[Commlist] Union for Democratic Communication 2023 Conference

*The Union for Democratic Communications announces its 2023 Conference *

The Union for Democratic Communications Steering Committee is thrilled 
to announce that our 2023 conference will be held in Philadelphia from 
October 12 - 15, 2023.  The conference will be hosted by the Media, 
Inequality, and Change (MIC) Center, a collaboration between the 
University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication and 
Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information.

UDC, now entering its fourth decade, seeks to bring together media 
producers, researchers, policy makers, and grassroots communications 
activists to promote and develop critical approaches to communications 
and media and to advocate and agitate for the creation of structures to 
foster a more democratic and just communications system. It is an 
organization that historically has centered the study of power from a 
radical perspective. We welcome abstracts from communication 
researchers, journalists, media producers, policy analysts, academics 
and activists alike. Please see the call below.

You can find the conference announcement, conference theme, and Call for 
Papers on our website at https://www.democraticcomm.org 
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.democraticcomm.org__;!!KwNVnqRv!BSL7a8U-UQyG2LHG6KiAQXLzZWPuL4wmtmILS1BfEkubCigd9TX6_RQ7M5Df4LXKEh4EnikAGaAYpcp04M-M4jA$>. 
Submissions will close on April 7. Please feel free to distribute this 
call widely and we look forward to reviewing your submissions. Further 
information and conference logistics will be announced as they become 
available. In the meantime, please save the date and we are hoping to 
see all of you in Philadelphia!


*Union for Democratic Communications 2023: /Left Undone/*

The Union for Democratic Communications, now entering its fourth decade, 
is excited to announce the Call for Papers for its 2023 conference to be 
held in-person at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, in 
partnership with the Media, Inequality and Change Center and the 
Annenberg School for Communication.

The possibilities and perils of leftist organizing and media scholarship 
assume greater urgency in the face of “backsliding democracy.” ‘Undone’ 
reflects numerous senses: as a temporary disunity; as an important task 
unfinished; as a representation of disarray; but all senses of the word 
hold hope for its reversal. The UDC has always stood as a site of 
collaboration between activists, scholars, and practitioners—an 
organization rooted in critical scholarship and practice about the 
structures of communication themselves, not just in the US, but 
worldwide. The 2023 conference will see us look back at the first 40 
years of the UDC, but we will also look ahead to consider the role of 
critical communication scholarship and activism in organizing, engaging, 
and energizing leftist alternatives to authoritarian politics.

Our world has been reshaped by a powerful neoliberal vision made 
material through deliberate organizing, politicking, and 
institution-building; as economic historians such as Philip Mirowski 
have noted, the political left's response has not been sufficient to 
meet this challenge. A global climate crisis is joined by new wars, 
inflation, supply chain crises, and algorithmic governance across 
private and public spheres. Democratic institutions—and even the notion 
of democracy itself—are under attacks on multiple fronts, as right-wing 
movements globally have been energized. Media platforms and discourses 
are fertile ground for anti-democratic groups which have garnered 
funding and media attention that has seen formerly-fringe beliefs move 
toward the mainstream.

This year’s Union for Democratic Communications conference asks what 
role critical scholarship, media-making, and activism can play in 
organizing resistance to minority rule and authoritarian movements both 
in the U.S. and abroad. Left Undone thus proposes a two-part call for 
clarity. For one, as we enter the next 40 years of UDC, it is time to 
engage challenging conversations among critical scholars across 
political economy, critical and cultural studies, science and technology 
studies, critical sociology, and their complementary fields to ask if a 
different foundation can be reshaped and built. What role can critical 
communication scholarship and activism play in organizing resistance to 
authoritarian movements both in the U.S. and abroad? What new 
theorization might be necessary to guide activism in the decades ahead?

For the other, the work of the UDC and all scholar/activist 
organizations has always been one of struggle and persistence. Advocacy 
for equal justice, fair representation, and radical democracy is always 
an incomplete project. Both material and discursive attacks on the left 
have sought to undo what progress has been made and forestall the 
momentum of progressive and radical movements. What strategies, from 
micropolitics to international social movements, are required to combat 
widespread shifts towards authoritarian and anti-democratic regimes? 
Critical media-makers, scholars, and activists are invited to reimagine, 
reinvent, and reclaim communication for democracy–for the people–through 
the inherent optimism of criticality.

We invite scholars, practitioners, media makers, and activists to join 
us in Philadelphia in October. The organization welcomes submissions on 
topics pertaining to any of the above issues. These include, but are not 
limited to:

  * Political economy of communications, communications policy, and
    media production
  * Digital capitalism, neoliberalism, “mutant neoliberalism”, and labor
  * International media content, structure, policy, and (in)equality
  * Algorithmic governance, discrimination, surveillance, privacy, and
    policy
  * Platform governance, cooperativism, and commons
  * Democratic theory and new critical theory
  * Critical law and policy studies; law and political economy
  * The crisis in journalism, fake news, and disinformation
  * Science and technology studies, cultural studies
  * Racisms, patriarchies, and other forms of
    algorithmically-intensified power formations
  * Power, marginalization, inequality, and justice
  * Activism, social justice, resistance, and media/tech activism
  * Communication, labor, working class, and activist history
  * Advertising and consumer culture
  * Pedagogy, academic freedom, and academic labor
  * Conflict, war, rising authoritarianism/fascism and structures of
    communication

We welcome proposals for paper presentations, workshops, theme panels, 
film screenings, artistic interventions, and other formats.

The proposal portal will close April 7, 2023 at 
https://www.democraticcomm.org 
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.democraticcomm.org__;!!KwNVnqRv!BSL7a8U-UQyG2LHG6KiAQXLzZWPuL4wmtmILS1BfEkubCigd9TX6_RQ7M5Df4LXKEh4EnikAGaAYpcp04M-M4jA$>.


*About the Union for Democratic Communications*

UDC is an organization of communication researchers, journalists, media 
producers,
policy analysts, academics and activists dedicated to:

  * Critical study of the communications establishment;
  * Production and distribution of democratically controlled and
    produced media;
  * Fostering alternative, oppositional, independent and experimental
    production;
  * Development of democratic communications systems locally, regionally
    and internationally.


Through its conferences, activism, scholarship, and other activities, 
UDC seeks to:

  * Bring together media producers, researchers, policy makers, and
    grassroots
  * communications activists;
  * Promote varied critical approaches to communications and media;
  * Advocate for the creation of structures to promote democratic
    communications;
  * Work with other progressive organizations to facilitate the
    production and distribution of democratic communications.



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