[Commlist] CFP: Conference on "Podcasting and the Promise of Disruption"

*CFP for Podcasting Conference*
*"Cries and Whispers: Podcasting and the Promise of Disruption"*
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, Florida
February 20-21, 2026

In the wake of what commentators called “the first influencer election” 
and the midst of what others term the first “podcasting presidency,” 
this conference takes stock of this millennial media format. How should 
we define podcasting, situate it in media and technological history, and 
assess its claim to be “new” media?  For Martin Spinelli and Lance Dann, 
podcasting represents a “transitional moment in the history of audio 
making and listening. It is a moment in which marginal, DIY…practices 
burst into…popular consciousness and are taken seriously as more than 
just a subset of an older medium.” The claim echoes understandings of 
digital media more broadly as a disruptive and democratizing form that 
upends tradition and hierarchies of power.  But, is it in fact a more 
slippery phenomenon, a do-it-yourself (DIY) medium that slides between 
mainstream and underground, algorithmically propelled across a host of 
social media sites?

This two-day conference will be hosted by the School of Communication 
and Multimedia Studies at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, 
Florida on February 20-21. It aims to platform new research on 
podcasting that undercuts the countercultural and upstart connotations 
of DIY and other spreadable practices. We encourage academics and 
practitioners alike to submit proposals.

Our featured Keynote speaker will be Professor Jeremy Morris (University 
of Wisconsin), author of /Podcasting/ (Polity, 2024) and /Selling 
Digital Music, Formatting Culture/ (California, 2015), and co-editor of 
/Saving New Sounds: Podcast Preservation and Historiography/ (with Eric 
Hoyt, 2021) and /Appified: Culture in the Age of Apps/ (with Sarah 
Murray, 2018).

Topics we expect will be covered include (but are not limited to):

  * Podcasting and Seriality
  * Podcasts as Subculture
  * Podcasts as Media Paratexts
  * Podcasting in the Global South
  * Podcasting and Social Movements for Racial Equality
  * Found Sound: Podcasting and Archives
  * Podcasting Genres, such as “True Crime”
  * Historiography: History through Podcasting
  * Ethnographic Sounds: Community Podcasting
  * Podcasting and Gender
  * Transmediality: Podcast/Vodcast
  * Podcasting and Pandemic Media

*Abstracts of no more than 300 words with a short bio are due by October 
15th. The submission portal is accessible **_HERE 
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf84vGhptcxTylg_ohAhoIE4jguvzm54aWGwF0hNwi86jnXbA/viewform>_**. 


For more info, please check out our website: 
_https://criesandwhispers2026.wordpress.com/ 
<https://criesandwhispers2026.wordpress.com/>_
Please direct any questions to the organizers: Gerald Sim ((gsim /at/ fau.edu)) 
and Stephen Charbonneau ((scharbo1 /at/ fau.edu)).


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