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

FW: Editor openings on a new open access journal
by Breen, Eileen 12 Aug '26

12 Aug '26

Dear all Routledge/Taylor & Francis is launching a new journal: 'Cogent: Communication & Information'. The journal will be open access. Please see https://editorresources.taylorandfrancis.com/editor_recruitment/section-edi…<https://editorresources.taylorandfrancis.com/editor_recruitment/section-edi…> for details on how to express an interest. Very best wishes Eileen Breen Journals Manager, Routledge/T&F Information Classification: General

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Digital Queers and High Tech Gays: The History of LGBTQ+ Cyber Activism
by Alex Ketchum 11 Aug '26

11 Aug '26

I am happy to share that my newest book *Digital Queers and High Tech Gays: The History of LGBTQ+ Cyber Activism (MIT Press, 2027) is now available for pre-order**.* https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262058100/digital-queers-and-high-tech-gays/ To get a sense of the book, here is the table of contents (and I have paste the book description below that) *Table of Contents* Introduction 1 *Part I: Building the Network* 1 LGBTQ+ Labor Organizing Outside the Workplace: Developing Regional, National, and International Organizations of LGBTQ+ Associations of Engineers, Scientists, and High- Tech Professionals 2 LGBTQ+ Labor Organizing Within Companies: Queer Employee Resource Groups Reshaping the Tech Industry *Part II: The Cyber Queer Agenda* 3 We’re Here! We’re Queer! We Have E- mail!: Digital Queers and Getting LGBTQ+ Organizations Online 4 Techno Dykes and Teaching the Internet *Part III: Organizations in Transition Between Media Technologies* 5 From Phone Lines to Online: LGBTQ+ Hotlines and HIV/AIDS Switchboards 6 LGBTQ2S+ Archives: Digital Futures and Preserving the Past Conclusion: Net Value and the Dream of a Queerer Internet *Description of the book:* *How LGBTQ+ cyber activists in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom shaped the Internet and how the Internet shaped LGBTQ+ activism.* *Digital Queers and High Tech Gays* tells the history of LGBTQ+ cyber activism in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom and how it ultimately shaped the Internet as we know it. Beginning in 1980, queer cyber activists founded regional, national, and international organizations of engineers, scientists, and high-tech professionals. From advocating for tech workers’ rights to equipping LGBTQ+ organizations with the hardware and software needed to do their work to creating in-person and online spaces where they shared information, socialized, and preserved queer histories, LGBTQ+ cyber activists used analog and digital technologies to transform queer folks’ lives both on the Internet and away from the keyboard. Queer cyber activists also built crucial Internet infrastructures and expanded the idea of who could be an Internet user. And, through their work with LGBTQ2S+ archives, they ultimately created the tools needed to preserve their own history. In this book, Alex Ketchum shares their untold, pathbreaking story. -- Alex Ketchum, PhD Associate Professor at McGill University's Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies Director of the Just Feminist Tech and Scholarship Lab Author of *Digital Queers and High Tech Gays: the History of LGBTQ+ Cyber Activism* (MIT Press, 2027) Co-editor of *Queers at the Table: An Illustrated Guide to Queer Food *(Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025) Founder of Disrupting Disruptions and Creator of The Feminist Restaurant Project Author of* Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses* (Concordia Uni Press, 2022) Author of *Engage in Public Scholarship!: A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication* (Concordia Uni Press, 2022) alexketchum(dot)ca| pronouns she/her

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Call for papers | II EPEA 2026 — Artificial Intelligence and Political Communication
by jcfcorreia＠gmail.com 11 Aug '26

11 Aug '26

Dear Colleagues Dear Colleagues, I,m writing from Portugal, where I am a member of LabCom – Communication Lab. LabCom is a research unit that brings together researchers from media and communication studies, philosophy, sociology, and computer science, with a shared interest in digital and online phenomena. Let me present our new event: LabCom — Communication Laboratory of the University of Beira Interior (UBI) is organising, on 10–11 December 2026, the II EPEA — International Seminar “The Public Sphere in the Age of Algorithms”, under the theme Artificial Intelligence and Political Communication. The event will take place entirely online, via videoconference. From populism to disinformation, from deepfakes to polarisation, from surveillance to platform governance, the II EPEA sets out to examine the impact of AI on the public sphere. Thematic areas We particularly welcome proposals combining empirical research, theoretical reflection and critical analysis on: • AI, Populism and Authoritarian Leadership • Algorithmic Literacy and Digital Citizenship • AI and New Networked Social Movements • AI, the Public Sphere and the Crisis of Deliberation • Surveillance, Control and Predictive Policing • AI, Political Polarisation and Online Radicalisation • AI Regulation and Platform Governance • AI, Political Microtargeting and Electoral Communication • AI and New Forms of Agenda-Setting and Gatekeeping • Conspiracy Theories and Algorithmic Recommendation • Hate Speech, Symbolic Violence and Digital Harassment • Deepfakes, Disinformation and Data Authenticity • Algorithmic Transparency, Auditing and Accountability • AI Ethics, Algorithmic Discrimination and Human Rights How to take part • Abstracts of up to 350 words (excluding title, keywords and references), in Portuguese, English or Spanish. • Each author may submit up to two proposals. Deadline: 30 September 2026. • Submission: https://forms.gle/74uycCbZf412greo8 • Notification of acceptance: 15 October. Registration and payment: by 31 October. • Accepted papers will be published in a book edited by LabCom UBI. • Registration: €30 (free for LabCom UBI members). The event will be streamed live on the LabCom UBI YouTube channel. Committees, timeline and full information: https://labcom.ubi.pt/epea/ Contact: João Carlos Correia (jcorreia(a)ubi.pt) · Branco Di Fátima (brancodifatima(a)labcom.ubi.pt) Please feel free to circulate this call among colleagues and relevant academic networks. João Carlos Correia Department of Communication, Philosophy and Politics Faculty of Arts and Letters University of Beira Interior

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Job Opening: Postdoc in Computational Social Science / CS (ERC)
by Magdalena E Wojcieszak 11 Aug '26

11 Aug '26

Dear all, I hope you are having a great summer. Still a week to apply for the post-doctoral position at the University of Warsaw. Please see below, distribute, and consider applying if relevant. Thank you! Dear Colleagues, We are inviting applications for a Postdoctoral Researcher position at the Centre of Excellence in Social Sciences as part of the ERC NEWSUSE project (PI: Magdalena Wojcieszak). Application Deadline: August 15, 2026 Details: https://cess.idub.uw.edu.pl/en/2026/07/new-job-opening-assistant-professor-… About the Role: Are you an expert in computational social science or computer science? Do you specialize in ML or LLMs, software development, and innovative online experiments? Are you interested in social media, their recommendation algorithms, polarization, and misinformation? The ERC NEWSUSE project explores how to incentivize exposure to quality and verified political news and information online to minimize polarization, misinformation, extremism, etc. The project includes experiments on mock platforms, social media field experiments, and computer and data science methods. The project may also entail algorithmic audits of social media platforms using automated sock puppets and prompt engineering. You will shape the specific questions and designs, and to envision and implement innovative technological solutions to increase the external validity of these designs. Please feel free to circulate this among any qualified candidates or relevant networks. Best regards, CESS Centrum Doskonałości w Naukach Społecznych Uniwersytet Warszawski ul. Dobra 56/66 pok. 2.90 00-312 Warszawa cess(a)uw.edu.pl<mailto:cess@uw.edu.pl> cess.idub.uw.edu.pl<http://cess.idub.uw.edu.pl> [https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4zYE1Ym90JNps-iC23syIG1_T7h…] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CESS_UW" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cess_uw+unsubscribe(a)uw.edu.pl<mailto:cess_uw+unsubscribe@uw.edu.pl>.

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Job Vacance: Digital Media and Storytelling at University of Maastricht
by Tim Jordan 11 Aug '26

11 Aug '26

Dear all, A great job at the University of Maastricht with some excellent colleagues. It mixes digital media and story telling. I've been lucky enough to spend a bit of time there and it looks a terrific opportunity. Assistant Professor in Storytelling and Digital Media https://vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastricht-Assistant-Professo… Our goal: We aim to strengthen our expertise in the study of narrative across media, especially how storytelling evolves across literary, audiovisual, interactive, and digital forms. Your colleagues: You will join the Literature and Art department and the research program Arts, Media, and Culture (AMC). Depending on your research focus, you may also collaborate with colleagues in one of our research centers, such as the Center for Gender and Diversity (CGD), the Maastricht Centre for Arts and Culture, Conservation and Heritage (MACCH), and the Maastricht Center for Citizenship, Migration, and Development. Happy summer or winter wherever you are. Best Tim Jordan -- Tim Jordan, Emeritus Professor of Arts and Sciences, University College London.

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CFP: AoIR CDMX Preconference: In Defense of the Commons
by Zach McDowell 10 Aug '26

10 Aug '26

CFP / Announcement: Pre Conference workshop: October 14, 2026 AoIR Preconference: In Defense of the Commons Workshop facilitators: Zach McDowell, Fenwick McKelvey, Matt Vetter As the Internet becomes just a data dump for the next AI model, there is a growing demand to articulate the loss and what's at stake over the Internet's future. We argue the commons is a critical, normative concept that needs to be reasserted. Our workshop aims to build capacity in the development of new theory and practice through the The Critical Commons Research Network (CCRN), an international research collective focused on examining the sharing of digital public knowledge through infrastructural, political-economic, policy lenses, and other critical approaches. This network connects researchers, creating opportunities for mentorship and collaboration around the (digital) commons. The workshop aims to: 1. Coordinate research on Internet commons and other shared services online, including Wikipedia, the Creative Commons, open AI models, and emerging hardware or peer-to-peer server collectives; 2. Advance new theories of the commons as a normative concept for internet studies; 3. Advocate for alternative forms of resistance against new enclosures of the commons through the Critical Commons Network. A key function of the preconference is to coordinate researchers addressing the loss and threats to current Internet commons. We aim to gather 20 to 30 researchers working along themes around the commons for a focused workshop articulating a plan for the network and to coordinate global research on commons theory and practice. We invite participants to submit a brief biography, description of their research project, and relevant publications. The half-day workshop will be organized around three 60-minute thematic discussions developed from participant responses. Selected participants will be invited to give brief lightning talks to animate discussion. We anticipate themes to include: - Wikipedia: Fondly known as “the last best place on the Internet,” Wikipedia was founded on the utopian promise of a decentralized, collaborative, and nonproprietary model for creating and sharing “the sum of all human knowledge." Wikipedia remains a shining example of the digital “commons” — repositories of knowledge and information that have become infrastructural layers that support the Internet as we know it. - The future of free, libre, and open source collaboration: Beyond Wikipedia and its sister Wikimedia projects, the digital commons also includes open-source software projects (Debian, Pubpub), shadow libraries that circulate publicly funded research, and interoperable interfaces (such as RSS feeds and APIs). These institutional mechanisms for content, whether knowledge, data, multimedia, or code, eschew exclusive traditional property rights in favor of social governance, harnessing diverse, non-market motivations to create shared public goods. - AI Commons: AI drives new forms of extraction and enclosure of the commons through large language models (LLMs) that repurpose volunteer labor and open data in ways that may undermine the sustainability of the projects themselves. Open models, distributed model interfaces, and agentic-human collaborations function as both an alternative and a threat to growing empires of AI. Can open AI actually mitigate these negative externalities for the commons? - Theory and application of “traditional” commons systems (forestry, fisheries, etc) applying towards digital systems. The discussions will be recorded and collected as a report and included in a forthcoming special issue in communication +1. Whenever possible we will attribute contributions to participants, but participants should expect their contributions to inform these outputs. We encourage critical engagement with commons and commons theory. The ideal of the commons as an open, equitable, and self-regulating space exists under constant pressure, for many reasons. Internally, these projects are not the "mythical egalitarian space" they are often described as. They are characterized by power asymmetries, systemic biases, and complex bureaucracies that can exclude newcomers and marginalized communities who may wish to negotiate and challenge established norms. Half-day for short workshopping to ensure there is time for networking activities. Please submit by September 15th (earlier the better): 1. Your name and affiliation; 2. A 250 biography and/or description of your research program; 3. A 250-word interest statement on your idea that you’d like to develop and discuss Participants will be selected through a peer-review, and announced soon thereafter. *Please send CFP emails to: criticalcommonsresearchnetwork(a)gmail.com <criticalcommonsresearchnetwork(a)gmail.com>* (for any clarifications you can reply to me) live long and prosper, Zach -------------------- Zachary J. McDowell, PhD www.zachmcdowell.com New Book out: Wikipedia and the Representation of Reality Read online or on Kindle for free <https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003094081/wikipedia…>

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X/Twitter Data Access Beta Test
by Stuart Shulman 05 Aug '26

05 Aug '26

Attention: Researchers, Researcher Directors, Chairs, and Deans Topic: X/Twitter Data Access Beta Test Authorized X data access for academic and market research has been recently re-established via DiscoverText. We invite scholars and other researchers to join a beta test of this new service. To begin, researchers must sign up for a free account at DiscoverText.com, then schedule a meeting. The beta test will run for 1-2 weeks. All beta test participants will receive a small gratis dataset relevant to their research. To schedule a meeting: https://calendly.com/discovertext What to expect: https://youtu.be/BI7XaNW3BPY. Updated short XSifter demo: https://youtu.be/lNGyE4a7Apk. This is the beta version. It allows you to generate estimates using a date range going back 30 days. As the tool evolves, we will let users combine micro sampling, human labeling feedback, and AI to revise queries. The goal will be to reduce data budget waste and return highly responsive datasets. We anticipate version 2 will include access to the complete, undeleted history of X/Twitter. This should be live during the fall semester. DiscoverText was a university tech transfer that grew out of NSF-funded eRulemaking research from 2000-2008. It is foremost a web-based scientific instrument for improving human and machine learning. The federal government uses it to sort public comments. Corporations use it on large-scale surveys and in eDiscovery. Academics have cited DiscoverText in theses, books, and articles across the disciplines, using diverse methods, and in many languages: https://tinyurl.com/DT4Twitter. Though XSifter is new, our work with Twitter dates to 2011. We have spent more than a decade providing a platform compliant with the X/Twitter Terms of Service. This includes live checks for deletions, suspensions, and privacy changes. The pillar of this compliance system is the use of the live X/Twitter display. The most likely new users of this platform will be from the digital humanities and social science branches of data science. However, health sciences, legal scholars, and a range of other disciplines as well as professions have found the tools and data accessible via our graphical user interface. While research interest in X/Twitter data has dropped significantly due to concerns about ownership, bots, trolls, and the cost of formerly free data, X/Twitter is the press release platform of choice for world leaders, corporations, terrorists, protesters, and citizens alike. Please share this information widely at your institution. Thanks, Stu -- Dr. Stuart W. Shulman Founder and CEO, Texifter Editor Emeritus, Journal of Information Technology & Politics

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Call for Papers: 'Age-appropriate design of online platforms: questions for EU law and children’s rights'
by Eskens, S.J. (Sarah) 05 Aug '26

05 Aug '26

** Call for Papers: ‘Age-appropriate design of online platforms: questions for EU law and children’s rights’ ** Governments and parents throughout Europe are demanding that minors are better protected when they go online. So far, much of the debate has concentrated on social media age limits. France has adopted statutory social media age restrictions. Similar efforts are being made in other European countries. There is also increasing political pressure on the EU to take action. In response to that, the European Commission established a panel of experts to advise on child safety online. After the co-chairs of the panel presented their final report in July 2026, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed her support for ‘phased and gradual access for different age ranges’. When it comes to protecting minors online, social media age limits are just one possible solution to a complex and broad problem. First, the problem is broader than social media, as online games and AI chatbots present similar risks to social media, including exposure to harmful content, manipulation, grooming, and problematic or addicted use. Second, social media age limits presume there is a single ‘right’ age to start using these services, whereas a children’s rights perspective requires age-appropriate design of online services that respects children’s evolving capacities. The final report of the co-chairs of the special panel acknowledges these issues. It speaks of ‘social media+’ instead of just social media and calls for ‘age-appropriate regulation’ of such services, which signals the policy debate may be moving beyond simple age limits. Age-appropriate design of online services raises many questions on the intersection of children’s rights and EU law. For instance, what is the role of EU platform regulation and data protection law in ensuring age-appropriate design of social media, online games, and AI chatbots? Furthermore, how do different solutions to ensure age-appropriate design relate to children’s human rights? For example, if countries implement statutory age limits of 16 years for social media, then is the interference this poses with children’s right to freedom of expression justified in light of its aim? Another question is to what extent the EU has competence to legislate EU-wide design or access requirements for online services used by minors. At the same time, it can be asked how social media age limits and other solutions at the national-legal level relate to the Digital Services Act’s fully harmonised regime. It is also an open question which services should be addressed in protecting children online, and how the targeted services should be defined. The fast developments around social media age limits and the protection of minors online necessitate critical reflection from different legal perspectives. It is crucial that the discussion does not narrow itself to statutory age limits as the only solution available to EU and national lawmakers, and that the interaction between children’s rights and EU law is sufficiently considered. Therefore, we are organising a workshop to bring together scholars working on the protection of minors online, from the perspective of either children’s rights or EU law. The goal of the workshop is to bring together these different perspectives and explore how children’s rights should inform the implementation of existing EU laws (platform regulation, data protection, media regulation) and possible new legal solutions, including social media age limits. ** Submissions ** Are you interested in presenting your work during this workshop? Please submit an abstract of a maximum of 750 words to mailto:s.j.eskens@vu.nl with the subject line ‘Workshop age-appropriate design of online platforms’. Please also include a short biography of up to 150 words in your submission. We specifically welcome work in progress so that authors can benefit from the wide range of views we aim to bring together. We also encourage early-career scholars, including doctoral candidates, to submit an abstract. The deadline for submitting abstracts is 16 October 2026. We aim to conclude the selection process mid-November. ** Workshop format ** Accepted contributors will each give a presentation of approximately 15 to 20 minutes, followed by discussion. This is a discussion-oriented workshop, and we ask participants to attend for the full day so that everyone can engage with each other’s work. ** Financial support ** This workshop is funded by the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research. There will be a limited amount of financial support available to cover accommodation and travel for those with limited institutional resources. Should you require funding to enable your participation to the workshop, please indicate this when submitting your abstract via email. ** Date and location ** The workshop takes place in person at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, which is located at De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam. The date for the workshop is Friday, 19 February 2027. Attending the workshop is free of charge. ** Contact ** For any questions about the workshop or the submission process, please contact Sarah Eskens at mailto:s.j.eskens@vu.nl. ** Convenors ** Sarah Eskens, Assistant Professor in Law and Technology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Simone van der Hof, Full Professor of Law and Digital Technology, Leiden University

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CFP - Soul Sync: Exploring Technological Resonance in Religious and Spiritual Energy - Workshop at NordiCHI 2026
by Sarah Cooney 04 Aug '26

04 Aug '26

Hello AoIR, Please see the CFP below for this workshop on intersections of technology and religion/spirituality. More details and the submission form can be found at the workshop website: https://spiritedhci.org/nordichi-2026/#workshop-description We hope to see you in Vaasa! -------- We invite all HCI researchers, designers, and religious or spiritual (R/S) leaders/theologians/practitioners who are interested in considering R/S and technology in their work, including those who don't generally work in R/S contexts but have had intersections (intentional or not) with R/S (e.g., study participants who cite R/S beliefs or practices as a key consideration in technology adoption). Participants of any and all R/S beliefs (including no beliefs) are welcome. We call on potential participants to share short submissions (3-4 pages, excluding references) that resonate with one of the four themes, and may take the form of (but are not limited to). * Case studies discussing completed, in-progress, or potential studies * Design artifacts/artworks related to energy in R/S contexts * Research methods/approaches for exploring R/S experiences (e.g., autoethnography) * Position papers articulating strategies, principles, guidelines, or themes for R/S-related work We ask that participants submit non-anonymized submissions via the workshop website (form below). Submissions will be lightly peer-reviewed by the organizers to ensure fit with workshop themes. With permission, accepted submissions may be published on the workshop website. NOTE: At least one author of each accepted submission must attend the workshop in person, and all participants must register for both the workshop and at least one day of the conference. Sarah Cooney, Ph.D. Assistant Professor she/her Department of Computing Sciences Villanova University sarah.cooney(a)villanova.edu<mailto:thomas.way@villanova.edu>

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REDINPLA-MOCReN symposium, Methodological Exchanges on Music and Platforms, 12 August 2026
by Steven Gamble 04 Aug '26

04 Aug '26

Dear colleagues, Please join us for a collaborative symposium presented by Red de investigadores en Plataformas <https://sites.google.com/view/redinpla/inicio> (REDINPLA) and the Music and Online Cultures Research Network <https://www.mocren.org/> (MOCReN): Methodological Exchanges. Music/Musicians, Interstitiality, and Platforms. The event is free to attend online at Wednesday, 12 August 2026, 10:00–13:00 Argentina and Brazil / 8:00–11:00 Colombia and Ecuador / 14:00–17:00 BST. The symposium features a talk from Santiago Videla on mediatisation and interstitiality in video game concerts, with discussant Steven Gamble, followed by presentations and Q&A by Karina Moritzen, Juan José Primosich, and Edward Katrak Spencer. You can register to join the event at https://sites.google.com/view/redinpla/registration if you would like to ask questions, or simply watch the YouTube livestream at https://www.youtube.com/live/lzOALnsD8dc. On a separate note, a reminder of the upcoming deadline for MOCReN's January 2027 Winter Workshop at Utrecht University: https://www.mocren.org/ww27. The call for participation closes on 21 August 2026 – join us in the Netherlands for a care-led and playful research development event on the theme music and (post-)truth in the age of GenAI ‘slopaganda’! Best regards, Stim Dr. Steven Gamble <http://stevengamble.com/> (he/him) Lecturer in Digital Humanities <https://www.southampton.ac.uk/research/institutes-centres/digital-humanities>, University of Southampton — 'Live music imaginaries in the reception of online popular music concerts <https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448261424887>’, New Media & Society, 2026 Popular Music and Online Cultures <https://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/issue/37/4> special issue of Journal of Popular Music Studies (37/4), 2025 Digital Flows: Online Hip Hop Music and Culture <https://academic.oup.com/book/58670> (OUP, 2024) How Music Empowers: Listening to Modern Rap and Metal <https://www.routledge.com/How-Music-Empowers-Listening-to-Modern-Rap-and-Me…> (Routledge, 2021)

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