[ecrea] CFP: Anthropologies of Media and Mobility Workshop, Cologne 2017

Anthropologies of Media and Mobility:
Theorizing movement and circulations across entangled fields

An International Workshop organized by the Anthropology and Mobility 
Network and the Media Anthropology Network (EASA) in collaboration with 
Locating Media (Siegen) and a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School (Cologne)

University of Cologne, Germany
14-16 September 2017

This international workshop seeks to theorize the relationship between 
media and mobility. While mobility has been defined as movement ascribed 
with meaning, one might in similar fashion define media as meaning 
ascribed with movement. Interrogating the linkages between media and 
mobility can enable more thorough understandings of how various power 
structures produce, transform and reproduce social, material and 
discursive orders. People, devices, and data are increasingly on the 
move – movements that may transgress borders and boundaries, but which 
are also integral to the constitution and regulation of the barriers 
themselves. The movement of people triggers new imaginaries of 
territories and social spaces, which circulate through media, 
questioning and forging new ties between people, signs and things. More 
broadly, the mobilisation of tangible and intangible things demands a 
reconceptualization of what a 'thing’ is, what constitutes the human, 
and what defines human collectivity. In such circumstances, reimagining 
circulations through the lens of media and mobility becomes an important 
step towards understanding current socio-cultural and political changes. 
While this lens has been applied broadly within anthropological 
research, its theoretical consequences merit further investigation and 
discussion.

With a focus on a comparative approach, this workshop invites papers 
that rethink the theoretical underpinnings of media and mobility studies 
in anthropology. In particular, we hope to encourage papers based on 
multidisciplinary and mixed-methods research between social anthropology 
and other disciplines, including sociology, geography, communication 
studies, and the digital humanities. We aim to select presentation 
proposals, across a wide variety of formats, from early and mid-career 
scholars. Possible topics represented could include (but are hardly 
limited to):

Theoretical discussions that connect (or disconnect) media and mobility;
Empirical case studies that contribute to the conceptualisation of media 
and mobility;
Ethnographic research that brings into relief the politics of media and 
mobility;
Comparative studies that challenge Anglophone and Eurocentric 
theorizations of media and mobility;
Practice-based demonstrations of experimental approaches to thinking 
through media and mobility;
Contributions on media and mobility that engage with broader theoretical 
debates in social and political theory.

In addition to paper presentations with discussion, we would like to 
encourage audio/visual, sensory and experimental formats that speak to 
the conference theme. Please specify the technical and spatial needs for 
your presentation in your proposal.

The workshop will take place over two days at the University of Cologne, 
which is extremely accessible by both air and train transport. Some 
bursaries will be made available thanks to contributions from both the 
University of Siegen’s Locating Media graduate school and EASA.

Abstracts for papers (max. 300 words), listing your institutional 
affiliation and position, should be sent by email a Word .doc attachment 
by Monday 3 April, 2017 to mediamobilityworkshop [at] gmail.com. If you 
would like to be considered for a travel bursary, please add a few 
sentences below your abstract regarding why you require funding 
consideration.


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