IAMCR 2016 - Religion, Communication & Culture Working Group - CfP

The Religion, Communication & Culture Working Group of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites proposals for papers to be presented at the annual IAMCR conference  from 27 -31 July, 2016 at the University of Leicester, UK. The deadline to submit your abstract is midnight GMT on 15 February 2016.

Conference theme: "Memory, Commemoration and Communication: Looking Back, Looking Forward"

See the conference key dates and deadlines: http://iamcr.org/leicester2016/keydates

See all Calls for Papers for IAMCR 2016: http://iamcr.org/leicester2016/cfp

Visit the conference website: http://iamcr.org/leicester2016

Please, follow this link to read the general CFP before writing and sending you abstract. The working group on Religion, Communication & Culture is scheduled to meet Thursday-Saturday 28 July-30 July.

This year’s conference theme seeks to explore the relationship between memory, commemoration and communication. This theme anticipates the 60th anniversary of the IAMCR in 2017 an organisation which has played a strong role in the development of media and communication studies. Although scholars have long been interested in memory and culture, advancements in technologies are providing new and innovative opportunities to think about how it is created, preserved, passed on, and archived. Within academia, we have witnessed increasing interest in cultural memory studies – from media representations of the past, oral history projects and growing interest in digitizing data leading to the history of everything.

The Religion, Communication & Culture working group will certainly welcome papers which address the conference theme Memory, Commemoration and Communication: Looking Back, Looking Forward. Aspects of special interest here to the Religion, Communication, & Culture working group include:

'Pro Memoriam': Creating and archiving memories for future generations in religious context

'Ad Gentes': Translating religion commemorations into other languages/cultures/civilizations

'Nota Bene': Agenda-setting in religious news coverage

'Et Cetera': Important and not important, underlined and ignored, selected and forgotten in historical religious discourse and public commemorations

'Ab Ovo': Religious fundamentalism in media coverage

'Casus Belli': Faith rooted conflicts - genesis, development and media coverage

'Credo quia Absurdum': Rational and irrational, axiomatic and doubtable in media coverage of religion

'Curriculum Vitae': Religious impact on personal and family commemorations

'Vox Populi': Oral history and popular religion

'Memento Mori': Death in media - transforming rituals and genres

'Deus ex Machina': Digitizing religion in Internet based communication and data storages

'De Iure and de Facto': Religious doctrines and their interpretations in time and space

'Primus inter Pares': Religious leaders in media narratives - commemorations, praising and criticizing

'O tempora, o mores': Religious initiatives on media co-regulation in different media systems

'Fidei Defensor': Martyrs and saints in public memory and mass media - what is remembered, modified and re-told

However, papers across the broad spectrum of research on the relationship of religion, media and communication are equally encouraged. There is hardly an established canon of research in this wide field of religion, communication and culture, although some nuclei in the current research agenda can be identified. These include:

  • Images of religion in mass media; news coverage of religion.
  • Religious communities and the media.
  • Impact of media on religious practices whether personal or institutional.
  • Theological approaches to the mass media.
  • New media and religion.
  • The emergences of the religious according to new mediatic conditions.
  • Film and religion.
  • Religious media.
  • Religious public relations.
  • The specificity of communication practices in religions given their singular content and claims.
  • Religious communication processes.
  • Media expression of faith and spirituality.

Theoretical, methodological, empirical -all approaches are welcome for proposed papers, provided they offer good quality and interesting, novel perspectives in their respective methodological nature.

Send your 300 to 500 words abstract by February 15th 2016. In accord with the instructions of the IAMCR organisers, all abstracts should be identified  for the specific working group (in this case, Religion, Communication & Culture) and must be submitted via the central Open Conference System (OCS). Submissions should not be sent directly to us at the working group.

The OCS system will open on December 1st 2015, and will close on February 15, 2016. No more than two abstracts may be submitted by any applicant.

It is intended that decisions on acceptance of abstracts will be communicated to individual applicants by the Religion, Communication & Culture no later than 1 April  2016.  Registration for the conference will open in April 2016.

The full text of accepted papers must be submitted no later than June 30th 2016.

We look forward to seeing old and new participants in the working group in Leicester.

Please share this notice with other academic researchers on media and religion.    

Important dates and deadlines to keep in mind:

  • 1 December 2015 Open Computer System (OCS) available for abstract submission
  • 15 February 2016 Deadline for submissions
  • 1 April 2016 Notification of acceptances of abstracts
  • 15 April 2016 Deadline to apply for travel grants and awards
  • 28 April 2016 Deadline to confirm your participation
  • 20 May 2016 Last day to register at discounted early-bird fee
  • 30 June 2016 Deadline for full paper submission
  • 7 July 2016 Final conference programme published on the website
  • 27-31 July 2016 IAMCR 2016 Conference

Religion, Communication & Culture Working Group

Co-Chairs:

Professor Yoel Cohen
ysrcohen(at)netvision.net.il
School of Communication
Ariel University, Ariel, Israel

Professor Victor Khroul
amen(at)mail.ru
Faculty of Journalism
Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

See the conference key dates and deadlines: http://iamcr.org/leicester2016/keydates

See all Calls for Papers for IAMCR 2016: http://iamcr.org/leicester2016/cfp

Visit the conference website: http://iamcr.org/leicester2016