Preliminary Call for Papers The Thirteenth Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association June 7-10, 2012 Manhattan College Riverdale, New York http://www.media-ecology.org "The Crossroads of the Word" Deadline for Submissions: November 1, 2011 Times Square, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue in New York City, has often been referred to as the "Crossroads of the World." In fact, New York City itself can be considered a crossroads of the world. New York Harbor is home to Ellis Island, the main point of entry for the "huddled masses" who came to the United States in search of a better life, particularly as part of the "great immigration" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and who became part of America's great "melting pot." The city's five boroughs are home to the most diverse population of any city on earth, with virtually every culture and language group represented. New York is also a crossroads of the media/mass media world: home to the U.S. corporate headquarters of almost all of our major multinational media conglomerates; home to Silicon Alley; and the indisputable news and information capital of the United States. It must be added, too, that the way we understand, analyze, and make sense of our world and all things in it is through our human language, in its spoken, written, and print forms. That is to say, our world is all about words. And at this juncture in the history of human civilization, in which people speak of a "post-literate culture," after media ecologist Walter J. Ong, S. J., subtitled his book Orality and Literacy "the Technologizing of the Word," and media ecologist Jacques Ellul wrote The Humiliation of the Word, we can perhaps say that we stand at a "Crossroads of the Word." The Thirteenth Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association invites papers, thematic panels, roundtable discussion panels, creative projects, performance sessions, and other proposals exploring, extending, and interpreting the convention theme. We are interested in submissions that address matters of intercultural, transcultural, and transnational communication and mass communication, immigrant cultures, diasporas, and languages. And we are interested in submissions that address our digital age and future, the possibility that we are living through the incunabula of a digital revolution, and what all of this might mean for the future and the conservation of the word. In addition, as 2012 marks the centenary of the birth of both Ong and Ellul, we greatly welcome submissions in honor and celebration of them and their works. And, as always, submissions on any topic of interest to Media Ecology are also welcomed. Submissions should be sent, as e-mail attachments in Microsoft Word, rich text, or plain text format, to the Convention Coordinator: Thom Gencarelli (thom.gencarelli@manhattan.edu). A maximum of two submissions per author will be accepted. Authors who wish their papers to be considered for the Top Paper or Top Student Paper award must indicate that on their submissions. All submissions will be acknowledged. Campus housing will be available. Deadline for submissions: November 1, 2011. Additional details will be forthcoming at http://www.media-ecology.org