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

Creative Labour as Data Labour Workshop
by Jake Goldenfein 15 Jun '26

15 Jun '26

Hi AoIR On August 5, Melbourne Law School (supported by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society - ADM+S, and the Platform Economies Research Network - PERN) will host a workshop on the relationship between creativity and data, and the ways that creative labour has become a type of data labour. Artists and creative industries are facing a profound set of challenges as AI companies both absorb expressive content to train generative systems as well as reorganise the production, distribution, and consumption of cultural materials. Existing policy responses have been fragmented, short term, and largely focused on copyright, and largely ignore broader issues around jobs, fair pay, cultural sovereignty, and the relationship between cultural production and national AI policy. This workshop takes as its starting point: 1) that cultural policy and technology policy are inseparable, and that policy responses must look further than preserving existing copyright status quo to explore new funding models and institutional settings; 2) that alongside the ‘expressive value’ of creative content, the current technological environment embeds creative work with forms of ‘data value’ that demand careful policy and regulatory attention. The workshop will bring together academics, artists, policy makers, and industry peak bodies to explore the pathways and possibilities of different legal and policy approaches to managing value creation and distribution in this emerging technical and creative context. The event will conclude with a Keynote from Professor Xiyin Tang (UCLA Law School) on ‘Creativity as Data’. We welcome applications from academics, artists, industry professionals, and policy makers to participate in the workshop. To register your interest, please provide a short paragraph of no more than 200 words to jakeg(a)unimelb.edu.au<mailto:jakeg@unimelb.edu.au> outlining your background and interest in the topic by July 1. Thanks Jake Goldenfein -- Dr Jake Goldenfein | Associate Professor Melbourne Law School<https://law.unimelb.edu.au/about/staff/jake-goldenfein> | University of Melbourne 185 Pelham St, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia T: +61 3 8344 1330<tel:+61383441330> | E: jake<mailto:jakeg@unimelb.edu.au>g(a)unimelb.edu.au<mailto:jakeg@unimelb.edu.au> SSRN<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/1v_xCYWLOxh3oGoygHVD9sZ?domain=papers.ssr…> | Google Scholar<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/hmSbCZYMPyCMnOnWxCxd2DN?domain=scholar.go…> Chief Investigator | ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/XI9wC2xZLrckonoD6HX4-0f?domain=admscentre…> I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Peoples of the Kulin Nations, the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Law School stands; and offer respect to their Elders, past and present.

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CFP – Routledge Handbook of Platform Cultures
by Panos Kompatsiaris 13 Jun '26

13 Jun '26

Dear list members, [Apologies for cross-posting] The following call may be of interest to some of you. CFP – Routledge Handbook of Platform Cultures (under contract) Editor: Panos Kompatsiaris Abstracts (~300 words) plus a short bio to handbookplatformcultures(a)gmail.com by 31 July 2026. Full call below. Since the 2010s, the rise of platforms has marked a shift in media research from the early emphasis on the potential cultures of freedom, participation, play and democratic potential that internet scholars and activists highlighted, to concerns with cultures of addiction, exhaustion, oligopolistic concentration, disinformation, violence, surveillance, commodification, algorithmic bias and self-exploitative labour. The very term “platform” positions these infrastructures as neutral, egalitarian facilitators rather than “elitist gatekeepers” with explicit normative and technical rules built into them (Gillespie, 2010, p. 348). Several monographs looked at platform enclosures from political-economic, infrastructural and industrial perspectives by mobilizing specifically the term “platform” (e.g. Jin 2015; Srnicek 2017; Van Dijck, Poell and de Waal, 2018; Steinberg, 2019; Poell, Nieborg, and Duffy 2021). The datafication of social and cultural life that accompanied this transformation yielded a set of concepts that have moved with somewhat unusual speed from coinage to canon, such as surveillance capitalism (Zuboff, 2019), data colonialism (Couldry and Mejias, 2019), algorithmic taste (Seaver, 2022) and algorithmic power (Bucher, 2018; Cheney-Lippold, 2017), among others. Critical internet studies is now hard to imagine without this conceptual vocabulary. Yet if platforms grow into such powerful interventionist systems, how do cultural formations, and what we might call “platform cultures”, take shape with and within them? Platform-native practices such as binge-watching or scrolling, minor aesthetic categories (Ngai, 2012) like cringe and cursed, music movements such as vaporwave (Born and Haworth, 2017), or the everyday use of emojis, reaction buttons and memes (Shifman, 2014) codify cultural categories and prefigure criteria of aesthetic judgement. In cultures of self-tracking, measurement, wellness, self-help and life coaching, promises of aspiration, creativity, intimacy and empowerment may give way to what Lovink (2019) describes as “platform nihilism” involving exhaustion, burnout and boredom. The labour of influencers, micro-celebrities and lifestyle gurus (Baker and Rojek, 2019; Abidin and Brown, 2018; Raun, 2018), often both aspirational and self-exploitative (Duffy, 2017), constructs a logic of the self that is indistinguishable from the logic of the corporation (Bollmer and Guinness, 2024), creeping into wider social and creative life (Bishop, 2025). Generative AI crashes into this landscape, with filters and synthetic aesthetics, automated content moderation and AI-generated creative practices seeping into most dimensions of platformized life. Sites such as ChatGPT, Claude and Midjourney are themselves platforms, hijacking notions of authorship and knowledge production and crystallising collective human labour and cognition into extractive infrastructures that are increasingly difficult to opt out of (Pasquinelli, 2023; Lindgren, 2023; Hao, 2025). This Handbook then sets out to explore how platforms weave and bind assemblages of the self and other, value and exchange, difference and norm. It is positioned within cultural media studies while drawing on critical political economy, art and aesthetics, media anthropology and science and technology studies, asking what platform cultures look like, feel like and mean: what aesthetic forms (Ngai, 2012; Berlant, 2011) and “personalized semiotic spectacles” (Lovink, 2022, p. 101), identities (Noble, 2018; Benjamin, 2019; Brock, 2020; Banet-Weiser, 2018), everyday habits (Paasonen, 2021) and political imaginaries they stir, from alt-right ecosystems (Lewis, 2018) to left-wing political streaming and figures like Hasan Piker (Harris, Foxman and Partin, 2023). In doing so, it aims to move beyond the binary of a playful, hopeful participatory culture “undone” by oligopolistic platformisation, and instead to reckon with the practices, aesthetics and politics, inherited and emergent, that platforms “platformise”. The Handbook aspires to have a global perspective, as platform cultures extend across a multipolar ecosystem with different origins, architectures and logics spanning the US, China, Europe and beyond. Insofar as nation states, rather than merely free-floating corporations, assume an increasingly pervasive role in steering platform capitalisms and cultures (Steinberg, Zhang, and Mukherjee, 2024) this Handbook builds on this line of inquiry by asking: do Chinese-designed algorithms generate different aesthetic sensibilities than American ones, or is there a transcultural and transnational algorithmic uniformity rooted in the design assumption of an already-formed “global” audience? How do platform cultures develop within distinct digital ecosystems, including super-apps such as China’s WeChat (Plantin and de Seta, 2019), Russia’s Yandex (Kontareva and Kenney, 2023), and Southeast Asia’s Grab (Goggin and Athique, 2026), as well as the streaming and content infrastructures of the Arabic-speaking world (Khalil and Zayani, 2022), and others that operate with different languages and regulatory regimes? What happens when circulating platform practices like influencer culture are enacted in national or regional contexts with diverse political structures and linguistic landscapes? Case studies extend across continents and contexts beyond the Western ones, including but not limited to Asian digital cultures (de Kloet et al., 2019), African mobile-first platform ecologies, Latin American platform practices, and other contexts often grouped under the heading of the “Global South” (Arora, 2019; Bouquillion, Ithurbide and Mattelart, 2023). Topics The volume welcomes chapters that offer conceptually grounded overviews of their topic area, accessible to an interdisciplinary readership. Chapters should map key debates, ideas and developments, drawing on examples (including the contributor’s own research where relevant) to ground and illustrate the argument. Contributors are encouraged to attend to intersections of class, power and identity, and to draw on geographically diverse examples where relevant to their topic. The volume is provisionally organised around six thematic sections addressing: (I) technology, datafication and experience; (II) aesthetics, niches and affects; (III) identities, intimacies and commodification; (IV) labour, attention and value; (V) everyday platform practices; and (VI) political movements and counterpublics. Indicative topics of interest include, but are not limited to: Technology and datafication: platform capitalism and selfhood; algorithmic subjectivities; algorithmisation and cultural life; quantified selves and self-tracking; surveillance and internalised moderation; algorithmic visibility and inclusion/exclusion; AI creativity and the posthuman; generative AI, authorship and knowledge. Aesthetics, style and affect: cringe and cursed aesthetics; edgelordism and reactive identities; glitch aesthetics; AI filters and synthetic aesthetics; aesthetic niches (e.g., cottagecore, dark academia, goblincore, NPC); cute animals and animal tokenism; nostalgia and retro-digital aesthetics; meme ecologies; music; nostalgia. Identities and intimacies: platform romance, dating, friendship and affect; gender performance, empowerment and commodification; race, ethnicity and digital identity; food nationalism; tourists and nomads; intersectionality; manosphere (e.g., incels, PUAs, NoFappers); trad-wives and platformed conservatism; girlboss and neoliberal feminism; entrepreneurial masculinities. Labour, attention and value: influencer cultures and micro-celebrity; parasocial relationships and fan labour; affective labour and emotional branding; attention subjectivities; gig work and precarious economies; algorithms and self-performance; clickbait cultures; video (TikTok, YouTube); creator cultures and content optimization. Everyday practices: scrolling, swiping, binge-watching; doomscrolling, digital fatigue and boredom; addiction and discontinuity; cancelling and online judgement; trolling, harassment and affective violence; internet slang; oversharing and vulnerability; challenges, duets and rituals; pranks, comedy and humour; networked mourning and grief practices; children and digital parenting; online care and mutual aid; wellness, life coaching, “biohacking” and confessional cultures; reading attention and short-form vs. long-form reading. Movements, politics and counterpublics: platform activism and countercultures; conspiracy; meme warfare; BreadTube and LeftTube; hustle and grindset memes; platformed spirituality and online faith; digital sovereignty and citizenship; messaging publics (e.g., WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram); platform nationalism; policy and citizenship cultures (e.g., Great Firewall of China, EU Digital Services Act); mobile-first cultures; data frugality practices; streaming violence, wars, and atrocity witnessing; environment and climate activism. Submission Guidelines If you are interested in contributing, please send an abstract of approximately 300 words and a short biographical note to handbookplatformcultures(a)gmail.com by July 31, 2026. Abstracts should include a working title, a brief outline of the chapter’s argument and scope, and an indication of the platforms, cases or cultural phenomena that will be discussed. Timeline Abstract submission deadline: July 31, 2026 Notification of acceptance: September 15, 2026 Full chapter submission: April 1, 2027 Peer review feedback to authors: May 15, 2027 Revised chapters due: June 15, 2027 Final manuscript submission to Routledge: July 2027 References Abidin, C. and Brown, M.L. (2018) Microcelebrity Around the Globe: Approaches to Cultures of Internet Fame. Bingley: Emerald Publishing. Arora, P. (2019) The Next Billion Users: Digital Life Beyond the West. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Baker, S.A. and Rojek, C. (2019) Lifestyle Gurus: Constructing Authority and Influence Online. Cambridge: Polity Press. Banet-Weiser, S. (2018) Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny. Durham: Duke University Press. Benjamin, R. (2019) Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. Cambridge: Polity Press. Berlant, L. (2011) Cruel Optimism. Durham: Duke University Press. Bishop, S. (2025) Influencer Creep: How Optimization, Authenticity, and Self-Branding Transform Creative Culture. Oakland: University of California Press. Bollmer, G. and Guinness, K. (2024) The Influencer Factory: A Marxist Theory of Corporate Personhood on YouTube. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Born, G. and Haworth, C. (2017) ‘From microsound to vaporwave: Internet-mediated musics, online methods, and genre’, Music and Letters, 98(4), pp. 601–647. Bouquillion, P., Ithurbide, C., and Mattelart, T. (eds.) (2023) Digital Platforms and the Global South: Reconfiguring Power Relations in the Cultural Industries. London: Routledge. Brock, A. (2020) Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures. New York: NYU Press. Bucher, T. (2018) If...Then: Algorithmic Power and Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cheney-Lippold, J. (2017) We Are Data: Algorithms and the Making of Our Digital Selves. New York: NYU Press. Couldry, N. and Mejias, U.A. (2019) The Costs of Connection: How Data is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism. Stanford: Stanford University Press. de Kloet, J., Poell, T., Zeng, G and Chow, Y.F. (2019) ‘The platformization of Chinese society’, Chinese Journal of Communication, 12(3), pp. 249–256. Duffy, B.E. (2017) (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender, Social Media, and Aspirational Work. New Haven: Yale University Press. Hao, K. (2025) Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI. New York: Penguin Press. Harris, B.C., Foxman, M. and Partin, W.C. (2023) ‘“Don't Make Me Ratio You Again”: How Political Influencers Encourage Platformed Political Participation’, Social Media + Society, 9(2). Gillespie, T. (2010) ‘The politics of “platforms”’, New Media & Society, 12(3), pp. 347–364. Goggin, G. and Athique, A.M. (2026) ‘Super apps as digital transaction platforms: What Southeast Asia's Grab tells us’, Platforms and Society. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/29768624251412170 <https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1177%2F2976862425…> Jin, D.Y. (2015) Digital Platforms, Imperialism and Political Culture. New York: Routledge. Kontareva, A. and Kenney, M. (2023) ‘National markets in a world of global platform giants: The persistence of Russian domestic competitors’, Policy & Internet, 15(3), pp. 327–350. Lewis, R. (2018) Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube. New York: Data & Society Research Institute. Lindgren, S. (2023) Critical Theory of AI. Cambridge: Polity Press. Lovink, G. (2019) Sad by Design: On Platform Nihilism. London: Pluto Press. Lovink, G. (2022) Stuck on the Platform: Reclaiming the Internet. Amsterdam: Valiz. Ngai, S. (2012) Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Noble, S.U. (2018) Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: NYU Press. Paasonen, S. (2021) Dependent, Distracted, Bored: Affective Formations in Networked Media: MIT Press. Plantin, J.-C. and de Seta, G. (2019) ‘WeChat as infrastructure: the techno-nationalist shaping of Chinese digital platforms’, Chinese Journal of Communication, 12(3), pp. 257–273. Pasquinelli, M. (2023) The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence. London: Verso. Poell, T., Nieborg, D., and Duffy, B.E. (2021) Platforms and Cultural Production. Cambridge: Polity Press. Raun, T. (2018) ‘Capitalizing intimacy: New subcultural forms of micro-celebrity strategies and affective labour on YouTube’, Convergence, 24(1), pp. 99–113. Seaver, N. (2022) Computing Taste: Algorithms and the Makers of Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Shifman, L. (2014) Memes in Digital Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Srnicek, N. (2017) Platform Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press. Steinberg, M. (2019) The Platform Economy: How Japan Transformed the Consumer Internet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Steinberg, M., Zhang, L., and Mukherjee, R. (2024) ‘Platform capitalisms and platform cultures’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, 28(1), pp. 21–29. Van Dijck, J., Poell, T., and de Waal, M. (2018) The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Zuboff, S. (2019) The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. London: Profile Books.

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NEW BOOK - Planet Digital: A Global Media Cultures Reader
by Tom Divon 13 Jun '26

13 Jun '26

Hey AoIR people! I invite you to explore *Planet Digital: A Global Media Cultures Reader*, a new volume co-edited by the brilliant Adrienne Shaw, Aswin Punathambekar, and Jonathan Gray that brings together 29 chapters from scholars across the globe challenging the myth of the "global village. Each chapter opens a window into how regional histories, infrastructures, economies, and power relations shape the uneven landscapes of our digital world, and together they form a field-defining anthology examining the texts, genres, platforms, and industries that make up contemporary digital culture. From influencer cultures, streaming platforms, esports, and TikTok to Squid Game, K-Pop, Queer spaces, Marvel, Bluey, and Nollywood, the collection offers a rich set of case studies illuminating how digital media both reflect and remake cultural life across different parts of the world. This book can also be a fantastic teaching resource, with each chapter unpacking a major digital phenomenon in an accessible and engaging way while introducing students to the infrastructural, cultural, political, and economic dynamics that shape it. Whether you're teaching digital culture, media industries, platform studies, or global media, there's plenty here to spark students' critical thinking and deepen their understanding of the forces shaping our digital world! Table of contents: 1) *Introduction: Towards a Global and Planetary Understanding of Digital Cultures *| Adrienne Shaw, Aswin Punathambekar, and Jonathan Gray 2) *Afrobeats: Informality, Piracy, and Extraction *| Olufunmilayo B. Arewa and Ayodeji O. Fakolade 3) *Anime: A History of a Global, Digital Form* | Marc Steinberg 4) *Bluey: Cultural Policy and Children’s Television* | Anna Potter 5) *Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte: Race and Ambivalence in Global Streaming Media* | Laura Guimarães Corrêa & Francisco Leite 6) *Carnival Row: Mobile Production and the New Geography of the Streaming Economy* | Petr Szczepanik 7) *Cricket: A Tale of Empire and Media Technology *| Douglas-Wade Brunton 8) *Data Centers: The Environmental Costs of Global Digital Media *| Lauren Bridges 9) *FIFA+: Global Sports and the Battle for Control* | Raymond Boyle and Richard Haynes 10) *Instagram: Bollywood Stars and Celebrity Culture* | Sreya Mitra 11) *K-pop: Affective Ownership and Digital Fandom* | Benjamin M. Han 12) *LEGO: Digital Play in a Material World* | Derek Johnson 13) *Marvel: Global Theatrical Movies and Multinational Capitalism* | Shawna Kidman 14) *Mukbang and Chibo: Creator Cultures and Platform Governance *| Jian Lin & David Craig 15) *Netflix: The Uneven Globalization of a Video Platform* | Ramon Lobato 16) *Nollywood: Streaming and “New Wave” Filmmaking *| Godwin Iretomiwa Simon 17) *Phishing: Trust in Global Digital Networks* | Nishant Shah 18) *Podcasting: True Crime, Pop Culture, and Intimate Listening Publics* | Usha Raman 19) *Poder Prieto: Media, Colorism, and Cultural Activism* | Juan Llamas-Rodriguez and Silvia Téliz 20) *Queer Eye: Understanding the Transnational Spread of LGBTQ+ Television *| Katherine Sender 21) *Social Media Challenges: From Playful Imitation to Sociopolitical Powe*r | Tom Divon and Jessica Maddox 22) *Spotify: Getting Played in the Age of Digital Platforms* | Jeremy Morris 23) *Squid Game: Korean Thriller, but Global Survival Genre* | Dal Yong Jin 24) *Steam: Skin Trading and Global Market Infrastructures *| Anne Mette Thorhauge, Daniel Nielsen, Kasper Sandbergh Stouge, Christopher Holmbjerg Jensen, Kasper Just Mathiesen, and Leon Xiao 25) *Turkish Television Dramas: Production Labor and Precarity in Global TV Industries* | Ergin Bulut 26) *Twitch: From Esports Players to Creator Cultures* | Mark R. Johnson 27) *We Are Lady Parts: Diasporic Culture and Digital Public Service Media* | Anamik Saha 28) *WhatsApp: Indigenous Storytelling Through Digital Media* | Rashmi Kumari 29) *YouTube: From Legacy Media to Creator Genres* | Heather Jaber 30% discount code: PLDIG30 Order here: https://nyupress.org/9781479835164/planet-digital/ -- *Tom Divon* Creators & Platforms R*esearcher* Dept. of Communication & Journalism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Sammy Ofer School of Communications, IDC, Herzliya Tel: +972-547-532681 [image: Twitter] <https://twitter.com/TomDivon>[image: Instagram] <https://www.instagram.com/divon.tom/>[image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/tom.divon> Website: https://tomdivon.com/ Co-Founder: The Content Creator Scholars Network <https://www.ccsn.site/> *Publications*: >> Playful Activism: Memetic Performances of Palestinian Resistance in TikTok #Challenges <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20563051231157607> >> #JewishTikTok: The JewToks' Fight against Antisemitism <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359548581_JewishTikTok> >> Serious TikTok: Can You Learn About the Holocaust in 60 Seconds? <https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/digitalholocaustmemory/2022/03/24/can-you-lear…> >> Playful Trauma: TikTok Creators and the Use of the Platformed Body in Times of War <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20563051241269281> >> Platform gaslighting: A user-centric insight into social media corporate communications of content moderation <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/29768624241303109> >> The unsolicited algorithm: unveiling gendered harms and (non)consent in apple iOS features <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09589236.2024.2433683?src=> >> The sound of disinformation: TikTok, computational propaganda, and the invasion of Ukraine <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448241251804?icid=int.sj-full…> >> Youthful Platform Commemoration: TikTok as a Frontier for Holocaust Education and Memory <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/383957738_Youthful_Platform_Commem…>

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Special Issue on the Ethics of NLP and Computational linguistics
by z＠zeerak.org 12 Jun '26

12 Jun '26

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Introducing Dyadic: A Research Platform for Online Chat Studies
by Markowitz, David 12 Jun '26

12 Jun '26

Hi all -- I wanted to share a tool I've been developing that may be of interest to scholars who run online chat studies. Dyadic (https://www.chatdyadic.com<https://www.chatdyadic.com/>) is a research platform designed for dyadic and small-group online conversations, supporting both human-to-human and human-to-AI interaction paradigms. Here is what Dyadic currently supports: * Creating experimental and observational studies with configurable conditions (chats with text, chats with audio) * Deploying AI confederates alongside (or in place of) human participants, and deployment of AI suggestions in human-human chats to keep a conversation alive; API integrations with OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, and Hugging Face * Timed sessions, survey delivery before/during/after chat for in situ subjective ratings, plus real-time monitoring for researchers * Integration with Qualtrics, Prolific, SONA, etc. * CSV export of chat logs and survey responses, and many more features... I'm particularly excited about the survey delivery feature, which allows researchers to send questions (Likert-type scales, feeling thermometers, open text boxes) to research participants, pairing their language data with self-reports. Dyadic is in beta testing now, but it is effectively ready for deployment, and I have different projects using it right now. A preprint outlining its features and specifics is here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22227 Please let me know what you think as you use Dyadic, and I'm always open to suggestions of how to make the tool better. Thanks for your time and interest! --Dave -- Dr. David M. Markowitz Associate Professor | Department of Communication Michigan State University https://www.davidmarkowitz.org/

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hyperpop's hyperlinks special issue at the popular music journal (last days!)
by Karina Moritzen Barbosa 12 Jun '26

12 Jun '26

Dear all, I would like to forward our CFP for the special issue entitled "hyperpop's hyperlinks" to be published in 2027 at the Popular Music <https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/popular-music>journal. (With apologies for cross-posting.) ‘what is hyperpop?’, asked Charli XCX back in 2020 on Twitter. This special of Popular Music will contemplate this question while investigating how and to whom the genre matters. Hyperpop’s roots are often traced back to the UK-based PC Music label in the mid-2010s, but equally important are the online communities active on platforms such as Discord, Twitter, and Soundcloud which were later recognised and amplified by Spotify’s ‘Hyperpop’ playlist, started in 2019 (Dandridge-Lemco 2020). In crude terms, hyperpop is a complex phenomenon that demands renewed attention to both longstanding and ‘trending’ issues in popular music studies. Because hyperpop is defined by web-based entanglement and multiplicity, the phenomenon necessitates a wide range of critical approaches, theoretical frameworks, and empirical methodologies. With this special issue we aim to explore the sonic, visual, sociocultural, and political dimensions of a phenomenon that has already left a distinctive imprint on both young fans and mainstream popular culture as a whole. Arguably, hyperpop has been one of the most significant developments in the history of popular music since the turn of the millennium, and we invite a broad range of submissions from early career researchers, independent scholars, and established professors, either in traditional feature article format or as written-out roundtable discussions on a specific theme. Potential topics may include (but are not limited to): – Hyperpop-centred interventions in longstanding debates about popular music and its theorisation. – Reflections on the strengths and limitations of genre theory in music studies from an internet studies perspective, or critical perspectives on the role of streaming services such as Spotify in the consolidation of hyperpop. – Critical perspectives on the political economy of hyperpop and its monetization in the age of platform capitalism. – Interdisciplinary perspectives on hyperpop’s playful audiovisual aesthetics and/or (post-)irony. – (Hyper)links with earlier moments in popular music history, including echoes from prog, glam, punk, New Romantic synth pop, pop punk, early rave music, and so on; archival and/or institutional histories of the PC Music label; the posthumous legacy of SOPHIE; 1990s / 2000s nostalgia, anemoia, and post-internet retrofuturism. – Emic and etic perspectives on: hyperpop as a musical coping mechanism among ‘born digital’ members of Gen-Z; on the idea of hyperpop as the sonification of queerness and/or nonbinary gender identity. – Intersectional analysis of hyperpop, race, queerness, and techno-orientalism. Please submit your paper proposal (c.300 words) by email to hyperpopspecialissue(a)gmail.com <http:/?> by 15 June 2026. Following review, selected articles will be commissioned in July 2026. We hope to have full articles submitted in December 2026, with final materials uploaded to ScholarOne in April 2027. If you require more information, please email the co-editors directly: Karina Moritzen (Universidade Federal Fluminense & Universität Oldenburg) karina.moritzen(a)uni-oldenburg.de <http:/?> Michiel Kamp (Universiteit Utrecht) M.Kamp1(a)uu.nl <http:/?> Ed Katrak Spencer (Universiteit Utrecht) e.c.k.spencer(a)uu.nl <http:/?> Chananja Clement (Universiteit Utrecht) chananjaclement(a)hotmail.com <http:/?> -- Karina Moritzen (ela/dela) Mestra em Estudos da Mídia (PPGEM/UFRN) Doutoranda em Comunicação (PPGCOM/UFF) Doutoranda em Musicologia (Gestalten der Zukunft/Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg)

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37th IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE 2026): First Call for Doctoral Consortium Papers
by Announce 12 Jun '26

12 Jun '26

*** First Call for Doctoral Consortium Papers *** 37th IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE 2026) October 20-23, 2026, 5* St. Raphael Resort and Marina Limassol, Cyprus https://cyprusconferences.org/issre2026/ The ISSRE 2026 Doctoral Symposium is intended to bring together PhD students working on innovative research for improving, monitoring, and assessing the reliability, dependability, and security of software systems, and give them the opportunity to present and discuss their research in a constructive, friendly, and international atmosphere. The goals of the Doctoral Symposium are: • Providing a setting for constructive feedback on participants' current research and guidance on future research directions; • Developing a supportive community of scholars and a spirit of collaborative research; • Providing an opportunity for PhD students to interact with established researchers and practitioners in the software reliability engineering community. The authors of the selected papers will present their work and receive feedback both from a panel of experts from academia and industry and from other Doctoral Symposium students. The students will also have the opportunity to seek advice on various aspects of completing a PhD, such as how to perform research, how to design and execute empirical research, etc. The papers accepted and presented at the Doctoral Symposium will be published in the supplementary conference proceedings of ISSRE 2026 and participants in the Doctoral Symposium will be given the opportunity to present a poster about their dissertation research at the conference. Who should participate Students at all stages (at the beginning, at the middle, or near the end of their PhD) who are working on a thesis topic relevant to ISSRE are encouraged to participate in the Doctoral Symposium. Submissions Each submission consists of two elements: • Research proposal: a 4-page paper describing your dissertation research to be authored by the student only. Your advisor should be included in the acknowledgments. • Letter of recommendation: ask your advisor to submit a letter of recommendation in support of your application. This letter should include your name and a candid assessment of the current status of your dissertation research. The letter should be emailed to both Doctoral Symposium Co-Chairs (issre2026-ds AT stefan-winter.net) with the subject "ISSRE 2026 Doctoral Symposium Recommendation". Your research proposal should contain at least the following items: 1) a title for your work; 2) an abstract (maximum 200 words); 3) a description of the technical problem to be solved and the research questions to be answered; 4) the proposed approach; 5) a brief description of the work accomplished to date; 6) the tentative date of your thesis defense. All submissions must be original work, and must not have been previously published, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Formatting guidelines Papers must be written in English, and be formatted according to the IEEE Computer Society Format Guidelines (https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates) Submissions must comply with IEEE’s author guidelines for AI-generated texts (https://open.ieee.org/author-guidelines-for-artificial-intelligence-ai-gene…) Process All papers must be submitted electronically at the following link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=issre2026 . Please make sure to select the track on Doctoral Symposium at the beginning of the submission process. Submissions will be reviewed by the Doctoral Symposium co-chairs. Authors of submissions selected for acceptance will present their work during the Doctoral Symposium and have the camera-ready version of their paper published in the ISSRE 2026 Supplementary Proceedings and the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. In addition, authors of accepted submissions will be given the opportunity to present a poster about their dissertation research at the conference. Important Dates (AoE) • Submission deadline: July 22, 2026 • Notification of acceptance: July 29, 2026 • Camera-ready copy submission: July 29, 2026 • Author registration deadline: August 19, 2026 Organisation General Chairs • Leonardo Mariani, University of Milano - Bicocca, Italy • George A. Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus Program Coordinator • Roberto Natella, GSSI, Italy Research Program Committee Chairs • Domenico Cotroneo, UNC Charlotte, USA • Jie M. Zhang, King's College London, UK Industry Program Chairs • Jinyang Liu, Bytedance, USA • Sigrid Eldh, Ericsson AB, Sweden Workshop Chairs • Georgia Kapitsaki, University of Cyprus, Cyprus • August Shi, The University of Texas at Austin, USA Doctoral Symposium Chairs • Stefan Winter, LMU Munich, Germany • Lili Wei, McGill University, Canada Fast Abstract Chairs • Luigi Lavazza, University of Insubria, Italy • Yintong Huo, SMU, Singapore JIC2 Chair • Helene Waeselynck, LAAS-CNRS, France Publicity Chairs • Allison K. Sulivan, The University of Texas at Arlington, USA • Jose D'Abruzzo Pereira, University of Coimbra, Portugal Publication Chairs • Sherlock Licorish, Otago Business School, New Zealand • Maria Teresa Rossi, GSSI, Italy Artifact Evaluation Chairs • Naghmeh Ivaki, University of Coimbra, Portugal • Fumio Machida, University of Tsukuba, Japan Diversity and Inclusion Chair • Eleni Constantinou, University of Cyprus, Cyprus Financial Chair • Costas Pattichis, University of Cyprus, Cyprus Web Chairs • Michalis Ioannides, Easy Conferences LTD • Elena Masserini, University of Milano - Bicocca, Italy Registration Chair • Easy Conferences LTD

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The Tech-Media Hybrid: Google's News Ambition
by Dr. Qun Wang 11 Jun '26

11 Jun '26

Dear AoIR Executive Committee, Hope all is well. If possible, I'd like to post the message below to the AoIR mailing list. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Thank you for your time. Dear colleagues, I’m excited to share my book, *The Tech-Media Hybrid: Google’s News Ambition <https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-tech-media-hybrid/9780231207270/>*, recently published by Columbia University Press. The book examines the decades-long relationship between Google and the news industry, from historical, visual, legal, technological, and institutional perspectives. The book grew out of years of research, spanning my PhD, the pandemic, and my transition to an early-career assistant professor. Please help spread the word and feel free to let me know if you have any questions or feedback. Thank you! Regards, Qun Wang, Ph.D. Author of *The Tech-Media Hybrid: Google’s News Ambition <https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-tech-media-hybrid/9780231207270/> (*Columbia University Press) Assistant Professor Department of Communication and Media Studies Fordham University

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GeMAIHc 2027: early registration June 22
by David Silva - IRDTA 11 Jun '26

11 Jun '26

******************************************************** 1st INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ON GENERATIVE & MULTIMODAL AI FOR HEALTHCARE GeMAIHc 2027 Milan, Italy February 1-5, 2027 https://gemaihc.irdta.eu/2027/ ******************************************************** Co-organized by: Human Technopole IRDTA – Institute for Research Development, Training and Advice ****************************************************** Early registration: June 22, 2026 ****************************************************** SCOPE AI is rapidly redefining biomedical research, clinical decision-making, and healthcare delivery worldwide. GeMAIHc 2027 will provide participants with a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art AI methodologies. Topics will include generative modelling, multimodal data integration and augmentation, large language models and clinical NLP, medical image synthesis and analysis, as well as evaluation, robustness, validation, ethical considerations, and regulatory aspects of AI systems in healthcare. GeMAIHc 2027 aims to become a leading international forum at the intersection of generative AI, multimodal learning, and healthcare innovation. The program will emphasize both methodological foundations and real-world clinical applications, combining theoretical insights with practical perspectives. This interdisciplinary event will feature 18 monographic three-hour courses, 2 keynote lectures, 1 symposium, 4 local presentations, and hands-on activities with a hackathon. Leading academics and industry pioneers will share their expertise and perspectives with attendees. In-person interaction and networking will be central components of the event, while full remote participation will also be possible. ADDRESSED TO The program is open to PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in AI, data science, and biomedical disciplines, clinicians and healthcare professionals, industry practitioners and innovators, and policymakers and stakeholders in digital health. There are no formal academic prerequisites for participation. Researchers and professionals at all career stages are welcome. An international audience is expected, with backgrounds spanning computer science, medicine, engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics, and the social sciences. GeMAIHc 2027 will offer a unique opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge of a rapidly evolving field, to interact with experts across disciplines, to establish collaborations and expand professional networks, and to explore how AI is reshaping the future of healthcare. VENUE GeMAIHc 2027 will take place in Milan, one of Europe’s leading international centers for science, industry, fashion, and finance. The venue will be: Human Technopole Viale Rita Levi-Montalcini, 1 20157 Milan, Italy https://humantechnopole.it/en/ STRUCTURE Three parallel courses will run throughout the event. Participants will be free to choose the sessions they wish to attend and may move between courses at any time. A symposium will offer participants and companies the opportunity to present ongoing research or industrial developments through 10-minute oral presentations. The school will include a hackathon, during which participants will work in teams to tackle challenges in generative and multimodal AI for healthcare. All lectures will be video recorded and made available to participants for 45 days after the event. Full live online participation will be possible. Nevertheless, the organizers emphasize the importance of in-person interaction and networking in research training events of this kind. KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Deborah Estrin (Cornell University), Transforming Longitudinal Care with Digital Biomarkers and Therapeutics Lyle Palmer (Adelaide University), tba PROFESSORS AND COURSES (list to be completed) Pierre Baldi (University of California Irvine), [introductory/advanced] The AI-driven Healthcare of the Future Alejandro Frangi (University of Manchester), [intermediate/advanced] Virtual Patient Populations for In Silico Trials Using Generative AI Based on Multimodal Real-World Data Charles Friedman (University of Michigan), [introductory] Synergizing AI and Learning Health Systems to Transform Health Judy Wawira Gichoya (Emory University), [introductory/advanced] Combination in a Hands on Lab for Harmonizing Radiology Datasets Maryellen Giger (University of Chicago), [introductory/intermediate] Role of Data & Algorithms in Trustworthy Medical Imaging AI Casey Greene (University of Colorado), [introductory/advanced] Translating Generative AI into Healthcare from Pharmacogenomics to Foundation Models Tina Hernandez-Boussard (Stanford University), [intermediate/advanced] The AI Lifecycle in Healthcare: Evaluation, Deployment, and Responsible Implementation Jianying Hu (IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center), [intermediate/advanced] Advanced Computing for Biomedical Research and Discovery Jayashree Kalpathy-Cramer (University of Colorado), [introductory] Toward Digital Twins: Multimodal AI for Imaging and Precision Medicine Alex John London (Carnegie Mellon University), [intermediate/advanced] Ethical and Scientific Challenges to Unlocking the Clinical Value of Artificial Intelligence Faisal Mahmood (Harvard University), tba Tom Pollard (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), tba Hoifung Poon (Microsoft Research), [advanced] Toward Virtual Patient: AI for Accelerating Medical Discovery Jian Tang (Mila-Québec AI Institute), [introductory/advanced] Generative AI for Protein Design Peter van Ooijen (University of Groningen), [intermediate] Multimodal AI for Adaptive Radiotherapy: Tumor Segmentation, Uncertainty, and Explainability Karin Verspoor (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology), [introductory/intermediate] AI Scientists and beyond: Roles for GenAI in Biomedical Research and Discovery Jelmer M. Wolterink (University of Twente), tba SYMPOSIUM A symposium will feature voluntary 10-minute oral presentations on ongoing research projects and industrial developments. Participants interested in presenting should submit a one-page abstract including title, authors, and summary to david(a)irdta.eu by January 8, 2027. HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES Hands-on team activities will be organized around challenges in generative and multimodal AI for healthcare. The challenges will be released two weeks before the beginning of the school. A jury will evaluate the submissions, and the winners will be announced at the end of February 2027. Winning teams will receive a modest monetary prize, while runners-up will receive certificates of recognition. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Jan Funke (Milan) Ilaria Guerini (Milan) Francesca Ieva (Milan) Carlos Martín-Vide (Tarragona, program chair) Michela Carlotta Massi (Milan, local chair) Santiago Montes (Tarragona, webpage) Sara Morales (Luxembourg, finances) David Silva (London, organization chair) REGISTRATION Registration is available at: https://gemaihc.irdta.eu/2027/registration/ The selection of six courses requested during registration is tentative and non-binding. This information will help estimate demand for logistical planning purposes. As venue capacity is limited, registrations will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration will close once capacity has been reached. Early registration is strongly recommended. FEES Registration fees include access to all school activities and lunches. Several early registration deadlines are available, and fees vary depending on the registration period. Fees are identical for on-site and online participation. ACCOMMODATION Accommodation suggestions will be provided in due time at: https://gemaihc.irdta.eu/2027/accommodation/ CERTIFICATE Participants will receive a certificate indicating 40 hours of academic activities. This certificate should be suitable for participants seeking ECTS recognition from their home institutions. SPONSORS Companies, institutions, and organizations interested in sponsoring the event may download the sponsorship leaflet from: https://gemaihc.irdta.eu/2027/sponsors/ QUESTIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION david(a)irdta.eu ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Human Technopole Universitat Rovira i Virgili IRDTA – Institute for Research Development, Training and Advice

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Tenure-track position with DIGSUM
by Simon Lindgren 11 Jun '26

11 Jun '26

Hi all! As Director of the DIGSUM Centre for Digital Social Research at Umeå University, I want to encourage digital/social scholars (within 7 years of obtaining their PhD) to apply for a tenure-track position with us. The amazing conditions are: - A 6-year position as Assistant Professor with substantial protected research time, a yearly 1 million SEK (€ 90k / $ 105 k) - Comes with a fully funded PhD student for you to recruit and supervise - A further yearly 100kSEK (€9k / $ 10.5k) in research resources Your research should broadly align with our work (<https://digsum.org>), and you must be prepared to relocate to Umeå, Sweden. The call will open no later than July 1st 2026. Importantly: this is part of a broader call which isopen to applicants from any discipline. Ten posts will be appointed across the university as a whole, each matched to a strong research environment — DIGSUM being one such environment — through an open competition decided at the faculty level. We are eager to receive applicants in our area and will support any strong application however we can. If you are interested, please contact me directly (<simon.lindgren(a)umu.se>), as making a connection with us before applying is very likely to increase your chances of a match. Best wishes, Simon — Simon Lindgren - - Professor of Sociology Director of DIGSUM Centre for Digital Social Research Umeå University :simonlindgren.com :digsum.org

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