Call for Papers

This inter-disciplinary graduate conference seeks to address questions concerning the multiple dimensions of remix at the intersection of culture and communication. Lawrence Lessig has proposed "remix" as one of the main outcomes of social and cultural practices enabled by new technologies that allow for easy production and sharing. Remix is the creative mixing of cultural elements, a collage, a blending, a hybridization of genres, creative destruction. Henry Jenkins talks of a "convergence culture" and many other authors refer a participatory turn. But this surge of creativity and participation also poses authority, legal, economic and ethical challenges. Against the hype of an amateur culture, many voices from academia and industry question the value of remixing practices, namely regarding authorship. According to the net-generation mentality, originality is a fallacy and legitimacy resides in authenticity. In the scope of this perspective, creativity is expressed in the way one approaches an existing text, or the text is reorganized; among critics, a set of questions on the cultural consequences of these new practices and values has been raised.
This conference aims to bring together doctoral students, post-doc and junior researchers from different areas and disciplines to share research interests and works-in-progress, learn and engage in fresh intellectual discussion with international key academics and build a community of young scholars. We seek academic work from any field of communication or cultural studies.
 
Papers are welcome on the topics listed below, amongst others:

- The ethical dimensions of remix;
- The politics of remix;
- Technologies of remix;
- Journalism and remix
- Hybridization;
- Participatory Culture;
- The current challenges of/to authorship;
- Entertainment as a remix;
- Gender remix;
- Remix in the literature and the arts;
- The economics of remix;
- Free culture;
- Philosophical roots of remix;
- Cultural citizenship;
- Remix and Education: Learning by Remixing;
- Remix and Identity;
- Remixed Cultures;
- Fandom.


Deadline for submissions: May 31st, 2011
 
The conference language is English.
 
Please send a 250-word abstract, as well as a brief biographical note (100 words) to cultureremix@gmail.com by May 31st, 2011. Proposals should list paper title, name, institutional affiliation, and contact details. If you are submitting a work in progress, we welcome your submission! Please state that it is a work in progress in your abstract.
We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal. We suggest then resending it. Successful applicants will be notified by June 17th, 2011.
We regret to inform that travel and accommodation funding for conference participants is not available at this time.