[Commlist] Call for Papers: 'cultural studies in media and communication in iberia: (un)defining the field'

Call for Papers: Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies

Special Issue: 'CULTURAL STUDIES IN MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION IN IBERIA: 
(UN)DEFINING THE FIELD'

Call for Articles Issue 18.2

30 January 2026: deadline for full proposals

View the full call here>>

https://www.intellectbooks.com/catalan-journal-of-communication-cultural-studies#call-for-papers 
<https://www.intellectbooks.com/catalan-journal-of-communication-cultural-studies#call-for-papers>

Guest Editors:

Dr Mercè Oliva Rota (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Ona Anglada Pujol (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Maria Castellví Lloveras (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Marc Hernández Ruiz (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Dr Isabel Villegas Simón (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Dr Núria Araüna Baró (Universitat Rovira i Virgili)

WHY THIS ISSUE NOW?

Cultural Studies as an organised academic discipline emerged in the 
post-World War II period as a project concerned with how power, ideology 
and inequality were embedded in everyday life and cultural practices. 
Initially rooted in the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural 
Studies, the field's influence expanded, adapting to other regions and 
intellectual traditions. In Iberia, research under the banner of 
Cultural Studies has grown over recent decades across departments and 
faculties, following the transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary and even 
antidisciplinary traditions initiated by its founders. Media and 
Communication Studies (MCS) departments have been a significant site of 
this proliferation, driven by the increasing relevance of audiovisual 
culture and the pervasive technologies that mediate everyday experience. 
Under the influence of MCS, Iberian scholars have increasingly turned 
their attention to how media, communication practices and audiences 
reflect, reproduce and defy prevailing power structures, hegemonic 
discourses and social categories.

This framework has facilitated an examination of prominent celebrities 
and public figures, including Belén Esteban and Rosalía, alongside 
content creators such as María Pombo and Ibai Llanos. Moreover, the 
analysis of consumption practices, audience interpretations and fandom 
communities has contributed to a more nuanced understanding of the 
creative agency of individuals and groups within the cultural circuit. 
These figures and practices, amplified by digital culture yet 
traditionally dismissed by highbrow cultural analysts and scholars, are 
now recognised as central to addressing contemporary debates on the 
interactions of gender, race and ethnicity with matters of class, power 
and taste.

This Special Issue, the first within MCS to focus on Cultural Studies in 
the Iberian context, seeks to examine how the scholarly analysis of 
topics historically dismissed as frivolous, trivial or lacking academic 
legitimacy may yield critical insights into popular culture and the 
current challenges of the academy across the Iberian Peninsula. In the 
present conjuncture – marked by ideological struggles, post-truth 
politics, the rise of popular authorial voices, deepening social 
inequalities, and ecological crisis – we believe in the possibilities 
that an intellectual and affective engagement with the tradition of 
Cultural Studies may offer. While research that potentially adheres to 
the area is both rich and extensive in the Iberian context, it remains 
largely fragmented, and there has been no established forum through 
which to reflect collectively on the implications of Cultural Studies or 
to foster a scholarly community dedicated to its development.

We hope that by bringing together various scholars working on Cultural 
Studies in MCS in Iberia, this special issue can help to build that 
community and to initiate a discussion about the contemporary boundaries 
and challenges of the field, aware of the potentialities of (un)defining 
a discipline, whilst cognisant of the dangers of exclusion that any 
demarcation entails.

TOPICS

We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions related to the 
following topics, although other proposals will also be considered:

  *

    Audiences

  *

    Popular culture

  *

    Cultural production and labour

  *

    Digital culture and automated cultural production

  *

    Research methods in Cultural Studies

  *

    Youth, consumption, and cultural practices

  *

    Age studies

  *

    Representations and identities

  *

    Celebrities and star studies

  *

    Fan studies

  *

    Game studies

  *

    Television studies

  *

    Discourses and social or media imaginaries

  *

    Gender and LGTBIQ+ studies

  *

    Cultural Studies and intersectionality (class, ethnicity, disability)

Research articles should be around 7,000 words in length, while 
Viewpoint articles should not exceed 3,000 words (including notes and 
references).

PUBLICATION SCHEDULE

30 January 2026: deadline for full articles

Full articles should be submitted on the Catalan Journal of 
Communication & Cultural Studiesweb platform 
<https://submission.pubkit.co/publisher/29/journal/379/login>by 30 
January 2026, following the Author Guidelines. 
<https://www.intellectbooks.com/asset/78992/1/CJCS_NFC.pdf>

15 May 2026: final decision letters

Fall 2026: issue published

All selected contributions will be subjected to double blind peer 
review, except for the Viewpoint articles, which will be evaluated by 
the Editors.

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