Call for Papers - Borders and Boundaries: Territories, Technologies, Transgressions; The MeCCSA PGN conference 2017*

Venue: Goldsmiths College, London
Date: 26-27 June, 2017
Deadline for submissions: 21 March, 2017

Confirmed keynotes speakers: Prof Natalie Fenton (Goldsmiths, MeCCSA chair), Prof Jeremy Gilbert (University of East London), Prof Susan Clayton (Goldsmiths), Dr Myria Georgiou (LSE)

*Travel grants available - all details at meccsapgn2017.com*
_

Our world is in the grip of a series of interrelated crises, many of which involve the creation, collapse and reconstitution of borders and boundaries – territorial (the “refugee crisis”, new forms of extractive neo-colonialism), socio-spatial (urban restructuring, segregation and displacement,) political (Brexit, Trump, the rise of the far-right globally) and personal (self-tracking, automated surveillance and digital labour). Even as some borders appear weakened due to technological change and the increased fluidity of social identities, new boundaries around national identity and ethnicity are erected in their place. The fracturing of the neoliberal consensus since 2008 has challenged conceptual boundaries relating to the economy, society and the role of the state, but no coherent alternative set of ideas has yet become apparent, let alone dominant. In Gramsci’s words, “the old is dying and the new cannot be born.”

Borders and Boundaries: Territories, Technologies, Transgressions locates itself in this historical moment, seeking to explore the forces of deterritorialization and reterritorialization active in this conjuncture. This conference – organised by postgraduate students from the London School of Economics and Political Science and Goldsmiths College – seeks to disrupt and destabilise boundaries while creating productive border­-zones where cultures and disciplines can interact. We invite academics, students, activists, artists and other interested people to submit proposals on a wide variety of themes related to the conference title including, but not limited to:

- Ideologies and hegemonies: techniques and practices of power (including: development and reproduction of dominant media narratives; statecraft; othering and erection of conceptual borders; participation as collusion and co-optation)
- Oppositional communicative practices: participation, protest and rebellion: (including: established and alternative forms of participation; the capacity of technologies to break boundaries and challenge hierarchies; social movement and protest politics)
- Alternative and community media practices: transgressions and challenges: (including: media and communicative practices of oppressed and marginalised groups; creation, disruption, rearticulation and reconstitution of personal and collective identities)
- Altered media landscapes: political economies and technological change (including: the impact of new media on hierarchies and modalities of media power; changing political economies of data, digital infrastructure and mass media)
- The politics of the sensory: modes and modalities of communication (including; sensory technologies and methodologies; the internet and visual communication; transgressive and oppositional practice in arts; non-linguistic communication in mass media)

*How to submit?*

Please submit your abstract by filling in the form at meccsapgn2017.com/submissions by 21 March, 2017. If for any reason you are unable to fill in the online form, please contact us at [log in to unmask] We will accept submissions in the following formats:

- Individual papers: Please submit a 300 words abstract describing your suggested paper. Make sure that your abstract clearly engages with the conference theme.
- Panels: Please outline your suggested panel in 900 words. Panels should include 3 projects. Please describe how the panel engages with the conference theme.
- Audio-visual works: Please submit a 300 words abstract describing your work and how it engages with the theme of the conference. In addition, please provide technical details of your project (length etc.) as well as full details of the kind of equipment that would be necessary to display your work.
- Posters: Please submit a 300 words abstract describing your project. In addition, please include the size of your poster and any additional requirements for displaying it, if there are any.
- Other: Please submit a 500 words abstract describing your project. Please include a description of the format you’re suggesting and why and how it engages with the conference theme. In addition, please include any technical details that are required for the execution of your specific format (time frame, space, special equipment etc.)

If you have any question regarding the submission guidelines, please feel free to contact us: [log in to unmask]

--------------------------------------------------------
MeCCSA mailing list
--------------------------------------------------------
To manage your subscription or unsubscribe from the MECCSA list, please visit:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=MECCSA&A=1
-------------------------------------------------------
MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education.

This mailing list is a free service and is not restricted to members. It is an unmoderated list and content reflect the views of those who post to the list and not of MeCCSA as an organisation.

MeCCSA recommends that the list be used only for posting of information (for example about events, publications, conferences, lectures) of interest to members or to promote discussion of current issues of wide general interest in the field. Posts to the MeCCSA mailing list are public, indexed by Google, and can be accessed from the JISCMail website (http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/meccsa.html).

Any messages posted to the list are subject to the JISCMail acceptable use policy, which states that users should avoid “engaging in unreasonable behaviour, or disrupting the general flow of discussion on a list.”

For further information, please visit: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/
--------------------------------------------------------