Dear colleagues, We are pleased to invite you to the third edition of the Cultural Studies Conference organized by the GAME research group at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain), to be held on November 13–14, 2025, under the title *CULTURE OR BARBARISM. Tensions around culture in the 21st century.* We believe this conference may be of interest to you, and we would appreciate it if you could circulate the information among your academic contacts. Best regards, GAME Research Group – Universitat Oberta de Catalunya ------------------------------ *Call for Papers* Culture has been a central concept in Cultural Studies, understood as a way of life, social expression, system of values, and a field traversed by power relations. From this perspective, reflecting on culture also means examining its symbolic boundaries, as Edward Said noted when contrasting the familiar space of "our" culture against the "barbarism" of the other. Today, in a context marked by ideological conflicts, symbolic struggles, and technological transformations, it is urgent to rethink what we mean by culture, how it is regulated, who produces it, who is excluded, and which materialities sustain it. This conference proposes five areas of critical reflection on contemporary cultural tensions: 1. The materiality of culture and the working conditions and sustainability of cultural production. 2. The relationship between culture and technology in a digitalized context. 3. Cultural identities and narratives, with particular attention to symbolic hierarchies. 4. Institutions, cultural policies, and forms of citizen participation. 5. Media, spaces, and creative practices that are reshaping the cultural ecosystem. These topics invite discussions on the conflicts, paradoxes, and possibilities of the cultural field in the 21st century. *Submission of Proposals* We invite submissions in the form of an abstract (between 400 and 500 words) outlining the focus of the presentation and its contribution to the conference discussion. Presentations will be delivered in Spanish. Submissions should include: - Title of the presentation - Full name and institutional affiliation (if applicable) - Contact email address - Short biographical note (maximum 100 words) Proposals may be submitted in Catalan, Spanish, or English, and should be sent via email to: game@uoc.edu. *Deadline for submission: June 30, 2025.* Further information about the conference can be found at this link <https://gameresearch.uoc.edu/seminario-de-estudios-culturales-iii/>. -- Daniel Aranda Juarez Estudis de Ciències de la Informació i de la Comunicació *Sotsdirector de recerca* darandaj@uoc.edu grup recerca GAME <http://gameresearch.uoc.edu/> twitter <https://twitter.com/darandaj> ORCID 0000-0001-9290-0708 <http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9290-0708> Campus UOC Rambla del Poblenou, 156 08018 Barcelona [image: UOC] <http://www.uoc.edu> -- *Aquest missatge s'adreça exclusivament al seu destinatari i pot contenir informació confidencial. 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