January 2026 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

MA in Digital Media and Society, Media and Public Engagement (15 MAR Deadline)
by Christian Katzenbach 20 Jan '26

20 Jan '26

Dear AoIR colleagues, at ZeMKI, University of Bremen, we are opening up for applications again in our internet-research-related MA programmes. The MA Digital Media and Society and the MA Media Public Engagement will be open for applications FEB 1 to MAR 15. Teaching faculty includes many long-time AoIR scholars like Cornelius Puschmann, Rebecca Scharlach, Andreas Hepp, Paloma Viejo Otero and me. Please share with your students if you think this might be a good fit. Strong research focus, high level of international students (80%), fully taught in EN-language, lively city, No tuition fees. And we got a nice video clip made by students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDthOZEMI58 See more info below, including dates for info sessions in the next weeks. Best, Christian ### The Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) at the University of Bremen hosts two international EN-language MA programmes. Both programmes have a strong focus on research. and methods training to understand and analyse media-related developments in contemporary societies. There are no tuition fees. This year’s closing date for applications for both programmes is 15 March 2026 for the in-take in October 2026. Applications can be submitted via the university’s application portal: https://moin.uni-bremen.de/ The M.A. Digital Media and Society is an ENlanguage programme marked by an interdisciplinary focus, advanced methods training, comprehensive internationalisation, and a clear link to media-related research and professional practice. Professors and staff at ZeMKI work with students on key topics such as deep mediatisation, social media platforms and their governance, election campaigns, and digital methods. More Info: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/zemki/studies/ma-digital-media-and-society Video Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDthOZEMI58 Digital Flyer: https://nc.uni-bremen.de/index.php/s/CS2KbTJ6tejQy4L The M.A Media and Public Engagement is an ENlanguage programme situated at the intersection of media, communication, and society, with a focus on how media and communication can be used to create a more sustainable, equitable, and participatory world. Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the role of media in public engagement, political action, and sustainability, and will develop the skills to analyze and critique media practices and to design socially responsible and sustainable media solutions. More Info: https://www.uni-bremen.de/zemki/studium/ma-media-and-public-engagement In our Online Q&A session for applicants and prospective students ZeMKI staff and programme instructors will be available for questions related to the content of the programmes and admissions requirements. No registration for the Q&A is required - you can simply access the session using the link below. 22 Januar 2026, 13:00-14:00 (CET) 27 Februar 2026, 16:00-17:00 (CET) 3 März 2026, 10:00-11:00 (CET) https://uni-bremen.zoom-x.de/j/66784295700?pwd=fMIq7Xw0eyouzvfgX14HSNVW0dlb…

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Deadline extended: ICA 2026 pre-conference “Whose Protest Counts? Power and Exclusion in Online Activism”
by Jun Liu 19 Jan '26

19 Jan '26

In response to strong interest and numerous inquiries, we are pleased to extend the deadline for the ICA 2026 preconference “Whose Protest Counts? Power and Exclusion in Online Activism” til 31 January 2026. We invite original, rigorous, and innovative contributions that critically explore how power, participation, and inequality shape digital activism today. Why do some voices resonate while others remain unheard? How do socioeconomic structures, policy regimes, and platform logics enable or constrain activism across contexts? For the call, please see attached file. Abstract submission deadline: 31 January 2026 Submit abstracts (400–600 words, excl. references) to: activism.preconf(a)gmail.com<mailto:activism.preconf@gmail.com>. Include: author names, affiliations, contact info, and a brief note on how your paper addresses the CFP 📅 Timeline Acceptance notification: 28 February 2026 Registration (50 USD): by 15 March 2026 Preconference date: 3 June 2026. Best, Jun, on behalf of the organizing committee

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CfP session on “Uneven and Contested Geographies of Data Centers”
by Finn Dammann 19 Jan '26

19 Jan '26

Dear colleagues, please find here a call for abstracts for a session on “Uneven and Contested Geographies of Data Centers” at the Annual International Conference of the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers 2026 (September 1-4, London). We would be pleased to receive contribution proposals from AoIR! Best regards, Finn Dammann & Boris Michel +++ Uneven and Contested Geographies of Data Centres In recent years, data centres have become an increasingly common subject of public and political debate (Edwards, 2024). The focus and criticism in these debates are usually directed at the massive consumption of natural resources (Brodie, 2024; Hogan, 2015), their effect on local communities (Bridges, 2024), and the concentration of geopolitical power – especially with regards to large data centers that are currently being planned or built in the context of the hype surrounding artificial intelligence. As essential infrastructure for living in our increasingly datafied worlds and for organising digital capitalism, data centres also raise a variety of geographical questions and problems. These range from the conflict-ridden embedding of data centres in local environments (Rone, 2024), to their role in larger infrastructure constellations (Atkins, 2021; Velkova, 2016), urban settings, and geopolitical issues such as digital sovereignty, digital colonialism (Kwet, 2019) and data localisation (Rosa, 2022). This session brings together conceptual and empirical contributions to critical data centre studies and research on the geographies of digital infrastructures. Against this backdrop, we look forward to contributions from researchers in digital geography, political geography, urban studies, political ecology and science and technology studies, examining the socio-technical imaginations, material effects and geopolitical and infrastructural embeddings of data centres. Papers might engage with topics such as data centers in the Global South / Global Majority regions, contested infrastructuralization of data centers in rural and urban areas, the embedding of data centers in geopolitical strategies, programs, and conflicts, sociotechnical imaginations of AI data centers or social movements mobilizing against the data centers. Please send a 250-word abstract and a 50-word bio to boris.michel(a)geo.uni-halle.de <mailto:boris.michel@geo.uni-halle.de>and _finn.dammann(a)fau.de_ by 16th February 2026. Keywords: Digital Infrastructures, Data Centers, digital Geography, Cloud, AI Literature Atkins, E. (2021). Tracing the ‘cloud’: Emergent political geographies of global data centres. Political Geography, 86, 102306. _https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2020.102306_ Brodie, P. (2024). Smarter, greener extractivism: Digital infrastructures and the harnessing of new resources. Information, Communication & Society, 1–20. _https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2341013_ Bridges, L. E. (2024). Competing digital capacities: Between state-led digital governance and local data center tradeoffs. Information, Communication & Society, 27(10), 1906–1923. _https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2331765_ Edwards, D., Cooper, Z. G. T., & Hogan, M. (2024). The making of critical data center studies. Convergence, 13548565231224157. _https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231224157_ Hogan, M. (2015). Data flows and water woes: The Utah Data Center. Big Data & Society, 2(2), 2053951715592429. _https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951715592429_ Kwet, M. (2022). Digital colonialism and Infrastructure as dept. Frontiers in African Digital Research, 65–77. Rone, J. (2024). The shape of the cloud: Contesting date centre construction in North Holland. New Media & Society, 26(10), 5999–6018. _https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221145928_ Rosa, F. R. (2022). Code Ethnography and the Materiality of Power in Internet Governance. Qualitative Sociology, 45(3), 433–455. _https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-022-09517-3_ Velkova, J. (2016). Data that warms: Waste heat, infrastructural convergence and the computation traffic commodity. Big Data & Society, 3(2), 2053951716684144. _https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716684144_ -- Dr. Finn Dammann Institut für Geographie Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg https://www.geographie.nat.fau.de/ng-geographien-digitaler-infrastrukturen/ https://www.geographie.fau.de/personen/finn-dammann/

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Call for Papers reminder: Textures of Digital Entertainment
by Emily Cousins 19 Jan '26

19 Jan '26

Dear AoIR colleagues, A reminder that our call for papers is still open until 15th February 2026: *Textures of Digital Entertainment* 25th & 26th June 2026, Odense, Denmark https://event.sdu.dk/texturesofdigitalentertainment/conference Digital entertainment has moved from the margins of leisure to the centre of everyday life. It unfolds across fragmented temporalities, hybrid spaces, and shifting sensory environments, becoming woven into the rhythms through which people navigate work, leisure, relations, care, rest, or exercise through different modes of engagement (attention, distraction, intention…). Yet despite its ubiquity, entertainment remains undertheorised in media studies, overshadowed by approaches that focus on platforms, industries, or traditional media formats. Much of this scholarship explains how digital media function, but is not concerned with what entertainment feels like and does in lived experience, or how emerging formats—from short-form video to ambient gaming—reshape everyday life. This conference invites contributions that address the experiential, aesthetic, cultural and practice-based textures of contemporary digital entertainment. We welcome work that examines how entertainment punctuates daily routines; how sensory formats organise micro-temporalities; how emerging genres such as cozy games, reaction-loops, streamers’ para-social hangouts, ASMR, mood-playlists, or hybrid meme-aesthetics shape everyday engagement; and how entertainment logics “spill over” into other societal domains. We are especially interested in research that integrates practices and formats—showing how people use entertainment, how new genres acquire recognisable aesthetic signatures, and how users cultivate meta-awareness of styles, conventions, and genre cues. We welcome contributions from media studies, cultural studies, game studies, aesthetic theory, film/audiovisual studies, literary theory, communication studies, and adjacent disciplines. We invite empirical, theoretical, and analytical approaches that speak to (but are not limited to) the following themes: Practices: rhythms, habits, ambience, transitions, sensory modulation in everyday use Formats and genres: for example short-form video, hybrid meme-genres, atmospheric and cozy gaming, slow or ambient livestreams, platform-specific micro-genres Aesthetics: visual, sonic, and bodily grammars, platform vernaculars and stylistic conventions Cultural textures: emerging taste clusters such as #cleangirl, genres such as oddly satisfying, shared imaginaries such as revenge scrolling, and other circulating moods and trends Meta-aesthetic reflexivity: how users recognise, classify, and play with evolving genres, conventions, and aesthetic cues Cross-domain pollination: entertainment logics in news, museums, education, marketing, politics and others The accepted formats are papers, panels, and workshops; all will be allocated to 90 min sessions. All submissions should be in the form of a 300–500‑word abstract as a single PDF file. A brief bibliography may be included (not counted toward the word limit), and authors should provide a short bio (approx. 100 words/person). The conference does not use anonymous review. There are no proceedings. Presenters will be invited to submit a paper for a special issue of MedieKultur on the theme of the conference, scheduled for publication in May 2027. Details regarding the journal submission process will be provided during the conference. The deadline for abstract submissions is 15th February 2026. The conference will be held at The University of Southern Denmark (SDU) in Odense. There is no registration fee, but participants are responsible for covering their own travel and accommodation. Lunch and refreshments will be provided during the conference. A conference dinner will be organised, with separate payment for those who wish to attend. This conference marks the official conclusion of the DiEM (Digital Entertainment Machine<https://www.sdu.dk/en/forskning/digital_entertainment_machine>) project, generously funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark. The DiEM team is looking forward to discussing these exciting topics with you in Odense later this year!

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GIG-ARTS 2026 Dublin - Deadline Extension
by Mauro SANTANIELLO 19 Jan '26

19 Jan '26

Dear colleagues, In response to requests, we are happy to extend the deadline for abstract submission to GIG-ARTS 2026, taking place in Dublin, Ireland on 14-15 May 2026. *New deadline: 26 January 2026.* *You can submit your* *extended abstract* (no longer than 500 words) here: https://conftool2026.gig-arts.eu/ The full call for papers can be found here: https://gig-arts.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/10th-GIG-ARTS-Conference-CfP… *Key dates* - Deadline for abstract submissions: 26 January 2026 - Notification to authors: 27 February 2026 - Deadline for author confirmation (at least one author must register for a selected presentation to appear on the programme): 13 March 2026 - Programme publication: 10 April 2026 - Registration deadline: 17 April 2026 - Conference dates: 14-15 May 2026 *Communication Channels* - Website: www.gig-arts.eu <https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gig-ar…> - Email for information: events(a)gig-arts.eu - Submissions: https://conftool2026.gig-arts.eu/ - Mailing list for updates: mailinglist(a)gig-arts.eu We hope to see your proposal among the submissions and look forward to welcoming you to GIG-ARTS Dublin. The Organizing Committee Edoardo Celeste, Tetyana Lokot, Mauro Santaniello

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Governing AI Search: New AI Forensics Policy Report
by Natalia Stanusch 19 Jan '26

19 Jan '26

Dear AoIR colleagues, I wanted to share with you the latest policy report by AI Forensics, which comes after over a year of studying LLM chatbots and their growing role in how people search online, and which might be of interest to some of you. https://www.aiforensics.org/work/governing-ai-search While there has been extensive public scrutiny of content moderation on social media platforms, there has been almost no attention paid to how moderation works when AI chatbots become the search interface. Our report addresses this growing gap. Although AI search shares some similarities with traditional search engines, we believe it creates new risks of deepening the harms already associated with traditional search. And yet we find that the current European regulatory landscape is fragmented. The Digital Services Act’s focus on the ongoing operational oversight of user-generated content and the AI Act’s emphasis on pre-deployment product safety create a regulatory divide that AI search systems traverse uneasily. Our report, therefore, asks: How can this regulatory fault line be better navigated? How can regulatory gaps be better filled to adapt to this new reality? To address these gaps, we propose a new conceptual framework that responds to these shortcomings with new anticipatory forms of governance in AI search. We also outline a set of policy propositions that address the risks of AI search, based on three case studies: Copilot in Bing, Gemini, and ChatGPT. Main ideas of the report include: - AI search systems occupy a regulatory blind spot between the DSA's focus on user-generated content and the AI Act's pre-deployment safety requirements - We extend the notion of "moderation" to AI Search and map instances of moderation, including socio-technical interventions referred to as "value alignment" - Current frameworks inadequately address information-related systemic risks posed by AI search at scale, and we need an integrated (DSA & AIA) governance framework for AI search. AI Forensics is a European non-profit that conducts independent and high-profile technical investigations to uncover and expose the harms caused by their algorithms, with an aim of holding major technology platforms accountable Best regards, Natalia Natalia Stanusch Researcher, AI Forensics<https://www.aiforensics.org> PhD Candidate, University of Amsterdam ASCA | Media Studies Recent publications: Stanusch, N. (2025). #TargetedAds, or memeing dataveillance on TikTok: How users comply, oppose, and imagine datafication practices. Big Data & Society, 12(4). DOI: 10.1177/20539517251386041 Stanusch, N., Degeling, M., Romano, S., Schueler, M., & Semenzin, S. (2025). "AI-Generated Algorithmic Virality: How Synthetic Al Imagery and Agentic Al Accounts Try to Game TikTok and Instagram” AI Forensics. www.aiforensics.org/work/gen-ai-slop \ arXiv:2508.01042. Stanusch, N. (2025). ‘Esoteric AI.’ In Vieira, S., Flynn, P., and Piet, N. (Eds.) Slow AI. AIxDESIGN, the Nehterlands. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19187.03368.

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International Conference on Software and Systems Reuse, Product Lines, and Configuration (VARIABILITY 2026): First Call for Journal First Papers
by Announce 19 Jan '26

19 Jan '26

*** First Call for Journal First Papers *** International Conference on Software and Systems Reuse, Product Lines, and Configuration (VARIABILITY 2026) 29 September - 2 October 2026, 5* St. Raphael Resort and Marina Limassol, Cyprus https://conf.researchr.org/home/variability-2026 The VARIABILITY conference series brings together the communities previously served by ICSR, SPLC, and VaMoS, forming a unified venue for research on variability, configuration, customization, and related disciplines in software and systems engineering. VARIABILITY 2026 invites Journal-First presentations of papers recently published in leading software engineering journals, including TSE, TOSEM, IST, EMSE, JSS, ASEJ, SoSyM, and reputable open-access journals. This initiative provides authors with the opportunity to engage directly with the VARIABILITY community, while offering attendees a richer and more diverse program. The Journal-First papers remain published in their respective journals, and a one-page summary will be included in the VARIABILITY 2026 proceedings with a pointer to the original publication. Scope To qualify for a Journal-First presentation at VARIABILITY 2026, a paper must meet these criteria: • It was published on the publisher’s website between May 2024 and March 2026. • It fits within the scope of VARIABILITY 2026, as described in the research track call (https://conf.researchr.org/track/variability-2026/variability-2026-papers#C…) and can bring new insights or directions to the community. • It presents new research results or significant extensions of prior work that have not been presented at SPLC, VaMoS, or ICSR before. • It has not been presented at, and is not under review for, Journal-First Tracks of other related conferences. How to Submit Authors of papers that meet the above criteria are invited to submit a short proposal for presentation. The proposal should be one page and include the following: • Paper title, authors, extended abstract, and a link or DOI to the original journal paper. • If the journal paper builds on or is related to previously published work (such as a poster or tool demo), the proposal must clearly explain why it should be considered a Journal- First paper. • All proposals must be submitted as a PDF via EasyChair: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=variability2026 (Journal-First Track). • Please upload both the proposal PDF and a ZIP file containing the original journal paper. Accepted papers will be published in the VARIABILITY 2026 Companion Proceedings published by Springer in the LNCS series. A Journal-First proposal must be at most one page long and it must follow the Springer guidelines: https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gu… . By submitting your paper for inclusion in these proceedings, you acknowledge that you and your co-authors must comply with Springer’s publications policies (https://www.springer.com/gp/editorial-policies) including requirements related to research integrity, copyright, and ethical standards. Any alleged violations of these policies may be investigated by Springer and could result in corrective actions, including withdrawal of the paper. Evaluation and Selection Proposals will be selected based on the quality of the publication and the journal, after confirming that the paper fits the scope of the conference. Since the papers have already been peer-reviewed and accepted by their journals, they will not undergo another technical review. The goal is to include as many papers as possible in the Journal-First Track. However, if an unusually high number of papers are received, some might not be accepted. If needed, priority will be given to papers that best align with the conference topics of interests and the structure of the sessions. Conference Attendance For each paper accepted into the Journal-First Track, at least one author must register for the conference and attend to give the oral presentation. Important Dates (AoE) • Submission of Papers: 2 April 2026 • Notification of Acceptance: 1 June 2026 • Camera-Ready Submission: 15 July 2026 • Author Registration: 15 July 2026 Organisation General Chairs • George A. Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus • Gilles Perrouin, FNRS & University of Namur, Belgium Research Track Chairs • Thorsten Berger, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany • Ina Schaefer, KIT, Germany Industry Track Chairs • Shaukat Ali, Simula Research Lab and Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway • Martin Becker, Fraunhofer IESE, Germany Journal First Track Chairs • Mathieu Acher, University Rennes, Inria, CNRS, IRISA, France • Xhevahire Tërnava, LTCI, Télécom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France Doctoral Symposium Track Chairs • Rick Rabiser, LIT CPS, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria • Iris Reinhartz-Berger, University of Haifa, Israel Demos and Tools Track Chairs • Sandra Greiner, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark • Leopoldo Teixeira, Federal University of Pernambuco Projects Showcase Chairs • Daniel Struber, Chalmers, University of Gothenburg, Radbound University, Sweden • Dalila Tamzalit, Nantes Université, France Hall of Fame Chairs • Martin Becker, Fraunhofer IESE, Germany • Goetz Botterweck, Lero - The Irish Software Research Centre and University of Limerick, Ireland • Natsuko Noda, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan Workshops Chairs • Lidia Fuentes, Universidad de Malaga, Spain • Malte Lochau, University of Siegen, Germany Tutorials Chairs • Loek Cleophas, Eindhoven University of Technology and Stellenbosch University, The Netherlands • Mahsa Varshosaz, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark Proceedings Chair • Sophie Fortz, King's College London, UK Publicity Chairs • Wesley Assunção, North Carolina State University, USA • Kentaro Yoshimura, Hitachi Ltd, Japan Local Organiser and Finance Chair • George A. Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

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Reminder: Call for Abstracts - Digital Criminology (deadline in 9 days)
by Piotr Siuda 18 Jan '26

18 Jan '26

Dear AoIR colleagues, This is a gentle reminder about the Call for Abstracts for the session "Digital Criminology – Bridging Technologies, Human Practices and Environments," which we are organising (together with Meropi Tzanetakis) at the STS Conference Graz 2026 (4-6 May 2026, Graz). The session welcomes 400–600 word abstracts on topics such as digital platforms and infrastructures, datafication and surveillance, AI and algorithmic systems, online and hybrid illicit markets (including drug markets), and broader intersections between criminology, STS, internet and media studies. The submission deadline is 9 days away: 27 January 2026. Submission system: https://www.conftool.com/sts-conference-graz-2025/ Conference website: https://stsconf.tugraz.at Author guidelines: https://stsconf.tugraz.at/calls/call-for-abstracts/ The full Call for Abstracts is available here: https://www.wu.ac.at/fileadmin/wu/d/i/sozio/Dateien_zu_News/CfA_Digital_Cri… We would be very happy to receive your submissions and would greatly appreciate further circulation of the CfP within your networks. Best wishes Piotr -- *Piotr Siuda* (PhD, Professor of Media Studies) piotrsiuda.com Faculty of Cultural Studies Department of Game Studies and Digital Culture Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland Associate Editor, *Journal of Creative Communication *(SAGE Journals) *Recent papers:* *-- **Digital drug trading ecologies in context: Technological, geographic, and linguistic variation across darknet platforms*, *International Journal of Drug Policy.* -- *Navigating community-transaction and egalitarian-hierarchy divides: redefining virtual communities in the darknet drug trade and beyond*, *Information, Communication & Society.* *-- **The opioid crisis in Poland? Insights from online forum data. **International Journal of Drug Policy.*

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New Reports on Extended Reality Research - The Social Grammars of Virtuality
by Girginova, Katerina Vassileva 16 Jan '26

16 Jan '26

Dear Colleagues, The Annenberg Extended Reality Lab at the University of Pennsylvania is pleased to announce the Social Grammars of Virtuality—a series of yearly reports on trends in extended reality scholarship: https://penn.manifoldapp.org/journals/social-grammars-of-virtuality Launched in 2022, each Social Grammars report provides a high-level, critical summary of extended reality (XR) research, with a focus on the social fabric of XR experiences. The Social Grammars is a valuable resource for the global community of researchers and practitioners wishing to better understand developments in XR experiences, including virtual, augmented, and mixed reality/spatial computing. The report is available, free of charge, in English and in Spanish. The latest issue offers a mapping of the intellectual, geographic, and funding sources of all the available, XR peer-reviewed articles published in English in 2024. This is followed by sections providing a summary of cutting-edge advances in XR theories, technological innovations, and the language of XR scholarship. There is also a section dedicated to key XR market developments in 2024 and, new for this issue, a special section that examines XR dissertations. Read the reports: https://penn.manifoldapp.org/journals/social-grammars-of-virtuality Get in touch: PennAERlab(a)asc.upenn.edu Regards, The Annenberg Extended Reality Lab - - - - Katerina Girginova PhD Co-Founder/Director, Annenberg Extended Reality Lab

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CFP: #SSN2026 - Surveillance & Society Conference
by Bryce Newell 15 Jan '26

15 Jan '26

Dear AoIR colleagues, On behalf of the Surveillance Studies Network (SSN) and local organizing committee for #SSN2026, we are happy to share the call for participation in the 2026 Surveillance Studies Network / Surveillance & Society Conference, to be held in Lille, France. Planetary Surveillance The 11th Biennial Surveillance Studies Network / Surveillance & Society Conference #SSN2026 | 9-12 June 2026 | Lille, France Hosted by Université Catholique de Lille, ETHICS, and ISTC https://surveillance-studies.net/conference/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://surveillance-studies.net/conference/__;…> | http://ssn2026.sciencesconf.org<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://ssn2026.sciencesconf.org__;!!C5qS4YX3!G7…> Call for Papers and Participation The condition of our world is increasingly framed through planetary metrics: temperature rise, biodiversity loss, financial instability, migration flows. Surveillance underpins these metrics, producing ways of seeing and managing the planet. We are promised a new era of planetary knowledge by using surveillance systems that can map, predict, and manage the risks of a fragile world. But these very systems also fragment, exclude, and reproduce old asymmetries. Planetary governance is shaped by historically entrenched inequalities, exclusions, and power. Surveillance is presented as the key to planetary survival, yet it often accelerates insecurity and injustice. #SSN2026 invites us to grapple with what it means to think of surveillance at the scale of the planet: from micro habitats to global ecosystems and processes. Infrastructures of sensing, monitoring, control and computation now extend across scales: from satellites orbiting the Earth to predictive algorithms embedded in the most intimate aspects of everyday life. Surveillance technologies now claim planetary reach: global infrastructures, algorithmic systems trained on worldwide data, and satellites and networks that promise to know, predict, and govern different forms of life on Earth. Surveillance is a driver and a product of this planetary turn, as states, citizens and more-than-human others grapple with social and environmental change and crisis, and plan for the possibility of hostile and stable futures. >From predictive policing to climate modeling, from espionage to artificial intelligence, surveillance is the connective tissue of our planetary intelligence. Surveillance lies at the heart of these transformations. It both enables and depends on new forms of planetary intelligence — whether through data extraction on a global scale, the training of artificial intelligence systems on the traces of human activity, or the monitoring of ecosystems, climate, crime, migration, and conflict through planetary infrastructures, some of which are located on and above the earth. Surveillance appears, spreads, and intensifies not only in the name of security but also in the name of planetary management: climate monitoring, global health, financial stability, digital platforms, or border regimes. Yet planetary intelligence also generates new possibilities for critique, resistance, and reimagining collective futures. It may also be harnessed for the production of ecosocial goods. This planetary turn raises important questions: * Which forms of life are rendered visible, measurable, and governable, and which remain invisible or deliberately obscured? * What diverse role is surveillance playing in environmental mapping and governance? * How do geopolitical rivalries, colonial legacies, and global inequalities shape the emergence of planetary surveillance infrastructures? * What methods of resistance to authoritarian planetary surveillance exist? How can these methods be developed? * What are some of the relationships between nature and surveillance? SSN 2026 seeks to engage with these entanglements of surveillance and planetary processes and governance We invite proposals for papers, panels, doctoral colloquium participation, artistic and activist interventions, and other contributions on all aspects of surveillance in and across the planetary condition. Venue, Accessibility & Streaming The main Conference will take place over 3 full days from 10-12 June 2026, at the Université Catholique de Lille, France, with a pre-conference doctoral colloquium occurring on 9 June. All in-person sessions from the main conference will be streamed online, and there will also be a dedicated online track with remote presentations for presenters who cannot attend in-person (this will be limited, prioritizing virtual options for individuals from Majority World nations, people with disability requirements or (child) care responsibilities, and/or others without adequate funding to attend the conference in person). Some travel support will be available to a limited number of presenters upon application. Keynote Speakers and Special Sessions Several keynote sessions are under development and will be advertised as they are finalized. Doctoral Colloquium There will be an in-person colloquium for doctoral students on 9 June. Interested doctoral colloquium participants should indicate their interest in attending by submitting an expression of interest via the regular conference proposal submission portal. Applying for the colloquium will require applicants to submit a short expression of interest of up to 300 words that addresses the applicant’s professional background (e.g., their PhD program and research areas) and what they would hope to learn, do, or accomplish as part of the colloquium – and we invite creative proposals that think outside the box! Applicants are welcome to connect their interests to the conference theme, but there is no expectation or requirement to do so. Submissions (deadline: 10 January 2026, AoE) Please submit your paper, panel, or other abstract (including Doctoral Colloquium applications), via: http://ssn2026.sciencesconf.org<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://ssn2026.sciencesconf.org__;!!C5qS4YX3!G7…> (opening soon!). Presenters are limited to one first-author/primary presenter role but may be co-authors on multiple submissions. Submission Types: * Papers/presentations (including artistic interventions) (up to 300-word abstracts) * Panels (300-word abstract + additional text to identify proposed participants) * Doctoral Colloquium applications (statements of interest of 300 words) We look forward to receiving your proposals and to welcoming you to Lille!

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