Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Northern Star - Obscurity. Call for Papers

 

Northern Star symposium

17th-19th of October 2022

Nord University, Bodø

 

The Northern Star Symposium is a three day academic gathering in Bodø, a Norwegian city just north of the artic circle. The goal of this symposium is to have a place to discuss topics and questions that are not among the mainstream of conferences and journals, a place to test out new ideas and listen to fresh voices in academia. The keynote speakers will not have presented elsewhere, and the participants are there to satisfy their curiosity and their interest, foster new directions of research and exploration, and engage in debate and the exchange of knowledge. The symposium is organized annually, and it has a limited number of attendants.

The Northern Star Symposium is organized by the Journalism research group within the Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University, Bodø.

 

The theme of the Northern Star symposium 2022 is:

Obscurity

Something being obscure means it is moving in the dark; there are objects or meanings hidden and hard to grasp, and things we cannot trust or are hard to see.

For this symposium we explore topics that are not popularly discussed, because they can be difficult to uncover, talk about or present. They are concerned with communication and engagement that is hard to reveal and study. We want to look at this ambiguous engagement across multiple platforms. Play often uses obscurity as a factor, but can also be obscure, from hide-and-seek in the dark, to online play with anonymity, hidden agendas and obscured identities.

Communicating online obscures the functions of technology for us. The different algorithms that control our interactions are hidden, obscuring affordances and structures. At the same time the technology lets us reveal what might otherwise be hidden.

We also invite obscure methodological approaches not commonly used in the humanities or social sciences, as well as other methods utilized for the study of obscured topics, ignored theories, ephemeral communication practices and unusual content.

 

Format:

We invite abstracts of up to 500 words (not including literature lists), for the following formats:

Paper, work in progress, reflection.

A full paper is no more than 6000 words, and will not be published, but used as a base for commentary and discussion. The author maintains all rights to further publishing the work.

A work in progress is not limited in concept, but should not exceed 2000 words. The author maintains all rights to further publishing the work.

A reflection is a statement of an idea, theory, concept, and should not exceed the abstract.  

 

Please submit your abstracts to NorthernDOTStarDOTSymposiumATgmailDOTcom

All identifying information submitted to this address will only be used for communication between the organisers and the individual, and will be deleted within one year after the symposium.

 

Submission date:

Final submission date: August 15th.

Note: fluid acceptance dates for early submissions: From June 15th early submissions will be considered and accepted by organization committee consensus. Submissions are not anonymously reviewed. Program decisions will be made by the program committee, Torill Elvira Mortensen, Tanja Sihvonen, Tomasz Majkowski, and Joleen Blom, together with the steering committee: Lisbeth Klastrup, Stine Gotved, Kristine Jørgensen, Susana Tosca, Mia Consalvo, Andy Phelps, Jaroslav Svelch, and Helga Dis Isfold Sigurdardottir.

 

Dates:

15th June - 15th August Abstract submissions due

1st September Decisions on the abstracts

5th October Full paper deadline

17th - 19th  of October Symposium dates

 

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