[Commlist] CfP "Out of the Comfort Zone: Challenges of Communication Studies in the Age of New Global Realities"

***Call for Conference Papers***

Out of the Comfort Zone: Challenges of Communication Studies in the Age 
of New Global Realities

Date & Place: Berlin, 16-17 November 2023
Deadline for submissions: 30 June 2023

No conference fees! Support for PhD students!

Link to the full call: 
https://www.dgpuk.de/sites/default/files/FG%20IIK%20Jahrestagung%202023_Call%20For%20Papers.pdf

The world is rapidly developing in a polycentric manner: Western 
dominance in globalization seems to be waning, new wars are challenging 
the world order, migration and mobility are transforming the cultural 
foundations of society, and modern media environments add to a seemingly 
fundamental structural change. Communication and media studies must face 
up to these complex developments. Yet, its approach to the world has so 
far been highly selective, which is problematic given the dynamic 
reconfigurations of global conditions. For example, Eastern Europe and 
the global South are on the agenda today; however, selective interest 
and oversights of previous research have undermined our understanding of 
these developments. Therefore, not without reason, communication studies 
are also struggling for their societal position. In light of the 
contemporary global challenges, we need to ask whether our discipline 
risks losing its chance to contribute to the communicative restructuring 
of the world if it clings to old spatial references or indulges in a 
one-sided media centrism. In which ways does communication research need 
to change in order to provide answers to global challenges? How can 
current research help to better integrate the "North" and "South"? Which 
kind of approaches need to be adapted to global realities, and how can 
"universalism" be achieved today? How can we identify, document and 
analyze new phenomena in a more international comparative way?

This conference is held by the international and intercultural 
communication section of the DGPuK and the DFG-network cosmopolitan 
communication studies, which engages in a "deep" internationalization of 
the discipline. Therefore, the conference will include different 
formats: 1) panels with conference papers/presentations, 2) a 
PhD-Workshop, and 3) public panel debates.

We will discuss alternative and new horizons in communication research 
in a global age by bringing together scholars as well as representatives 
of higher education policy and society. Central to our de-bates are the 
discipline's cosmopolitan contours and how they can be realized in 
research programs and higher education policies.

We are looking for contributions for the following key topics:

1) Global structural change of the communicative world? Theoretical 
challenges for media and communication studies

In this key topic, debates about alternative theoretical perspectives 
and approaches are in focus helping us to understand media and 
communication phenomena in a global perspective. Contributions can 
widely range from the transformation of "old" and "new" media and their 
systems to cur-rent developments in journalism, the public sphere, and 
sociological questions of worldwide communication cultures. However, 
contributions should offer considerations about new theoretical 
perspectives, which integrate new spatial references and innovatively 
address current social challenges. In-sights from debates of scientific 
communities of other countries are also welcome in this context.

2) New spaces, old methods? Methodological challenges of global 
communication research

This key topic addresses methodological challenges resulting from 
discussions and analysis of new phenomena and regional scopes. What 
challenges does academic work that moves "out of the com- fort zone" 
have to reflect on? Contributions can include aspects of language 
competence and translation, documentation of global digital realms, old 
and new limits in field research, or new forms of global comparative 
data and they should add to solution strategies. Methodological 
challenges can originate from international comparative research 
projects but can also address queries of the empirical validation of 
"multi/transcultural" or "post-migrant" communication in today's social 
order.

3) Practical implications

The third pillar of the conference will add a more practical implication 
to our discussions by going beyond academic contributions and focusing 
on the "usefulness" of cosmopolitan communication research. What 
political and social contexts can profit from the insights from this 
strain of research? What are fields of application and work areas, and 
how could institutional preparation and support look like? Hence, 
discussions on this key topic will not exclusively focus on research 
findings but on experiences and perspectives for education and 
sustainable effects of cosmopolitan communication research.

4) Submissions are also welcome for the PhD workshop

The workshop will provide PhD candidates with a forum to discuss their 
conceptualapproaches, research questions, and methodologies with the 
members of the network cosmopolitan communication studies. The members 
are experienced in international and transcultural research and will 
give feedback in a colloquium-like session. Submissions can include 
interdisciplinary junctions; how- ever, they should primarily be based 
in communication studies. The PhD projects should explicitly deal with 
global, international, or transcultural questions.

Submissions!

Please send your proposal for a 20-minute panel presentation or a 
contribution to the workshop for PhD students to the organizers 
((niik /at/ zedat.fu-berlin.de)) no later than ***June 30, 2023*** (using a 
single pdf file). The abstract should not exceed 7000 characters 
(including blank spaces) and should be assigned to one of the themes. 
Submissions for the conference should be ideally made in English.
Please add a title page to the abstract containing the name(s) and 
address(es) of the presenter(s) and the title of the presentation. All 
submissions for panel presentations will be anonymously peer-re- viewed 
according to the criteria of originality, relevance, theoretical 
foundation, appropriateness of the methods used, clarity of language, 
and reference to the conference theme. For the PhD workshop, the 
abstract should take the form of a short exposé including research 
question, theoretical and methodological approach and a short 
description of the current status quo. Submitters will be informed by 
***August 31, 2023*** about the outcome of the selection process.

Registration for the conference will be open by ***September 15, 
2023***. The conference will take place at the premises of Freie 
Universität in Berlin-Dahlem. Updated information about the conference 
are available under this Link: 
https://www.polsoz.fu-berlin.de/kommwiss/arbeitsstellen/internationale_kommunikation/Projekte-und-Publikationen/Kosmo/Kosmopolitische-KW1/tagung2023_kosmokw/index.html

Contact: (niik /at/ zedat.fu-berlin.de)


---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ commlist.org)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------