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Call for Digital Sovereignty Visiting Fellow at United Nations University - CRIS
by Nadia Tjahja 17 Feb '26

17 Feb '26

Dear colleagues, We are looking for two visiting researchers to spend two months at the United Nations University in Bruges, where they will contribute to the project DSNS-ACT. What do we expect from you? * You are an experienced researcher with expertise in the academic and policy debates surrounding digital sovereignty; * You are encouraged to apply if you are actively involved in national, regional, and global discussions on digital sovereignty; * You have fluent professional knowledge of English, demonstrated through a sample publication; * Experience in reviewing and editing texts is considered desirable. More information is available here: https://www.brussels-school.be/jobs/visiting-researcher-dsns-act-project-un… Kind regards, Nadia Tjahja, PhD Vrije Universiteit Brussel | Brussels School of Governance | Adjunct Professor & Postdoctoral Researcher https://brussels-school.be/research/digitalisation-democracy-and-innovation United Nations University – CRIS | Co-Coordinator of the Digital Governance Cluster www.cris.unu.edu<http://www.cris.unu.edu/> YOUthDIG Coordinator, European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG)<https://www.eurodig.org/> Commissioning Editor, Policy & Internet Journal (P&I<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19442866>)

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ANU School of Sociology seminar series: "The Sovereign Individual reloaded: surfacing Thiel’s alt-canon", Prof Roger Burrows (Bristol University)
by Thao Phan 17 Feb '26

17 Feb '26

Dear all, Please join us for the first ANU School of Sociology seminar series talk for 2026! *The Sovereign Individual reloaded: surfacing Thiel’s alt-canon* Speaker: Prof Roger Burrows (Centre for Urban and Public Policy Research, Bristol University) Date: Tuesday 17 February, 2026 Time: 12 – 1pm Location: RSSS Room 2.56, and Zoom Registration: https://events.humanitix.com/anu-school-of-sociology-seminar-series-prof-ro… *Title* *The Sovereign Individual* reloaded: surfacing Thiel’s alt-canon *Abstract* Peter Thiel’s ideological commitments, financial networks and political interventions reveal a deliberate effort to dismantle democratic governance in favour of elite-controlled sovereignties. Drawing on Girard, Spengler, Strauss and especially The Sovereign Individual (Davidson and Rees-Mogg), Thiel envisions a world where wealth insulates elites from public accountability, taxation and state oversight. His investments in seasteading, Urbit, Palantir – whose CEO studied under Habermas – and political figures such as J.D. Vance illustrate how these ideas shape emerging governance structures. Thiel’s alignment with neoreactionary (NRx) ideology, particularly Yarvin’s patchwork GovCorp model and Land’s Dark Enlightenment, promotes corporate autocracy, accelerationism and architectures of exit. This vision is materialising in privatised jurisdictions, from financial corridors that circumvent national regulation to autonomous city-states governed by market logic. These developments signal a shift beyond neoliberalism, where economic power is increasingly detached from state oversight. By embedding these ideas in Silicon Valley, state institutions and financial infrastructures, Thiel advances a model in which citizenship is reduced to consumer choice, governance operates beyond democratic control and sovereignty is reconfigured through technological means. This paper situates Thiel’s project within broader sociological concerns about elite withdrawal, so-called digital feudalism and the restructuring of governance through technological and financial infrastructures. *About the speaker* Roger Burrows has worked in UK higher education since 1985, holding positions at Surrey, Teesside, York, Goldsmiths, Newcastle and currently Bristol, where he is Head of the Centre for Urban and Public Policy Research (CUPPR). At Goldsmiths, he was Pro-Warden for Interdisciplinary Development. He is also an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Cities and an Adjunct Professor at the Australian Centre for Housing Research, University of Adelaide. His research spans housing, urban studies, digital cultures and social inequalities. He has published over 170 works, with half focusing on housing and urban studies and the rest covering theory, methods, digital culture, health, global inequalities and higher education. He was co-editor of Housing Studies (2002–2005) and led the UK ESRC E-Society Programme (2005–2007). He has served as a UK REF assessor and sits on the editorial boards of Body & Society and Theory, Culture & Society. His recent work examines algorithmic risk profiling in housing, the social geography of the super-rich, fintech use among young people and the ideological foundations of neoreactionary (NRx) thought.

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Invitation to participate in the Futures of Digital Democracy Survey (FDDS)
by Christian Fuchs 17 Feb '26

17 Feb '26

Invitation to participate in the Futures of Digital Democracy Survey (FDDS) Hello, We want to invite you to participate in an expert survey that addresses a key political topic of our time: the future of democracy in the digital age and the rise of authoritarianism. The EU research project INNOVADE: Innovative Democracy through Digitalisation https://innovade-democracy.eu/ studies digital democracy. Paderborn University’s INNOVADE research team (led by Christian Fuchs) runs the Futures of Digital Democracy Survey (FDDS): https://bit.ly/fdds_1 https://digital-democracy.net/d/index.php/111849 Particiation will take about five minutes. The goal of the survey is to analyse how digital media experts assess the potential futures of digital society and the Internet and what visions they have for these futures. INNVADE will use the results of the survey as inputs to European Union policy debates on the future of democracy (that is currently being discussed as part of the European Democracy Shield’s goal to strengthen the EU’s democratic resilience, digital autonomy/sovereignty from big tech, etc.). The survey has two rounds. In the first round, we ask for basic assessments. In a follow-up round, we report some of the first round results to the participants and ask for further assessments. After the survey’s second round is completed, all data will be published anonymously as an open data set. We’d be happy if you were able to participate. The first round is open until 23 February 2026. The second round will take place some time in March or April. https://bit.ly/fdds_1 https://digital-democracy.net/d/index.php/111849 Below you find some links to research that INNOVADE has already conducted on the topic of digital democracy. With kind regards Christian Fuchs on behalf of the Paderborn University INNOVADE research team Relevant INNOVADE reports: Christian Fuchs: What is and How Do We Achieve a Resilient Digital Democracy? https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.21988.1 Christian Fuchs, Joel Museba, Kevin Friesch: White Paper: The Futures of Digital Democracy. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17747936 Christian Fuchs (Editor) Interdisciplinary Knowledge Base on Digital Democracy. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17079016

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6 fully funded PhD studentships in CreativeAI at the University of Manchester
by Lukasz Szulc 17 Feb '26

17 Feb '26

Dear All, The CreativeAI studentships<https://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/funding…> (2026-29) - fully-funded PhD studentships on cutting-edge creativeAI projects - will explore the rapidly evolving relationship between creativity and artificial intelligence (AI), considering what AI does for creativity and what creativity does for AI. Six supervisor-led interdisciplinary projects bring together outstanding expertise by over 15 academic staff in arts, languages and cultures, computer science, social anthropology and law to address timely societal questions around AI’s impact on agency, authorship, imagination, inequality, and social relationships. Studentships will be organised around three strands: AI for creativity, creativity for AI, and creativity of AI, supported by a methodological training theme, creative AI methods. The Centre for Digital Humanities, Cultures and Media (DHCM)<https://www.digital-humanities.manchester.ac.uk/> will serve as the intellectual and organizational home of the CreativeAI studentships, with members already working at the intersection of AI, creativity, society, and culture. Key features of this studentship * Receive a fully funded studentship covering tuition fees and an annual stipend at the UKRI rate (previously 2025/26 £20,780 per year) for 3.5 years. * Research Training and Support Grant (RTSG): £3,000 total over 3.5 years. * CreativeAI studentship methods training and cohort-building activities. The deadline for applications is March 30, 2026. Prospective applicants are encouraged to contact the project leads in question. General questions about the CreativeAI studentships can be directed to Sam Hind (sam.hind(a)manchester.ac.uk<mailto:sam.hind@manchester.ac.uk>). For more details, see: https://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/funding… All the best, Łukasz Dr Łukasz Szulc<https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/%C5%82ukasz-szulc> (he/him) Senior Lecturer in Digital Media and Culture School of Arts, Languages and Cultures University of Manchester UNITED KINGDOM RECENT PUBLICATIONS (2025) Sad dating apps: Emotional technological determinism and agency in late modernity. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20563051251380042 (2024) Special Issue: Transnational Queer Cultures and Digital Media. https://academic.oup.com/ccc/issue/17/3 (2023) Culture is transnational. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13678779221131349

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CFP: Special issue on mobile disconnection, abstracts deadline July 31
by Trine Syvertsen 17 Feb '26

17 Feb '26

We are pleased to invite submissions for a special issue on mobile disconnection in Mobile Media & Communication! The special issue builds on previous work in MMC and offers a space to explore the interface between disconnection studies and mobile communication. Check out the call for papers with extended abstracts due on 31 July 2026. https://journals.sagepub.com/page/mmc/mobiledisconnection<https://journals.sagepub.com/page/mmc/mobiledisconnection?_gl=1*1fkzr8*_up*…..> Best regards, Morgan Ross, Mora Matassi and Trine Syvertsen Trine Syvertsen, professor, IMK, UiO DIGITOX: Intrusive media, ambivalent users and digital detox The Digital Backlash and the Paradoxes of Disconnection | Nordicom<https://www.nordicom.gu.se/en/publications/digital-backlash-and-paradoxes-d…> (open access, 2024)

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Doctoral Summer School - Research on Digital, Media and Information Literacy (ReDMIL 2026)
by Pierre Fastrez 17 Feb '26

17 Feb '26

Dear colleagues, Please find below the call for applications for the ReDMIL 2026 Doctoral Summer School (Research on Digital, Media & Information Literacy), which may be of interest for PhD students researching new literacies. Best regards, Pierre *** CALL FOR APPLICATIONS *** * Doctoral Summer School - Research on Digital, Media and Information Literacy (ReDMIL 2026) “Literacies in the middle” * September 1-4, 2026 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) – Université catholique de Louvain Application deadline : March 30th, 2026 Contact : info-redmil(a)uclouvain.be Website : https://www.redmil.info/ CONTEXT ********** As our daily lives are increasingly shaped by digital, informational, and media environments, it has become common to understand these environments through the lens of the corresponding new literacies that people are expected to mobilize in order to navigate the social world. In this context, literacies are increasingly under pressure. The calls for populations to develop and exercise such literacies have intensified to the point where they are frequently presented as a universal remedy to the multiple crises shaking contemporary societies: post-truth politics, polarization of opinion, rise of populism, new oligarchies, weakening of democratic institutions, climate disruption, etc. Unrealistically high expectations are placed on literacies, as if they alone could solve the major challenges of the contemporary world. When these inflated hopes inevitably collide with reality, disappointment follows. Yet the policies and initiatives meant to cultivate literacies never seem to be given the means to achieve what they are expected to accomplish, as societies fail to provide them with resources that would be essential to deploy on a large scale, resources that they desperately need to educate, emancipate, critique, and propose alternatives. High hopes, insufficient means, growing disillusionment: literacies and the communities that sustain their development find themselves caught in the middle, suspended between ambitious societal expectations and the limited conditions currently available to fulfill them. For its tenth anniversary, and in line with the long-standing philosophy of the summer school, ReDMIL2026 sets out to explore the idea that “being in the middle” does not have to be a liability; it can be a source of strength. From this strategic position, the actors and communities working to advance information, digital, and media literacies can engage in dialogue, join forces, and build a center of gravity strong enough to weigh on global issues. In this sense, new literacies offer a unique opportunity to build bridges. The summer school foregrounds literacies rather than alternative concepts (digital skills, e-competence, …) because the concept offers breadth, depth, and connective capacity. First, literacies extend beyond instrumental skills: they attend not only to how people use digital technology, but to what those uses mean in relation to texts, symbols, and discourses, and to where they are embedded in social practices. Second, literacies bring theoretical and epistemological depth. They draw on a long tradition that integrates critical perspectives, questioning authorship and authority, tracing infrastructures and interests, and situating knowledge within cultural, historical, and political contexts. Finally, literacies function as a boundary object across disciplines and among communities and stakeholders. We identify three trajectories through which such dialogues can take shape. At the disciplinary level, literacy research can drive fruitful alliances between fields such as communication and media studies, information science, law, psychology, engineering, education sciences, philosophy, and more, allowing for complex, multifaceted, and polyphonic solutions that match the scale and complexity of today’s societal problems. At the level of stakeholders, literacy initiatives can bring together researchers, practitioners, industry actors, activists, and policy-makers around the same table, creating a space where agendas can be coordinated, needs and resources can be matched, and shared objectives can be collectively defined. Such coordination contributes to the broader effort of connecting educational initiatives aimed at fostering literacies with the development of regulatory frameworks that hold industry actors accountable for their content governance practices, thereby helping to ease the disproportionate burden placed on individuals to cope with the proliferation of problematic content. Finally, at the intercultural and international level, literacies can provide a space for respectful encounters between diverse lived experiences and reflections emerging across the world in response to global technological platforms. They offer an opportunity to compare perspectives, negotiate meanings, and collectively build understandings that transcend local contexts. In doing so, literacies can contribute to fostering mutual recognition, supporting more inclusive global dialogues, and strengthening our capacity to respond collaboratively to the challenges shaped by transnational digital ecosystems. “Literacies in the middle”, then: not attempting to catch every rebound, but assuming the role of a playmaker, orchestrating the flow of the game and helping the team stay connected. Scope and goal of ReDMIL 2026 Literacy Doctoral Summer School ***************************************************************** The ReDMIL 2026 doctoral summer school is an international training program that aims to contribute to the convergence between digital, media and information literacy research by bringing together researchers from all three communities, to foster the scientific debate and explore connections between them. The summer school alternates between framing presentations by senior researchers and the in-depth discussion of emerging research by participating PhD students. Five experts have confirmed their participation in the 2026 edition: Pr. Michael Dezuanni, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Pr. Renee Hobbs, University of Rhode Island, USA Pr. Maarit Jaakkola, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Pr. Hyeon-Seon Jeong, Gyeongin National University of Education, South Korea Pr. Jad Melki, Lebanese American University, Lebanon These five experts will act both as keynote speakers and as mentors for participating PhD students throughout the summer school. The summer school is organized from September 1st-4th, 2026, by the Groupe de Recherche en Médiation des Savoirs (Knowledge Mediation Research Group) at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, in partnership with the Canada Research Chair in Media Education and Human Rights (Université TELUQ, Canada). The goal of this summer school is to allow PhD students researching digital literacy, media literacy, or information literacy: - to benefit from the expertise of renowned researchers in their field, through theoretical and methodological presentations; - to present their own research to an audience composed of these experts, as well as other PhD students and researchers; - to work collectively towards the enhancement of their research work with other participants; - to improve their knowledge of the research undertaken by their peers. The Summer School will start with a poster session (Sept. 1st), followed by six half-day sessions (Sept. 2nd-4th) on the following topics: - theoretical frameworks in the study of digital, media, and information literacies; - epistemological issues in new-literacies research; - methods for observing, documenting, and assessing literacies and their associated educational practices and policies; - designing research with social relevance and valorizing research results in society. Each half-day session will open with one plenary talk by one of our invited experts, followed by presentations of the participating PhD students’ research work, approached from the perspectives developed in the plenary talks. In addition to presenting an outline of their work at the opening poster session, each participating PhD student will have the opportunity to present their work in up to two sessions, on two different topics. In relation to the theme of the 2026’s edition “Literacies in the middle“, participants will be invited to discuss how their research cuts across different disciplines, brings together different stakeholders, or is situated at the intersection of different cultural contexts. The Summer School will also allow for numerous informal interactions between experts, researchers, and PhD students, including a networking dinner and a hands-on workshop on photography and research on literacies, led by Pr. Normand Landry (Université TELUQ, Canada). Participation and presentation from PhD students at the ReDMIL Summer School will be rewarded by 5 ECTS (or equivalent) for their doctoral training. Submission of applications *************************** The summer school is targeted at PhD students who develop their research in the following areas: - the study of new literacies: observing, documenting and/or assessing new literacies; - the study of educational initiatives in media literacy, information literacy or digital literacy practiced by a variety of actors (teachers and educators, employers, associations, parents, media and tech companies, …); - the study of public policies in the fields of digital, media and information literacies at any geographical level; - or any other topic related to digital literacy, media literacy, or information literacy. PhD students wishing to present and discuss their doctoral research at the summer school are invited to submit an application, including the following: - A brief curriculum vitae (one to two pages); - A written presentation of their doctoral research in a maximum of 1500 words (references not included), including the following four sections: - - Problem or societal issue that their thesis intends to address; - - Research question, hypotheses (in the case of a hypothetico-deductive approach) and theoretical framework of their thesis; - - Data collection and analysis method; - - Expected results: the usefulness of their research, from an academic and/or societal point of view (e.g., for the world of education, for the political world, for the media industry). - An abstract of the presentation of their doctoral research in a maximum of 300 words. Applications must be sent in the form of a single file (word or pdf) including CV, presentation and abstract to this address info-redmil(a)uclouvain.be by March 30th, 2026 at the latest. Candidates will be personally notified of the acceptance of their participation on May 4th. Registration ************ Students whose application is accepted and researchers (doctoral or not) wishing to attend the summer school without presenting their work will be asked to pay a participation fee of 120€ to partially cover the organizing costs of the events. The participation fee includes lunches, coffee breaks, and the mid-summer school dinner. Participants will have to cover their own travel, visa and accommodation costs. For participants affiliated with institutions based in the European Union, this summer school should fall within the conditions required to obtain ERASMUS+ travel funding. Participants are invited to get in touch with the ERASMUS+ coordinator of their home institution for guidance. Doctoral students for whom these costs would be an obstacle to participation can contact the organizers directly at info-redmil(a)uclouvain.be. The summer school is able to waive the participation fee and award up to three fellowships of up to 800€ each to help cover participation expenses. _____________________________________________________ Pierre Fastrez — Maître de recherches F.R.S.-FNRS Université catholique de Louvain (BE) Ruelle de la Lanterne Magique, 14 bte 2.03.02 - B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve Tél. 32 (0)10 47 29 14 - Fax 32 (0)10 47 30 44

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Call for Book Chapters : Media, Journalism, and Collective Memory in Africa: Centring Epistemologies, Power and Culture
by silas udenze 16 Feb '26

16 Feb '26

Hello Please could the call below be disseminated through the AoIR listserv. Thank You! Call for Book Chapters Title: Media, Journalism, and Collective Memory in Africa: Centring Epistemologies, Power and Culture Editors: Silas Udenze (University of Toronto, Canada) & Temple Uwalaka (University of Canberra, Australia) Preamble Media and journalism are central to the social construction of collective memory, which shapes how societies make sense of the past to orient the present and imagine the future. Through processes of selection, narration, visualization, and circulation, media and journalistic practices determine which events are remembered, which are marginalized or silenced, and which remain sites of ongoing contestation (Zelizer, 1992; Hoskins, 2014; Neiger et al., 2011). Journalism, in particular, functions as a recorder of events and a key mnemonic institution, repeatedly returning to certain pasts through anniversaries, commemorations, archives, and crisis reporting (Kitch, 2002; Edy, 1999; Nfor & Udenze, 2026), while marginalizing others through silence or distortion. Consequently, the relationship between media, journalism, and collective memory is complex and politically charged. In Africa, history of colonialism, slavery, liberation struggles, military rule, civil war, and authoritarian governance continue to shape contemporary media systems and journalistic practices (Ndlovu et al., 2024; Aiseng & Uzuegbunam, 2025). At the same time, African societies possessrich traditions of oral history, storytelling, ritual, and communal remembrance that coexist (Mbembe, 2002; Udo & Naidu, 2025; Mwambari, 2021; Sanni & Phiri, 2024), often uneasily, with Western-derived media institutions and archival logics. This makes Africa a critical site for rethinking dominant theories of collective memory, which have largely been developed from Western experiences. Scholarship in media and memory studies has emphasized the increasing mediatization of memory, highlighting how digital platforms, social media, and mobile communication technologies shape how the past is recorded, circulated, and contested (Uwalaka et al., 2025; Hoskins, 2024; Udenze, 2025). In Africa, media such as WhatsApp, Facebook, documentary films, and community radio are critical conduits for vernacular memory-making, enabling journalists, activists, artists, and ordinary citizens to document lived histories, challenge official narratives, and sustain counter-memories. These practices blur the boundaries between journalism, activism, and everyday communication, which raises critical questions about authority, credibility, ethics, and power in the production of public memory. Journalism studies further suggest that news media reflect collective memory and structure it through routines of selection, framing, repetition, and temporality (Nfor & Udenze, 2026; Zelizer, 2008). In African media landscapes marked by political pressure, economic precarity, and uneven access to technology, journalists often engage in memory work under conditions of constraint (Nfor & Udenze, 2026). This includes navigating censorship, negotiating trauma, reporting on unresolved past violence, and balancing professional norms with communal obligations (Aiseng & Uzuegbunam, 2025). At the same time, non-elite actors, citizens, diasporic communities, social movements, and cultural producers have increasingly taken on journalistic functions, producing alternative archives and mnemonic narratives that complicate institutional accounts of the past. In other words, media institutions, journalists, artists, and everyday citizens play a crucial role in remembering and forgetting. From newspapers, radio, and television to social media, messaging apps, archives, monuments, and oral storytelling, memory work is embedded in communicative practices that are deeply political in the continent. Consequently, this book seeks to bring these strands of argument into dialogue by interrogating how memory is produced, mediated, and contested across African media and journalism ecologies. It aims to foreground African experiences and epistemologies, challenge Eurocentric assumptions in memory, media and journalism studies, and highlight how communicative practices, both professional and informal, shape collective understandings of history. This proposed book is also interested in how power, technology, and culture intersect in the construction of public memory, and how journalistic norms are reshaped in contexts marked by postcolonial legacies, infrastructural inequalities, and rapid digital transformation. By centering Africa, this proposed book positions the continent not as a peripheral case but as a generative site for rethinking how media and journalism function as arenas of memory, power, and democratic struggle in a rapidly changing world. Key Themes and Topics Theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions, including but not limited to the themes below, are welcome: - Journalism and the politics of remembering and forgetting in Africa - Media representations of colonialism, independence, and liberation struggles - Collective memory, trauma, and post-conflict reconciliation in the media - Digital media, social media platforms, and memory practices and activism - Archives, counter-archives, and vernacular memory-making - Media, memorialization, and national identity formation - Journalism, authoritarianism, and contested historical narratives - Popular culture, Arts, storytelling, and everyday memory practices - Media ethics, truth-telling, and historical accountability - Artificial intelligence, datafication, and the future of memory in African media This call particularly encourages submissions from early-career, mid-level and established researchers, media practitioners, activists, artists, policy analysts based in or working on Africa, as well as interdisciplinary approaches from media studies, journalism studies, memory studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, and cultural studies. Submission Guidelines - Abstract length: 350 words. Include chapter title, abstract, author name(s), institutional affiliation(s), and a short bio (100 words), and send to: memorymediajournalism(a)gmail.com no later than 30 April 2026. Please note that if we reach the number of submissions before this deadline, we might stop receiving abstracts. Accepted paper will go through a double-blind peer review process. The targeted publishers for this project are Routledge African Media, Culture and Communication Studies & De Gruyter Brill’s Media and Cultural Memory. Key Dates - Abstracts submission deadline: 30 April 2026 - Notifications: 8 May 2026 - Full chapter submission deadline (Goes out for peer review): 30 July 2026 - Final manuscripts are due: 16 September 2026 - Book publication date: December 2026 -- Best wishes ------------------------------ Silas Udenze Recent publications: Udenze, S. (2025). “It’s a way to rally my inner circles and get them involved”: The Dynamics of Private Activism on WhatsApp in Nigeria. *Journal of Communication Inquiry*, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599251329299 Udenze, S. (2025). Though Episodic: The Retrospective-Prospective Nigeria’s EndSARS Protest Anniversaries and Its Peculiarities. *Africa Spectrum*, *0* (0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00020397251360253 Udenze, S. (2024).“No Gree for Anybody!”- “Without our compliance, their power means nothing”: unveiling the subtleness in Nigeria’s socio-political activism <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14797585.2024.2434848>. *Journal for Cultural Research*, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14797585.2024.2434848 Udenze, S., Roig Telo, A., & Pires, F. (2024). ‘The EndSARS movement is an umbrella for other challenges’: Assessing Nigeria’s EndSARS protest through the theoretical lens of intersectionality <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17506352241239550?icid=int.sj-abst…> . *Media, War & Conflict*, *17*(4), 501-518. https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352241239550

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AI Justice Public Lecture - Professor Sanjay Sharma on Inclusive AI - 25 Feb at 17:00
by Gavin Duffy 16 Feb '26

16 Feb '26

Hello, I am very happy to invite you to the upcoming session in the community lecture series run by the School of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths. This session is convened by the AI Justice research strand. The upcoming talk is on Wednesday 25 February, 17:00-18:30 (GMT), with Professor Sanjay Sharma (University of Warwick) discussing his research on Inclusive Futures? Radical Ethics & Transformative Justice for Responsible AI, part of the Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) Fellowship. This will be held in person on the Goldsmiths campus at the Professor Stuart Hall Building (LG01) from 17:00-18:30. There will also be a Teams stream of this lecture, the link for which can be found here<https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/39253325176553?p=d5GIySM3WGSoWtNSFM>. This talk will discuss how we can trouble AI, including through centring voices and knowledges which have been excluded from AI’s development, challenging dominant narratives of what ‘responsible AI’ looks like and whose interests are served by these visions. Drawing on critical data studies, speculative design, and abolitionist thought, Inclusive Futures brings to the fore an essential yet under-researched aspect of contemporary AI systems: their increasingly colonial and racialised ideologies. In participation with community-led social justice organisations and networks advocating for equity in AI, Inclusive Futures employs speculative, participatory methods for re-imagining AI from a bottom-up, justice-oriented perspective. Further information about the event can be found here<https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=15829>. These sessions are open to everyone so please do come along if you're interested. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know at g.duffy(a)gold.ac.uk<mailto:g.duffy@gold.ac.uk>. Thank you very much, Gavin Duffy

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CfP: Journal Issue on Contemporary craft work and digital craft economies
by Williams, Ian Granger 16 Feb '26

16 Feb '26

Special Issue Call for Papers: Contemporary craft work and digital craft economies Craft work can no longer be imagined as separate from the digital. More than a decade after Susan Luckman’s formative description of the “aura of analogue” (Luckman, 2013), craft work and craft economies have undergone a great deal of digitization, shifting and blurring the meanings and associations of long-stable and discrete categories. For instance, “artisanal manufacturing” used to be an oxymoron; today it describes a type of manual labour increasingly understood as offering opportunities for authenticity, creativity, and fulfillment. Digital media and craft have never been mutually exclusive, of course, but craft work and artisanal labour have garnered new appreciation for their pre-digital tools and processes, akin to the rearticulated pleasures that now purportedly flow from consuming non-digital media. However, contemporary appreciations of handmade commodities tend to traffic in nostalgia and obscure a more complicated set of lived relationships among craft workers and their tools, many of which not only utilize digital technology but owe much of their resurgence to the affordances of digital platforms. Craft workers sell their wares on digital platforms, tailor instructional videos for streaming services, and source their raw materials from online marketplaces. Established forms of work are always changing in response to technological shifts, and craft is no different. For instance, concepts like “neo craft” (Gandini and Gerosa, 2023; Gandini 2025) account for craft’s embeddedness with global, digital markets while capturing a growing discontent with white collar work. Contemporary craft work is still (too) often imagined as exclusively the realm of the analog, or as an antidote to digital saturation, but contemporary craft economies are increasingly impossible without engagement with digital technology. And digital craft economies feel increasingly unstable as well as inevitable or unavoidable. Digital platforms have become fraught places to sell and source, with platform owners taking a larger share of craft sales. Advanced automation and AI challenge established notions of authenticity within craft. Craft workers increasingly enter the gig economy. Algorithms nudge crafters to make, promote, and sell their wares in specific ways which are amenable to advertising dollars and circulation in the attention economy. The internet is simultaneously fracturing and consolidating craft markets under the purview of fewer, larger, and more powerful players, not only all-encompassing behemoths like Amazon, but also “crafty” platforms like Etsy. In light of these developments, craft feels as if it is on a precipice: how can craft economies survive in these new conditions, and what do craft workers want that survival to look like? This proposal is for an upcoming special issue which has received strong interest from a leading cultural studies journal. We welcome theoretical inquiry, case studies, and research papers which address the complicated and perhaps inextricable relations between craft, analog and digital technology, and the conditions of artisanal culture and digitized commerce. Possible topics include (but are not limited to): * Cultural exchange via craft work online * Practices and beliefs of digital craft communities * Craft and the gig economy * Rentierism and exploitation on digital craft platforms * The role of algorithmic sorting on digital platforms within craft communities * Philosophical inquiry into craft as a salient category in a digitized cultural economy * Changes in access to craft after digitization as a mode of work along lines of gender, race, and sexual orientation * The role of influencers in the broader craft economy * New challenges to craft work from AI and other forms of advanced automation * Craft’s relation to industry and regimes of mass production * The changing role of video in craft instruction after TikTok/Reels Send abstracts (250-500) words to Ian Williams at igwillia(a)live.unc.edu<mailto:igwillia@live.unc.edu> or Michael Palm at mpalm(a)unc.edu<mailto:mpalm@unc.edu> by March 5, 2026. Ian Williams, PhD Adjunct Instructor UNC Department of Communication

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CfP Session on Emerging Methods and Approaches for Researching Internet Infrastructures, RGS-IBG 2026
by Finn Dammann 16 Feb '26

16 Feb '26

Dear colleagues, please find here a call for abstracts for a session on "*Emerging Methods and Approaches for Researching Internet Infrastructures* " at the Annual International Conference of the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers 2026 (September 1-4, London). We would be pleased to receive contribution proposals from AoIR! Best regards, Finn Dammann & Louis Petiniaud #### *Emerging Methods and Approaches for Researching Internet Infrastructures* In recent years, various academic disciplines have developed a renewed interest in the geographies of Internet infrastructures. This has drawn attention to the often overlooked infrastructural conditions of data flows and their political embeddedness. For example, studies on the geographies of digital network interconnection discuss the importance of urban (colocation) data centres for international data traffic (Monstadt & Saltzman, 2025; Rosa, 2021), work on the geographies of submarine cables, landing stations and Internet shutdowns describe postcolonial path dependencies in transcontinental data flows (Dambrosio et al., 2025; Grover, 2023; Mwema & Birhane, 2024;), studies on the geographies of network topologies reveal state measures of national data isolation or control (Douzet et al., 2022; Limonier et al., 2021; Salamatian et al., 2021), and work on the geographies of digital platforms discuss the close future of a spatially fragmented and simultaneously centralised (post-)Internet (Huston, 2023; Stocker et al., 2021). At the same time, one of the greatest challenges for critical social science research continues to be the challenging empirical and methodological approaches to these often „invisible“ geographies (Furlong, 2021). In this session, we therefore would like to bring together specific methodological and methodological-conceptual approaches for further research on Internet infrastructures. We are interested in both more ‘quantitative’ methods, such as those related to computer sciences and Internet measurements, and more ‘qualitative’ and ethnographic approaches, as well as methods for mapping physical Internet infrastructures. In addition, we welcome ideas for contributions that address broader methodological reflections or establish disciplinary historical references to research methods on Internet infrastructures. Please send a 250-word abstract and a 50-word bio to finn.dammann(a)fau.de andl.petiniaud(a)gmail.com by 27th February 2026. Keywords: Internet Infrastructures, Methods, Digital Geography, Internet Geographies, Cloud *Literature* Dambrosio, S., Díaz Bejarano, N., Duran Brand, C., & Thomley, L. (2025). >From Colonial Ruins to Digital Hub: The Grand Port Autonome de Marseille, a Tale of a Big Data Informal Empire in the Making. /Architectural Theory Review/, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13264826.2025.2522341 Douzet, F., Pétiniaud, L., Salamatian, K., & Samaan, J.-L. (2022). Digital routes and borders in the Middle East: The geopolitical underpinnings of Internet connectivity. /Territory, Politics, Governance/, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2022.2153726 Furlong, K. (2021). Geographies of infrastructure II: Concrete, cloud and layered (in)visibilities. /Progress in Human Geography/, /45/(1), 190–198. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132520923098 Grover, R. (2023). Contingent connectivity: Internet shutdowns and the infrastructural precarity of digital citizenship. /New Media & Society/, 146144482311765. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448231176552 Huston, G. (2023, August 7). /On Internet Centrality and Fragmentation/. RIPE Labs. https://labs.ripe.net/author/gih/on-internet-centrality-and-fragmentation/ Limonier, K., Douzet, F., Pétiniaud, L., Salamatian, L., & Salamatian, K. (2021). Mapping the routes of the Internet for geopolitics: The case of Eastern Ukraine. /First Monday/. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v26i5.11700 Monstadt, J., & Saltzman, K. (2025). HOW DATA CENTERS HAVE COME TO MATTER : Governing the Spatial and Environmental Footprint of the ‘Digital Gateway to Europe.’ /International Journal of Urban and Regional Research/, 1468-2427.13316. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13316 Mwema, E., & Birhane, A. (2024). Undersea cables in Africa: The new frontiers of digital colonialism. /First Monday/. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v29i4.13637 Rosa, F. R. (2021). Internet interconnection infrastructure: Lessons from the global south. /Internet Policy Review/, /10/(4). Scopus. https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.4.1583 Salamatian, L., Douzet, F., Salamatian, K., & Limonier, K. (2021). The geopolitics behind the routes data travel: A case study of Iran. /Journal of Cybersecurity/, /7/(1), tyab018. https://doi.org/10.1093/cybsec/tyab018 Stocker, V., Knieps, G., & Dietzel, C. (2021). The Rise and Evolution of Clouds and Private Networks – Internet Interconnection, Ecosystem Fragmentation. /SSRN Electronic Journal/. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3910108 Warf, B. (2011). Geographies of global Internet censorship. /GeoJournal/, /76/(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-010-9393-3 -- Dr. Finn Dammann Institut für Geographie Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg https://www.geographie.fau.de/personen/finn-dammann/ www.geographie.nat.fau.de/en/ng-geographien-digitaler-infrastrukturen

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