[Commlist] CFP: 6th International Geomedia Conference - Transforming Passions

*Call for papers*

*Transforming Passions *

*6th International Geomedia Conference*

Karlstad, Sweden, 17–19 September 2025

Passion is a multifaceted concept that encompasses not only joy and 
intense emotional investment but also pain and suffering. Passion’s 
significance in the realm of media, visual cultures and artistic 
practices serves as a driving force behind the relationship people 
develop with technologies, platforms, content, and forms of creation, as 
well as with places, territories and other spatial formations. The rise 
of digital media has amplified a cultural turn to passion, as 
individuals and communities increasingly pursue activities they love, 
often translating personal interests into online expressions, creative 
projects, and even careers. Likewise, new media platforms serve to 
foster and channel various forms of spatial attachments and engagements, 
ranging from local entrepreneurship to geo-political battles.

(Geo)media technologies facilitate such multifaceted passionate 
engagement. In neoliberal markets, passion is also commodified through 
the concept of passionate labor, where individuals are encouraged to 
transform their zeal for specific subjects into monetizable content or 
professional endeavors. This creates a dialectic tension, as the 
passion-driven work promoted by social media platforms often blurs the 
borders between leisure and labor. It also challenges longstanding 
geographies of work and gives rise to new spaces and mobilities at the 
intersection of leisure and labor (e.g., digital nomadism).

Moreover, the debates surrounding passion in media and visual cultures 
are not unidirectional; they are countered by forms of resistance that 
challenge dominant narratives of media-driven enthusiasm. These 
counter-passions critique the pressure to constantly access, engage, 
create, evaluate, and consume content, or places, pointing to the 
negative consequences of excessive digital immersion. Media’s role in 
shaping affective structures around passion thus reveals both the 
empowering and detrimental effects of intense emotional engagement.

The 6th International Geomedia Conference*Transforming Passions*//marks 
the 10th anniversary of the Geomedia conference series and explores, 
among other dimensions: refocusing emotional energy to imagine 
alternative futures and push for systemic changes; questioning the role 
of media in relation to individuals’ and groups’ emotional investments 
into space and place; reorienting personal affective experiences into 
collective action; reevaluating the risks associated with commodified or 
exploited passion in digital labor; and redefining current 
understandings of passion into new forms that are artistic, social, 
political, or technologically mediated.

We welcome contributions that address issues of, but do not have to be 
limited to:

·     spaces and places of mediated intimacy and (com)passion

·     affective dimensions of digital (media) labor

·     passion in representations of space and place

·     feelings and experiences of connection / disconnection

·     passion’s states of being and modes of becoming

·     passions and desires of the self and their surroundings

·     (geo)media and love of place and/or environment

·     geopolitics and the mediation of affect

·     passion, media and territorialization

·     temporalities and proximities of passion

·     affective dimensions of mobility and tourism

·     (social) media and performance of love, hate, and everything 
in-between

·     solid and unstable forms of passion, passion and privilege, 
passion and glitches, failures and uncertainties

·     passion and the public sphere

·     transformative potential of passion’s fragilities and vulnerabilities

·     passion and its boundaries or excessiveness

·     environmental and sustainable passions

·     mediating emotions in times of political and social turmoil

·     the democratic role of passion

·     passion as a form of agency

·     passion as a concept and/or method in research and activism

·     cocreating passion in and through artistic practice

·     transmedia and transdisciplinary perspectives of passion

The International Geomedia Conference 2025 welcomes proposals from film, 
media and cultural studies, game studies, communication studies, 
journalism, media anthropology, human and cultural geography, urban 
studies, design, cultural and artistic practices and
the arts.

The theme*Transforming Passions*//will be addressed through invited 
keynote sessions, plenary panels and workshops, audiovisual screenings 
and conversations. Participants are encouraged to submit proposals for 
individual papers, artistic contributions, audiovisual essays, workshops 
or paper sessions addressing the conference theme.

*Opening Keynote Speakers & Speakers:*

*Denise Ferreira da Silva*,Artist and Philosopher, Samuel Rudin 
Professor in the Humanities and Co-Director of the Critical Racial & 
Anti-Colonial Study Co-Laboratory, New York University, US, Adjunct 
Professor at the Monash University School of Art, Architecture, and 
Design, AU
*Jyoti Mistry*, Professor in Film, University of Gothenburg, SE, 
Leverhulme Visiting Professor, SOAS University of London, UK
*Arjuna Neuman*, Artist and Filmmaker

*Closing Keynote Speaker:*

*Annette Hill*,Professor of Media and Communications, Jönköping 
University, SE, Ander Visiting Professor in Geomedia Studies, Karlstad 
University, SE

**

*Invited Speakers:*

*Paul C. Adams*,Professor and Director of Urban Studies, Department of 
Geography and the Environment, University of Texas at Austin, US
*Mark Deuze*, Professor of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, NL
*Kaarina Nikunen*, Professor of Media and Communication Research, 
Tampere University, FI
*Erika Polson*, Assoc. Professor of Media, Film and Journalism Studies, 
University of Denver, US
*Jenny Sundén*, Professor of Gender Studies, Södertörn University, SE

*Abstract submissions:*

Proposals for individual papers, thematic panels, artistic 
contributions, audiovisual essays, workshops or paper sessions forthe 
International Geomedia Conference 2025*Transforming Passions*//can be 
submittedin English until 14 April 2025.

*//*

Each proposal should include the following information:

·     Title

·     Abstract

·     Presentation format

·     Biographical note of max. 100 words

·     3-5 keywords

*/Individual Paper proposals, Artistic Contribution proposal, 
Audiovisual Essay proposal:/*

Format: Academic or artistic contributions that address the conference 
themes.

The authors submit abstracts of 250-300 words. Accepted papers are 
grouped by the organizers into sessions of 3-4 papers each according to 
thematic fitting.

*//*

*/Thematic Panel proposals:/*The panel chair submits a single pdf 
document proposal consisting of 3-4 individual paper abstracts of 
200-250 words along with a general panel presentation of 200-250 words.

*/Workshop proposals:/*

Format: Spaces for dialogue, interaction, knowledge exchange, and 
skill-sharing.
The workshop chair submits a single pdf document proposal consisting of 
individual workshop contribution abstracts of 200-250 words each, if 
applicable, along with a general workshop presentation of 250-300 words.

*Publication opportunities:*Selected papers and contributions from the 
conference may be considered for publication in an edited volume and/or 
a special journal issue.

**

*Submission Details:*

*28 February 2025:*Submission of proposals for the conference opens.
Proposals for individual papers, thematic panels, audiovisual essays, 
workshops or paper sessions should be submitted to:(geomedia2025 /at/ kau.se) 
<mailto:(geomedia2025 /at/ kau.se)>.

Early career scholars and PhD students are highly encouraged to submit 
their work.

*14 April 2025: *Submission closes for proposals for individual papers, 
thematic panels, audiovisual essays, workshops or paper sessions.

*26 May 2025: *Authors and Artists will be informed regarding 
acceptance/rejection for the conference.

More information, including conference fee and practical information, 
will be added continuously:www.kau.se/transformingpassions 
<http://www.kau.se/transformingpassions>

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at:(geomedia2025 /at/ kau.se) 
<mailto:(geomedia2025 /at/ kau.se)>

*Transforming Passions*isan in-person conference and is organized by 
theCentre for Geomedia Studies <https://www.kau.se/en/geomedia>at 
Karlstad University, Sweden. There will also be events taking place 
across the city of Karlstad.

**

Organizers at the Department of Geography, Media and Communication,
Karlstad University, Sweden:*

*Georgia Aitaki*,Conference Director
*Doris Posch*, Conference Co-Director
*André Jansson*, Director of the Centre for Geomedia Studies
*Richard Ek*, Head of Scientific Committee


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