Media Imaginaries 2023, International Symposium at Lund University, Sweden

Department of Communication and Media – Thursday, 16 March 2023
Organisers Annette Hill, Hario Priambodho, Cheryl Fung and Martin Lundqvist – MKV Lund University

Media imaginaries are shape shifters. We can see imaginaries as make believe, as thinking outside the box, and as social practices. These multiform imaginaries coexist with the dialectics of the real and the imaginary, e.g. technological visions, or post truth politics.

The term media imaginaries refers to the cultural work of texts and artefacts, audience engagement and experiences, and the infrastructural work of commercial and civic organisations. How we create, talk about, dislike and dispute the stories and myths, facts and fictions regarding media related issues such as the environment and mobility, platforms and technologies, or inequalities and social justice, is of pressing concern for citizens, media researchers and industry professionals. We invite international scholars to consider their research contributions towards a critical media imaginaries playbook.

Key questions for this international symposium on the theme of ‘Media Imaginaries’ include:

  • How do we imagine media today, yesterday or tomorrow?
  • How do various forms of media imagine us as citizens, users, fans or producers?
  • How do institutional organisations and professionals imagine societal contexts for a range of media-related issues, e.g. memories, technologies, communication and transportation, crises and conflict, or the environment?

Through an exploration and examination of media imaginaries, this international symposium will provide a scientific space for dialogue on the following topics:

  • Imaginary media, e.g. texts, aesthetics and performances in television, film, journalism, platforms, games, podcasts, theatre and sports;
  • Media imaginaries, e.g. social and technical actors, domestication and communication;
  • Media and the mnemonic imagination, e.g. cultural memories, performance of memories and archives
  • Media and social imaginaries, e.g. political and social movements, social inequalities;
  • Media and cultural imaginaries, e.g. cultural meanings and resources, arts and futures;
  • Queer and activist imaginaries, e.g. gender and intersectionality, critical disabilities, rewilding;
  • Mobilities and imaginaries, e.g. transportation, mobilities and immobilities;
  • Media imaginaries and the global south, e.g. diverse linguistic communities, non-Western centric approaches
  • Media and environmental imaginaries, e.g. climate crisis, energy justice, critical infrastructures.

International invited speakers include Professor Deborah Chambers (Newcastle University, UK), Professor Simon Dawes (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France), Professor Joke Hermes (InHolland University, Netherlands), Professor Annette Hill (Lund University, Sweden), Dr Ignas Kalpokas  (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania), Dr Robert Willim (Lund University, Sweden), Dr Emiliano Rossi (Bologna University, Italy).

Please submit an abstract of 300 words in English by 12 December 2022 to hario.priambodho@kom.lu.se.  For further information please consult our website cstonline.netwww.kom.lu.se/en/research/conferences-and-events/media-imaginaries-2023. There is a registration fee of 950 SEK (95 Euros) that covers food and drink for the day and an evening buffet.