Go to http://www.csaus.pitt.edu for information on CSA (US) conference . This call is for a section of the Technology division. The deadline has now been extended to October 21st, 2006. Email me - radhika@cyberdiva.org - if you have ideas but not fully formed abstracts yet as well. Title: Contextual technologies: Spaces of Disruption At what point in time-space do researchers examine the use of technology. How does this shape the definition of what a technology is and how it is implemented. "Technologies" are most often examined in relation to binaries such as urban/rural, modern/primitive, male/female, mainstream/alternative, elite/mass thus giving rise to frames for the study of such environments. As a result researchers (even cultural and critical researchers) are unable to engage immersively and contextually with the assumptions embedded within these technological environments. What approaches, methodologies and practices of research and technology use might disrupt these binaries. In other words, what's at stake in maintaining these binaries and who truly benefits. For instance studies that examine empowerment of rural third-world women through technologies such as computers, pdas and cell-phones reproduce binaries of modern and primitive. While there is no doubt that in such instances the individual woman is often empowered, the ways in which this empowerment disciplines her into being a productive member of an overall status quo that in actuality might be disempowering to her, need to be examined. Therefore this call is not asking for submissions that claim to examine practices of dissent, represented by positioning primitive vs modern or female vs male, but is seeking submissions that examine specific ways in which these binaries might be disrupted. Cultural studies frameworks offer possible ways in which to examine such contextual practices. This call for papers is seeking historical and contextual examinations of technology (defined in the broadest of senses) and its use with specific attention to practices of use and proliferation. These battles are currently visible in relation to various technologies situated within contexts of agriculture, new media, energy and ecology among others. Therefore this call encourages submitters to engage these topics. Send abstracts to Radhika Gajjala <radhika@cyberdiva.org> April 19 - 21, 2007 The Annual Meeting of the CSA provides a forum for scholars, students, and other persons interested in Cultural Studies in all its diverse manifestations to exchange their work and ideas across disciplinary lines and institutional locations. This year's conference will be held in downtown Portland, Oregon at University Place, a conference site managed by Portland State University. -- Radhika Gajjala Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator School of Communication Studies 302 West Hall Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH 43402 http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik/index2.html For queries about BGSU's School of Communication Studies Grad program, email comsgrad@bgsu.edu For info on the Theory Research cluster at SCS - see http://scs.bgsu.edu/Research/ResearchClusters/theory.php