[Commlist] CFP 27th Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association

*Extended Call for Papers*

*The University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada***

*June 25–28, 2026*

*
*

*TheannualmeetingoftheMediaEcologyAssociationprovides an opportunity for 
scholars, artists, professionals, educators, and students to exchange 
experiences and ideas in a friendly environment. We invite proposals for 
papers and panels related tothefieldofmediaecology.*

Our conferencetheme — crossing[out] borders in our global village — 
isoffered as a generative and open cue. Anyoneattendingtheconference 
will have crossed some sortofborder, and manyofus do research 
thatconsidersthepowerofrelationality and purposeofdifferentiating. 
Figuratively, manyofus cross borders by blending disciplinary interests 
or research methods. We chose ourtheme to suggest thatall avenues are 
open, all topics welcome for review.

We look forward to hosting you and convening a vibrant MEA Conference 
inthehometownofMarshall McLuhan, a founding figureoftheMEA.There will be 
an opportunity for you to join a pre-conference tour onJune24 (hosted 
byTheMarshall McLuhan Initiative) to visit sites connected to McLuhan.

Marshall McLuhanoften spokeofmany ways borders were falling,ofour world 
as increasingly "without walls" (in a reapplicationofAndre Gide's 
original coining). Playing withthemultiple divisions cutting 
throughthecountry, he referred to Canada as “a borderline case.” He saw 
danger in a wide-open global village but would likely have considered 
current calls for actual walls and strengtheningofnational borders as 
"rear view mirror thinking": ineffective, change-resistant thinking.

*Call for Papers*

Submit paper and session proposals (no longer than 250 words) 
by* January 15, 2026* to (MEA2026 /at/ uwinnipeg.ca) 
<mailto:(MEA2026 /at/ uwinnipeg.ca)>. Include title, abstract and contact 
information for each participant. A maximum of two submissions per 
author will be accepted.

Submission guidelines for manuscripts for authors who wish to be 
considered for the *Top Paper* or the *Linda Elson Top Student Paper* award:


1.Manuscripts should be 4,000–6,000 words (approximately 15–25 
double-spaced pages).

2.Include a cover page with your institutional affiliation and other 
contact information.

3.Include an abstract (250-word maximum).

4.Submit paper proposal by the regular November 1, 2025 deadline, then 
submit full manuscript by *February 1, 2026*. Please indicate the award 
you are seeking.

*Featured Speakers*


*Derrick de Kerckhove*

Derrick de Kerckhove was born in Belgium in 1944 and naturalized 
Canadian in 1967. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto 
in 1974 and a post-graduate doctorate in Sociology of Art from the 
University of Tours in 1979. He taught at the University of Toronto from 
1967 to 2012 and is Professor Emeritus in the Department of French. 
Associated with Marshall McLuhan's Centre for Culture and Technology 
since 1968, he worked with Marshall McLuhan for a decade as his 
assistant, translator, and co-author. He became Director of the McLuhan 
Program in Culture and Technology from 1983 to 2008. Several of his 
dozen books were published in as many languages, including /Brainframes: 
Technology, Mind and Business/ (1991), /The Skin of Culture/ (1995), 
/Connected Intelligence/ (1997), /The Architecture of 
Intelligence/ (2001), and /The Quantum Ecology/, in collaboration with 
Stefano Calzati (MIT Press, 2024). His latest book, /L’uomo 
quantistico/ (Rai libri, 2025) extends and develops his contributions in 
the previous one. From 2004 to 2014 he was a professor in the sociology 
faculty at the Università Federico II in Naples and was guest professor 
at the Design School of the Polytechnic Institute of 
Milano (2016–25) and director of research at the Interdisciplinary 
Institute on the Internet at the Open University of Catalonia in 
Barcelona. He lives in Rome, where he is scientific director of the 
monthly magazine, /Media Duemila/, and of the Osservatorio Tuttimedia.

		


*Wendy Hui Kyong Chun*

Wendy Hui Kyong Chun is Simon Fraser University’s Canada 150 Research 
Chair in New Media, Professor in the School of Communication, and 
Director of the Digital Democracies Institute. At the Institute, she 
leads the Mellon-funded Data Fluencies Project, which combines the 
interpretative traditions of the arts and humanities with critical work 
in the STEM to express, imagine, and create innovative engagements with 
(and resistances to) artificial intelligence and our data-filled world.

She has studied both Systems Design Engineering and English Literature, 
which she combines and mutates in her research on digital media. She is 
author many books, including: /Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia 
in the Age of Fiber Optics/ (MIT, 2006), /Programmed Visions: Software 
and Memory/ (MIT 2011), /Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New 
Media/ (MIT 2016), and /Discriminating Data: Correlation, Neighborhoods, 
and the New Politics of Recognition/ (2021, MIT Press). She has been 
Professor and Chair of the Department of Modern Culture and Media at 
Brown University, where she worked for almost two decades. She is a 
Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, an International Fellow of the 
British Academy and has also held fellowships from: the Guggenheim, 
ACLS, American Academy of Berlin, the Institute for Advanced Study 
(Princeton), and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard.

**

*Registration*

Early registration prices are as follows:

·Regular member: $160

·Student member: $60

·Non-member: $260

·Non-member student: $90


*Early registration prices are good until March 15, 2026.* After that, 
regular member registration is $170 and student member registration is $70.


Convention registration entitles you to attend all convention panels, 
plenaries, and special sessions. The cost to attend the awards banquet, 
however, is $50. That’s a separate fee this year.


*All prices are in U.S. dollars.* Sustaining and Institutional members 
don’t have to pay for the convention separately, but they still must 
register for it.


Register by clicking the button below:


https://media-ecology.org/event-6469666 
<https://media-ecology.org/event-6469666>


All convention participants and attendees are encouraged to join the MEA 
<https://media-ecology.org/membership>.

Hotels and housing options wil be announced closer to the convention.

*Student Travel Grants*

The MEA is pleased, once again, to offer a limited number of travel 
grants to students —undergraduate and graduate — seeking financial 
assistance in attending the convention. Those interested in applying 
should complete this form <https://forms.gle/z6WpVuMvgMkTFFyw7>. Student 
travel grant applications are due by *March 15, 2026*.

*Contact*

Please stay tuned for more information. In the meantime, if you have 
questions, please contact convention organizer Jaqueline McLeod Rogers 
at (j.mcleod-rogers /at/ uwinnipeg.ca) <mailto:(j.mcleod-rogers /at/ uwinnipeg.ca)>. 
She and members of the Department of Rhetoric, Writing and 
Communications are hosting the convention.

	

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