[SDH/SEMI Members] CFP: Media Transatlantic: Media Theory in North America and German-Speaking Europe

[Ray Siemens]

[for Norm Friesen and Richard Cavell]

 

Announcement - Media Transatlantic: Media Theory in North America and
German-Speaking Europe  

 

(Please feel free to post elsewhere as appropriate; apologies in advance for
cross-postings)

 

April 8-10, 2010; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

 

Proposals due: Nov. 27, 2010

 

Website: http://www.mediatrans.ca 

 

Ubiquitous and indispensible, media technologies have taken on an
epistemological or even ontological significance: we learn what we know, and
we become what we are, through print, TV, digital, mobile and other
communications. “No part of the world, no human activity,” as Sonia
Livingstone says, “is untouched
. Societies worldwide are being reshaped,
for better or for worse, by changes in the global media and information
environment.” Seeing media as a lens or even as an a priori condition for
understanding historical, social and cultural change has become increasingly
prevalent and urgent on both sides of the Atlantic. However, with some
notable exceptions, this work has been developing independently, producing a
wide-ranging if fruitful heterogeneity. On the one side are the
interdisciplinary and theoretically-engaged Medienwissenschaften (media
studies), and on the other, work developing out of the Toronto school and a
variety of theoretical and disciplinary traditions. The purpose of this
conference is to deepen and expand transatlantic dialogue between North
America and German-speaking Europe (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) in the
area of media theory -- and to provide an opportunity for developing
connections to other contexts as well. Areas of research and scholarship
relevant to this dialogue include communication, philosophy, media literacy,
and literary and cultural studies. 

 

Confirmed Keynotes:

- Kim Sawchuk (Concordia)

- Katherine Hayles (Chicago)

- Sybille Krämer (Berlin)

- Dieter Mersch (Potsdam)

- Hartmut Winkler (Paderborn)

- Geoffrey Winthrop-Young (Vancouver)

 

This conference invites papers, in English, focusing on such issues as: 

 - Recent developments in media theory in North America and central Europe,
for example: 

          -   Media and materiality 

          -   The construction of “mediality” in theory and practice 

          -   Media and the (post)human 

          -   The “mediatic turn” as milestone or misnomer 

 - The foundational contributions of McLuhan, Innis and the Toronto School,
of Flusser, Luhmann, and others 

 - Media as means of socialization and education

 - Towards a philosophy of media

 - (Inter)disciplinary implications of media-theoretical developments 

 

Abstracts should be submitted using the form provided on the conference
Website: http://www.mediatrans.ca/submit.html 

 

Cordially,

 

Norm Friesen
Canada Research Chair in E-Learning Practices
Thompson Rivers University
+1 250 852 6256
http://learningspaces.org/n/
New Book - Re-Thinking E-Learning Research (http://elearn.tru.ca)

 

 

 

 

____________

R.G. Siemens, English, University of Victoria, PO Box 3070 STN CSC,
Victoria, BC, Canada. V8W 3W1. Ph.(250)721-7272  Fax.(250)721-6498
siemens at uvic.ca http://web.uvic.ca/~siemens/

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sdh-semi.org/pipermail/members/attachments/20091030/36b48e74/attachment.html>