The Popular Culture Working Group of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites the submission of proposals for papers and panels for IAMCR 2022, which will be held online from 11 to 15 July 2022. The conference will also have a national hub at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The deadline for submission is 9 February 2022, at 23.59 UTC.
See the CfPs of all sections and working groups >
Conference Themes
IAMCR conferences have a main conference theme (with several sub-themes) that is explored from multiple perspectives throughout the conference in plenaries, in the programmes of our sections and working groups, and in the Flow34 virtual cinema and podcasts stream. They also have many themes defined by our 33 thematic sections and working groups. Proposals submitted to sections and working groups may be centered on an aspect of the main conference theme as it relates to the central concerns of the section or working group, or they may address the additional themes identified by the section or working group in their individual calls for proposals.
The main theme for IAMCR 2022, “Communication Research in the Era of Neo-Globalisation: Reorientations, Challenges and Changing Contexts,” is concerned with possibilities for rethinking communication research agendas in the post-pandemic world, which has seen dramatic shifts in the way we interact and understand our physical, social, cultural, political and material environments.
Eight sub-themes of this central theme have been identified: Reorienting Media and Communication Research in the Era of Neo-Globalisation; Artificial Intelligence in Global Communication Contexts; Cultural Identities and Dis-Identities in the Era of Neo-Globalisation; Communication for Sustainability: Climate Change, Environment, and Health; Media Ethics and Principles in the Digital Age; Media, Communication, and the Construction of Global Public Health; Data/Digital Science and Intercultural Communication; Digital Platforms and Public Service: Science, Technology and Sustainability. See the complete theme description and rationale here.
IAMCR’s Popular Culture Working Group (POP) examines and explores the many relationships between the production and consumption of popular culture from a range of perspectives that are theoretically informed and empirically grounded. In keeping with this year’s conference theme, POP is concerned with how our current era of neo-globalisation reorients, challenges, and changes the contexts of popular culture production and consumption, and with their implications. POP eagerly invites papers and panel proposals that investigate how popular culture in all its modes of creation, circulation, and contestation fit within an era of neo-globalisation.
Members of POP are especially interested in the academic intersections that the study of popular culture engenders. POP welcomes perspectives from various disciplines, including, but not limited to, media and cultural studies; studies of identity, subjectivity, and diversity; audience and consumer studies; industry and production studies; and literary, cinema, theatrical, and visual culture studies.
Topics addressing the central theme
POP rests upon examining the ever-changing nature of the social, political, and economic forces that implicate communication processes and, specifically, the communicative role of popular culture. We premise the study of popular culture on the idea that popular culture, in its many forms, offers sites for understanding how both structural and subjective agents, both institutions and individuals, come into being and interface with each other. In keeping with IAMCR/Beijing 2022’s theme, POP invites submission of abstracts and panel proposals that explore the following:
- Neo-global narratives and/in popular culture
- Neo-global technologies and/in popular culture
- Structures of and resistance to neo-global popular representations
- Popular narratives of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality and ability
- Global religious imaginaries and popular culture
- Neo-global celebrity, fandom, and on/offline community
- Neo-global popular media industries
- Ethical perspectives on neo-globalism in popular culture
- Imaginaries of “truth” in/by neo-global popular culture
- Aesthetics and aestheticization in neo-global popular landscapes
- Nation, the national, nationalism and populism in neo-global popular culture
- Neo-global consumer structures/contexts and consumer subjectivities/identities
- Surveillance, big data/datafication, and agency
- Social justice, human rights, equality, and inclusion in popular narratives
- Ecology, climate, sustainability and popular culture in a neo-global terrain
- Social media and social mediation/mediatization in a neo-global landscape
Themes within abstracts and panel proposals not mentioned above but still relevant to the study of popular culture will also be considered.
Guidelines for abstracts
Abstracts are requested for the Online Conference Papers component. Abstracts submitted to the Popular Culture Working Group should have between 300 and 500 words and must be submitted online at https://iamcr2022.exordo.com. Abstracts submitted by email will not be accepted.
The deadline to submit abstracts is 9 February 2022 at 23h59 UTC.
See important dates and deadlines to keep in mind
It is expected that authors will submit only one (1) abstract. However, under no circumstances should there be more than two (2) abstracts bearing the name of the same author, either individually or as first author. No more than one 1 abstract can be submitted by an author to the Popular Culture Working Group. Please note also that the same abstract or another version with minor variations in title or content must not be submitted to more than one section or working group. Any such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be rejected.
Proposals are accepted for both single Papers and for Panels with several papers (in which you propose multiple papers that address a single theme). Please note that there are special procedures for submitting panel proposals. You can find the detailed procedures when submitting your abstract online in the abstract submission system.
Languages
The Popular Culture Working Group accepts abstract submissions in English only.
For further information about the conference contact beijing2022@iamcr.org
For further information about the Popular Culture Working Group, its themes, submissions, and panels please contact:
Chair: Tonny Krijnen
krijnen@eshcc.eur.nl
Vice-Chair: Niall Brennan
nbrennan@fairfield.edu
Vice-Chair: Frederik Dhaenens
frederik.dhaenens@ugent.be