[ecrea] CFP: Human Rights Memory, Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media & Culture

Call for Papers: Special Issue on Human Rights Memory

Guest edited by Susana Kaiser, University of San Francisco, 
(kaisers /at/ usfca.edu) <mailto:(kaisers /at/ usfca.edu)>

/Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture/

             What is to be remembered, and what forgotten? Who takes 
ownership of memories or presents credentials to speak authoritatively 
about the past—e.g. the direct victims of human rights abuses, or 
society at large? We can link the emergence, growth, and proliferation 
of memory studies to post-violent environments and processes by which 
communities must come to terms with human rights violations and 
traumatic events. The aftermath of dictatorships, genocide, wars, 
massacres, forced migrations, the effects of environmental destruction, 
as well as the legacy of discrimination based on class, race, ethnicity, 
gender, and sexual orientation are problems of pressing concern to 
scholars working in critical traditions. The duty to remember human 
rights abuses and the need to re-focus on memory at the service of 
justice occupy central stage of this special issue.

             Communication and media are interlinked with human rights 
matters and engaged with memory processes. This engagement is evinced in 
strategies geared toward keeping records of abuses, encouraging 
intervention to stop them, and using memories as tools to search for 
truth and justice. This special issue aims to contribute to the body of 
literature in what we label “human rights memory” and to narrow the gap 
in research about audiences/publics and media production processes. We 
are interested in research articles in an array of cultural productions, 
ranging from television series to artworks. We welcome submissions which 
highlight the processes by which people interact with, interpret, 
appropriate, consume, and use these productions, as well as those which 
elucidate how creative memory-writing—such as the activities of camera 
persons and museum guides—can work in practice. We seek to complement 
research centering on textual analysis, authorial intent, and 
expectations about the potential effect on audiences/ publics and will 
look for empirical support in studies that show the concrete impact of 
these initiatives while also illustrating their producers’ creativity 
and commitment to achieve specific goals.

             The focus is global and multi-disciplinary. We are 
interested in innovative methodological approaches and theoretical 
frameworks that can contribute to the development of empirically 
grounded theory. We welcome submissions analyzing the richness of 
popular communication in matters of memory and human rights (civil, 
political, economic, social, and cultural). We invite contributions 
focusing on grassroots and mainstream popular communication, including 
traditional formats (theater, film, print, television, radio), new media 
(social, digital, screen media, video games, mobile phones), the arts 
(photography, exhibits, museums, memorials, public shrines, music, 
concerts, performances, fashion, graphic/comic books, cartoons), sports 
tournaments, and demonstrations. Topics may also include, but are not 
limited to:

•Theoretical and methodological approaches useful for researching human 
rights memory audiences/publics and production processes, and 
especially, approaches highlighting conflicts between dominant/ 
hegemonic memories and those of the groups contesting them.

•Audiences/publics’ decoding and use of productions promoting official 
memories and/or advancing counter-memory(ies).

•Communication strategies developed by activists that have been 
effective tools for educating, broadening the human rights memory public 
sphere, generating action, and opening dialogical spaces (local, global, 
diasporic).

•Tactics for accessing and impacting heterogeneous publics/audiences, 
and for securing resources for production, distribution, and exhibition 
(e.g., funding, technology, know-how).

•Production processes documenting and writing memories of ongoing human 
rights violations (e.g. digital witnessing of major current crises). 
Production teams’ participation in human rights memory processes, 
including the role played by artists, writers, actors, technicians—the 
“above” and “below-the-line” crews. Profiles of producers (e.g., 
filmmakers, musicians, bloggers, Wikipedians).

The deadline for submissions is December 15, 2016.

Papers should be no longer than 7,000 words (all inclusive)

Papers should be submitted using ScholarOne at 
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hppc20/current 
<http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hppc20/current>

Full instructions for authors, including APA 6^th  Edition style 
guidelines, can be found at the same page.

Correspondence and questions about this call for papers can be directed 
to Susana Kaiser ((kaisers /at/ usfca.edu) <mailto:(kaisers /at/ usfca.edu)>)

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