[Air-L] CFP - Para|Sites: Locations and Dislocations of Media, 2013 NYU Neil Postman Graduate Conference

[Michelle Forelle]

Para|Sites: Locations and Dislocations of Media

The 2013 Neil Postman Graduate Conference
New York University | February 22, 2013
*CFP Deadline: November 18, 2012 **
*

*“Networks are within the movement, with other movements around the world,
with the Internet blogosphere, with the media and with society at large.
Networking technologies are meaningful because they provide the platform
for this continuing, expansive networking practice that evolves with the
changing shape of the movement.”*

— Manuel Castells, Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the
Internet Age (2012)

The 2013 Neil Postman Graduate Conference takes *Para|Sites: Locations and
Dislocations of Media* as its theme.

*Para|Sites* aims to examine media practices that transform what is
regulated and controlled, actions that reveal and exploit gaps in existing
social, cultural, political and educational frameworks. “Para” indicates
that which is to one side of, beyond, or alongside. This conference
addresses the ways that media practices can subvert, recode, co-opt, and
reroute networks, systems, and traditional media structures to achieve
social and cultural agendas. At times these practices can occur at the
expense of particular hosts: they exhibit “parasitical” behaviors in order
to move into—or through—spaces in ways they cannot on their own. They can
also generate alternative structures and divergent networks (“para-sites”)
that facilitate undisciplined and innovative practices.

As a field, media studies can be considered para-sited, hosting conflicts
and confluences, challenging the very idea of disciplines, borders and
identity. This conference aims to also look at possibilities in the field
of media studies within disjunctures, dislocations, disruption, and crises,
producing potentialities and alternatives.

Possible topics and topic areas include (but are not limited to): “*Para—* ”
individuals, groups, organizations, collectives exploiting/co-opting;
counter-visualities, para-academia, disability studies, alt-porn, or
ethnographic states of exception. “*Sites*” as the locations, habitats, and
networks being exploited; limits and borders, new materialisms, digital
ethnographies, and informal economies. “*Media Studies*” as host and/or
para-site; disciplinary intersections, cybernetics, blogging, digital
humanities.

Keynote: *Manuel Castells*, Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication
Technology and Society<http://postmanconference.org/conferences/2013-para-sites/keynote/>
at
the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern
California, will deliver the Keynote Speech. Castells will speak about
networked social movements and communication power from his recent
book Networks
of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet
Age<http://www.amazon.com/Networks-Outrage-Hope-Movements-Internet/dp/0745662854>
.

The New York University Department of Media, Culture, and
Communication<https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/mcc/> invites
graduate students, academics, activists, workers, and artists to submit
conference paper proposals. The conference will be held on *February 22,
2013* at NYU. Paper proposal submissions (no more than 300 words) should be
sent by November 18, 2012 to mcc.events at nyu.edu (with “Call for Papers” in
the subject). We also welcome ideas for artwork on the theme to be
displayed during the conference.

Download Call for Papers
2013<http://postmanconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Postman2013_CFP-FINAL.pdf>
** (PDF)
<http://postmanconference.org/>

*
<http://postmanconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/npgc_fb_01.jpg>
The 2013 Neil Postman Graduate Conference*
New York University
February 22, 2013
*CFP Deadline: November 18, 2012
*http://postmanconference.org/*
* <http://postmanconference.org/>

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-- 
NYU Steinhardt Media, Culture and Communications Master's Student
(407) 864-2225

<http://bostonmakesmusicvideos.wordpress.com/>