IAMCR - International Association for Media and Communication Research

The Popular Culture Working Group looks forward to the next IAMCR Conference and invites submissions (both individual proposals and collective panels) for the 2012 conference to be held at the Howard College Campus of the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa, 15-19 July.

The conference will be held under the general theme, 'South-North Conversations'. The theme reflects the asymmetry of global communication flows, but without implying the negatives that usually accompany discussions of the 'digital divide'. The theme also calls for balanced and empowering narratives that do not regard those in ‘the South’ as victims primarily in need of handouts from the more affluent. The general conference theme is therefore highly relevant for the working group which concerns itself with the intersections between cultural practices, collective representations and the inscription of social inequalities.

Papers are sought that explore:

• Convergent media and the construction of magic geographies
• The reconfiguration of Hollywood and Latin American cultural production
• Minority cultural production through apps and new media.
• The new racism and the exoticism of the South.
• Los Angeles, memory and the culture of hybridity.
• Doing Del Toro: The New Hispanic Auteurs.
• The Border as trope in mainstream Television and film production.
• Television Fiction in Ibero-America
• Global Formats and semiotic Imperialism
• Mestizo cultural expression
• Cultural authenticity and mash-up cultures
• Global Celebrity and the logics of glocal identity
• Carnival as a social incursion into mainstream media

Papers which explore other themes (or variants of the above) that fall within the overall Conference theme will also be considered.

Deadlines

The deadline for submission of abstracts is February 14, 2012. Please note that this deadline will not be extended.

The Open Conference System (OCS) will open on December 1, 2011, and will close on February 14, 2012.

Decisions on acceptance of abstracts will be communicated to individual applicants by their Section or Working Group Head no later than March 12, 2012.

On the same day, March 12, 2012, conference registration will open for bookings by participants.

For those whose abstracts are accepted, full conference papers are to be submitted via the IAMCR OCS by June 10, 2012.

Guidelines for Abstracts

Abstracts should be 300-500 words in length.

All abstract submissions must be made centrally via the Open Conference System (OCS).

The Popular Culture Working Group accepts only one paper per author. Proposals should only be proposed to one section or working group.

Information

General info on the conference:

For further information on the conference, please contact the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) or consult the Conference Organizers via the website at:

http://www.iamcr2012.ukzn.ac.za/

or by email at:

IAMCR2012[at]ukzn.ac.za

Info on the Popular Culture Working Group:

For more information about the Popular Culture Working  Group and its plans for the Durban conference, please contact the coordinating team: