[Commlist] CfP: What Matters? The Politics of Narrating War

The /Media, War & Conflict/ journal is co-hosting thisworkshop on 17 May 
2024 at University of Massachusetts Lowell. The purpose is to explore 
what ontological claims get made during or about war and conflict, and 
the consequences of that.

Please circulate this call for papers (also available at 
https://www.newpolcom.rhul.ac.uk/npcu-blog/2023/9/26/call-for-papers-what-matters-the-politics-of-narrating-war 
<https://www.newpolcom.rhul.ac.uk/npcu-blog/2023/9/26/call-for-papers-what-matters-the-politics-of-narrating-war>) 
and contact the organisers (below) if you’re interested in contributing.

*What Matters? The Politics of Narrating War *

University of Massachusetts Lowell, 17 May 2024

This workshop brings scholars together to investigate how governments 
generate public support for foreign policy in times of war. We ask 
scholars to consider a global politics of pluralist concepts and 
experiences of history, entanglement, identity and other processes, and 
what contestation this generates about, ultimately, what matters. By 
this we mean the moral and political imperatives but also, critically, 
the philosophical conceptions people hold about what “stuff” in the 
world must be considered to make sense of a war, and what can be ignored.

It begins with the premise that narrations of conflict are not merely 
representations /of/ the conflict itself, but also /ontologically 
productive/. Political leaders and media elites’ narratives create for 
their audiences novel scientific ontologies—catalogues of substances and 
processes involved in the situation under investigation. These 
scientific ontologies serve as mental maps and, in turn, they promote 
strategic purposes, encouraging certain policy responses and 
discouraging others. How do political and media actors create such maps 
for audiences, and does this shape how audiences think of those 
conflicts and their state’s foreign policies? How do citizens themselves 
use digital media to piece together what is meaningful about a war – 
what counts? Following Lerner and O’Loughlin’s recent article 
<https://academic.oup.com/isq/article/67/3/sqad058/7221444>in 
/International Studies Quarterly/, we refer to these narratives as 
strategic ontologies. As they are continually narrated, strategic 
ontologies’ innovations can shape political imaginaries and policy 
preferences, often enduring beyond the context in which they are 
originally formulated.

Inspired by this framework, this workshop welcomes both theoretical and 
empirical contributions relating to the politics of narrating war. How 
do political and media elites and all other actors – NGOs, citizens, 
legal bodies, and so on – narrate what matters in a conflict? What 
impacts do these mental maps or ‘strategic ontologies’ have? Further, 
what ethical issues are at stake in choosing between alternative 
narratives of conflict? What do differing narratives highlight and occlude?

The workshop is jointly sponsored by the University of Massachusetts at 
Lowell, Queen’s University Belfast because of its longstanding research 
and exchange partnerships with US universities, and the journal /Media, 
War, and Conflict/, which has published over a decade of research on the 
role of war narratives in both contemporary and historical cases. The 
goals will be to foster dialogue about the politics of narrating war, as 
well as to bring together potential contributions for a special issue.

Those interested should submit their paper’s *title and abstract *(<*250 
words), *as well as a *short bio* (<*50 word*s) to the three convenors 
of the workshop (contact details listed below). Funds are available to 
cover some of the costs of transport and lodging for selected workshop 
participants. Please indicate whether you wish to be considered for 
funding of those costs.

*Deadline: 15 November 2023 *

Adam B. Lerner
Associate Professor of Political Science, Director of the Bachelor of 
Liberal Arts
University of Massachusetts at Lowell
(adam_lerner /at/ uml.edu) <mailto:(adam_lerner /at/ uml.edu)>

Alister Miskimmon
Professor, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, 
Queen’s University, Belfast
(A.Miskimmon /at/ qub.ac.uk) <mailto:(A.Miskimmon /at/ qub.ac.uk)>

Ben O’Loughlin
Professor of Politics and International Relations, Director of the New 
Political Communication Unit, Royal Holloway, University of London
(Ben.Oloughlin /at/ rhul.ac.uk) <mailto:(Ben.Oloughlin /at/ rhul.ac.uk)>


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