[Commlist] CFP Critical Studies in Television Conference 2026

CFP: Critical Studies in Television Conference 2026
Online only

Crisis
Slow conference: 6-17 July 2026
This slow conference will run over two weeks online to avoid Teams 
fatigue and allow people to schedule the conference around other 
commitments.
We invite papers on all aspects connected to television, but this year 
we want to pay particular attention to the feeling of *crisis* that 
envelops us and television in a myriad of ways. Television, in the UK at 
least, was shut down during one large crisis of the last century – 
namely during the Second World War, and television black outs were 
sometimes used strategically elsewhere at other moments of crisis. But 
television is also there to witness in moments of crisis, perhaps most 
iconically during the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York 
on 11 September 2001. And, crucially, television provides us with the 
opportunities to work through the ‘structure of feeling’ (Williams, 
1973) of crisis that we may experience at any time – and perhaps 
particularly pertinently at the moment. Interestingly, this is also a 
moment of crisis for television itself: as television is re-imagined for 
online delivery, we are moving away from PSB to PSM, funding structures 
are questioned and re-conceptualised, institutions are directly under 
attack by politicians and self-censorship is widespread. And of course 
we should not forget to mention the downturn in production, affecting 
confidence in the industries, and the continued loss of (national) mass 
audiences for all but exceptional television or television events.
We therefore invite papers on topics such as, /but not limited to/:

  * The representation of crises on television (e.g. economic, climate-
    or conflict-related)
  * The role of television to bring to light crises
  * How television responds to a moment of crisis
  * The role of television in working through experiences of crisis
    (e.g. Covid, war, etc.)
  * The cultural significance of television and the structure of feeling
    of crisis
  * What happens to television during a crisis
  * Television as in crisis
  * Television industries/workers in crisis
  * The ethics of researching people in crisis, particularly precarious
    workers
  * The study of television (as) in crisis
  * The crisis of/in audiences
  * And many more

Please also do also consider submitting on other aspects of television.
Interdisciplinary approaches, screenings, alternative forms of 
presentation, workshops, pre-constituted panels and any other form of 
research dissemination are all welcome.
Please submit your abstract by *19 December 2025*. Abstracts for 
individual presentations/screenings/workshops etc. should be ca 350 
words long. For roundtables or pre-constituted panels, please submit a 
shorter abstract (ca 250 words) for the roundtable/panel overall, and 
individual abstracts per contribution.
To submit your proposal please visit the conference website: _Critical 
Studies in Television Conference 2026 - Television Studies Research 
Group 
<https://sites.edgehill.ac.uk/tvresearchgroup/critical-studies-in-television-conference-2026/>_

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