RUC to host conference on Media and Publics in 2022 – call for papers out now
The notion of ‘publics’ or ‘the public’ is as well-known as it is elusive of exact definition. In everyday vocabulary, it is most often used in reference to a collection of people – for example, the listening or protesting public – and carries normative ideals of the importance of the public in democratic society.
Within academia, the concept itself and the process of the formation of publics have been and continue to be highly theorised across disciplines and in the wake of societal changes, leaving a multitude of different conceptualisations behind.
How are these useful in various ways when studying societal transformations and the role journalism? These questions and many more will be explored in “Media and Publics 2022” conference taking place at Roskilde University on 28th and 29th April 2022.
Both on-site and digital
The conference will be held on-site at the Department of Communication and Arts, Roskilde University, but also offers a digital track for those unable to travel.
- We are looking forward to a conference where we can finally talk and discuss face to face with fellow scholars. And to explore how datafication affects publics as well as how to conceptualise and investigate them, says DataPublics PI Jannie Møller Hartley.
Media and Publics 2022 is a joint effort between three larger research projects at RUC, which all centre around the notion of publics: DataPublics, funded by the Velux Foundation, AlterPublics, funded by the Carlsberg Foundation, and Cultural Publics, funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark.
- With the cultural, the datafied, and the alternative media perspective, we are covering publics from different angles, and with this conference we invite our fellow media researchers to discuss with us and provide even more perspectives on the notions of publics, says Ida Willig, PI on the Cultural Publics project.
Internationally renowned keynote-speakers
With a great line-up of keynote-speakers such as Nancy Fraser (New School, New York), Noortje Marres (University of Warwick), Zizi Papacharissi (University of Illinois Chicago), and Stefania Milan (University of Amsterdam), the conference will deliver insights into the elusive notion of ‘publics’, but also discuss the challenges facing media today.
- We are thrilled to have these internationally renowned speakers joining us at RUC and excited about the possibility to create on-site interdisciplinary dialogue among the many conference presenters and participants, says Eva Mayerhöffer, PI of AlterPublics.
See more about the conference (deadline for registration: 15 March 2022) and the call for paper abstracts (deadline: 15 November 2021).