The 5th annual PhD Conference
at the Institute of Communications Studies
Constructing & Deconstructing Identity:
Challenges to Communicating Who We Are
17th June 2011
Call for Papers
The role of media in the formation, negotiation
and affirmation of our identities, both as
individuals and as members of larger cultural
and political bodies, has a long research
tradition, and ideas founded on the analysis of
how TV, cinema, radio and magazines affect
how we define ourselves still have currency
today. However, in an age referred to by
academics, government bodies and the media as
the ?Digital Age?, a large part of our social
interaction takes place online, identity has
become a much more volatile concept: as we are
blogging, Facebooking and Twittering about who
we (think that we) are, the German
philosopher R. D. Precht?s question ?Who am I
and if so how many? looks to become one of
the central questions to understanding our mediated world.
Equally, the media always have been a platform
for the negotiating of national and political
identities. On the one hand the internet as an
instant global communications network has
facilitated more heterogeneous construction of
identity, mirroring the complexities of the
question of what it means to ?belong?, and given
us a tool with which to challenge
dominant, often state-led ideological
narratives. On the other hand, the net?s diffuse,
instantaneous and labyrinthine characteristics
cater to its more sinister function as a
playground for often very subtle modes of
?identity engineering? in religious and political
contexts.
Following the tragic events of 9/11 and
successive terrorist attacks, border control has
become a major political tension point. With
increasingly invasive security mechanisms such
as biometric identification documents and
bodyscanners being introduced internationally,
?identity? has become a hotly contested issue.
It has never been more important to be able
to prove who you are.
At the same time, the spread of predominantly
digital security technologies means that our
proof of our identity lies within our personal
data sets, which are stored in identity
documents, credit cards, insurance cards and
driving licenses, and collectively gathered in
?
behind-the-scenes databases. Identity has become
technologically defined and as regular
reports of incidences of data theft have shown,
increasingly commodified and at risk of
theft.
This raises ontological questions about the
meaning of identity, but also ethical ones about
proof of identity becoming an instrument of
political power and domination and the extent
to which we can still claim ownership over our own identities.
Contributions are invited from PhD students in
Media and Communications Studies, Cultural
Studies, Political Science and related fields.
Possible topics might include, but are not limited
to, the following, as we are interested in any
papers that approach the issue of media and
identity, whether from a historical or a
contemporary perspective, in a unique and
challenging way:
Selfhood and Nationhood
. National borders vs. borders of the self
. Citizen?s identities in post-colonial
countries and areas (e.g. Macau SAR, Hong Kong
SAR): cultural, economical and political perspectives
. Globalization or glocalization, media representation of culture diversity.
. Identity within the ?Surveillance Society?
Ideology and Identity in Communication
. Notions of ?Otherness? in popular culture: representations of the ?Other? or
disability
. Constructions of the "Other" in political
communication ("us vs. them" narratives)
. Is communication integral to the construction
of identity? In the past, to what
extent has communication been used in the pursuit of identity?
. To what extent does a particular media form
communicate its own personal identity
to a populace?
Identity: value, purpose and meaning
. Credibility and identity: how do you "prove"
who you are? (e.g. the ID card debate)
. Identity theory as well as philosophical or
ethical definitions of identity in a media
world
. The commodification of identity underlying the possibility of identity theft
Marketing identity
. The professional?s identity in the cultural
industry: professional or amateur, citizen
journalist or professional?
. Celebrity culture: who's redefining 'famous'?
. Opinion and identity--self-publication and self-promotion in new media & the
blogosphere
?
. The role of advertising in constructing
identities for possibly fictitious social
groups and the role of these constructed boundaries in social engineering
Please email a 300 word abstract to the
following email address by 1st March 2011 (earlier
submissions welcome!)
(ics-pg-conference /at/ leeds.ac.uk)<mailto:(ics-pg-conference /at/ leeds.ac.uk)>
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On behalf of the Organizing Committee
ICS Postgraduate Conference 2011
17 June 2011
Institute of Communications Studies
University of Leeds, UK
