Archive for December 2023

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[Commlist] CFP *Alt+F4: Rebooting Community after Gamergate*

Sat Dec 23 13:35:25 GMT 2023





*Call for Papers: "Alt+F4: Rebooting Community after Gamergate"*

*A Public Humanities Symposium Hosted by Lawrence Technological University*

In the decade following the #GamerGate controversy, the urgency for a nuanced understanding of both social conflicts and inclusive community within digital spaces has become increasingly apparent. Lawrence Technological University’s "Alt+F4: Rebooting Community after Gamergate" is an academic and community facing symposium that responds to this need by uniting diverse scholarly approaches that take up and challenge the racialized and gendered injustices prevalent across online spaces while foregrounding existing attempts to radically imagine–and produce–other digital worlds. Our gathering will convene a wealth of multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary scholars who will examine digital spaces as structured by histories of domination and exclusion, yet also opportunities for the expression of marginalized identities and experiences.

Our symposium addresses these complexities by acknowledging and investigating the uneven promise of technological spaces, where issues of democracy and social justice are debated, enacted, and contested. Recent scholarship in social media and streaming economies (Johnson, Carrigan, & Brock, 2019; Tran, 2022; Van Dijck & Poell, 2015), disinformation studies (Marwick et al., 2022; Pavliuc et al., 2023), Black technostudies (Benjamin, 2019; Gray, 2020) and democracy in the digital age (Berry & Fagerjord, 2017; Schwanholz, Graham, & Stoll, 2018) provide a scaffold for our examination of the state of digital democracy, historical and current modes of social media toxicity, and emerging models for inclusive and equitable community-building endeavors in gaming and digital culture. By reflecting on the nexus of social gaming, media ecologies, and political life participants will explore the broader ramifications of digital interactions that extend beyond the content of the games themselves.

As a transdisciplinary gathering, our symposium will bridge academic theorization and community practice. In addition to inviting scholars to consider the narrative of #GamerGate within a broader spectrum of social media and digital economies, we invite game developers, designers, coders, and players to consider the ways gaming as a praxis extend beyond the play space into community and world-building activities, including platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Discord, and Twitch. Ultimately, the goal of the symposium is to use critical analysis and play to explore the ways that contemporary gaming is a hybrid medium with complex politics that forge narratives and meanings with real-world impact.

*Call for Submissions:*

We invite scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to game studies, digital humanities, critical code studies, game development, psychology, science and technology studies, critical media studies, and related fields to submit scholarly papers/presentations that engage with the following themes:

* #GamerGate as historical, political, social, cultural, and technological
  * intersectional analyses of digital culture
  * the perpetuation of injustice within gaming communities
  * implications of gaming design/ industry practices for media literacy
    and democratic engagement
  * explorations of gaming/social media platforms and
    disinformation/reactionary politics
  * applications of humanistic frameworks such as intersectionality,
    critical play, and digimodernism
  * how to understand and reshape digital narratives post-GamerGate
  * critical play as methodology for exploring identity
  * Black studies and gaming
  * joy, care, and inclusivity collectivity in gaming
  * gaming as political world-making
  * subcultural and parasocial relationships on cultures around games
  * social media as sites of trauma, psychological development, and
    cognition

Contributions should be informed by, but not limited to, the aforementioned theoretical frameworks and should aim to further our understanding of the social, cultural, psychological, and political dynamics within techno-cultural spaces post-GamerGate.

We await your proposals with keen interest, anticipating a symposium that not only reflects on the past but actively shapes a more inclusive and ethical digital future. A comprehensive website with submission details and further information will be forthcoming. Join us in this essential dialogue that unites academic, industry, and public spheres to understand and promote a democratic and inclusive digital world.

*Symposium Details:*

  * *Dates:* September 26-28, 2024
  * *Location:* Southfield, Lawrence Technological University
  * *Organizers:* Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and
    Communication; Department of Art and Design; College of Arts and
    Sciences; College of Architecture and Design; Lawrence Technological
    University

*Submission Guidelines:*

Please submit an abstract of no more than *250 words* via the conference portal via the Conference EasyChair here <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=altf42024> (opening January 2024) by *February 28, 2024 *. Submissions should be aligned with the symposium's focus on inclusive digital cultures. Selected papers will be invited to contribute to an edited scholarly collection.

*Important Dates:*

  * *Abstract Submission Deadline:* February 28, 2024
  * *Notification of Acceptance:* April 15, 2024

*Contact the Organizing Committee* for more information here <mailto:(altf4conference /at/ ltu.edu)>.


https://www.ltu.edu/alt-f4 <https://www.ltu.edu/alt-f4>


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