[Commlist] CFPs — Disability at ICA’27

We are an international group of disability communication and media 
scholars who have been active within the International Communication 
Association (ICA). To learn more about our work, please visit our 
website at www.icadisability.com <http://www.icadisability.com/>.

We are seeking contributions for a series of proposed panels on 
disability, communication, and media for the 77th Annual ICA Conference 
across 9 Divisions, to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, 
from 3–7 June 2027. This is part of our organizing towards an interest 
group on disability communication and media at ICA. For ease of 
reference, a list of the divisions targeted and titles are as follows, 
and more details of each CFP and details required can be found towards 
the bottom of the email.

  * *CFP 1: Media Industry Studies Division—Disability, Labour, and
    Affect in Media Production*
  * *CFP 2: Game Studies Division—Centering Disabled Players: Agency,
    Access, and Belonging*
  * *CFP 3: Journalism Studies Division—Accessibility in Production:
    Disability and Technology in the Newsroom*
  * *CFP 4: LGBTQ Studies Division—Trans-Crip Worldmaking*
  * *CFP 5: Visual Communication Studies Division—Centering Disability:
    Power and the Visual Politics of Staring*
  * *CFP 6: Popular Media and Culture Division—Centering Authentic
    Disability Representation in Popular Culture: Next Steps for Action*
  * *CFP 7: Children, Adolescents, and the Media Division—Artificial
    Intelligence and Disabled Childhoods*
  * *CFP 8: Feminist Scholarship Division—Centering Disability in
    Feminist Digital Media Studies*
  * *CFP 9: Language and Social Interaction Division—Language,
    Disability, and Social Interaction*


The theme of ICA27 is “Centering the Human: Communication in an Age of 
Uncertainty.” The theme invites communication scholars to consider what 
it means to center the human amid the expansion of artificial 
intelligence and other technological transformations, as well as 
intensifying political, social, environmental, and epistemic 
uncertainties. For more information on the conference theme, see the 
ICA27 website at https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/ICA27-theme 
<https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/ICA27-theme>.

Please submit your materials to (icadisability /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(icadisability /at/ gmail.com)> by *30 September 2026, Anywhere on Earth*.

We endeavor to notify contributors of the selection outcome by *15 
October 2026*.

Please also note the following:

  * Your submission should indicate the specific CFP that you are
    interested in.
  * We need to balance diversity in the panels (as defined by ICA), so
    please do indicate any relevant information in your author bios.
  * *All presentations should ideally be made in person.* However, per
    ICA policy, limited exceptions may be made for disability
    accommodations. If you would like to request specific disability
    accommodation to present virtually, please indicate this in your
    submission to us.
  * Selection through this call means that a contribution will be
    included in a proposed panel submitted to the relevant ICA Division.
    It does not constitute acceptance by ICA. All completed panel
    proposals will remain subject to the relevant Division’s peer-review
    and selection process.

We are also happy to discuss ideas, so feel free to reach out.

Any questions should be directed to (icadisability /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(icadisability /at/ gmail.com)>.

*_
_*

*_CFP 1: Media Industry Studies Division—Disability, Labour, and Affect 
in Media Production_*

*Proposed Panel Chairs: Priyam Sinha (Nanyang Technological U) and 
Elizabeth Ellcessor (U of Virginia)*

In this panel, we are keen to explore how disability is produced and 
negotiated within media industries, with a particular focus on labour, 
affect, and production cultures. We welcome research examining how 
industrial practices and working conditions shape disabled people’s 
participation, creative agency, and experiences of media production. 
Please note that submissions to the Media Industry Studies Interest 
Group should foreground the industrial and organisational dimensions of 
media, connecting disability to production practices, labour relations, 
and the conditions of cultural production.

  * Research spotlighting disability creator economies, production
    cultures, mediatised activism and disability aesthetics in networked
    societies
  * Research that pins down the distinctiveness of disability, global
    media industries and social media platforms in the Global South
    while attending to its intersection with class, gender, race,
    sexuality, caste, ethnicity, and religion.
  * Research methods that enable documenting disability and media studies.

If interested, please submit:

  * Title and 300-word abstract for your paper
  * 150-word bio for each author, including your background and
    qualifications regarding the proposed topic

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/MIS_CFP 
<https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/MIS_CFP>

*_
_*

*_CFP 2: Game Studies Division—Centering Disabled Players: Agency, 
Access, and Belonging_*

*Proposed Panel Chair: Wenqi Tan (U of Sydney)*

In this panel, we are keen to explore disability in games, play, and 
virtual environments, centering disabled people’s experiences, 
knowledge, and agency. We invite contributions that examine whose 
bodies, abilities, and ways of playing are recognised within game design 
and gaming cultures. We welcome critical disability and crip 
perspectives on how games and play shape communication, identity, and 
belonging, and how disabled players negotiate and reshape the conditions 
of participation in gaming industries and communities.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  * Disabled players’ experiences of access and agency
  * Disability representation, avatars, and embodied experiences of play
  * Ableism, inclusion, and belonging in gaming communities and related
    spaces
  * Disability perspectives on game design, AI, and assumptions about
    player abilities
  * Disabled people’s participation in virtual environments, including
    virtual worlds and social VR

Please note that submissions to the Game Studies Division should engage 
with games, play, virtual environments, or related communities and media 
in relation to human communication. Research on both digital and 
non-digital games is welcome.

If interested, please submit:

  * Title and 150-word abstract for your paper
  * 100-word bio for each author, including your qualifications
    regarding the proposed topic
  * Complete contact information for each author

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/GAME_CF 
<https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/GAME_CFP>

*_
_*

*_CFP 3: Journalism Studies Division—Accessibility in Production: 
Disability and Technology in the Newsroom_*

*Proposed Panel Chair: Jocelyn McKinnon-Crowley (U of Memphis)*

It is crucial for equity in news production to address ableism within 
the profession. Norms such as the expectation that “shoe leather” 
journalists should be able to “hit the pavement” can reproduce 
assumptions about mobility and the ideal news worker. At the same time, 
the expansion of digital and hybrid work has created new possibilities 
for access while introducing technologies and workplace arrangements 
that may remain inaccessible.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  * Ableism and assumptions about the ideal worker in journalism
  * Disabled journalists’ experiences of newsroom labour and working
    conditions
  * Disability and Accessibility in news production across digital and
    hybrid newsroom environments
  * Access across news production, distribution, and engagement

Please note that submissions should contribute to Journalism Studies by 
examining journalism or news work, including its professional practices, 
working conditions, organisational structures, technologies, production 
processes, or systems of distribution and engagement.

If interested, please submit:

  * Title and 150-word abstract for your paper
  * 100-word bio for each author, including names, ranks, affiliations,
    and contact information

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/JS_CFP 
<https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/GAME_CFP>

*_
_*

*_CFP 4: LGBTQ Studies Division—Trans-Crip Worldmaking_*

*Proposed Panel Chair: M. Remi Yergeau (Carleton U)*

In this panel, we are keen to explore trans-crip worldmaking as a 
communicative, critical, and cultural practice. Bringing trans studies 
and critical disability studies into conversation, the panel asks how 
trans and disabled people negotiate, contest, and remake communicative 
worlds structured by ableism, cisnormativity, and dehumanization.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics 
identified in the organizing correspondence:

  * Anti-trans media
  * Technoableism and anti-trans information ecologies
  * Rhetorics and communicative practices of dehumanization
  * Transing and cripping as critical-cultural methods
  * Trans-crip approaches to media, culture, communication, and worldmaking

Please note that submissions should engage substantively with LGBTQ 
communication scholarship, trans theory, queer theory, critical 
disability studies, or their intersections. The LGBTQ Studies Division 
welcomes scholarship addressing LGBTQ+ lives and applying trans, queer, 
intersectional, or related critical approaches to questions of media, 
culture, identity, discourse, and communication.

If interested, please submit:

  * Title and 400-word abstract describing your contribution to the panel
  * A brief 100-word bio outlining your background and qualifications
    regarding the proposed topic
  * Your name, rank, affiliation, and contact information

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/LGBTQ_CFP 
<https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/LGBTQ_CFP>

*_
_*

*_CFP 5: Visual Communication Studies Division—Centering Disability: 
Power and the Visual Politics of Staring_*

*Proposed Panel Chair: Samira Rajabi (U of Colorado)*

In this panel, we are keen to explore staring as a visual and 
communicative act through which disability and relations of power are 
produced, negotiated, and contested. Drawing inspiration from Rosemarie 
Garland-Thomson’s work on staring, the panel considers how disabled 
people are positioned within visual relations and how the act of looking 
may reproduce, complicate, or challenge those relations.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

  * Staring, looking, and power in visual encounters with disability
  * Disability representation and the politics of visibility
  * Disabled embodiment in still and moving images
  * The production, circulation, and reception of visual narratives
    about disability
  * Disabled people’s agency in contesting or reshaping visual conventions
  * Visual communication practices that center disabled perspectives and
    knowledge

Please note that submissions to the Visual Communication Studies 
Division must address a specifically visual dimension of communication. 
Papers that mention visual media without analysing visual form, 
practice, experience, theory, or methodology may not fit the Division’s 
scope.

If interested, please submit:

  * Title and 400-word abstract for your paper
  * 100-word bio for each author, including your background and
    qualifications regarding the proposed topic

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/VISUAL_CFP 
<https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/VISUAL_CFP>

*_
_*

*_CFP 6: Popular Media and Culture Division—Centering Authentic 
Disability Representation in Popular Culture: Next Steps for Action_*

*Proposed Panel Chair: Beth Haller (Towson U)*

In this panel, we are keen to move discussions of disability 
representation in popular culture toward questions of action, 
intervention, and change. Disability media scholarship has extensively 
examined how disabled people are represented; this panel asks what 
should follow from that critique and how research might contribute to 
more authentic and accountable representational practices.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

  * Practical tools for improving disability representation on screen
  * Disabled people’s participation in media production and decision-making
  * Moving from representational critique toward action and
    institutional change
  * Collaboration among disabled communities, researchers, creators, and
    media industries
  * Accountability for harmful, tokenistic, or stereotypical 
representations
  * Examples of interventions that seek to transform disability
    representation

Please note that submissions should contribute to the study of popular 
media and culture by examining relevant media forms, cultural practices, 
representations, production processes, or interventions. Papers should 
explain how their proposed actions or solutions respond to specific 
problems in disability representation.

If interested, please submit:

  * Title and 150-word abstract for your paper
  * A brief description of no more than 100 words outlining each
    author’s background and qualifications regarding the proposed topic
  * Names and affiliations of all authors

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/PMC_CFP 
<https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/PMC_CFP>

*_
_*

*_CFP 7: Children, Adolescents, and the Media Division—Artificial 
Intelligence and Disabled Childhoods_*

*Proposed Panel Chairs: Chelsea Temple Jones (Brock U) and Meryl Alper 
(Northeastern U)*

In this panel, we are keen to explore the relationships among artificial 
intelligence, media, and disabled childhoods. We invite research 
examining how AI-enabled media and technologies enter the everyday lives 
of disabled children and adolescents, and how these technologies shape 
communication, participation, identity, representation, learning, play, 
and social relationships.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

  * Disabled children’s and adolescents’ experiences with AI-enabled
    media and technologies
  * Disabled children’s agency in interpreting, adapting, resisting, or
    reshaping AI technologies
  * Parents’ and caregivers’ perspectives on disabled children’s AI and
    media use
  * Ethical and methodological approaches to researching AI with
    disabled children and adolescents

Please note that submissions to the Children, Adolescents, and the Media 
Division should focus on media or technologies aimed at, used by, or 
affecting children and adolescents, generally from birth through the 
late teenage years. Research addressing parents’ and caregivers’ 
perspectives on children’s media and technology use is also welcome.

If interested, please submit:

  * Title and 150-word abstract for your paper
  * 100-word bio for each author, including names, ranks, affiliations,
    and contact information

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/CAM_CFP 
<https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/CAM_CFP>*_
_*


*_CFP 8: Feminist Scholarship Division—Centering Disability in Feminist 
Digital Media Studies_*

*Proposed Panel Chairs: Jess Rauchberg (U of Leeds) and Krysten Stein (U 
of Cincinnati)*

In this panel, we are keen to bring critical disability scholarship into 
conversation with feminist approaches to digital media and communication 
and how we can canter the human within conversations about digital media.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

  * Feminist approaches to disability, ableism, and digital media
  * Disability, gender, embodiment, and digital identity
  * Disability within creator and influencer cultures
  * Feminist analyses of accessibility and exclusion on digital platforms
  * Ableism and gendered labour and care in media and technology industries
  * Feminist methods and ethics for researching disabled people’s
    digital experiences

Please note that submissions to the Feminist Scholarship Division should 
engage directly with feminist theories, methodologies, or practices. 
Addressing gender only as a demographic variable is not sufficient for 
fit with the Division.

If interested, please submit:

  * Title and 150–250-word abstract for your paper or contribution
  * 100-word bio for each author, including names, ranks, affiliations,
    and contact information

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/FSD_CFP 
<https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/FSD_CFP>

*_
_*

*_CFP 9: Language and Social Interaction Division—Language, Disability, 
and Social Interaction_*

*Proposed Panel Co-Chairs: Xie Zhuoxiao (Nanjing U) and Vincent 
Guangsheng Huang (Zhejiang U)*

In this panel, we are keen to explore how disability is constituted, 
negotiated, and contested through language, discourse, and social 
interaction. We invite research examining how communicative practices 
shape understandings of disability, disabled identities, participation, 
agency, and relations between disabled and nondisabled people. We are 
particularly interested in how language and interaction make particular 
bodies, minds, voices, and communicative practices recognizable—or 
unrecognizable—as fully human as well as how disabled people use, 
reshape, or resist communicative conventions across interpersonal, 
institutional, cultural, and mediated settings.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

  * Language, discourse, and the social construction of disability
  * Material semiotics of disability
  * Ableism in conversation, public discourse, and mediated communication
  * Voice, silence, listening, and communicative participation
  * Embodied, multimodal, or non-normative forms of communication
  * Disability language and representation across languages and cultural
    contexts
  * Disability discourse in multilingual or minority-language media
  * Disabled people’s negotiation or resistance of dominant linguistic
    categories

Please note that submissions to the Language and Social Interaction 
Division should make language use, discourse, or situated interaction a 
central object of analysis. The Division welcomes theoretical, 
empirical, critical, and applied work across approaches including 
conversation analysis, discourse analysis, critical and cultural 
discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, semiotics, ethnography 
of communication, multimodal analysis, and embodied communication. Most 
work submitted to LSI includes empirical analysis of situated discourse.

If interested, please submit:

  * Title and 150-word abstract for your proposed contribution
  * 100-word bio for each author, including names, ranks, affiliations,
    and contact information
  * A brief indication of the language, communicative setting, material,
    or interaction examined

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/LSI_CFP 
<https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/LSI_CFP>

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