IAMCR 2015: Popular Culture Working Group - CfP - Deadline 9 February

The Popular Culture Working Group invites papers and panel proposal for submission for the IAMCR 2015 Conference in Montreal, Canada (12th to16th July 2015).

Conference theme: “Hegemony or Resistance? The Ambiguous Power of Communication”

See the conference key dates and deadlines: http://iamcr.org/congress/montreal2015-keydates

See all Calls for Papers for IAMCR 2015: http://iamcr.org/congress/montreal2015-cfp

Visit the conference website: http://congresiamcr.uqam.ca

The 2015 IAMCR conference theme is focussed on the role of communications in contemporary cultural and political struggles. This theme is particularly salient in the area of popular culture, which has a rich history of evaluating the nature of the popular as a site of struggle and contestation over ideology, meaning and political struggles.

In line with the overall conference theme the Popular Culture Working Group invites presentations and papers that explore the power of media communications in framing and constructing a mediated discourse of the popular and how this relates to struggles within the public, proletarian and intimate public spheres. Submissions on any topic relevant to the theme will be considered.

The following broad topics are offered as an indication:

Audience activity theories and ideology
Gender and performance – new modes of representation e.g. Raunch culture and the new feminism
The semiotics of media texts and ideological negotiation and contestation
Celebrity and social inequality
Sexuality and Queer theory media analysis
Subcultures and media consumption: revisiting Fashion, taste cultures and style
Media and the cultural production of aesthetic value and discrimination
The New Racism
Social media and popular movements
Post Hollywood cinematic television production
Reality Television and Post-documentary forms
Communicative power: Transglobal media and local media
Authenticity and Cosmopolitanism as ways of life
Commodification processes and the Popular
Post-hegemonic media forms and ideological figurations
Neo-liberalism as popular culture

Submissions Procedure

Individual papers and panels are possible, but all proposals must be submitted through the online Open Conference System (OCS) at http://iamcr-ocs.org from 1 December 2014 – 9 February 2015. Early submission is strongly encouraged. There are to be no email submissions of abstracts addressed to any Section or Working Group Head.

This working group accepts abstracts in English only.

It is expected that for the most part, only one (1) abstract will be submitted per person for consideration by the Conference. However, under no circumstances should there be more than two (2) abstracts bearing the name of the same applicant either individually or as part of any group of authors. Please note also that the same abstract or another version with minor variations in title or content must not be submitted to other Sections or Working Groups of the Association for consideration, after an initial submission. Such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be automatically rejected by the Open Conference System, by the relevant Head or by the Conference Programme Reviewer. Such applicants risk being removed entirely from the conference programme.

Upon submission of an abstract, you will be asked to confirm that your submission is original and that it has not been previously published in the form presented. You will also be given an opportunity to declare if your submission is currently before another conference for consideration.

Submitted abstracts will generally be evaluated on the basis of:

theoretical contribution,
methods,
quality of writing,
literature review,
relevance of the submission to the work of the section or working group, and
originality and/or significance of the work.

Presenters are expected to bring fully developed work to the conference. Prior to the conference, it is expected that a completed paper will be submitted to Section, Working Group, Session Chairs, and/or Discussants.

Popular Culture Working Group

Chair:

Barry King
barry.king[at]aut.ac.nz