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CfP: C21MP/MOCReN Collaborative Research Challenge - Algorithmic Intervention on Music Platforms
by Maria Perevedentseva 28 May '26

28 May '26

Dear Colleagues, The Music and Online Cultures Research Network (www.mocren.org<http://www.mocren.org>) and the 21st Century Music Practice Research Centre (www.c21mp.org<http://www.c21mp.org>) are excited to announce a call for proposals for a collaborative research challenge on the theme of Algorithmic Intervention on Music Platforms. The research challenge format encourages the practical development of new critical, reflexive and playful methodologies and, for this iteration, invites participants to hack, retrain and interpret an algorithmic music platform in order to interrogate how it configures musical life. The deadline for initial proposals is 24 July 2026, after which participants will be paired with a collaborator with whom they will work towards a joint-authored, peer-reviewed, DOI-allocated video publication hosted on the UK’s JISC Octopus.ac<http://octopus.ac/> system. Full CfP, deadlines and all relevant info is available at: https://www.c21mp.org/front-page/get-involved/research-challenges/c21mp-moc…. Please consider getting involved! Best, Maria Dr Maria Perevedentseva Lecturer in Musicology, University of Salford School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology New Adelphi Building, Salford, M5 4BR m.perevedentseva(a)salford.ac.uk<mailto:m.perevedentseva@salford.ac.uk>

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CfP American Behavioral Scientist Special Issue "Unsettling the UAP/UFO Technocracy: Disclosure, Conspiracies, and Deep State Imaginaries"
by Marco T Bastos 28 May '26

28 May '26

American Behavioral Scientist Special Issue "Unsettling the UAP/UFO Technocracy: Disclosure, Conspiracies, and Deep State Imaginaries" Guest Editors: Marco Bastos (University College Dublin & City St George’s, University of London) & Marisa Duarte (Arizona State University) Critical study of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) has entered a new era. The 1950s-era fascination with little green men and stealth aviation that historically shaped UFO lore (Eghigian, 2024) has given way to a more institutionally grounded discourse, driven by the 2017-2025 congressional testimonies of pilots and private security contractors attesting to the existence of multi-million dollar programs to investigate UAP (Baio, 2023). Government hearings, whistleblower testimonies, and the release of official reports generate a shifting information landscape in which secrecy, disclosure, speculation, and institutional authority interact in complex ways (Anton & Vugrin, 2022; Yingling & Yingling, 2024), reinvigorating scientific and government consideration of these phenomena (Guthrie, 2025; Oxnevad, 2021). Online communities have since emerged as central arenas for interpreting these developments, negotiating trust, and evaluating the credibility of institutions and evidence (Bastos & Duarte, 2025). This is further shaped by the Trump administration’s release of allegedly declassified UAP documents in 2026, coming one year after the federal defunding of disinformation research and the closure of government agencies designed to deter adversarial influence campaigns. On social media, influencers and media personalities increasingly blend UAP speculation with the extreme ideologies of powerful figures linked to Palantir and the expanding surveillance state (Lipińska et al., 2025; Stise et al., 2024; Durán 2026). Political representatives, meanwhile, have drawn on civilian and military sightings of unclaimed drone campaigns and aerial phenomena to advance both securitization efforts around unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and calls for greater transparency in defense spending and procurement. These developments have attracted sustained critical attention. Scientists and cultural critics alike identify colonialist dynamics in the privatization of space governance and exploration, including in contemporary ideological treatments of UFO/UAP (Kite, 2021; Lechuga, 2023; Salazar & Gorman, 2023). Internet and surveillance studies scholars identify powerful consolidations between technology companies and military-intelligence agencies—consolidations that in some ways echo the enduring concerns of ufologists and experiencers (Iliadis & Acker, 2022; Taskale, 2026). In such an environment, speculation, strategic ambiguity, and the pragmatics of secrecy become instruments of propaganda, persuasion, and belief formation mobilized by grifters, conspiracists, influence actors, religious zealots, and government power players alike (Hallsby, 2026; Krame et al 2024). In this context, UFO and UAP—long dismissed as the preserve of conspiracy thinking—become the subject of confirmed institutional conspiracy in the form of classified programs, coordinated secrecy, and deliberate disinformation. As such, UAP sustains a wide-ranging academic inquiry spanning government classification procedures, whistleblower protections, media narratives, influence campaigns, technocratic systems of belief, the role of gnosis in technoscientific research, and infrastructures and frameworks to sustain scientific investigators pushing the boundaries of their methodological and epistemological toolkits (Agrama, 2021; Andresen, 2023; Kripal, 2024; Knuth et al., 2025; Lomas et al., 2025; Schwarz & Seidl, 2023). UAPs also display tangible connections with the military-industrial complex and the emerging military-digital complex—defined by the militarization of cyber operations conducted through social engineering, disinformation, cyberattacks, artificial intelligence, and fully autonomous systems (Durán, 2026). In this context, disclosure itself can be weaponized to galvanize anti-establishment sentiment. Government transparency regarding UAP is therefore a politically mediated practice shaped by national security concerns, classification regimes, and institutional power (Creeber, 2025). Similarly, while disclosure evolved as a grassroots political movement, it remains vulnerable to transparency theater and repurposing in the service of partisan conflict. Disclosure has also become a point of contention in the wake of the heavily redacted Epstein files and the ongoing expectation of meaningful UAP declassification. In this context, online communities such as forums, subreddits, and social networks operate as sites where evidence is debated, claims are verified or contested, and cultural meanings around anomalous phenomena are constructed. Such communities have also assembled historical evidence suggesting that disinformation campaigns have been deliberately deployed by state actors to obscure classified aerospace technologies and manipulate public narratives. Understanding how such campaigns intersect with contemporary misinformation ecosystems remains an important and underexplored challenge for the field (Stahlman, 2024). This Special Issue of American Behavioral Scientist seeks to expand an emerging research agenda at the intersection of communication studies, media sociology, cultural studies, science communication, and information studies, with particular attention to how UAP/UFO discourse circulates across sociotechnical systems. We invite submissions that analyze how disclosure practices, secrecy regimes, and disinformation campaigns intersect with digital media infrastructures and public knowledge production. Scholars from communication studies, cultural studies, information science, sociology, political communication, science and technology studies (STS), media studies, international relations, and computational social science are encouraged to contribute. Submissions may examine how disclosure events reconfigure public discourse, reshape institutional trust, and influence the circulation of narratives online. We particularly welcome work that approaches digital platforms as infrastructures of epistemic negotiation, or that engages the political economy of information surrounding UAP. Methodological approaches may include cultural studies, computational social science, discourse analysis, digital ethnography, archival research, and beyond. We especially encourage submissions that engage critically with these themes from transnational and transdisciplinary perspectives, and invite manuscripts addressing any aspects of these complex social, technological, cultural, and religious phenomena from any global location, including but not limited to: - UAP discourse and the Silicon Valley technocracy - Disclosure, transparency movements, and whistleblower protections - Government secrecy, classification regimes, and secret military programs - Community archives, FOIA requests, and government surveillance of civilian researchers - Decolonial approaches to UAP and UFO studies - Golden Dome, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), and missile defense infrastructures - Palantir, private security contractors, and the expansion of surveillance systems - Space governance, securitization, and privatized space intelligence - The Deep State, the Network State, and technocratic governance - Religious and spiritual frameworks for UAP, including Christian nationalism - Conspiracy thinking, skepticism, and cultures of debunking - Media and cultural studies approaches to UAP and UFO phenomena - Disinformation campaigns, psychological operations, and influence operations - Corruption, criminal conspiracy, and covert operations - Methodologies for investigating anomalous and edge phenomena Timeline Deadline for paper submission: November 30, 2026 Feedback on paper submissions: March 31, 2027 Expected Special Issue publication: Summer 2027 Initial submissions are format-free and should be sent directly to the Special Issue Editors Marco Bastos (marco.bastos(a)ucd.ie) and Marisa Duarte ( marisa.duarte(a)asu.edu) Contributions will be double-blind peer-reviewed and should be under 8,000 words (including tables, figures, and references). Final submission of accepted manuscripts will be through Manuscript Central. References Agrama, H. A. (2021) “Secularity, Synchronicity, and Uncanny Science: Considerations and Challenges,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 56, 2, 395-415. Andresen, J. (2023) Extraterrestrial Ethics. Ethics International Press Ltd. Anton, A., & Vugrin, F. (2022). “UFOs exist and everyone needs to adjust to that fact.” (Dis) information campaigns on the UFO phenomenon,” Journal of Anomalistics, 22(1), 18–35. Baio, A. (2023). UFO ‘whistleblower’ says government has ‘intact’ non-human craft. The Independent. Bastos, M. & Duarte, M. (2025) “Between Disclosure and Conspiracy: The Transparency Effect on r/UFO and r/UAP Subreddits,” Information, Communication and Society, 1-23. DOI:10.1080/1369118x.2026.2645882 Creeber, G. (2025) “From UFOs to UAPs: is disclosure really imminent?” Intelligence and National Security 40, 3: 583-589. DOI:10.1080/02684527.2025.2488552 Durán, G. (2026). The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. Simon & Schuster. Eghigian, G. (2024) After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon. Oxford University Press. Guthrie, D. (2025) “Flying saucers and the ivory dome: Congressional oversight concerning unidentified anomalous phenomena,” Harvard Law School National Security Journal 16, 1: 194-265. Hallsby, A. (2026) Sovereign, Settler, Leaker, Lie: Forms of the Secret in US Political Rhetoric. The Ohio State University Press. Iliadis, A. & Acker, A. (2024) “The Palantir Files: Public Interest Archives for Platform Accountability,” Information, Communication, and Society 27, 13: 2343, 2365. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2352624 Kite, S. (2021) “‘What’s on the earth is in the stars; and what’s in the stars is on the earth’: Lakota Relationships with the Stars and American Relationships with Apocalypse,” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 45, 1: 137-156. Knuth, K. et al. (2025) “The New Science of Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena (UAP),” Progress in Aerospace Sciences 156 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paerosci.2025.101097 Krame, G., Vivoda, V., & Bar-On, T. (2025). Casting Ambiguity: Securitization of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena in the United States. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 50(2), 263-282. DOI: 10.1177/03043754241256845 Kripal, J. (2024) How To Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else. University of Chicago Press. Lechuga, M. (2023) Visions of Invasion: Alien Affects, Cinema, and Citizenship in Settler Colonies. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson. Lomas, T. et al. (2025) “The UAP Assessment Matrix: A Framework for Evaluating Evidence and Understanding Regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena,” Acta Astronautica 234: 491-503. Lipińska, M., Kotula, N. & Jemielniak, D. (2025). Exploring expert figures in alien-related UFO conspiracy theories. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12 (1), 535-538. DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-04799-8 Oxnevad, I. (2021) The Truth is Mostly Right Here: The Security Dilemma and the Earthly Logic of an Extraterrestrial Threat. Journal of Military and Strategic Studies 21 (2), 180-205. URL: https://jmss.org/article/view/74704/55613 Salazar, J.F. & Gorman, A. (2023) The Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space. Routledge. Schwarz, A. & Seidl, E. (2023) “Stories of Astrobiology, SETI, and UAPs: Science and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life in German News Media From 2009 to 2022.” Science Communication 45, 6: 788–823, https://doi.org/10.1177/10755470231206797. Stahlman, G. (2024) “Closing the Information Gap in Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP) Studies,” in Sserwanga, I., et al., eds. Wisdom, Well-Being, Win-Win: iConference 2024, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, v. 14596. Springer, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57850-2_23 Stise, R., Bingaman, J., Siddika, A., Dawson, W., Paintsil, A., & Brewer, P. (2024). Cultivating paranormal beliefs: how television viewing, social media use, and podcast listening predict belief in UFOs. Atlantic Journal of Communication 32 (4), 629-639. DOI: 10.1080/15456870.2023.2187803 Taskale, A.R. (2026) “Manufacturing the Leviathan: Palantir’s ‘Technological Republic’ and the Nationalist Faction of the Tech Oligarchy,” Science as Culture: 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2025.2607360. Yingling, M. & Yingling, C. (2024) “Academic freedom and the unknown: credibility, criticism, and inquiry among the professoriate,” Humanities and Social Sciences Communication 11, 987.

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Online Book talk with Dr. Sibo Chen - Friday at noon pacific time
by Jaigris Hodson 27 May '26

27 May '26

Hello AoIR-istas, The following online event may be of interest to you and your networks Sibo Chen will be discussing his latest book. Note the event will take place both on Zoom and also in person at Royal Roads University Petro-Rhetoric in Canada: Narrating Extractivism Join us online for a deep dive into the world of extractivism in Canada. This event explores how stories and narratives shape our understanding of the country's oil and gas industries. Perfect for anyone curious about the intersection of energy, environment, and communication. Don't miss out on engaging talks and lively discussions! Petro-Rhetoric in Canada: Narrating Extractivism Tickets, Friday, May 29 * 12 PM - 1 PM PDT | Eventbrite<https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/petro-rhetoric-in-canada-narrating-extractivism…> Jaigris Hodson PhD, Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Digital Misinformation, Polarization and Online Anti-Social Media Resident Fellow, Cascade Institute Professor, College of Interdisciplinary Studies | Royal Roads University T 250.391.2600 | F 250.391.2587 2005 Sooke Road, Victoria, BC Canada V9B 5Y2 | royalroads.ca<https://webmail.royalroads.ca/owa/redir.aspx?C=QXhN0f5Q17WvcmXecxL28GUrFWzz…> Pronouns: she/her/hers LIFE.CHANGING Latest Paper: Authentic expertise: Influencers, misinformation, and authenticity in the online cancer community<https://figshare.le.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Authentic_expertise…> Royal Roads is located on the traditional lands of the Xwsepsum and Lekwungen First Nations' ancestors and families. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail and attachments may contain personal or confidential information for the sole use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient and you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the message and attachments. Royal Roads acknowledges the campus is located on the traditional Lands of the Lekwungen-speaking Peoples, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail and attachments may contain personal or confidential information for the sole use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient and you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the message and attachments.

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New book: IFÁ AS COMPUTATION - Interpretation, Ethics and the Future of Al Governance
by Uyiosa Omoregie 27 May '26

27 May '26

New (short) book out! *IFÁ AS COMPUTATION* *Interpretation, Ethics and the Future of Al Governance* Blurb: "Artificial intelligence is transforming how knowledge is produced, trusted, and acted upon. But what if the dominant understanding of computation itself is too narrow? In this provocative and interdisciplinary work, Uyiosa Omoregie turns to the West African Ifá knowledge system to challenge conventional assumptions about intelligence, technology, and Al governance. Rather than treating computation as mere automation or symbolic processing, Ifá as Computation explores computation as interpretation: contextual, dialogical, ethical, and socially accountable. Drawing connections between Indigenous epistemology, Al safety, Science and Technology Studies (STS), and contemporary governance debates, the book argues that safe Al depends not only on powerful models, but on the interpretive structures through which outputs become meaningful decisions. Bringing African knowledge systems into conversation with modern artificial intelligence, this short book offers a new framework for thinking about responsibility, authority, and the future of computational systems in a rapidly changing technological world." UYIOSA OMOREGIE is an independent researcher and co-founder of Avram Turing, a digital ethics venture. His research explores the West African Ifá knowledge system as a framework for rethinking computation, interpretation, and ethical responsibility in artificial intelligence. He is also the co-author with Kirsti Ryall of the book, Misinformation Matters: Online Content and Quality Analysis (Taylor & Francis, 2023). Available on Amazon https://a.co/d/09VQ4qdl #AI #Computation #Ifa #Africanknowledgesystems #Indigenouscomputation #indigenousknowledge Thanks Uyiosa Omoregie ………………………………… Principal Analyst/Co-Founder Avram Turing Guelph, ON Canada https://avramturing.com/ A digital ethics venture

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10th Workshop on Online Abuse and Harms (WOAH) @EMNLP: 3rd CFP
by Agostina Calabrese 27 May '26

27 May '26

*** Third Call for Papers *** We invite paper submissions to the 10th Workshop on Online Abuse and Harms (WOAH), which will take place on the 29th of October at EMNLP 2026. Website: https://www.workshopononlineabuse.com/cfp.html Important Dates * Registration deadline for mentorship programme: April 10, 2026 * Notification of mentor/mentee match: April 25, 2026 * Submission due: June 26, 2026 * ARR reviewed submission due: August 3, 2026 * Notification of acceptance: August 15, 2026 * Camera-ready papers due: September 10, 2026 * Workshop: 29th October 2026 Overview Digital technologies have brought significant benefits to society, transforming how people connect, communicate, and interact. However, these same technologies have also enabled the widespread dissemination and amplification of abusive and harmful content, such as hate speech, harassment, and misinformation. Given the sheer volume of content shared online, addressing abuse and harm at scale requires the use of computational tools. Yet, detecting and moderating online abuse remains a complex task, fraught with technical, social, legal, and ethical challenges. The 10th Workshop on Online Abuse and Harms (WOAH) invites paper submissions from a diverse range of fields, including but not limited to natural language processing, machine learning, computational social science, law, political science, psychology, sociology, and cultural studies. We explicitly encourage interdisciplinary research, technical and non-technical contributions, and submissions that focus on under-resourced languages. Non-archival papers and civil society reports are also welcome. Topics covered by WOAH include, but are not limited to: * New models or methods for detecting abusive and harmful online content, including misinformation; * Biases and limitations in existing detection models or datasets for abusive and harmful content, especially those in commercial use; * Development of new datasets and taxonomies for online abuse and harms; * Novel evaluation metrics and procedures for detecting harmful content; * Analyses of the dynamics of online abuse, its propagation, and its impact on different communities; * Social, legal, and ethical considerations in detecting, monitoring, and moderating online abuse. Special Theme: “Ten Years of WOAH: Reflecting on Progress and New Frontiers” In its 10th edition, WOAH highlights the theme “Ten Years of WOAH: Reflecting on Progress and New Frontiers”. Over the past decade, WOAH has become a central interdisciplinary venue for online harms research. As harms and enabling technologies have evolved, the field has moved beyond an early focus on textual hate speech and harassment to address more complex phenomena. Advances in AI and online ecosystems have expanded the scale and diversity of harms. Transformer models, multimodal platforms, and recommendation systems have contributed to the escalation of issues like misinformation, radicalisation, child sexual exploitation, identity-based abuse, algorithmic bias, privacy violations, and AI-mediated harms. Methods tackling this have evolved from monolingual lexicon-based approaches to deep learning, multilinguality, multimodality, interpretability, and interdisciplinarity. Despite this progress, fundamental challenges remain. There is limited consensus on what constitutes “harm”, how context and thresholds should be defined, or how harms vary across cultures and modalities. These ambiguities affect datasets and models, constrain comparability, and often marginalise affected communities. The past decade also calls for critical self-reflection. Research has frequently prioritised detection, high-resource languages, and narrowly defined phenomena over intervention, global perspectives, and systemic or structural harms, with insufficient attention to user agency, platform incentives, lived experience, and participatory approaches. Finally, ten years of work have underscored that interdisciplinarity is essential for addressing the sociotechnical nature of the phenomenon. Addressing future online harms will require deeper integration across NLP, ML, social sciences, law, policy, and HCI. WOAH 10 seeks to consolidate lessons from the past decade, identify enduring gaps, and connect research, practice, and policy to guide the next generation of work on online harms. Submission Submission is electronic, using the Softconf START conference management system. Submission link: https://softconf.com/emnlp2026/woah2026/ The workshop will accept three types of papers. 1) Academic Papers (long and short): Long papers of up to 8 pages, excluding references, and short papers of up to 4 pages, excluding references. Unlimited pages for references and appendices. Accepted papers will be given an additional page of content to address reviewer comments. Previously published papers cannot be accepted. 2) Non-Archival Submissions: Up to 2 pages, excluding references, to summarise and showcase in-progress work and work published elsewhere. 3) Civil Society Reports: Non-archival submissions, with a minimum of 2 pages and no upper limit. Can include work published elsewhere. All submissions must use the official ACL style files<https://github.com/acl-org/acl-style-files>. Submissions that do not conform to the required styles, including paper size, margin width, and font size restrictions, will be rejected without review. All submissions should adhere to the workshop policies https://www.workshopononlineabuse.com/policies.html. WOAH Community We are excited to share the WOAH community Slack channel — a workspace for researchers interested in or working on understanding and addressing online abuse and harms! Join us here: https://join.slack.com/t/hatespeechdet-47d7560/shared_invite/zt-2a8d96j4z-g… Contact Info Please send any questions about the workshop to organizers(a)workshopononlineabuse.com<mailto:organizers@workshopononlineabuse.com> Organisers Agostina Calabrese, Cohere Thomas Davidson, Rutgers University-New Brunswick Christine de Kock, University of Melbourne Urja Khurana, Delft University of Technology Marta Marchiori Manerba, University of Turin Paloma Piot, Universidade da Coruña Zeerak Talat, University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. Is e buidheann carthannais a th’ ann an Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann, clàraichte an Alba, àireamh clàraidh SC005336.

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Update on Freedom of Expression Lawsuit: CITR v. Rubio
by Dr. Emma Briant 27 May '26

27 May '26

Dear Colleagues, Some of you may recall I emailed a few weeks ago to let you know about Coalition for Independent Technology Research v Rubio, the effort to defend researchers in the US whose visas are threatened to punish their speech. I wanted to share a brief update following the Hearing on 13th May with this video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJHsI__e6Tc> from the press conference and this op-ed <https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/social-media-marco-rubio-first-…> 'The U.S. is targeting researchers who help us understand the effects of social media' from Brandi Guerkink Executive Director of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research about the importance of this case for disinformation researchers and public interest tech research. In it she explains that: "...these pressures are pushing us toward a future with less transparency, less accountability, and fewer answers to critical questions about the systems that shape our lives." "If the United States forces out the people who study these technologies, it will not be protecting free expression. It will be ensuring the most powerful systems in our society remain the least understood and the least accountable. In that scenario, Silicon Valley wins." Sadly I was unable to make it to DC for the hearing as I am still recovering from surgery but I am glad I was able to help support the fight with my declaration in the lawsuit <https://knightcolumbia.org/documents/jmu5ov6uwy>. We are now waiting for the outcome of the hearing. Emma -- *Dr Emma L Briant* Visiting Associate Professor at University of Notre Dame, USA Fellow at Bard College, Human Rights Project, USA Associate at George Washington University, Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication, USA Associate at University of Cambridge, Center for Financial Reporting & Accountability, UK Affiliate at Monash University, Monash Global Peace and Security Centre, Australia Owner, Director and Consultant: Maven of Persuasion LLC LEARN MORE FROM ME: 🎓 Online course: https://www.udemy.com/course/propaganda-disinformation-level-1-beginners/?r… 📚 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/emmalbriant 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dremmalbriant2459/streams 🌐 emma-briant.co.uk 🗣️ Speaking agent: Chartwell Speakers <https://www.chartwellspeakers.com/speaker/emma-briant/> 📰 Sign up for my Newsletter <https://emma-briant.co.uk/sign-up-for-important-updates/> 📘 Editor of *The Routledge Handbook of the Influence Industry* (2024, with Bakir) 📘 Author of: *Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global Change *(2015) 📘 Author of: *Bad News for Refugees* (2013, with Philo and Donald) Mastodon @emmalbriant@mastodon.online Twitter @emmalbriant "I thought yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life but it turns out today is." - Steve Martin “Women are like teabags . We don’t know our true strength until we are in hot water.” - Unknown

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mediastudies.press book manuscript submission window: 1 June through 31 July, 2026
by Park, Dave 26 May '26

26 May '26

mediastudies.press, the scholar-led and nonprofit OA publisher, is happy to announce our annual proposal window from 1 June to 31 July, 2026. During this date window, authors are encouraged to submit a proposal for review. mediastudies.press welcomes submissions from scholars across media, communication, and film studies. We currently publish in five series: * Media Manifold series — monographs and other book-length works of contemporary media scholarship https://www.mediastudies.press/media-manifold-series * Public Domain series — reprints of neglected classics, in new critical editions anchored by framing introductions https://www.mediastudies.press/public-domain-series * Open Reader series — themed collections of openly licensed, public domain, and linked materials curated and introduced by leading experts https://www.mediastudies.press/open-reader-series * History of Media Studies series — monographs and other original scholarly works centered on history of media, communication, and film studies https://www.mediastudies.press/history-of-media-studies * Goffman in the Open series — public domain texts, monographs, translations, and other original scholarly works centered on the Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman https://www.mediastudies.press/goffman-in-the-open-series We are small and artisanal by mission, and aim to publish just five books a year. Given the volume of proposals that we receive—and with our production schedule in mind—we maintain an annual proposal window (1 June to 31 July), for the review of manuscripts slated for publication in the following calendar year. You are welcome to send informal queries outside these dates, but our general practice is to only consider proposals within the annual window. Each year, we review proposals with an initial reply by August 30, with the aim to conduct peer review of proposals of expressed interest by the end of October. mediastudies.press is an open-access publisher for the media and communication studies fields. The press is nonprofit and scholar-led. We publish living works, with iterative updates stitched into our process. And we encourage multi-modal submissions that reflect the mediated environments our authors study. Publishing with mediastudies.press is free on principle. Our aim is to demonstrate, on a small scale, an open-access publishing model supported by libraries rather than author fees, via the Open Book Collective. Open access for readers, we believe, should not be traded for new barriers to authorship. All our published works are rigorously peer-reviewed, and receive unusual editorial attention. We prioritize discoverability through careful metadata, library records, and directory listings. As a scholar-run operation, our publicity outreach is uncommonly informed by the fields’ intellectual contours. We kindly ask that proposals be submitted as a single PDF. Proposals should include the following elements, in addition to at least one draft chapter: 1. Proposed title and subtitle 2. A 500- to 1000-word narrative description of the book 3. Short bios of author(s) and/or editor(s) 4. Proposed series (see above) 5. Tentative table of contents, preferably annotated 6. Estimated word count 7. Multi-modal components, if any 8. Status of the book (i.e., expectation of completion date, the portion now complete) 9. At least one draft chapter To submit your work to mediastudies.press please follow our submission link: https://www.mediastudies.press/proposal-form If you have any questions at all about the proposal process for books, please contact us at press(a)mediastudies.press Dave Park, co-director of mediastudies.press Jeff Pooley, co-director of mediastudies.press

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Influencer Creep talk tomorrow at the University of Sussex with artist Jodie Underwood
by Sophie Helen Bishop 26 May '26

26 May '26

Come to see me talk about my book Influencer Creep at the University of Sussex, with a response from one of the artists featured in the book, Jodie Underwood! 3.30 - 5pm Eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/influencer-creep-optimization-authenticity-a… Best wishes Sophie -- Sophie Bishop. She/ her. Associate Professor in Media and Communication, University of Leeds. Preorder my book Influencer Creep here <https://www.ucpress.edu/books/influencer-creep/paper> in the US and here <https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/influencer-creep-how-optimization-authentic…> in the UK

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New Reviews: Routledge Handbook of the Influence Industry
by Dr. Emma Briant 26 May '26

26 May '26

Dear Colleagues, I am thrilled to share two new book reviews of The Routledge Handbook of the Influence Industry <https://link.sbstck.com/redirect/a936e4df-7a4a-4920-8ae4-14fe4c18b150?j=eyJ…> (co-edited by myself and Vian Bakir) First, this thoughtful <https://link.sbstck.com/redirect/e7d7da65-9310-4db4-8c1c-de795bda5f85?j=eyJ…> Book Review <https://link.sbstck.com/redirect/e7d7da65-9310-4db4-8c1c-de795bda5f85?j=eyJ…> in *International Journal of Communication <https://link.sbstck.com/redirect/e7d7da65-9310-4db4-8c1c-de795bda5f85?j=eyJ…>,* written by Rory Gates (Institute for World Politics) calls the book “a substantial field shaping reference work” Gates says we editors “successfully reorganize the conceptual architecture for understanding modern propaganda” and “make the infrastructure of digital influence legible for scholars working across research traditions.”One aspect of the review I particularly appreciated was Gates’ recognition that the book moves beyond narrow debates around “disinformation” to examine the broader systems, what we term a ‘digital influence industry’ and the political economy underpinning contemporary influence operations. This I also see as the book’s key strength. It’s also gratifying to see the review highlight the international scope and the book’s effort to move beyond an Anglocentric focus that so often shapes scholarship in this area. Gates calls it “an engrossing tour of the chaos generated by the digital influence industry in countries around the world.” The next Book Review, in Media, War and Conflict <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17506352261439541>, said "The shift of focus toward the actors of social media influence operations within the global perspective makes the Handbook of the Influence Industry a very refreshing read, showing innovative perspectives and opening completely new venues for influence research" Please do consider ordering the book <https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-the-Influence-Industry/Bria…> for your libraries! Best wishes and many thanks, Emma -- *Dr Emma L Briant* Visiting Associate Professor at University of Notre Dame, USA Fellow at Bard College, Human Rights Project, USA Associate at George Washington University, Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication, USA Associate at University of Cambridge, Center for Financial Reporting & Accountability, UK Affiliate at Monash University, Monash Global Peace and Security Centre, Australia Owner, Director and Consultant: Maven of Persuasion LLC LEARN MORE FROM ME: 🎓 Online course: https://www.udemy.com/course/propaganda-disinformation-level-1-beginners/?r… 📚 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/emmalbriant 📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dremmalbriant2459/streams 🌐 emma-briant.co.uk 🗣️ Speaking agent: Chartwell Speakers <https://www.chartwellspeakers.com/speaker/emma-briant/> 📰 Sign up for my Newsletter <https://emma-briant.co.uk/sign-up-for-important-updates/> 📘 Editor of *The Routledge Handbook of the Influence Industry* (2024, with Bakir) 📘 Author of: *Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global Change *(2015) 📘 Author of: *Bad News for Refugees* (2013, with Philo and Donald) Mastodon @emmalbriant@mastodon.online Twitter @emmalbriant "I thought yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life but it turns out today is." - Steve Martin “Women are like teabags . We don’t know our true strength until we are in hot water.” - Unknown

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DeepLearn 2026: early registration June 19
by David Silva - IRDTA 26 May '26

26 May '26

****************************************************** 13th INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ON DEEP LEARNING DeepLearn 2026 Orléans, France July 20-24, 2026 https://deeplearn.irdta.eu/2026/ ****************************************************** Co-organized by: University of Orléans Centre Val de Loire Doctoral College Institute for Research Development, Training and Advice – IRDTA Luxembourg/London ****************************************************** Early registration: June 19, 2026 ****************************************************** SCOPE: DeepLearn 2026 will be a research training event with a global scope aiming at updating participants on the most recent advances in the critical and fast developing area of deep learning. Previous events were held in Bilbao, Genova, Warsaw, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Guimarães, Luleå, Bournemouth, Bari, and Porto. Deep learning is a branch of artificial intelligence covering a spectrum of current frontier research and industrial innovation that provides more efficient algorithms to deal with large-scale data in a huge variety of environments: computer vision, neurosciences, speech recognition, language processing, human-computer interaction, drug discovery, biomedicine and healthcare, medical image analysis, recommender systems, advertising, fraud detection, robotics, games, business and finance, biotechnology, physics and astrophysics, biometrics, communications, climate sciences, geographic information systems, signal processing, genomics, materials design, video technology, social systems, earth and sustainability, mathematical proofs, etc. etc. The field is also raising a number of relevant questions about efficiency and robustness of the algorithms, explainability, transparency, interpretability, risks and safety, as well as important ethical concerns at the frontier of current knowledge that deserve careful multidisciplinary discussion. Most deep learning subareas will be displayed and main challenges identified through 15 four-hour and a half courses, 2 keynote lectures, 1 round table, and a hackathon competition among participants. Renowned academics and industry pioneers will lecture and share their views with the audience. The organizers are convinced that outstanding speakers will attract the brightest and most motivated students. Face to face interaction and networking will be main ingredients of the event. It will be also possible to fully participate in vivo remotely. ADDRESSED TO: Graduates, postgraduates and industry practitioners will be typical profiles of participants. However, there are no formal pre-requisites for attendance in terms of academic degrees, hence people less or more advanced in their career will be welcome as well. Since there will be a variety of levels, specific knowledge background may be assumed for some of the courses. Overall, DeepLearn 2026 is addressed to students, researchers and practitioners who want to keep themselves updated about recent developments and future trends. All will surely find it fruitful to listen to and discuss with major researchers, industry leaders and innovators. VENUE: DeepLearn 2026 will take place in Orléans, located in the heart of the Loire Valley, which was declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site in 2000. The venue will be: University of Orléans Faculty of Law, Economics and Management 11 rue de Blois 45100 Orléans, France https://www.univ-orleans.fr/en STRUCTURE: 2 or 3 courses will run in parallel during the whole event. Participants will be able to freely choose the courses they wish to attend as well as to move from one to another. All lectures will be videorecorded. Participants will be able to watch them again for 45 days after the event. An open session will give participants the opportunity to present their own work in progress in 5 minutes. Also companies will be able to present their industrial developments for 10 minutes. The school will include a hackathon, where participants will be able to work in teams to tackle several machine learning challenges. Full live online participation will be possible. The organizers highlight, however, the importance of face to face interaction and networking in this kind of research training event. KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Yingbin Liang (Ohio State University), Convergence Theory: How Fast Do Discrete Diffusion Models Generate? Le Song (Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence), Towards AI-Driven Digital Organism: A System of Multiscale Foundation Models for Biology PROFESSORS AND COURSES: Nitesh Chawla (University of Notre Dame), [intermediate] Synthetic Data Generation and Learning from Imbalanced Data: From SMOTE to LLMs Jianfei Chen (Tsinghua University), [intermediate] Efficient Large Model Training and Inference Yuejie Chi (Yale University), [introductory/intermediate] Statistical and Algorithmic Foundations of Reinforcement Learning Bo Han (Hong Kong Baptist University), [introductory/intermediate] Trustworthy Machine Learning from Data to Models Jiawei Han (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), [intermediate] Structure-Guided, Theme-Based Knowledge Discovery with Large Language Models Mingyi Hong (University of Minnesota), [intermediate] Bilevel Optimization: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications in Machine Learning and Foundation Models Cho-Jui Hsieh (University of California Los Angeles), [intermediate/advanced] Optimizers for Large Language Model Training Furong Huang (University of Maryland), [advanced] Generative AI Agents Tara Javidi (University of California San Diego), [intermediate] Active Physical Intelligence: Integrated Multimodal Sensing, Controlled Inference, and Spatio-Temporal Attention Yan Liu (University of Southern California), [intermediate] Time Series Foundation Models: From Forecasting to Reasoning Zhijin Qin (Tsinghua University), [intermediate/advanced] Token-Based Semantic Communications Aarti Singh (Carnegie Mellon University), [intermediate] Human Centered AI: Challenges and Opportunities Suvrit Sra (Technical University of Munich), [introductory/intermediate] Introduction to the Theory of Learning with Transformers Ivor Tsang (A*STAR Centre for Frontier AI Research), [introductory/intermediate] Trustworthy Agentic Artificial Intelligence Tong Zhang (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), [introductory/intermediate] Reinforcement Learning for Large Language Models OPEN SESSION: An open session will collect 5-minute voluntary oral presentations of work in progress by participants. They should submit a half-page abstract containing the title, authors, and summary of the research to david(a)irdta.eu by July 12, 2026. INDUSTRIAL SESSION: A session will be devoted to 10-minute demonstrations of practical applications of deep learning in industry. Companies interested in contributing are welcome to submit a 1-page abstract containing the program of the demonstration and the logistics needed. People in charge of the demonstration must register for the event. Abstracts have to be submitted to david(a)irdta.eu by July 12, 2026. HACKATHON: A hackathon will take place, where participants can voluntarily work in teams to tackle several machine learning challenges. They will be coordinated by Professor Sergei V. Gleyzer (University of Alabama). The challenges will be released 2 weeks before the beginning of the school. A jury will judge the submissions and the winners of each challenge will be announced by the end of August 2026. The winning teams will receive a modest monetary prize and the runners-up will get a certificate. SPONSORS: Companies/institutions/organizations willing to be sponsors of the event can download the sponsorship leaflet from https://deeplearn.irdta.eu/2026/sponsors/ ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Karim Abed-Meraim (Orléans, local co-chair) Sergei V. Gleyzer (Tuscaloosa, hackathon chair) Meryem Jabloun (Orléans, local co-chair) Carlos Martín-Vide (Tarragona, program chair) Santiago Montes (Tarragona, webpage) Sara Morales (Luxembourg, finances) Florian Nowicki (Orléans, social networks) Philippe Ravier (Orléans, local chair) David Silva (London, organization chair) REGISTRATION: It has to be done at https://deeplearn.irdta.eu/2026/registration/ The selection of 6 courses requested in the registration template is only tentative and non-binding. For logistical reasons, it will be helpful to have an estimation of the respective demand for each course. Since the capacity of the venue is limited, registration requests will be processed on a first come first served basis. The registration period will be closed and the on-line registration tool disabled when the capacity of the venue will have got exhausted. It is highly recommended to register prior to the event. FEES: Fees comprise access to all program activities and lunches. There are several early registration deadlines. Fees depend on the registration deadline. The fees for on site and for online participation are the same. ACCOMMODATION: Accommodation suggestions are available at https://deeplearn.irdta.eu/2026/accommodation/ CERTIFICATE: A certificate of successful participation will be delivered indicating the number of hours of academic activities (40). This should be sufficient for those participants who plan to request ECTS recognition from their home university. QUESTIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION: david(a)irdta.eu ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Université d’Orléans Collège Doctoral Centre-Val de Loire Universitat Rovira i Virgili Institute for Research Development, Training and Advice – IRDTA, Luxembourg/London

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