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January 17, 2023

CFP: ECREA Communication History Section Workshop 2023

Call for papers

ECREA Communication History Section Workshop 2023

“War, Communication, and Media Resilience in Europe”

*Lund University, Sweden, 23–25 August, 2023 *

War is disruptive. It breaks trajectories of progress. It divides real  and imagined communities. In addition to the tragic loss of lives and  devastation of cities, its harmful effects on long established  communication cultures, networks and infrastructures are fundamental.  The disturbing instability of the world order caused by the escalating  Russian aggression in Ukraine has led to deep concerns not only about  the war itself. It has also highlighted the vulnerability of our global  communication infrastructure, the ways to resist information warfare and  propaganda, and the need to sustain an ethical media reporting in a  deeply polarized world.

Dating back to 1970s discussions within fields such as psychology,  pedagogy, and human ecology, the concept of /resilience/ has drawn  attention to how humans mentally cope with and learn from disrupting  changes in the complex systems in which they are embedded. In recent  decades, the concept has been tried out in much broader scholarly  contexts, for example research on public health or social innovation,  critical infrastructure studies, and disaster studies. Although studies  within applied communication research and crisis communication may  sometimes thematize resilience, it can be noted that in media studies  more generally, the concept is yet to be thoroughly theorized and  systematically discussed. And particularly the interplay between  resilience and /resistance/ needs further exploration, not least to  underscore agency and to counter the conservative tendency built into  the concept of resilience.

Alongside this lacuna within media studies, historical studies on  resilience are also surprisingly rare. Most often, it is framed as a  contemporary phenomenon, ideal, and solution. This is remarkable since  the term resilience itself implies key issues of change, transformation,  adaptability, adjustment, and temporality – and sometimes also the  absence of change. By critically investigating processes of resilience  and resistance in wartime, media and communication historians can offer  deep insights into everything from sustainable communication  technologies and infrastructures to cultural memory work and collective  trauma. Through concepts such as residual media or remediation,  historians can shed light on processes of media convergence and  divergence in wars of the past, but also old media persistence,  resistance, or resilience in new wars.

The aim of the 2023 ECREA Communication History workshop is to invite a  scholarly discussion on war and media resilience in terms of, first, the  ability of /media and communication agents, cultures, and institutions/  to act in, resist and recover from disturbances caused by war and armed  conflicts. Second, it engages with media technologies and materialities,  not least in terms of /the stability or instability of analogue or  digital communication infrastructures/. And third, the concept of media  resilience raises issues of /media ethics, sustainable war reporting and  photojournalism/, and the spectacles of suffering. Media in contemporary  armed conflicts need to be put in context and analyzed alongside their  historical precedents. Historical perspectives are necessary since media  resilience addresses issues of media change and transformation, the  ability of media technologies and media agents to absorb change or the  stubborn persistence – or even comeback – of old media in disruptive times.

The ECREA Communication History Section welcomes contributions from all  scholars in different fields who are interested in the workshop theme.  Topics include, but may not be limited to, historically informed media  perspectives of the following:

  • The mediatization of war and armed conflict
  • Conflicts and/as media events
  • Resilient and ethically sustainable war reporting, including censorship
  • Journalism, diplomacy, and negotiation
  • Wartime resistance and underground media
  • Propaganda and psychological defence
  • Old cables in new wars – vulnerable communication infrastructures
  • Information warfare and resistance, cyber-crimes, and cyber security
  • Gendered approaches of media and communication during wars
  • Preserving audiovisual or digital cultural heritage in times of war
  • Residual media and old media persistence in contemporary wars
  • Trauma, memory, and war commemoration

The workshop will begin late afternoon on the 23 and end at lunchtime on  the 25 August. The organizing committee invites scholars to submit  extended abstracts (500 words) and a short bio (50 words) here:  forms.gle/oo3EMoWTVhBEV11DA. The deadline for submission is 1  February 2023.

All abstract proposals will be subjected to peer-review. Participants  will be notified of acceptance by end February. Both members and  non-members of ECREA are welcome to submit proposals. Proposals from PhD  students and early career researchers are especially encouraged. A fee  of 150€ for seniors and 100€ for young scholars will be required.  Authors of accepted abstracts will receive information and instructions  regarding payment and formal registration.

The conference is organised by the ECREA Communication History Section  and the Section for Media History at the Department of Communication and Media at Lund University in collaboration with The Centre for European  Studies at Lund University. Local organisers are Allan Burnett, Marie  Cronqvist, Rosanna Farbøl, and Martin Lundqvist.

More information and updates on the COHECREA homepage:  ecreahistorysection.com/2022/12/09/ecrea-communication-history-workshop

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