The Centre for International Communication Research (CICR) the Media Industries Research Centre (MIRC) and the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds are inviting you to a conference on Porn Cultures: Regulation, Political Economy, and Technology Monday 15th and Tuesday 16th of June in Leeds. The pornography industry is an under-researched culture industry. Its links to mainstream media and to the sex industry are intensifying. The mainstreaming of certain aspects of the industry in global popular culture raises questions about the adequacy, efficiency or appropriateness of existing policy. Other aspects of the industry, such as its labour conditions, its geographies of production and consumption practices associated with it have largely fallen under the radar of scholarly analysis, while much more attention has been paid to the potential for emancipatory uses of aspects of sexually explicit cultural expression. Meanwhile, technological aspects of the industry's operation are challenging our assumptions about 'choice' 'privacy' and 'freedom'. With the proliferation of the pornographic product embedded in everyday life now more than ever before existing and new questions require our urgent attention about human rights, migrants, workers and communication rights, media literacy, media ecology and the public sphere, global production and consumption cultures as well as underlying politics of gender, class and 'race'. This conference aims to bring together scholars, policymakers and activists to discuss the global pornography complex. It is the second of two conferences organised within the British Academy funded project Socialisation of the global sexually explicit imagery: challenges to regulation and research. The project has given birth to an international Porn Cultures and Policy Network, which involves scholars from a number of countries, engaged in comparative studies with an emphasis on policy. We are inviting colleagues to take part in this debate and colleagues who would be interested in working with the existing network to join us. Information on this and our first conference can be found on http://sgsei.wordpress.com. Please send your 200 word abstract, along with a 50-word bio and contact details to Steven McDermott (cssem@leeds.ac.uk) by March 15th or earlier. There will be a small fee to cover catering and room facilities. Please let us know if you require an earlier decision regarding your paper. If you would like to discuss a panel/round-table proposal and /or your paper please contact Katharine Sarikakis (K.Sarikakis@leeds.ac.uk). Speakers include Prof Alison Beale Co-Director, Centre for Policy Studies on Culture and Communities, Simon Fraser University Vancouver Dr Karen Boyle Glasgow University Dr Marcus Breen Northeastern University Boston Prof Gail Dines Professor of American Studies, Wheelock College Boston Dr Valentina Marinescu University of Bucharest Romania Prof Clare McGlynn Deputy Head of Law School, Durham Law School, Durham University Murray Perkins Senior Examiner (18 and R18 Categories) British Board of Film Classification Prof Karen Ross Liverpool University Dr Rebecca Sullivan University of Calgary Dr Liza Tsaliki University of Athens Prof Ian Walden Acting Chair of Internet Watch Foundation, Institute of Computer and Communications Law Centre for Commercial Law Studies Queen Mary, University of London Dr Rebecca Whisnant University of Dayton Again - Please send your 200 word abstract, along with a 50-word bio and contact details to Steven McDermott (cssem@leeds.ac.uk) by March 15th or earlier.