[ecrea] Call for Abstracts: "Theorising Media and Conflict" workshop

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.


--
Philipp Budka
Minorgasse 69/3
1140 Wien, Austria
(ph.budka /at/ philbu.net)
http://www.philbu.net
http://twitter.com/philbu




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