[Commlist] cfp - Media Infrastructures in the Middle East

CALL FOR PAPERS:
Media Infrastructures in the Middle East
Organized by the Media Studies Program
American University of Beirut
January 9 to 11, 2020


Over the last decade, and in the wake of popular protest movements and 
uprisings that swept the region, scholarship on the Middle East has come 
a long way in recognizing the contested and pivotal role of media in 
shaping the political imaginaries and repertoires of action across the 
region. From the 2009 Green movement in Iran, to the 2011 Arab 
uprisings, to the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Turkey, Middle East 
scholars across disciplines increasingly turned their attention to the 
role of media – and social media in particular – in political 
organization, mobilization, and dissent under authoritarian regimes.  
Across these varied contexts, where political activity is largely 
restricted and freedom of expression violently repressed, new media such 
as social networking platforms and mobile technology were credited with 
heralding a new era of political participation and dissent.  The 
revolution, some argued, will be tweeted, and the socially-mediated 
network, many noted, managed to leverage individual discontent for 
collective action.

With the aim of interrogating this techno-utopian outlook, amidst the 
entrenched inequalities and repressive politics that continue to plague 
the region, this conference seeks to move the conversation from the 
front-end to the back-end of media: from networks, as it were, to 
infrastructures. How does a focus on the material conditions and labor 
that channel and process communication flows unsettle what we understand 
media to be and what they can accomplish in the Middle East? How can an 
inquiry into media infrastructures inform our understanding of the 
economic, political, and cultural boundaries and flows that constitute 
the Middle East as region? And, what are the political stakes of this 
infrastructural turn?

If infrastructure is the “basic physical and organizational structures 
and facilities…needed for the operation of a society or enterprise,” 
then we can think of media infrastructures along these same lines – as 
the building blocks of our entire mediascape. Platforms, data centers, 
software, algorithms, and human labor shape and transform media 
industries and everyday media practices. This conference explores how 
these technological and organizational infrastructures are embedded 
within and reproduce power relations and inequalities, but also how they 
condition human agency and struggles for social justice.

We are particularly interested in papers that examine the social, 
material, cultural and political dimensions of media infrastructures 
(digital or otherwise), and related issues, such as the built and 
natural environments, surveillance, privacy, interconnectivity, labor 
conditions, access, and the reproduction or disruption of social 
inequalities.

Other topics that papers might explore in relation to the conference 
theme are:

Technological development
Conflict and Displacement
Accessibility
Surveillance
Counter surveillance
Online violence
Information infrastructures
The politics of platforms
Labor conditions
Economies of repair and breakdown
Digital platforms as infrastructure
Social, political and epistemological consequences
Impact on communication and circulation of data
Online participation and mobility
Knowledge production
And other related themes

We invite submissions (maximum 400 words) on the variety of topics 
listed above, or others that engage with the conference theme. 
Submissions should include: author name(s), affiliation, email address, 
paper title, and a brief bio, and be emailed to (mediastudies /at/ aub.edu.lb) 
<mailto:(mediastudies /at/ aub.edu.lb)> no later than July 31st.

Decisions on acceptances of abstracts will be communicated by mid to 
late August.

A limited number of modest travel subsidies may be available. Applicants 
should identify in their email if they would like to be considered.

For further information, please contact the organizers: The Media 
Studies Program at the American University of Beirut at the email 
address listed above.


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