[Commlist] ICA Pre-conference Call for Submissions: Scholars in Exile/Scholarship on the Edges: The Place of Critical Race Studies in Media, Communication, and Political Culture

*International Communication Association 2022 Pre-conference Call for 
Submissions *

/Deadline: Tuesday, February 15, 2022 /

*_Scholars in Exile/Scholarship on the Edges: _*

*_The Place of Critical Race Studies in Media, Communication, and 
Political Culture _*

*_
_*

*Thursday, May 26, 2022 *

*Paris, France *

*/_Description _/*

ICA 2022’s location in Paris is a significant one for critical race 
scholars. Paris was a key site for the Négritude movement, and became a 
city of exile for influential Black scholars and artists including James 
Baldwin, Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet and Richard Wright. Building on 
the 2019 #CommunicationSoWhite ICA preconference, the theme of this 
event centers on exile and scholarship on the edges. It considers what 
it means to experience exile in our own fields and disciplines, to be 
pushed out, excluded, living outside the boundaries. It also addresses 
ways to tackle the pain of exile, or to understand exile as replenishing 
and restorative.

This preconference has two purposes:

– It follows up critical conversations around #CommunicationSoWhite, in 
terms of both Chakravartty et al.’s (2018) /Journal of Communication/ 
article and the 2019 ICA pre-conference (organized by Eve Ng, Khadijah 
Costley White, Alfred Martin Jr., and Anamik Saha). Since then, there 
has been a greater recognition amongst our departments, associations, 
and institutions about the historical marginalization of racialized folk 
in university culture, followed by some increased investment in 
equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives. As such, the first aim of 
the preconference is to *reflect upon* the *new forms of equality, 
diversity and inclusion* that have been implemented in media and 
communication since the #CommunicationSoWhite moment.

– The second aim is to extend the discussion beyond academia, and 
*consider* the *recent broader political attacks on critical race 
scholarship*. The past year has seen the disturbing trend of populist 
right-wing political forces across Europe and the US painting critical 
race theory (whatever they understand it to be) as a threat to liberal 
democracy. This has also been a pronounced trend in France, which finds 
political leaders attacking such critical scholarship as fundamentally 
at odds with French liberal ideals. As such, the preconference will 
provide a space for delegates to reflect upon these troubling new 
political currents and conceptualize our responses to it as academics 
and activists. We will explore these complex conditions of intellectual 
and political contestation through the theme of ‘exile’; in terms of 
what it means to be forced into exile, in our disciplines, in our 
institutions, in national life, but also in terms of choosing to go into 
exile, as a form of refusal of and resistance to conditions in former 
birthplace or intellectual homes.

Overall, this preconference will explore the marginalization and 
alienation of critical race scholarship in media and communication and 
political discourse more generally, and responses thereof (both in 
regards to interventions and survival). We aim to build conversations 
between academics and scholars from different national contexts, since 
the challenges and attacks experienced are not unique to one particular 
region.

*/_Submissions _/*

We anticipate many submissions will center on the U.S. and other Western 
contexts; we also hope the pre-conference will provide a discussion that 
spans both global North and South, and we *encourage participation by 
submitters from outside North America and the U.K*.

Please submit either:

(1) An *abstract of 500-1,000 words*, including notes and references.We 
encourage different types of submissions including position papers, case 
studies, and more conventional research papers that tackle any issue 
relating to the preconference themes.Please include your name, 
affiliation, and contact information (submission does not need to be 
anonymous).

(2) A *panel proposal*. Panels should include a minimum of four 
participants. We will accept panels following a traditional format where 
presenters each speak for 10-15 minutes before a Q-and-A period.We also 
encourage alternative panel format, such as high-density panels (six or 
more participants who each speak for 6 minutes or less), or panels where 
panelists circulate their papers to each other ahead of time to generate 
a more engaged discussion.Provide a *400-word rationale* describing the 
panel overall, a *200-word abstract for each participant’s 
contribution*, and a list of participants’ names, affiliations, and 
contact information.

_Exclusions_: Submissions should not consist primarily of previously 
published or in-press scholarship.

_Deadline_:

Please submit by *Tuesday, February 15, 2022, 16:00 UTC*, by emailing 
BOTH Anamik Saha

at (a.saha /at/ gold.ac.uk) and Khadijah Costley White at 
(klw147 /at/ comminfo.rutgers.edu).

*/_Travel grants _/*

Depending on funding availability, we may have the ability to offer one 
or two modest travel grants (maximum $400).If you are a *graduate 
student* and/or a *scholar resident in a non-Tier A country* (see 
https://www.icahdq.org/page/tiers for a list), please note this status 
in your submission and indicate that you would like to be considered for 
a travel grant.

*/_
_/*

*/_Date and Location _/*

The pre-conference is currently being planned as an in-person event for 
Thursday, May 26, 2022, in Paris, France (specific location to be 
announced – will be either at the conference hotel or a short distance 
away).Should Covid-19 conditions mean that in-person events are 
unadvisable or impossible, the event will be held virtually.

*/_Registration _/*

Early registration fee, by March 31: $US40

Regular registration fee: US$60

Lunch will be included for all registered participants.

Note that if the conference becomes virtual, registration fees will be 
adjusted down.

*/_Organizers _/*

Anamik Saha

Department of Media, Communication and Cultural Studies

Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

/(a.saha /at/ gold.ac.uk) /

Khadijah Costley White

School of Communication and Information

Rutgers University, USA

/(klw147 /at/ comminfo.rutgers.edu) /

Eve Ng

School of Media Arts and Studies, WGSS Program

Ohio University, USA

/(evecng /at/ hotmail.com) /

Simon Dawes

l’Institut d’études culturelles et internationales (IECI)

Université de Versailles, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France

/(simondawes0 /at/ gmail.com) /

*/_Co-Sponsors _/*

**

ICA IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) Committee

ICA Ethnicity and Race in Communication division


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