Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Union for Democratic Communications is renewing its unique founding commitment to the application of critical paradigms at a convergence of scholarship, pedagogy, and media activism.
A renewed commitment to “the critical” as well as “the convergence” is all the more appropriate at a moment in time when a range of ‘Aftermaths” appear to be in play:
- Aftermath of an age in which a neo-conservative ideology dominated many aspects of social, political, and professional life – lately much reduced by the contradictions in its own attempts at reproduction.
- Aftermath of an age of environmentally unsustainable political economies.
- Aftermath of an age of monolithic mainstream media dominance where multiple resistances on a plethora of digital platforms are in play and ripe for critical discussion.
- Aftermath of a regional decline. The international space of Buffalo/Niagara offer an example of urban areas laid most low by the neo-conservative agenda that have, ironically, offered spaces for a new flowering of media alternatives and critical social justice pedagogies.
We seek submissions from critical perspectives that interrogate media institutions and technologies, economic structures, cultural processes, and audiences; offer case studies in critical pedagogy; and examine and demonstrate media activism.
Final Submission Deadline is March 15th, 2009. Earlier submissions will be reviewed on a monthly basis.
For panel and paper abstract submissions or other conference inquiries, please contact UDC2009@gmail.com
DOWNLOAD Printable (PDF) Version of the Call for Papers: http://mediastudy.com/udc.pdf