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

ECREA pre-con Harmful Visuals in Vienna
by Özkula Suay 02 Mar '26

02 Mar '26

Dear Colleagues, We are happy to announce that we are organising a preconference for this year’s ECC in Brno on the timely and contested topic of “Harmful Visual – cases, practices and ethics”. It will take place in Vienna (only a 1,5h train ride to/from Brno) on the day before the main conference. We are looking forward to your submissions! ECC 26 Preconference HARMFUL VISUALS: CASES, PRACTICES, AND ETHICS 7 September 2026, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria Submission Deadline 31 March 2026 Visual media increasingly shape how harm is produced, circulated, and contested across intimate and public domains. From non-consensual image sharing and online hate to the journalistic circulation of war and atrocities, images raise urgent ethical, political, and regulatory questions. These challenges are intensified by uneven governance across platforms, shifting regimes of visibility, and the growing prevalence of manipulated and AI-generated imagery. This preconference invites critical engagement with harmful visual practices, cultures, and infrastructures in times of social and technological change. We welcome contributions examining visual ethics, regulation, pedagogies, and witnessing across diverse visual and multimodal formats. Find more information here: https://visualculturesecrea.wordpress.com/harmful-visuals-precon-2026/ <https://visualculturesecrea.wordpress.com/harmful-visuals-precon-2026/> Please note that this is an in-person conference only. Event registration is free-of-charge, catering will be provided, and the rooms are accessible. We look forward to your submissions. Best wishes, ECREA Section Visual Cultures: Maria Schreiber, University of Klagenfurt, Austria, Chair Patricia Prieto-Blanco, Lancaster University, United Kingdom, Chair Suay Melisa Özkula, University of Salzburg, Austria, Vice-Chair Joanna Kędra, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, Vice-Chair Grace Omondi, Kristiania University College, Norway, YECREA Representative Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies (CMC) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the University of Klagenfurt, Austria: Tobias Eberwein, Deputy Director and Research Group Leader Charlotte Spencer-Smith, Senior Scientist -- [I support fair work & do not expect colleagues to read or respond to emails after-hours, during weekends, outside of their part-time allocation, or during strike periods] Dr. Suay Melisa Özkula Post-doctoral Researcher MSCA project P.I. DIGI-EMP<https://www.sis.unitn.it/2753/international-experiences-of-digital-empowerm…> Listserv facilitator Visual Methods Collective<https://visualculturesecrea.wordpress.com/the-visual-methods-collective/> Google Scholar profile<https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RGa0k7kAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao> & Department Profile<https://www.kowi-salzburg.at/team/oezkula-suay/> Center for ICT&S Fachbereich Kommunikationswissenschaft Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg Sigmund Haffner Gasse 18 | 5020 Salzburg | Österreich/Austria Recent work: Hate Speech and Democratic Erosion: The Exclusionary Vocabulary of Online Misogyny<https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/romanica-cracoviensia/artykul/discorso-dodi…> Teaching digital research methods in sociology<https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/teaching-research-methods-in-sociology-978…> Where is the Global South? Northern Visibilities in Digital Activism Research<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20563051241299835> Researching visual protest and politics with “extra-hard” data<https://publicera.kb.se/jdsr/article/view/32149> Special Issue on Methods in Visual Politics and Protest: Deconstruction, Reflexivity & femmix<https://jdsr.se/ojs/index.php/jdsr/article/view/278> Special Issue on Methods in Visual Politics and Protest: mixed methods, data curation & anti-publics<https://publicera.kb.se/jdsr/article/view/23194> Affordances and platformed visual misogyny: a call for feminist approaches in visual methods<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14680777.2024.2311355>

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[Reminder] Online Symposium on Influencer Diplomacy: Applications closing soon [16 March 2026]
by Faye Mercier (Student) 02 Mar '26

02 Mar '26

*Call for Papers: Influencer Diplomacy Symposium, Friday, 24 April 2026 (Online)* *Applications now open, closing 16 March 2026* *Read the full CfP here https://ierlab.com/influencer-diplomacy/ * ** This is a reminder that the submission deadline for the upcoming Influencer Diplomacy Symposium, hosted by the Influencer Ethnography Research Lab (IERLab), is in two weeks [16 March 2026]. The symposium will be held online via Zoom on 24 April 2026 and will examine the evolving practice of influencer diplomacy across political, cultural, and geopolitical contexts. Recent scholarship has highlighted the growing role of influencers in political arenas, including their involvement in diplomatic communication, soft power initiatives, conflict mediation, and international perception management. While research has addressed political influencers, geopolitical influencers, and state–influencer collaborations, there remains no shared definition of ‘influencer diplomacy.’ This symposium foregrounds influencer diplomacy as a generative concept, referring to the ways in which influencer cultures, practices, and industries impact diplomatic processes, from influencers assuming diplomatic roles and politicians adopting influencer strategies, to marketing firms leveraging influencer infrastructures in the mediation of international relations. Influencer diplomacy operates not only at formal state and institutional levels but also intersects with everyday politics, shaping public discourse and social engagement. Moreover, it must account for how influencers, as platform-savvy actors, tailor diplomatic communication to the vernaculars, norms, and affordances of specific digital platforms. To explore this phenomenon in more detail, the Influencer Ethnography Research Lab (IERLab) will be hosting a one-day online symposium (on Zoom) to examine the evolving practice of influencer diplomacy. We invite submissions from humanities and social sciences, including but not limited to media studies, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, political science, area studies, and international relations. We particularly welcome submissions that focus on empirically grounded research and comparative case studies. Selected papers will be considered for a peer reviewed edited collection. As such, we are only able to consider original, previously-unpublished abstracts/papers. Suggested topics include but are not limited to: * Influencers as official and unofficial intermediaries in diplomatic endeavours * Motivations, labour, and negotiation in influencers’ diplomatic practice * Politicians adopting influencer strategies in international communication * The role of affect, intimacy, authenticity, and storytelling as diplomatic resources * Audience participation, public formation, and the politicisation of influencer collaborations * Influencer diplomacy as both a practice and a governing logic: how diplomacy increasingly ‘thinks like an influencer’ * Influencer diplomacy in crisis, conflict, humanitarian, and wartime contexts * Regulation, disclosure, and governance of state–influencer collaborations To be considered for the symposium, please submit a 250-word abstract and 100-word bio via the Google form below by 1700hrs (GMT+8) 16 March 2026. Notifications of acceptance will be sent on 20 March 2026. We gladly welcome co-authored submissions; to keep presentations consistent, each submission is limited to one presenter, preferably the corresponding author. Please submit via this form: https://forms.gle/7EWBPEuR4gk3ceKK7 All enquiries should be directed to contact(a)IERLab.com<mailto:contact@IERLab.com> Key Dates: * 16 March 2026: Abstracts and biographies due * 20 March 2026: Notifications of acceptance * 24 April 2026: Influencer Diplomacy Symposium We look forward to receiving your submissions. Faye Mercier, Wuxuan Zhang, Prof. Crystal Abidin Influencer Ethnography Research Lab (IERLab), Curtin University

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Applications now open for AusSTS Awards & Prizes 🏆
by Thao Phan 02 Mar '26

02 Mar '26

*Applications now open for AusSTS Awards & Prizes 🏆* AusSTS is thrilled to announce the launch of two new annual awards: the AusSTS Best Paper Prize and the AusSTS Making & Doing Award. The prizes will be awarded at the AusSTS 2026 Conference hosted by Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington, 9 - 11 November. The theme of the conference is ‘Antipodean Interruptions.’ Deadline for submissions is Friday 3 April. To see the full CFP visit: https://aussts.org/aussts2026 <https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Faussts.or…> 1. AusSTS Best Paper Prize The AusSTS Best Paper Prize aims to celebrate the work of junior STS scholars in the AusSTS community. Established in 2026 and awarded annually, the Prize recognises an article-length work (no more than 12,000 words) of exceptional quality and significance. It aims to encourage and reward ambitious and thoughtful scholarship, and to promote the best work in the region to the wider field. The prize will be announced at the annual conference and the winner will receive complimentary registration for the following year’s conference. *Eligibility* The prize is open to current PhD students and Early Career Researchers (ECRs), who have conferred their PhD within the last two years of the submission closing date. Nominees must have previously attended at least one AusSTS conference. For published manuscripts, there are no limitations on which journals are eligible. Nominations are accepted from authors, AusSTS members, and journal editors. Unpublished article-length manuscripts and articles/chapters first published in 2024 and 2025 and eligible for the AusSTS 2026 Best Paper Prize. Applications for the 2026 prize are now open. Please use the nomination form <https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforms.gle…> to apply. Applications will close Friday 2 May, 11:59pm AEST. For more information about the prize visit: https://aussts.org/awards-prizes <https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Faussts.or…> 2. AusSTS Making & Doing Award The AusSTS Making and Doing award celebrates non-traditional research scholarship that prioritises enacted, embodied and situated forms of STS knowledge making. Following the distinctive format of STS Making and Doing established at 4S in 2015, this prize recognises responsive and responsible scholarship which problematises how knowledge work itself comes to life in a conference format. Examples of Making & Doing activities include ethnographic films, installations, hands-on workshops, games, and more. The prize will be awarded at the annual conference and the winner will receive free registration for the following year’s conference. *Eligibility* This prize is only open to entrants of the Making and Doing session at the AusSTS annual conference. If you have a presentation in this session, you will automatically be considered for the award. For more information about the award visit: https://aussts.org/awards-prizes <https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Faussts.or…>

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Techno-politics of Interoperability - Big Data & Society S'26 Colloquium
by Linda Huber 01 Mar '26

01 Mar '26

Hi all! Please join us this Wednesday for the third panel in Big Data & Society's spring '26 colloquium on the theme of Constructing Data Alternatives: *The Technopolitics of Interoperability* *Wednesday, March 4* *15:30–17:30 GMT / 11:30 AM–1:30 PM ESTuky.zoom.us/j/84084505304 <http://uky.zoom.us/j/84084505304>* *Panelists:* Nina Amelung, University Institute of Lisbon Can E Mutlu, Acadia University Annalisa Pelizza, University of Bologna Nanna Bonde Thylstrup, University of Copenhagen *Description:* Database interoperability is a powerful ambition in public policy. It promises the benefits of the digital without technical resistance, the advantages of services’ harmonization without the hurdle of seamless integration or the results of data flows’ coordination without the imposition of full data unification. Additionally, AI and algorithmic systems rely on interoperability to provide access to vast datasets from different databases. Building on BD&S special theme <https://journals.sagepub.com/page/bds/techno-politicsofinteroperability> on 'the techno-politics of interoperability', we ask how technological systems are re-appropriated for political ends and how political visions are inscribed into seemingly mundane infrastructures; how interoperability becomes the focus of political struggles; and how interoperability puts into question established notions, such as state and data sovereignty, privacy or data governance. Best, Linda -- *Linda Huber, she/her* *NB: I have recently graduated from the University of Michigan **School of Information and started a new role as Postdoctoral Fellow in Social Justice & Technology at Swarthmore College. I am in the midst of transitioning away from this email address, and can also be found at puellaludens1(a)gmail.com <puellaludens1(a)gmail.com>, or lhuber1(a)swarthmore.edu <lhuber1(a)swarthmore.edu>. * *Member, Platform Economies Research Network <https://platformeconomies.net/>* *Fellow, Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy <https://platform.coop/about/icde/>* *+1 773 575 7783*

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