We are delighted to announce the Call for Papers for our annual PhD conference at the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London themed: 2020 LOATHING: DIGITAL TENSIONS, FRAGMENTATIONS AND POLARISATIONS Date: 29th May 2020 Location: Bush House, King’s College London, London Confirmed Speakers: Fernanda Bruno, Associate professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. CNPq Researcher. Director of the MediaLab.UFRJ. Jennifer Pybus, Lecturer in Digital Culture and Society, King's College London. This conference invites emerging scholars to productively explore the digital tensions which mark our contemporary lives, as any techno-optimism of the early digital age has given way to what we hypothesise as data-driven loathing. We invite a critical focus on these contradictory forces, wherein, for example, the promises of personalisation have led to the fragmentation of audiences and polarisation of politics; or, wherein digital distributed networks seem to have empowered platform enterprises like GAFA as much as new forms of bottom-up participation. How can we address the data granularity of our lives, not only across socio-cultural and political-economic processes, but in a new mediation and apprehension of our urban and environmental surroundings? Overall, we are interested in work that recognises the deep affect of our digital lives in a way that provokes both joy and possibility as well as anxiety and enervation. We invite contributions in the following areas: • Digital commons, data commons versus platform capitalism • Digital tools, platforms: what is enabled and/or constrained • Mediation and the (in)visibility of data • Diffusion of algorithmic power in smart objects and automated decision-making systems • The interplay between profiling and surveillance • Critical and theoretical approaches to understanding tension, fragmentation and polarisation Submission: 250 words abstract with a short academic bio sent to 2020Loathing@gmail.com<mailto:2020Loathing@gmail.com>. The required format is a Word document (.doc or .docx) saved as “SURNAME_2020L”. Abstract Submission Deadline: 27th March 2020 Notification of Acceptance: 17th April 2020 Conference Date: 29th May 2020 Conference Location: Bush House, King’s College London, London E-mail: 2020Loathing@gmail.com<mailto:2020Loathing@gmail.com> for any questions about submissions or the conference Please see more information on our website.<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewperspectivesdh.com%2F&data=01%7C01%7Croy.cobby_avaria%40kcl.ac.uk%7Ce2c81a103027492c451408d7b1482026%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=OmT%2BEDmC19tR3xVPy9TfkBK93wc5tVsLENragmiTpgU%3D&reserved=0>