[Commlist] ICA pre-conference on multimodal research

*Communicating Multi-modally: Research and Expressive Culture*

ICA Pre-conference, The American University of Paris, May 26, 2022

Submission Deadline: December 17, 2021

Event website: https://icamultimodalpreconf.fims.uwo.ca/ 
<https://icamultimodalpreconf.fims.uwo.ca/>

Communication research has long been presented in books and journal 
articles despite the discipline’s interest in the multiple forms in 
which communication practice takes shape. While scholars examine visual 
imagery, sound, and performance, for example, work in multimodal formats 
is assigned to the realm of art and creative expression, rarely to 
communication scholarship. This assumption means our discipline has only 
begun to push the boundaries of knowledge production in new, more 
expressive directions that better capture communication’s multimodal 
condition. This pre-conference builds on recent International 
Communication Association (ICA) programming dedicated to multimodal 
work, bringing together established and emerging scholars around the 
world who embrace expressive culture as foundation in communication 
research.

We see multimodal scholarship as having particular value for addressing 
a more diverse population of scholars and students, and for engaging 
with intellectual energies that are not formally organized within 
institutionalized academia. It holds promise for a more locally and 
globally inclusive communication field. Our goal is to explore the power 
and limitations of multimodal scholarship, and to sustain conversations 
about institutional support, policy, and guidance for multimodal 
research, teaching, and publishing.

We are excited to invite scholars who work in multiple modalities to 
submit their work to the pre-conference, to be held in person at the 
American University of Paris on May 26, 8am – 4pm. If you engage in 
research-creation, creative commons projects, interactive data 
visualization, computational art, performance, or digital humanities and 
social sciences, for example, or in any classical medium such as film, 
video, radio, movement, or installation, we welcome your submission.

Communicating Multi-Modally is co-sponsored by five divisions and 
interest groups at ICA, including Ethnicity and Race in communication, 
LGBTQ Studies Interest Group, Philosophy, Theory and Critique, Popular 
Media and Culture, and Visual Communication Studies. We are open to work 
that speaks to wide-ranging questions relevant to communication and to 
our divisional and interest group cosponsors. Topics include (though are 
not limited to):

- Climate and environmental justice

- Decolonial perspectives

- Dis/ability

- LGBTQ studies

- Media, law, and policy

- Migration/immigration and human rights

- Participatory communication

- Popular media and culture

- Racial justice

- Transmediality

- Transnationalism/globalization

- Urban communication

- Visual communication

Proposals must include the following components:

1. a written narrative (250 – 500 words);

2. a sample of the multi-modal work to be presented at the 
pre-conference /(include links and passwords to cloud-based files rather 
than large files themselves; there will be upload capacity limits)/; and

3. a 200-word bio for individual submitters or each member of a 
collaboration

If your project is website-based, your narrative might include a link to 
a staged or live site, or a collection of screen shots of work in 
progress. If your project is a live performance, consider a script 
excerpt or outline plus short audio sample. If your project uses audio 
and visual channels, consider linking a Vimeo clip or any 
internationally accessible platform. Overall, your narrative and 
accompanying material should communicate the form of the project and its 
capacity for exploring and understanding communicative practices, sites, 
participants, cultures, or techniques. Please ensure that your narrative 
together with your sample and bio are as expressive as possible of the 
project as a whole and your proposed presentation.

English should be used in submitting proposals, though projects need not 
be in English only. Project samples, however, should be translated or 
represented in English wherever possible (e.g., through subtitles or 
narratives on paper). Due to limited space and resources, we invite 
presenters to think small, low-tech, portable, and experimental in terms 
of space, equipment, and electrical needs. Presenters will be expected 
to provide their own laptop computers and connectors.

Please submit proposals via our event website: 
https://icamultimodalpreconf.fims.uwo.ca/ 
<https://icamultimodalpreconf.fims.uwo.ca/>

*Additional details:*

- The day will include 6 panels in three sessions (2 panels per session) 
and an invited closing plenary.

- We hope there will be at least a small amount of exhibition space on 
site for presenters, who may want to combine exhibition or performance 
with commentary and other forms during their panel slot. We will 
confirm. At this point we request that you propose submissions for the 
space and time (15-20 minutes) of a scheduled presentation.

- The program group will review submissions and assemble sessions, with 
consultation where we need additional expertise.

- Breakfast, lunch, and coffee breaks will be provided.

Communicating Multi-Modally is planned and organized by Lisa Henderson, 
Sandra Ristovska, Cherian George, and John L. Jackson, Jr. with 
sponsorship from the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western 
University, the School of Communication and Film at Hong Kong Baptist 
University, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of 
Pennsylvania, and the College of Media, Communication, and Information 
at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Thanks to our sponsors, there will be no registration fee, and a small 
amount of travel support will be available to graduate students, 
independent scholars and sessional instructors who are not otherwise 
supported. We will announce travel support in February 2022.

For any questions about the submission process, please contact a member 
of the programming group:

*Sandra Ristovska, *University of Colorado Boulder, 
(sandra.ristovska /at/ colorado.edu) <mailto:(sandra.ristovska /at/ colorado.edu)>

*Lisa Henderson, *Western University, (lhende44 /at/ uwo.ca) 
<mailto:(lhende44 /at/ uwo.ca)>

*John Jackson, *Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania, 
(jjackson /at/ upenn.edu) <mailto:(jjackson /at/ upenn.edu)>

*Cherian George, *Hong Kong Baptist University, (cherian /at/ hkbu.edu.hk) 
<mailto:(cherian /at/ hkbu.edu.hk)>

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