[ecrea] CFP: Be your selfie: identity, aesthetics and power in digital self-representation

Call for papers

Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network


“Be your selfie: identity, aesthetics and power in digital self-representation”


This issue of Networking Knowledge will investigate the practice of
the “selfie”, one of the most significant phenomena of
self-representation in the digital mediascape. Selfies are a notable
example of how visual technologies, in conjunction with social media
platforms, are reshaping traditional notions such as subjectivity,
community, the public sphere and celebrity, among others

This issue aims to expand current scholarship by grounding the
analysis of the selfie within two different yet auxiliary
perspectives: on one hand, the debate on self-representation developed
in the tradition of aesthetics, visual studies, and art history; on
the other hand, an approach based on cultural studies, with a critique
of how the selfie reproduces, reinforces or potentially subverts
notions of identity as based on gender, race, class and other social
axes.

Selfies often solicit some of the fundamental features at work in the
tradition of self-portraiture, such as the use of mirrors, the
intimacy of the gesture, and the act of masquerading. But what happens
when these “intimate” shots are conceived for the global scenario of
social media? What structures of power determine their production,
circulation and consumption? This is a phenomenon that invites
analysis from a multiplicity of perspectives, accounting also for how
audiences engage in processes of identification, appropriation and/or
rejection of such images.


Networking Knowledge invites postgraduate students and early career
researchers to submit proposals on this topic. This issue welcomes
theoretical and methodological contributions, as well as specific case
studies and analyses; possible topics include, but are not limited to:


Selfie / self-portrait: body, face, background and foreground, masquerade...


Selfie/ sexuality and gender: hegemonic models, queer, beauty canons,
girlhood and boyhood, the pornographic selfie...


Selfie / photography: digital/analog, mobile phones, truth and fiction...


Selfie / stardom: celebrity and gossip, self-branding, fandom and imitation...


Selfie / politics: politicians and power, “intimization” of politics,
new communication strategies...


Selfie / narration: biography, confession, archive...


Selfie / social media: circulation, exchange of social capital,
community, privacy...


Selfie / device: frames, mirrors...


Abstracts and enquiries should be sent to the issue’s guest editors:



Laura Busetta

(laura.busetta /at/ gmail.com)


Valerio Coladonato

(valerio.coladonato /at/ gmail.com)



For further details on the journal, please visit:
http://ojs.meccsa.org.uk/index.php/netknow



DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS (5000 characters max): October 1st 2014


Please include in the proposal 3-5 key bibliographic references, as
well as your name, surname, e-mail address and institutional
affiliation.


DEADLINE FOR FULL PAPERS: December 15th 2014


The articles will be submitted to anonymous peer-review.



EXPECTED PUBLICATION OF THE ISSUE: Summer 2015


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