[Commlist] CFP Graduate Conference: Critical Themes in Media Studies - New Constructions

The Critical Themes in Media Studies student group cordially invites you to:


Critical Themes in Media Studies: New Constructions - Building for the 
Moment

A celebration conference for the 50th anniversary of The New School’s 
Media Studies Program


Conference Dates:

  *

    March 27th - 28th


Location: Parsons Media Studies:  6 East 16th Street, 5th Floor New 
York, NY 10003


Keynote Speaker: TBC


Proposals Due: December 15th, 2025


Submission Form: https://forms.gle/RKHKMLcdJfUtsQNf9 
<https://forms.gle/RKHKMLcdJfUtsQNf9>


Call For Proposals:


The Graduate Students of Parsons’ MA in Media Studies are excited to 
resurrect the New School’s annual Critical Themes in Media Studies 
conference. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Media Studies 
program, we invite scholars and practitioners to submit panels, paper 
discussions, and multidisciplinary presentations focusing on this year’s 
theme, New Constructions - Building for the Moment. While the word 
“constructions” can bring about feelings of limitations and boundaries, 
we want to challenge fellow students and thinkers to build new ways to 
think and move in opposition to them. We are seeking a broad spectrum of 
work from scholars and practitioners working in or at the intersection 
of media studies, communication, arts and design, and other related 
fields. We invite proposals including but not limited to papers, panel 
discussions, films, and workshops that engage with the New Constructions 
theme. Our proposal review group will reach out regarding the status of 
your proposal no later than January 12th, 2026.


Theme:


This year's theme, New Constructions - Building for The Moment, reflects 
the multiple and overlapping crises that structure both our 
sociopolitical environment *and* the state of media studies. The country 
is enduring a fascist regime built on the worst and most violent aspects 
of our national political culture. The already woefully inadequate 
structures of the liberal democratic state are crumbling, and those 
institutions that have worked to expand our democratic horizons of 
possibility and community power are under immense pressure. At the same 
time, the media environment continues to fragment and heel-turn to the 
hard right under the weight of corporate monopoly, disintegrating 
collective life, and the alien pressure of AI software warping indexical 
reality. Meanwhile, devices that we might use to document and contest 
these abuses are built by workers toiling under dehumanizing and 
dangerous conditions on neocolonially extracted and environmentally 
devastating materials. Every stream, Chatbot query, and social 
engagement feeds a digital media industry whose energy resource 
requirements are accelerating catastrophic climate change. Things are, 
in other words, grim.


But things have been grim before, and every crisis is also an 
opportunity. The project that faces us as scholars and practitioners is 
to build something new on the ashes of the old. To that end, the 
conference planning group offers the theme of New Constructions - 
Building for The Moment. We are curious about what emergent, 
undercommon, and radical possibilities can be collectively imagined, 
manufactured, programmed, accounted for and held to account in a moment 
when the new calls to us with fierce urgency.  This conference aims to 
take an interdisciplinary approach to think through the what, how, 
where, and when of the tools we build. This is vital in order to 
reconstruct our world that has been intentionally abstracted from its 
material conditions. We invite submissions to consider their new 
constructions in the spirit of Deleuze’s famous provocation from the 
dawn of the digital age: “There is no need to fear or hope, but only to 
look for new weapons.”


Submissions might address but are not limited to the following topics:


  *

    Community Organizing

  *

    Open Source Software

  *

    Technical support for depreciated software

  *

    Zine production

  *

    NYC Mesh Internet Project

  *

    Creating New Pedagogy, how do we teach in a moment of crisis?

  *

    Social and Digital Media Studies, how do we build online communities
    that are focused on actual, tangible change?

  *

    Television and Film, what does representation mean in this era?

  *

    Building Networks, both in-person and online

  *

    Media Ecologies, how do we learn to function alongside the planet as
    opposed to against it?

  *

    Media Materialities and Infrastructures

  *

    Media Archeology, what has led us here and how might these older
    technologies or mediate pieces inform the way to move forward?

  *

    Forms of Digital Labor Unrest and Resistance


FAQ:


  *

    How Do I Apply?

      o

        Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words with a clear
        project title

      o

        If submitting as an individual project, please complete the full
        form

      o

        If submitting a pre-constituted panel or group submission,
        please submit individually with the same project name and
        description including the topic, names and focus of all
        panelists, and any logistical support needed.

      o

        If submitting art, screenings, etc. please specify space,
        technical, and any other needs.

      o

        Submit to the form here: https://forms.gle/RKHKMLcdJfUtsQNf9
        <https://forms.gle/RKHKMLcdJfUtsQNf9>

  *

    Who is eligible?

      o

        Anyone with a thematically relevant submission, with priority
        given to junior & senior undergraduate, Master’s, and PhD. 
students.

  *

    What mediums do you accept?

      o

        Papers, Panel Discussions, Workshops, and Films

  *

    Will the conference be virtual or in-person?

      o

        The conference will be in-person.

  *

    Is travel support available?

      o

        TBC

  *

    Additional Questions and accommodation requests? Please contact:
    (CriticalThemes /at/ newschool.edu) <mailto:(CriticalThemes /at/ newschool.edu)>


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