[Commlist] CFP: ECREA Communication History Section “War, Communication, and Media Resilience in Europe” Workshop

Call for papers

ECREA Communication History Section Workshop 2023

“War, Communication, and Media Resilience in Europe”

Lund University, Sweden, 23–25 August, 2023

War is disruptive. It breaks trajectories of progress. It divides real 
and imagined communities. In addition to the tragic loss of lives and 
devastation of cities, its harmful effects on long established 
communication cultures, networks and infrastructures are fundamental. 
The disturbing instability of the world order caused by the escalating 
Russian aggression in Ukraine has led to deep concerns not only about 
the war itself. It has also highlighted the vulnerability of our global 
communication infrastructure, the ways to resist information warfare and 
propaganda, and the need to sustain an ethical media reporting in a 
deeply polarized world.

Dating back to 1970s discussions within fields such as psychology, 
pedagogy, and human ecology, the concept of /resilience/ has drawn 
attention to how humans mentally cope with and learn from disrupting 
changes in the complex systems in which they are embedded. In recent 
decades, the concept has been tried out in much broader scholarly 
contexts, for example research on public health or social innovation, 
critical infrastructure studies, and disaster studies. Although studies 
within applied communication research and crisis communication may 
sometimes thematize resilience, it can be noted that in media studies 
more generally, the concept is yet to be thoroughly theorized and 
systematically discussed. And particularly the interplay between 
resilience and /resistance/ needs further exploration, not least to 
underscore agency and to counter the conservative tendency built into 
the concept of resilience.

Alongside this lacuna within media studies, historical studies on 
resilience are also surprisingly rare. Most often, it is framed as a 
contemporary phenomenon, ideal, and solution. This is remarkable since 
the term resilience itself implies key issues of change, transformation, 
adaptability, adjustment, and temporality – and sometimes also the 
absence of change. By critically investigating processes of resilience 
and resistance in wartime, media and communication historians can offer 
deep insights into everything from sustainable communication 
technologies and infrastructures to cultural memory work and collective 
trauma. Through concepts such as residual media or remediation, 
historians can shed light on processes of media convergence and 
divergence in wars of the past, but also old media persistence, 
resistance, or resilience in new wars.

The aim of the 2023 ECREA Communication History workshop is to invite a 
scholarly discussion on war and media resilience in terms of, first, the 
ability of /media and communication agents, cultures, and institutions/ 
to act in, resist and recover from disturbances caused by war and armed 
conflicts. Second, it engages with media technologies and materialities, 
not least in terms of /the stability or instability of analogue or 
digital communication infrastructures/. And third, the concept of media 
resilience raises issues of /media ethics, sustainable war reporting and 
photojournalism/, and the spectacles of suffering. Media in contemporary 
armed conflicts need to be put in context and analyzed alongside their 
historical precedents. Historical perspectives are necessary since media 
resilience addresses issues of media change and transformation, the 
ability of media technologies and media agents to absorb change or the 
stubborn persistence – or even comeback – of old media in disruptive times.

The ECREA Communication History Section welcomes contributions from all 
scholars in different fields who are interested in the workshop theme. 
Topics include, but may not be limited to, historically informed media 
perspectives of the following:

__

  * The mediatization of war and armed conflict
  * Conflicts and/as media events
  * Resilient and ethically sustainable war reporting, including censorship
  * Journalism, diplomacy, and negotiation
  * Wartime resistance and underground media
  * Propaganda and psychological defence
  * Old cables in new wars – vulnerable communication infrastructures
  * Information warfare and resistance, cyber-crimes, and cyber security
  * Gendered approaches of media and communication during wars
  * Preserving audiovisual or digital cultural heritage in times of war
  * Residual media and old media persistence in contemporary wars
  * Trauma, memory, and war commemoration

The workshop will begin late afternoon on the 23 and end at lunchtime on 
the 25 August. The organizing committee invites scholars to submit 
extended abstracts (500 words) and a short bio (50 words) here: 
https://forms.gle/oo3EMoWTVhBEV11DA 
<https://forms.gle/oo3EMoWTVhBEV11DA>. The deadline for submission is 1 
February 2023.

All abstract proposals will be subjected to peer-review. Participants 
will be notified of acceptance by end February. Both members and 
non-members of ECREA are welcome to submit proposals. Proposals from PhD 
students and early career researchers are especially encouraged. A fee 
of 150€ for seniors and 100€ for young scholars will be required. 
Authors of accepted abstracts will receive information and instructions 
regarding payment and formal registration.

The conference is organised by the ECREA Communication History Section 
and the Section for Media History at the Department of Communication and 
Media at Lund University in collaboration with The Centre for European 
Studies at Lund University. Local organisers are Allan Burnett, Marie 
Cronqvist, Rosanna Farbøl, and Martin Lundqvist.

More information and updates on the COHECREA homepage: 
https://ecreahistorysection.com/2022/12/09/ecrea-communication-history-workshop-2023-cfp-on-war-communication-and-media-resilience-in-europe-lund-university-sweden-23-25-august-2023/ 




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