[Air-L] ESN-IAMCR special session "The University in Crisis": deadline April 1!

[Francesca Musiani]

Please note that the deadline for submissions to the ESN-IAMCR special
session on the theme "The University in Crisis" has been fixed to
*April 1*. Please find the updated CfP below. Apologies for
cross-postings.

Regards,
Francesca Musiani

---------------------


International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR)

Istanbul 2011

Theme: “Cities, Creativity, Connectivity”

*CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO A SPECIAL SESSION ON*

 *"The University in Crisis*

 *”Tradition, innovation, and employment in Communications departments”*

Organized by the Emerging Scholars Network

* * *

Over the past few years, students and faculty in California, Puerto
Rico, Quebec, Greece and England, and other regions where the
government has customarily given strong support to higher education,
have responded to massive fee increases with protests and strikes. In
other countries universities and students have recently been at the
center of social struggles, as have communications technologies. What
does this mean for the nature of academic employment and research in
Communications? And how does neoliberal policy affect academic
research and practice in Communications, an interdisciplinary area of
study incorporating both critical theory and research directly
applicable to the business world?

The Emerging Scholars Network of the IAMCR invites interested scholars
and advocates to submit abstracts for a round table on: “The
University in Crisis: Tradition, innovation, and employment in
Communications departments.”


Present developments in academia in the Western world have followed a
consistent trajectory of government disengagement, while institutions
such as tenure and thesis-based PhDs are being questioned.
Universities in the Global South are sometimes strongly supported by
government and sometimes entirely private. We invite contributions
that address one (or more) of the following themes:

a)      Historical traditions in universities and how Communications,
as one of the newest disciplines in the humanities, has fit into these
practices; regional differences in the nature of universities and
changes affecting them;

b)         The role of Communications studies in studying, critiquing,
alleviating or contributing to the negative effects of globalization;

b)      The effects of different funding sources on research and
employment, as well as the role of corporations in universities and
Communications departments;

c)      Case studies, personal ethnographies, and examples of new
patterns of employment for emerging scholars;

d)      Possible solutions/attempts to reconcile such debates and
address contemporary challenges: visionary proposals for preserving
the value of higher education in a hostile political climate, the
future of academic employment and the role of Communications in future
universities.


The Emerging Scholars Network welcomes proposals from both emerging
and senior scholars.


Interested contributors are invited to submit a proposal of no more
than 500 words along with a curriculum vitae.


**Submissions should include your name, affiliation, and email address,
and should be sent by April 1 to Holly Nazar (hollynazar at hotmail.com)
with carbon copy to Stefania Milan (Stefania.Milan at eui.eu).  The list
of panelists will be announced by the end of April 2011.



-- 
Francesca Musiani

Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation (associé au CNRS, UMR7185)
MINES ParisTech
60, Boulevard Saint Michel
75272 PARIS Cedex 06 France

33 (0)1 40 51 92 77
33 (0)6 45 31 90 53
francesca.musiani at mines-paristech.fr
www.csi.mines-paristech.fr/Perso/Musiani/