[Commlist] MeCCSA PGN Conference CFP

Call for Papers: MeCCSA Postgraduate Network 2020 Conference
University of Brighton, 10-11 September 2020
Conference Theme: Mediating Place: Memory, Culture and Experience

The MeCCSA Postgraduate Network is pleased to invite postgraduate 
researchers to attend our upcoming annual conference at the University 
of Brighton on 10th and 11th September 2020.

The theme of the conference is Mediating Place: Memory, Culture and 
Experience. However, the Postgraduate Network and the Organising 
Committee at the University of Brighton are committed to providing an 
inclusive and supportive environment for all postgraduate students in 
Media, Communication and Cultural Studies. Therefore, papers around 
other themes, including the full range of research areas and 
methodologies in our field, are also strongly welcome and encouraged.


Details on the theme:

Place is something more often sensed than understood, an indistinct 
region of awareness rather than something clearly defined. 'Place' has 
no fixed identity, as places themselves do not, and has similarly been 
subject to numerous demands, whether theological or philosophical, 
political or aesthetic.
Tacita Dean and Jeremy Millar, Place, 2005, p. 14

Dean and Millar’s comments encapsulate the pervasiveness of place in 
contemporary research – but also point to its inherently contested 
nature. The interaction of ideas, experiences and cultures of place are 
always already infused with power, politics and the plurality of 
possible pasts, presents and futures.

This conference aims to explore the multiple mediations of place and 
understand the demands and opportunities these provide for our research, 
in terms of both theory and method. What knowledges, practices and 
positionalities are opened (and closed)? What entanglements and 
encounters are produced (and denied)? What types of places emerge and 
how do they interact (or not)?

Structured to encourage understandings, experiences and discussions of 
place as a ‘simultaneity of stories-so-far’ (Massey, 2005), we are 
seeking papers, panel proposals and creative contributions from a wide 
range of disciplines and would be delighted to receive abstracts from 
interdisciplinary researchers and submissions from creative practitioners.
Contributions are not limited to the below, but the following are some 
themes delegates may want to present on:

(Un)bounded Place
Place can be created through the enforcement of boundaries – political, 
material, imagined, technological etc. – or can exist less tangibly as 
sensed or remembered. Places are often both of these at the same time. 
Work that engages with the contested and productive natures of 
(un)bounded place, and work that attends to the boundary itself – 
exploring its particular social, political and cultural ecology – are 
just some examples of what might come under this theme.

Depicted Place
This theme understandably links closely with ideas of bounded place as 
when a place is depicted, decisions are made of what is included and 
where the limits lie. It is possible to argue that all material culture 
is a depiction of the place it has come from, a notable example is the 
often stereotyped dot painting style of Western Desert Aboriginal art 
becoming synonymous with an Australian aesthetic (Gibson, 2011). A more 
overtly political element of depicted place may be discussed through the 
idea of mapping (and counter-mapping) place.

Disappearing Place
This theme speaks to both the increasing ‘placelessness’ of places 
through, for example, the homogenising forces of ‘development’ and the 
untethering effects of contemporary capitalism and its (apparent) 
‘fluidity’, as well as the more material eradication of places through 
processes of power and politics, as well as climate change and 
environmental crisis. Questions of which places endure – in what way, 
and how, why and for whom – are also pertinent here.

Examples of topics explored through theories of place:
Place's Critical Relation to Space and Environment
Feeling Out of Place
The Politics of Place
Placing Oneself in Place
The Online/Virtual Place
Without a Place
Time and Place/Memoryscapes
Co-becoming With Place
The Agency of Place

Please send an abstract of 200-400 words along with a brief biography 
and institutional affiliation to (meccsa2020pgn /at/ brighton.ac.uk) by 30th 
March 2020.

We are accepting proposals for: 20-minute paper presentations
1.5-hour panel sessions (with 3-5 contributors)
Creative contributions: short films, performance, artistic practice etc.

If you would like to propose a panel please send a 300 word description 
of the panel along with the abstracts.

Please indicate in your submission if you need any specialist equipment, 
other than projector and podium.
Please also let us know if you have any particular access requirements.
Additionally, we would like to encourage delegates to submit full 
versions of their papers for the potential inclusion in a Special 
Conference Issue of the Postgraduate Network’s journal Networking 
Knowledge. More details about this will be released after the abstract 
deadline.


If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch with the 
details above.

We look forward to receiving your abstracts and welcoming you to the 
conference.


Conference Organisers: Jo Pilcher, Kate Monson and Ëpha Roe.

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