[Commlist] CFP : Summer School - Research on Digital, Media and Information Literacy (ReDMIL 2024)

Deadline Extension CFP : Summer School - Research on Digital, Media and 
Information Literacy (ReDMIL 2024)

CALL FOR PARTICIPATIONS

Summer School - Research on Digital, Media and Information Literacy
(ReDMIL 2024) “From mass media to generative AI: Charting the
(dis)continuities in literacies”

9-12th September 2024

Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) – Université catholique de Louvain

Deadline Extension : June 14th 2024

Contact : mailto:(info-redmil /at/ uclouvain.be) <mailto:(info-redmil /at/ uclouvain.be)>
Website : https://sites.uclouvain.be/redmil/ 
<https://sites.uclouvain.be/redmil/>

CONTEXT

The rise of new technologies is shaking up the way people interact with
digital media and information. The recent and widespread release of
artificial intelligence (AI) tools and applications sparked a lot of
questions about their impact on users and the societies in which they
live. Such potential changes need to be put into a historical
perspective: with each technological innovation came hopes and fears
related to their putative effects on society, often through the lens of
techno-determinism. From mass media to the information age, to digital
transmedia, to generative AI, the world contemplated the dawn of the
information society and the democratization of access to knowledge, the
advent of citizen participation for all, or the potential of persistent
virtual worlds (the “metaverse”), transhumanism and augmented reality.
At the same time, as many concerns have grown across social discourses
on media, information, and technology: from screen passivity and
addictions to media violence and pornography, from online sexual
predators and cyberbullying to fake news and conspiracy theories, from
infobesity to generalized data surveillance and the collapse of our
democratic societies in the post-truth era, etc.


At each of these stages, individuals and social groups have developed
various forms of literacies to thrive in a world populated with these
technologies and to mitigate their potential deleterious effects. With
every significant technological innovation, a need to reassess the role
of media / information / digital literacies arises and, with it, the
temptation to reinvent them to "keep pace" with evolving technologies.
With such reinvention comes the risk of changing the target, scattering
the benefits of educational initiatives, and losing sight of the whole
picture of what (new) literacies are and what they support.

CHARTING THE (DIS)CONTINUITIES IN LITERACIES

The theme for this year’s edition of the ReDMIL summer school is:
“Charting the (dis)continuities in literacies”. We wish to inject a
historical dimension into our examination of research in media /
information / digital literacy and devote some of our attention to the
changes in media, media practices, audiences and user communities, but
also in imaginaries and narratives that embody the hopes and fears we
place in media and information technology. We want to ask what these
changes force us to reconsider in research on media / information /
digital literacy, how they are accompanied by changes in the way we
theorize media, information, technology and literacies, the way we
conceive our research methods, our epistemologies, and our axiological
positions. In reflecting on these developments, we are more attentive to
continuities than to chiasms and so-called paradigm shifts.

Our summer school intends to bring together young researchers who are
challenged by these issues with the objective of considering these
questions in a long-term perspective. • How can research account for
generational changes in people’s relationship to media without getting
muddled up in the use of pseudo-concepts (e.g. the myth of the “digital
native”)?
• How are age-old conceptual debates (protectionism vs. empowerment,
cognitive vs. socio-cultural approaches to literacies, the
complementarity of critical thinking and participation, …) challenged or
reinvigorated by the evolution of digital media practices?
• How do our methods evolve to integrate the aspiration for more
inclusiveness, for an increased attention to marginalized or
under-represented user communities, or for the decolonization of the media?
• What epistemologies can we devise when agentivity and knowledge may no
longer be the prerogative of the human being alone?
• What kind of new avenues for research do technical innovations open? •
What are the disciplinary convergences that these evolutions call for?
How can interdisciplinarity be channeled to strengthen research on new
literacies?



SCOPE AND GOAL OF REDMIL 2024 LITERACY DOCTORAL SUMMER SCHOOL

In this context, the ReDMIL 2024 doctoral summer school aims at
contributing to the convergence between digital, media and information
literacy research by bringing together researchers from all three
communities, to foster the scientific debate and explore connections
between them.  The summer school is an international training program
that will alternate between framing presentations by senior researchers
and the in-depth discussion of emerging research by participating PhD
students.


Five keynotes speakers have confirmed their participation to the 2024
edition:
• Gianna Cappello, University of Palermo (Italy)
• Normand Landry, Université TELUQ (Canada),
• Julian Sefton-Green, Deakin University (Australia),
• Leo Van Audenhove, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium),
• Emily Vraga, University of Minnesota (USA).


The summer school is organized on September 9th-12th, 2024 by the Groupe
de Recherche en Médiation des Savoirs (Knowledge Mediation Research
Group) at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, in partnership
with the Canada Research Chair in Media Education and Human Rights
(Université TELUQ).


The goal of this summer school is to allow PhD students engaged in the
field of digital literacy, media literacy or information literacy:  • to
benefit from the expertise of renowned researchers in their field,
though theoretical and methodological presentations;  • to present their
own research to an audience composed of these experts, as well as other
PhD students and researchers;  • to work collectively to the enhancement
of their research work with other participants;  • to improve their
knowledge of the research undertaken by their peers.


The Summer School will start with a poster session (Sept. 9th), followed
by six half-day workshops (Sept. 10th-12th) on the following topics:

• theoretical frameworks in the study of digital, media and information
literacies;

• epistemological issues in new literacies research;

•methods for observing, documenting, and assessing literacies and their
associated educational practices and policies;

• designing research with social relevance and valorizing research 
results in society.

Each half-day workshop will open with one plenary talk by renowned
experts, followed by a session focused on the research work of the
participating PhD students, exploring them from the perspectives
developed in the plenary talks. In addition to presenting an outline of
their work at the opening poster session, each participating PhD student
will have the opportunity to present their work in up to two sessions,
on two different topics. In relation to the theme of the 2024’s edition
“From mass media to generative AI: Charting the (dis)continuities in
literacies“, participants will be invited to question the axiological
positions that underly their research.


The Summer School will also allow for numerous informal interactions
(including a networking dinner) between experts, researchers, and PhD
students.  Participation and presentation from PhD students at the
ReDMIL Summer School will be rewarded by 5 ECTS (or equivalent) for
their doctoral training.

SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS

The summer school is targeted at PhD students who develop their research
in the following areas:  • the study of new literacies: observing,
documenting and/or assessing new literacies;  • the study of educational
initiatives in media literacy, information literacy or digital literacy
practiced by a variety of actors (teachers and educators, employers,
associations, parents, media and tech companies, …);  • the study of
public policies in the fields of digital, media and information
literacies at any geographical level;  • or any other topic related to
digital literacy, media literacy, or information literacy.
PhD students wishing to present and discuss their doctoral research at
the summer school are invited to submit an application, including the
following:  • A brief curriculum vitae (one to two pages);  • A
presentation of their doctoral research in a maximum of 1500 words
(references not included), including the following four sections:  •
Problem or societal issue that their thesis intends to answer;  •
Research question, hypotheses (in the case of a hypothetico-deductive
approach) and theoretical framework of their thesis;  • Data collection
and analysis method;  • Expected results: the usefulness of their
research, from an academic and/or societal point of view (e.g. for the
world of education, for the political world, for the media industry).
• An abstract of the presentation of their doctoral research in a
maximum of 300 words.
Applications must be sent in the form of a single file (word or pdf)
including CV and presentation to this address
mailto:(info-redmil /at/ uclouvain.be) <mailto:(info-redmil /at/ uclouvain.be)> by 
June 14th, 2024 at the latest.
Candidates will be personally notified of the acceptance of their
participation by the end of June.



REGISTRATION

Students whose application has been accepted and researchers (whether
doctoral or not) wishing to attend the summer school without presenting
their work will have to pay a participation fee of 120€ to partially
cover the organizing costs of the events.  The participation fee
includes lunches, coffee breaks, and the mid-summer school dinner.
Participants will have to cover their own travel and accommodation
costs. For the participants affiliated with institutions based in the
European Union, this summer school should fall withing the conditions to
obtain an ERASMUS+ travel funding. Participants are invited to get in
touch with the ERAMUS+ coordinator of their home institution.  Doctoral
students for whom these costs would be an obstacle to participation can
contact the organization directly to try to find a solution.

---------------
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
---------------