See attached call for applications for Spring School (PhDs) in Lisbon, co-arranged by the media and communications departments at Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, Södertörn University & Lund University.
Spring school 2017
Media, Culture and Power: European cultural perspectives
Joint event of the PhD program in Communication Studies of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Södertörn University and Lund University, Sweden
4th Spring School UCP-CECC, SH-MKV & LU-MKV. Lisbon, 3-7 April 2017
Call for Applications:
Media, culture and the dynamics of power are central to media and communication research. Understanding the various ways to research power across media structures and processes is crucial. Throughout history, the degree to which media’s power has been theorized has varied, from cultural imperialism, or the uses and gratifications perspectives of limited power, to powerful and creative audiences and participants. The place of media power has been ascribed to technology itself, such as platform power, to organizational and financial conditions, such as systemic power, in representations, genres and narratives, such as symbolic power, or in the very act of communication or political participation, including the power of voice and the power of voting. The media, as technologies, institutions and textual or symbolic structures, affect the economic, political, and cultural spheres in society, often in contradictory ways, and in complex patterns of influence.
A strong line of research on media and power includes the media-politics relationship. Political control of the media, by different means, is a common feature in non-democratic regimes; under democratic settings the media-politics relationship can be characterized by high levels of complicity, tension and ambivalence, highlighting the contradictory nature of systemic power within institutions, policy and political economic spheres. The idea of soft power connects with the power to represent social reality, or the performance of power in fiction and factuality, or social interaction. Increasingly, we see the rise of technological forms of power, through algorithms or social media platforms. There are also forms of power that relate to diffuse and transnational audiences, whose actions are monitored by the media industries, and through behavior can affect production practices, but also can voice opinion and raise criticism as fans and activists.
This spring school 2017 will thematise these different forms of power during an intense week, combining a mixture of lectures and seminars from leading researchers in the field, with student presentations of ongoing research. Lecturers will include Professors Annette Hill, Göran Bolin and Rita Figueiras.
Topics will include (but are not restricted to):
- media, power and politics
- performing power/cultural participation
- the power of genre and narration
- symbolic power and everyday life
- the power dynamics of audiences
- the power of technology / algorithmic power
- media and alternative political participation
Applicants are invited to submit a 400 word abstract on a suggested topic of presentation at the Spring School, and a 200 word rationale for how participation in the Spring School will benefit their PhD studies. Submissions should include paper title, name, e-mail address, institutional affiliation and a brief biography (max. 50 words). Send applications to springschool.fch@lisboa.ucp.pt no later than January 21st, 2017.
The organizing committee will notify all applicants by January 30th 2017.
Participants are requested to arrive 2 April. Over 5 full working days (Monday-Friday) they will attend lectures and take part in discussion groups where they will present their research projects.
Participants will have 15 minutes to deliver their presentations, after which there will be 30 minutes for questions and discussion of each presentation with the chairs and the other participants.
The working language is English. All participants will receive a Certificate of Completion.
Fee: The enrolment fee is 100 Euro, to be paid only on acceptance of the application.
Contacts & Infos
E-mail: springschool.fch@lisboa.ucp.pt
Address: Palma de Cima 1649-023, Lisbon (Portugal)
Fax: +351 21 727 17 00