent research and writing?
   3. How can media anthropologists and others contribute to the
   interdisciplinary effort of theorising the elusive relationship between
   media and conflict?
   4. What topics and themes should an edited volume arising from the
   workshop focus on?

In addition to its networking function, the workshop will lead to an edited
volume provisionally titled Theorising Media and Conflict. This will be the
third in the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) Media
Anthropology Network's series of theoretical volumes published by Berghahn.
The first volume came out in 2010 as Theorising Media and Practice
(Bräuchler & Postill, eds), and the second volume, Theorising Media and
Change (Postill, Ardevol & Tenhunen, eds) is forthcoming. The aim of the
series is to place media anthropology at the forefront of theoretical
advances in both anthropology and media and communication studies.

Please send your questions and abstracts (max. 300 words) by 20 September
2015 to John Postill ((john.postill /at/ rmit.edu.au)) and Philipp Budka (philipp.
(budka /at/ univie.ac.at)).

N.B.There will be financial assistance with travel and accommodation
expenses available to participants who require it. Please contact the
organisers for further information if you require such assistance. The
organisers are grateful to EASA, the Austrian Research Association (ÖFG),
and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of
Vienna, for their generous support of this event.

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