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International Call for Applications: Postdoctoral Fellowship, Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication
by Zimanyi, Eszter 04 Dec '25

04 Dec '25

INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR APPLICATIONS Postdoctoral Fellowship Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania The Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania invites applications for a “CARGC Postdoctoral Fellowship.” This is a one-year position renewable for a second year based on successful performance. Overview The Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication (CARGC) produces and promotes scholarly research on global media cultures and public life. Our work brings together regional and area studies scholarship with theories and methodologies of the humanities and qualitative social sciences to understand how local, lived experiences of people and communities are profoundly shaped by global media and communication technologies and industries. This synthesis of deep regional expertise and interdisciplinary inquiry stimulates critical conversations about entrenched and emerging media and communicative structures, practices, flows, and struggles. Ongoing research groups focus on media, migration, and diasporas; media environments and the climate crisis; media industries and cultural politics; and media history and theory. We recommend that applicants familiarize themselves with CARGC’s mission and research activities listed on our website. This year, we are especially interested in candidates with expertise in Latin American or South Asian media cultures whose research engages media and creative industries, media entertainment and popular culture, and emerging forms of belonging and citizenship. For candidates specializing in South Asia, we are seeking a scholar prepared to take a leading role in developing a public history initiative focused on the history of the internet in South Asia and the South Asian American diaspora. For candidates specializing in Latin America, we are seeking someone prepared to take a leading role in building a transnational research network tracing the platformization of media cultures across the region. In addition to subject-matter expertise, the ideal candidate will have experience with digital humanities projects and grant-writing. Fellowship Details CARGC postdoctoral fellows work on their own research while also participating in and leading ongoing research projects within CARGC. During the fellowship, they present their work as part of a postdoctoral colloquium and work closely with the Research Director on a plan for publishing their research. They will also work closely with the Center on organizing workshops in Asia and Latin America. There are limited opportunities for teaching that are decided in consultation with the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies. Fellows will receive a minimum stipend of $67,000, commensurate with previous postdoctoral experience. We will also provide a research fund of $3,000, individual health insurance and dependent coverage, a workspace and a computer in CARGC’s office, and library access. In addition, CARGC will cover a taxable relocation stipend of $1,000 in domestic relocation expenses and $2,000 if moving internationally. Please note all postdoctoral fellows must submit documentation to demonstrate eligibility to work in the United States. Non-US citizens selected for this position will be required to apply for an appropriate US visa. This is a residential fellowship. CARGC strives to be an inclusive community of scholars driven by intellectual curiosity and exchange rooted in the life of the Annenberg School, the University of Pennsylvania, and the city of Philadelphia. To foster mentoring and collaboration at all levels, we expect fellows to be fully engaged in the life of the center. Postdocs are therefore expected to work at our office on the Penn campus Eligibility We welcome applications from early career scholars with Ph.D. awarded by an institution other than the University of Pennsylvania. The chosen applicant must have successfully defended their dissertation by the fellowship start date. The appointment typically begins on August 1. Submitting Your Application A complete application consists of: Cover Letter – Please include a section explaining how your research aligns with CARGC’s mission, fits with one or more CARGC research themes, and contributes to the field of global media studies in relation to South Asia and/or Latin America. Research Statement - In no more than two double-spaced pages, please explain your core research interests and how you plan to advance your PhD research during the postdoctoral fellowship. CV (not to exceed three pages) – Please list degrees, peer-reviewed publications, academic non-peer-reviewed publications, public scholarship, invited talks, conference papers, other relevant qualifications, and specific research and language skills. References – Please provide names and contact information for two references (including that of your dissertation supervisor). If your application is shortlisted, we will get in touch with your referees in mid-February 2026. Please make sure your advisors/supervisors are aware of this timeline. One peer-reviewed publication – Please include a published peer-reviewed journal article or a chapter published in an anthology/edited collection. An article/chapter accepted for publication and forthcoming is acceptable (but not work that is under review). Timeline All materials must be sent as a single PDF document to cargc(a)asc.upenn.edu by January 16, 2026. Because of the volume of applications, we are unable to read drafts of submissions. Incomplete or late applications will not be considered. We expect to contact finalists for Zoom interviews early in February 2026 and make final decisions shortly thereafter. Additional Information If you have additional questions, please email us at cargc(a)asc.upenn.edu. Kindly do not contact CARGC staff or the CARGC director individually. The University of Pennsylvania seeks talented students, faculty and staff with a wide variety of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. The University of Pennsylvania does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin (including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics), citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any other class protected under applicable federal, state or local law in the administration of its admissions, financial aid, educational or athletic programs, or other University-administered programs or in its employment practices. Questions or complaints regarding this policy should be directed to the Executive Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs; Franklin Building, 3451 Walnut Street, Suite 421, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6106; or (215) 898-6993 (Voice). ------------------------------------------------------------ Eszter Zimanyi, Ph.D. Research Director Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania Pronouns: she/her http://www.eszterzimanyi.com

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REMINDER: CfP - Leisure and the Far-Right: Critical Interdisciplinary Interventions - World Leisure Journal
by Luc Cousineau 03 Dec '25

03 Dec '25

Dear Colleagues, This is a reminder about the approaching deadline for abstract submissions for a World Leisure Journal special issue titled Leisure and the Far Right: Critical Interdisciplinary Interventions. ---------- This special issue is part of a larger and ambitious interdisciplinary project that aims to bring together leisure scholars with researchers from other disciplines (e.g., political science, internet and media studies, anthropology, sociology, and others) exploring the far right. Writing in dyads or teams working across disciplines (either on papers proposed as a team or connected by the editors), manuscripts will build on the small body of existing leisure research on the topic (e.g., Cousineau, 2025; Spracklen, 2013; Woolley & Luger, 2023) to take on different elements of how leisure is used in the making, maintaining, exposing, and combating the far right. Please read the full submission instructions at the bottom of this email and/or the call for submissions. ---------- The full CfP is attached here and can be found here: Leisure and the Far Right: Critical Interdisciplinary Interventions<https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/leisure-far-right-critica…> In less than a year, the current US administration has taken significant steps to consolidate and institutionalize far-right authoritarian power. Far from being an exception, however, Donald Trump is in the company of a long list of political leaders, including Orbán in Hungary, Meloni in Italy, Milei in Argentina, Modi in India, and Bukele in El Salvador. This ultraconservative wave is indeed transnational, and it goes beyond electoral gains: in what can be described as a Gramscian turn, these movements, leaders, and political parties are effectively disputing the terrain of culture and common sense (Ravecca et al, 2022; Ravecca et al, 2024). This means that a narrow conception of politics, which only focuses on formal institutions, cannot grasp the multidimensionality of this new political landscape (Ravecca, 2019). In fact, the production of cultural artifacts like videos, images, and narratives, and their circulation on social media, are having a significant impact on the quality of the public conversation and on the everyday life of large sectors of the population. In this context, it can be argued that leisure, broadly understood, is at the core of far-right discourse and practice. For this reason, global leisure studies are particularly well-placed to engage with this complex and urgent landscape. While most research has focused on how leisure can be a positive force for change, inclusion, and belonging (e.g., Fortune et al., 2021, among many others), scholarship in the field also shows how leisure activities can be a vehicle for hate (Spracklen, 2013; Woolley & Luger, 2023), prejudice (Mowatt, 2018), surveillance (Rose et al., 2023), and violence (Mowatt, 2012). In complement to feminist (Henderson, 1990; Shaw, 1985), racial justice (Bixler & Floyd, 1997; Floyd et al., 1994), and social justice (Arai & Kivel, 2009; Mair, 2011; Parry et al., 2013) research in leisure studies, researchers like Rasul Mowatt (2012, 2017, 2018), A.J. Veal (2021), DJ Willams (2009, 2017), and Karl Spracklen (2013, 2015) have long called for leisure research to illuminate groups, activities, and settings that are uncomfortable and even dangerous - including those associated with the far right. Now more than ever, we need to heed these calls and turn the focus of critical leisure studies, along with the theoretical and explanatory power of this discipline, toward critical inquiry of the ways far-right ideologies are couched (and cloaked) in leisure practices. Far-right scholars have engaged with these important topics from a variety of perspectives and across disciplines. These include the development of collective identity (Devries, 2021; Leman-Langlois et al., 2024; Mondon, 2025; Yoshida & Demelius, 2024), the role of women (Dickel & Evolvi, 2023; Ebner & Davey, 2019; Gordon, 2018; O'Brien, 2018; Proctor, 2022), narratives of gender supremacy (Copland, 2021; Koulouris, 2018; Pearson, 2019; Winter, 2019), the geographies of far-right ideology (Luger, 2022), and masculinities (Christley, 2021; Cousineau, 2021; Linders et al., 2022; Roose et al., 2022). However, this work has been done almost exclusively outside of leisure studies, which implies a loss of knowledge. This special issue aims to open a space for leisure scholars to contribute their insight, research, and wisdom on the landscape-altering forces and movements of the far right. Papers will examine how leisure forms an integral part of far-right narratives and practices. This encompasses a wide range of possibilities - from exploring the recruiting power of supremacist ideology woven into leisure settings and communities, to analyzing localized movements with transnational implications, such as neo-Nazi music cultures and festivals, combat sport clubs, and gaming communities. Thus, manuscripts can address, among other topics: * How far-right leisure activities can be reactionary to perceived socio-political change (e.g., as defence mechanisms against the perceived "undoing" of the white heteronormative nuclear family), * Far-right leisure located in established mainstream structures (e.g., la Corcade Etudiante in France), * The early colonization of internet spaces by far-right groups (e.g., Stormfront, a major white supremacist digital space that was an early colonizer of networked digitality and remains an active space of online leisure participation and recruitment to hate groups), * The ongoing far-right presence and influence in digital space (e.g., the "momosphere," digital gaming, tradwives, and other internet cultures), * The impact that far-right rhetoric, hate speech, and misinformation have on 'expert-guided' advice consumed in leisure-time media consumption. Submission Instructions This special issue is a necessarily interdisciplinary endeavour, and we therefore seek submissions authored by interdisciplinary teams. The following is true for all submissions: * Abstracts up to 300 words (excluding any references) submitted to the Special Issue Editors by email at Luc.Cousineau(a)dal.ca<mailto:luc.cousineau@dal.ca>. * Papers based on empirical research and theoretical papers will be accepted. * Timeline: * Abstract Submission Deadline - December 15, 2025 * Author Notifications - January 2026 * Initial full submissions - April 2026 * Publication - early 2027 Manuscripts should follow the T&F formatting guidelines as listed on the World Leisure Journal website. We will accept abstract submissions in the following formats: 1. Teams formed at the time of submission These authorship teams will be formed by authors before submission, with abstracts crafted together. These abstracts should include a brief explanation of the team's interdisciplinary makeup and how leisure studies/theory is represented in their team. 2. Individual submissions Authors who submit accepted individual abstracts will be paired or teamed with other individual submissions with similar topics to form interdisciplinary authorship teams. This will allow for new partnerships as well as interesting interdisciplinary research development. Authors of individual submissions should also include a brief outline of their area of expertise with their submission. _____ Luc S. Cousineau, PhD Program Director, Instructor, & Internship Coordinator Recreation Management<https://www.dal.ca/academics/programs/undergraduate/recmgmt.html> School of Health and Human Performance<https://www.dal.ca/faculty/health/health-humanperformance.html> Dalhousie University Ph: 902-431-9533 Check out some publications - - 'Trying to talk white male teenagers off the alt-right ledge' and other impacts of masculinist influencers on teachers<https://url6649.tandfonline.com/ls/click?upn=u001.Z4WTLvhKhuNdT-2BZ6FY7pIE1…> - in Gender & Education - get it free here<https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/7ZYECFHMZW4EGRYFND5C/full?target=10.1080…>. - Navigating a feminist ethics of care, ethnographic methods, and academic activism in researching men's rights and the far right: a researcher's struggles. In The ethics of researching the far right: Critical approaches and reflections - contact me<mailto:luc.cousineau@dal.ca?subject=Published%20Document%20Request> for an author's version (or buy the book<https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526173874/> for £100) - "Are there any other male friendly subs on here?"- online men's rights groups as simultaneous communities of care and hate, inclusion and exclusion<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14927713.2023.2252812> - in Leisure/Loisir - free eprint here<https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/D2CFZCN2VBRAJJPWBJDU/full?target=10.1080…> My Website<http://www.luccousineauphd.ca/>

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Data Science Specialist/Librarian, University of Arizona Libraries
by heather froehlich 03 Dec '25

03 Dec '25

Dear all, We are hiring at the University of Arizona Libraries for a Data Science Specialist/Librarian. Expertise/experience in Python is a must, ideally in a pedagogical environment. We will be hosting an informational webinar <https://arizona.zoom.us/j/84928506435> on December 11, 2025 from 10:00 - 11:00am MST – no registration needed and attendance will not be taken. Some details are reproduced below: Located within the University of Arizona Libraries Research Engagement department, Data Cooperative provides data science, geospatial, and digital scholarship services for the University of Arizona. The incumbent will contribute to a robust program supporting data analysis and visualization through a variety of formats, providing up-to-date and on-demand training for relevant tools and resources. The Data Science Specialist / Librarian will: design, develop, and deliver instruction on data science topics such as Python programming; provide training in the use of software to support communication of scholarship through visual media; stay abreast of trends and tools available in the evolving data science ecosystem; work with library colleagues and researchers to identify appropriate tools, platforms, and resources for visualization and informatics projects; collaborate with other members of the Data Cooperative and Research Engagement to develop outreach strategies and partnerships for supporting projects on computational and data literacy; identify opportunities for impactful engagement in data visualization and analysis by the University Libraries; contribute to the scholarly record through research, creative works, and/or scholarship. The successful candidate will be appointed as a Specialist or Librarian, depending on their terminal degree. More details and application link available here: https://arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/4/home/requisition/24632?c=arizo…. The date of 1st review is 15 January, 2025. With best wishes, Heather Froehlich -- Dr Heather Froehlich w // http://hfroehli.ch t // @heatherfro *this email address is for mailing list subscriptions only and is not monitored regularly.*

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Call for Papers: Textures of Digital Entertainment
by Emily Cousins 03 Dec '25

03 Dec '25

Dear AoIR colleagues, We are delighted to announce the following call for papers: *Textures of Digital Entertainment* 25th & 26th June 2026, Odense, Denmark https://event.sdu.dk/texturesofdigitalentertainment/conference Digital entertainment has moved from the margins of leisure to the centre of everyday life. It unfolds across fragmented temporalities, hybrid spaces, and shifting sensory environments, becoming woven into the rhythms through which people navigate work, leisure, relations, care, rest, or exercise through different modes of engagement (attention, distraction, intention…). Yet despite its ubiquity, entertainment remains undertheorised in media studies, overshadowed by approaches that focus on platforms, industries, or traditional media formats. Much of this scholarship explains how digital media function, but is not concerned with what entertainment feels like and does in lived experience, or how emerging formats—from short-form video to ambient gaming—reshape everyday life. This conference invites contributions that address the experiential, aesthetic, cultural and practice-based textures of contemporary digital entertainment. We welcome work that examines how entertainment punctuates daily routines; how sensory formats organise micro-temporalities; how emerging genres such as cozy games, reaction-loops, streamers’ para-social hangouts, ASMR, mood-playlists, or hybrid meme-aesthetics shape everyday engagement; and how entertainment logics “spill over” into other societal domains. We are especially interested in research that integrates practices and formats—showing how people use entertainment, how new genres acquire recognisable aesthetic signatures, and how users cultivate meta-awareness of styles, conventions, and genre cues. We welcome contributions from media studies, cultural studies, game studies, aesthetic theory, film/audiovisual studies, literary theory, communication studies, and adjacent disciplines. We invite empirical, theoretical, and analytical approaches that speak to (but are not limited to) the following themes: Practices: rhythms, habits, ambience, transitions, sensory modulation in everyday use Formats and genres: for example short-form video, hybrid meme-genres, atmospheric and cozy gaming, slow or ambient livestreams, platform-specific micro-genres Aesthetics: visual, sonic, and bodily grammars, platform vernaculars and stylistic conventions Cultural textures: emerging taste clusters such as #cleangirl, genres such as oddly satisfying, shared imaginaries such as revenge scrolling, and other circulating moods and trends Meta-aesthetic reflexivity: how users recognise, classify, and play with evolving genres, conventions, and aesthetic cues Cross-domain pollination: entertainment logics in news, museums, education, marketing, politics and others The accepted formats are papers, panels, and workshops; all will be allocated to 90 min sessions. All submissions should be in the form of a 300–500‑word abstract as a single PDF file. A brief bibliography may be included (not counted toward the word limit), and authors should provide a short bio (approx. 100 words/person). The conference does not use anonymous review. There are no proceedings. Presenters will be invited to submit a paper for a special issue of MedieKultur on the theme of the conference, scheduled for publication in May 2027. Details regarding the journal submission process will be provided during the conference. The deadline for abstract submissions is 15th February 2026. The conference will be held at The University of Southern Denmark (SDU) in Odense. There is no registration fee, but participants are responsible for covering their own travel and accommodation. Lunch and refreshments will be provided during the conference. A conference dinner will be organised, with separate payment for those who wish to attend. This conference marks the official conclusion of the DiEM (Digital Entertainment Machine<https://www.sdu.dk/en/forskning/digital_entertainment_machine>) project, generously funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark. The DiEM team is looking forward to discussing these exciting topics with you in Odense next year!

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Call for book proposals: AI and environmental justice
by Adi Kuntsman 03 Dec '25

03 Dec '25

𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐷𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝐹𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠 book series invites expressions of interest, followed by full proposals, for full-length original monographs, edited collections and short monographs (“shorts”), addressing urgent questions about the relations between generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the environment. The mission of the series is to support critical engagements between scholars and artists working critically in the fields of digital and environmental sustainability. Taking a decolonial approach, the series is committed to fostering interdisciplinary scholarship that shifts the conversation about digital environmental sustainability from profit and efficiency to environmental harms, and the geographies and violence of colonialism, land dispossession, extraction of natural and human resources, and capitalism. Full description of the book series, including our mission, editorial board and support for authors, is available here. https://shorturl.at/FhBDR We are inviting book proposals exploring the following topics: - Generative AI and lived experiences of communities affected by mining and/or e-waste - AI data centres and environmental justice - Environmentally-driven resistance to AI/ AI and earth justice - Methodologies and practices of assessing and minimising environmental harms of AI - Worldmaking: sustainable futures with or without AI - Art-led research, inquiries and aesthetic responses to AI and environmental harms -Decolonising AI and climate change 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨: - F̲r̲i̲d̲a̲y̲ ̲1̲6̲t̲h̲ ̲J̲a̲n̲u̲a̲r̲y̲ ̲2̲0̲2̲6̲: please send initial expression of interest (up to 2 page-long description of your proposal, including the book’s focus, chapter summaries, author(s) info, and estimated completion date. - Selected authors will be invited to submit a full book proposal and offered feedback and support by the series editors in preparation for submission of the full proposal (proposal template available here https://shorturl.at/FhBDR) - M̲o̲n̲d̲a̲y̲ ̲2̲n̲d̲ ̲M̲a̲r̲c̲h̲ ̲2̲0̲2̲6̲: submission of full book proposal to the publisher. - Full proposals are usually reviewed within 2-3 months, and returned to authors with suggested next steps which can include immediate acceptance, revision, or rejection. Accepted proposals will receive support from series editors and publisher, Emerald Press. 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬: Adi Kuntsman, Erinma Ochu, Liu Xin Please send your expressions of interest to a.kuntsman(a)mmu.ac.uk

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The 25th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2026): Fifth Call for Demos & DC & T
by Announce 03 Dec '25

03 Dec '25

*** Fifth Call for Demos, DC and Tutorials *** The 25th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2026) May 25-29, 2026, 5* Coral Beach Hotel & Resort, Paphos, Cyprus https://cyprusconferences.org/aamas2026/<http://www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/~george/GPLists_2021/lm.php?tk=YWlyLWwJCQlhaXItbEBs…> AAMAS 2026 received 1455 full paper submissions for the Main Track, after an initial submission of 1800 abstracts. This is by far the highest number of submissions (around 50% more than the previous highest number) in the 25 years of AAMAS. We still welcome submissions to the Demo Track, the DC Track as well as for tutorials. The Demo Track allows participants from both academia and industry to showcase their latest developments in agent-based and robotic systems. The DC (Doctoral Consortium) is an opportunity to interact closely with established researchers in your field as well as other PhD students to receive feedback on your work and to get advice on managing your career. Tutorials will be half-day long and will be in person — online/remote versions will not be accepted. A few full-day tutorials may be considered, but the proponents need to motivate their request when submitting their proposal. More information about the above calls, along with their respective important dates, are available on the AAMAS 2026 web site. Organizing Committee AAMAS 2026 General Chairs • Viviana Mascardi, University of Genova, Italy • John Thangarajah, RMIT University, Australia AAMAS 2026 Program Chairs • Chris Amato, Northeastern University, United States of America • Louise Dennis, University of Manchester, United Kingdom AAMAS 2026 Local Chairs • George A. Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus (Chair) • Panayiotis Kolios, University of Cyprus, Cyprus (Vice Chair)

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ECPR Gen Conf 2026/ "Digital Authoritarianism" CfP
by Ülker Sözen 03 Dec '25

03 Dec '25

We are pleased to invite you to submit panel and paper proposals for the section *“The Many Faces of Digital Authoritarianism <https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/SectionDetails/1672>”* at the upcoming ECPR General Conference 2026 (8 – 11 September, Jagiellonian University, Kraków). The section welcomes contributions that engage with the broad field of digital authoritarianism, and we particularly encourage comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. You can find the full section description and an overview of the preliminary panels *here. <https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/SectionDetails/1672>* All panel and paper proposals must be submitted online, in English, *by 5 January 2026 (midnight UK time)*. Papers submitted as part of a Panel do *not* need to be resubmitted individually. For full details, please consult the ECPR guidelines <https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/Content?ID=1588&EventID=349> for panel and paper submissions. We look forward to receiving your proposals and to a stimulating set of discussions at the conference. Best regards, ECPR Research Network on Digital Authoritarianism ----------------- Dr. Ülker Sözen Postdoctoral researcher Chair of Development Politics, University of Passau Institute for the Study of Religions, Leipzig University

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How to stop AI from eating the open Internet
by Joly MacFie 03 Dec '25

03 Dec '25

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/digital-future-daily/2025/12/02/how-to… (extracted) SAN FRANCISCO — In a startup hub near Chinatown, a few dozen programmers > grabbed light beers and flipped open their laptops for a series of > demonstrations on how to get around data scraping blockers. The programmers in the room had their own agenda, trying to find ways to > keep public data accessible in the spirit of the original Web. They were also there to figure out a pretty important question: What > exactly are the rules around data scraping? It turns out that there aren’t many — in part because government regulators > haven’t really focused on this increasingly important issue. Internet data > is now becoming a crucial resource in the AI boom, and there are ongoing > clashes between major tech platforms that are trying to both hoard and > capitalize on that data. Caught in the crossfire are advocates for an open internet, and small-time > content creators who want to get compensation for their work. It’s a thorny > dilemma: The internet was built on a communal ethos of free-flowing > information, but that has also allowed AI companies to hoover up content > for free, and make immense profits from it. Legally speaking, they’re largely doing it in a void. Federal law only > loosely touches on data scraping, and courts have been slow to develop a > body of law around the field. Instead, the industry mostly follows a set of > customs and voluntary standards. The meetup was partly a tech demo, and partly a discussion on how to update > those standards and influence the process. “If we’re not setting our own > best practices, someone else will be doing it for us,” said Jo Levy, chair > of the Alliance for Responsible Data Collection > <https://responsibledatacollection.org/>, which advocates for preserving > open access to internet data. Levy has been trying to convince more people who want to uphold the > foundational openness of the internet — but who might not have the > resources or the cachet of a big company — to get involved in the important > drudgery of standards setting. During the San Francisco event, she > encouraged attendees to sign up for the email lists where the boards often > discuss the development of new protocols. “A lot of what we’re trying to do with ARDC is to make sure that interested > parties are aware of these discussions and can participate,” Levy told DFD. > “If the standards are going to be more about helping one business [...] > those standards are not going to be as widely adopted.” -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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CFP - Intersecting Intimacies: Auto-Ethnographic Explorations
by Riki Thompson 02 Dec '25

02 Dec '25

Dear AOIR Colleagues, Apologies for cross-posting CALL FOR PROPOSALS - DEADLINE: December 15, 2025 Intersecting Intimacies: Auto-Ethnographic Explorations of Researchers Who Swipe, Share, and Study Digital Intimacy Editors: Dr. Treena Orchard (Western University), Dr. Riki Thompson (University of Washington), Dr. Caroline Tagg (The Open University) Series: Digital Intimacies Series, Bloomsbury Academic About the Collection Do you study digital platforms for intimacy while also using them in your own life? Have you navigated the blurred boundaries between researching dating apps and swiping on them yourself? Analyzed social media practices while maintaining your own digital connections? This edited volume centers the unique insider perspectives of researchers who occupy the dual position of both studying and personally engaging with digital platforms for intimacy. We seek contributions that bridge personal experience, methodological innovation, and scholarly analysis to offer deeper understanding of how digital platforms actually function in intimate life. Our relationship with digital technologies has become increasingly complex—reflected in declining dating app usage among younger generations, heightened data security concerns, and the growing influence of AI in online spaces. Yet we continue to navigate these digital landscapes not only as researchers but as users seeking connection, romance, friendship, and community. What We're Looking For We invite auto-ethnographic and other creative qualitative explorations from researchers across disciplines, career stages, and geographical locations who critically reflect on what it means to use digital platforms both personally and professionally. Topics may include (but are not limited to): • Dating apps and romantic intimacy • Social media platforms and friendship maintenance • Private messaging apps and family connections • Professional networking and digital relationships • The blurred boundaries between research and personal platform use • Methodological innovations in studying digital intimacy • Intersectional experiences of identity and technology • Cross-cultural perspectives on digital intimacy practices • Ethical considerations in researching platforms you personally use Important Dates Proposal/Abstract Deadline: December 15, 2025 (just 2 weeks away!) Initial Acceptance Notification: February 1, 2026 Full Chapter Drafts Due: October 1, 2026 *Chapters should be 4,000-6,000 words (including references) Submission Guidelines Please submit via Google Form: https://forms.gle/orDNnzcNsfAphWV79 Your submission should include: • Proposal: Maximum 250 words outlining your chapter's working title, focus, approach, and contribution • Bio: Maximum 50 words including current affiliation • Contact information Questions? We're excited to discuss potential contributions! Please don't hesitate to reach out: • Dr. Treena Orchard: torchar2(a)uwo.ca • Dr. Riki Thompson: rikitiki(a)uw.edu • Dr. Caroline Tagg: caroline.tagg(a)open.ac.uk Please share this call with colleagues who might be interested! We look forward to exploring these intersecting intimacies with you and creating a volume that pushes the boundaries of how we understand the personal-professional dynamics of digital intimacy research. ________________________________ About the Editors Dr. Treena Orchard is an award-winning anthropologist and author of Sticky, Sexy, Sad: Swipe Culture & The Darker Side of Dating Apps who conducts critically oriented feminist research on sexuality, gender, health, and technology. Dr. Riki Thompson is a digital discourse analyst whose research examines language, gender, sexuality, mental health, and digital intimacies to reveal how digital communication connects some while marginalizing others. Dr. Caroline Tagg is an applied linguist who researches how digital communication practices are embedded in individuals' wider social, economic and political lives. Riki Thompson, Ph.D. (she/her) Associate Professor, Writing Studies & Digital Rhetoric, University of Washington Tacoma SHESOURCE Expert<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://womensmediacenter.com/profile/dr-riki-t…> - Women's Media Center rikithompson.com<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://rikithompson.com/__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!mMsspj…> | Google Scholar<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WGrHn…> | LinkedIn<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.linkedin.com/in/riki-thompson-92653…> Check out recent scholarship: Discourse, Digital Intimacies, & Online Dating<https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1lReA7suQG01Zk>, Special issue now published in Discourse, Context & Media Bumble’s ticking clock: Dating app temporal design as neoliberal discipline.<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211695825000467?dgcid=a…> Discourse, Context, & Media. Dr. Riki Thompson on online dating and normative relationships<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KB2gSXsvgI__;!…>. Diggit Magazine Video Interview Research Methodology with Online Dating Apps<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo-qualitati…> NVIVO Podcast: Between the Data Beyond the gender binary: Digital dating, discourse, design, & normativity<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.academia.edu/118346967/Beyond_the_g…>- (Critical) Discourse Studies and the (new) normal More than the selfie: online dating, non-monogamy, normativity, & linked profiles on OkCupid<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.academia.edu/60241446/More_than_the_…> - Language & Sexuality Reflective Approaches to Analyzing Digital Discourse<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/drive.google.com/file/d/15lQSPDyvWUHfBzW…> - Research Methods for Digital Discourse Analysis

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CFP: “In Defense of the Commons” - communication +1
by Zach McDowell 02 Dec '25

02 Dec '25

<apologies for cross-posting> Call for Papers: “In Defense of the Commons” communication +1, vol 12 edited by Zachary McDowell, Steve Jankowski, and Matthew Vetter **Premise** As the Internet becomes more and more of a walled garden, projects like Wikipedia, fondly known as “the last best place on the Internet,” were 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. Beyond Wikipedia and its sister projects, the digital commons also includes open source software projects (Debian, Pubpub), shadow libraries that circulate publicly-financed research, and interoperable interfaces (like RSS feeds, APIs). These institutional mechanisms of content, whether knowledge, data, multimedia, or code, eschew exclusive traditional methods of property rights in favor of social governance, harnessing diverse, non-market motivations to create shared public goods. However, 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. Externally, the knowledge commons has long been threatened by corporate free-riding. Today, new forms of this concern have arisen with extraction and enclosure of the commons through large language models (LLMs) which repurpose volunteer labor and open data in ways that may undermine the sustainability of the projects themselves. In light of these concerns about inaccessibility, inequity, and encroachment, we seek to bring together critical scholarship that examines the sociotechnical, political, and ethical challenges facing digital knowledge commons today. In coordination with the “Critical Commons Research Network” (https://criticalcommonsresearch.net/) communication +1 is accepting proposals for a special issue "In Defiance of the Commons / In Defense of the Commons." We invite contributions that not only diagnose the problems but also explore the strategies of resistance, repair, and rehabilitation necessary to sustain these vital public resources. We are interested in work that follows controversies, uncovers hidden infrastructures, and listens to the voices of the communities that build and maintain the commons. We welcome submissions from a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives that address, but are not limited to, themes around governance, power, and bureaucracy in the commons, including issues of governance capture, automated systems, and divergent governance models; bias, exclusion, and the politics of representation, including editorial and informational biases, systemic issues, knowledge organization, and strategies of resistance; and the commons in the broader information ecosystem and infrastructure as it comes into contact with enclosures from two opposing ends: the systems of intellectual property that seek to restrain public use and the corporate LLM systems that are continuing the legacy of platformisation by positioning themselves as the de facto governors and gatekeepers of our common knowledge. We especially encourage approaches inspired by or relating to the above concerns to the physical, environmental, or generally “public” commons as well (forestry, fisheries, mining, public health, etc.), which might help bridge conversations between seemingly disparate disciplines. Ultimately, this CFP seeks to understand not just what is at stake with contemporary shifts in how the commons is being exploited, but also to promote the actions, materials, and imaginations needed to increase the sustainability, longevity, and resilience of the digital commons. This volume is published as part of the Critical Commons Research Network - https://criticalcommonsresearch.net/ **Submission Details** Please submit proposals of 500-1000 words (maximum) to communicationplusone(a)gmail.com by January 15th. Authors will be invited to submit full-length manuscripts around the beginning of February, with full papers due May 15th. Full papers may vary in length but typically range from 6,000 to 9,000 words (excluding references). This issue will be published in the Fall of 2026. **about communication +1** Since 2011, communication +1 has operated as a diamond open-access journal, publishing fee-free for both authors and readers. The aim of communication +1 is to promote new approaches to and open new horizons in the study of communication from an interdisciplinary perspective. We are particularly committed to promoting research that seeks to constitute new areas of inquiry and to explore new frontiers of theoretical activities linking the study of communication to both established and emerging research programs in the humanities, social sciences, and arts. Other than the commitment to rigorous scholarship, communication +1 sets no specific agenda. Its primary objective is to create a space for thoughtful experiments and for communicating these experiments. For more information, please visit communicationplusone.org. **Bibliography** Cooke, Richard. "Wikipedia Is the Last Best Place on the Internet." Wired, (February 1, 2020). https://www.wired.com/story/wikipedia-online-encyclopedia-best-place-intern… Fuchs, Christian. “The Digital Commons and the Digital Public Sphere: How to Advance Digital Democracy Today.” Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 16, no. 1 (March 22, 2021). https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.917. Reeves, Neal, Wenjie Yin, and Elena Simperl. “Exploring the Impact of ChatGPT on Wikipedia Engagement.” Collective Intelligence 4, no. 3 (2025): 26339137251372599. https://doi.org/10.1177/26339137251372599. Pentzold, Christian. “Mundane Work for Utopian Ends: Freeing Digital Materials in Peer Production.” New Media & Society 23, no. 4 (April 1, 2021): 816–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820954203. Vetter, Matthew A., Jialei Jiang, and Zachary J. McDowell. “An Endangered Species: How LLMs Threaten Wikipedia’s Sustainability.” AI & SOCIETY, February 19, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-025-02199-9. **advisory board** Sean Johnson Andrews, Columbia College Chicago Lisa Åkervall, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Nathalie Casemajor, University of Québec Outaouais Jimena Canales, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Bernard Geoghegan, Kings College, London Lawrence Grossberg, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill David Gunkel, Northern Illinois University Peter Krapp, University of California Irvine Catherine Malabou, Kingston University, United Kingdom Jussi Parikka, Aarhus University, Denmark John Durham Peters, Yale University Amit Pinchevski,The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Florian Sprenger, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany Ted Striphas, University of Colorado, Boulder Christina Vagt, University of California Santa Barbara Greg Wise, Arizona State University Love and respect, and RIP to our advisory board member, Johnathan Sterne. Thank you for everything. 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

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