[ecrea] Conference on character assassination research at George Mason University

Call for Papers: Character Assassination in Theory and Practice

Host: Lab for Character Assassination and Reputation Politics (CARP)

http://communication.gmu.edu/research-and-centers/carp/about-us

Location: George Mason University (Arlington Campus), Arlington, Virginia

Dates: March 3-5, 2017

  Submission Deadline: January 6, 2017

  Character assassination (CA) is the deliberate destruction of an 
individual’s reputation or credibility through character attacks. CA 
techniques include negative campaigning, spreading rumors, anonymous 
online defamation, and many other tactics. All of these are common 
tactics in contemporary politics, but character attacks can also be 
targeted against celebrities, athletes, scientists and others with a 
high public profile. Attackers target the private lives, values, and 
very identity of their victims in an attempt to discredit them and 
subject them to scorn and ridicule. Character assassination has been a 
widespread method of power struggle for centuries.

As a field of scholarship, the study of character assassination has been 
experiencing a remarkable academic renaissance. Researchers and 
practitioners from different fields such as political science, political 
communications, sociology, psychology and history have all been 
interested in the phenomenon of CA. However, a coherent methodology and 
vocabulary to study CA in a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary 
perspective have yet to be developed. At this conference, we aim to 
exchange ideas and gather suggestions to move towards this goal.

We invite scholars to submit research and works in progress which will 
discuss CA from a great variety of disciplinary and cultural angles. We 
expect each presentation to be 20 minutes long. We welcome both 
theoretical work and case studies.

*Suggested Topics:*

ñNegative campaigning and advertising in US elections

ñNegative campaigning and advertising around the world

ñAd hominem attacks in political debate

ñCA as psychological warfare

ñCultural differences in strategies and methods of CA

ñRumors and their electoral consequences

ñCelebrities in CA: from comedy to smear campaigns

ñCA in social media (social networks)

ñCA, reputation management, and image repair

ñMemory erasing, silencing and history distortion

ñVisual distortion online

ñLegal aspects of libel, slander and defamation in politics

ñCA in historical perspective

  To submit to the conference: Please submit a 250-word abstract of 
your paper by the deadline listed above. Email the abstract as an 
attachment to Dr. Jennifer Keohane, (jkeohane /at/ gmu.edu) 
<mailto:(jkeohane /at/ gmu.edu)>.

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