CfP: Ada, Issue 4, Queer, Feminist Digital Media Praxis

Call for papers

Queer, feminist digital media praxis
Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology |
adanewmedia.org<http://adanewmedia.org>
Issue 3, May 2014

Editors: Aristea Fotopoulou (University of Sussex), Alex Juhasz (Pitzer
College), Kate O'Riordan (University of Sussex/ University of California,
Santa Cruz)

We invite contributions to a peer-reviewed special issue that brings
together artistic, theoretical, critical and empirical responses to a
range of questions around mediation, technology and gender equality. In
particular we are interested in exploring what the concept of praxis could
offer in our thinking about the intersections of gender, digital media,
and technology.

Praxis in both Marxist and in Arendtian political thought brings together
theory, philosophy and political action into the realm of the everyday.
Inspired from this premise, and continuing the conversations that started
during the workshop Queer, feminist social media praxis at the University
of Sussex in May 2013
(queerfemdigiact.wordpress.com<http://queerfemdigiact.wordpress.com>), we
focus here on the conditions for a feminist digital media praxis. Media
praxis, in other words the "making and theorising of media towards stated
projects of world and self-changing"
(mediapraxis.org<http://mediapraxis.org>), could be a vital component of
feminist and/or queer political action. We are interested in the
different modes of political action for social justice, enabled by digital
technologies and social media, including theory, art, activism or
pedagogy. What kinds of possibilities or impossibilities do these
technologies and platforms offer for interpreting and intervening in the
world?

The fourth issue of Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media and Technology seeks
submissions that explore the concept of feminist, queer, digital media
praxis. We welcome unpublished work from scholars of any discipline and
background, including collaborative, non-traditional, or multimodal
approaches that can especially benefit from the journal's open access
online status.
Topics and approaches might include, but are not limited to:

Affect, desire and disgust
Diffractive readings
Digital storytelling
Herstories, archiving and remembering
Feminist pedagogy
LGBTQ Youth
New media bodies
Imaginaries, futures and technological utopias
Radical art practices
Science, technology and social justice

We invite submissions for individual papers on any of the above themes or
related themes. Contributions in formats other than the traditional essay
are encouraged; please contact the editor to discuss specifications and/or
multimodal contributions.

All submissions should be sent by 15th August, to
A.Fotopoulou@sussex.ac.uk. They should be accompanied by the following
information in the email message with your submission attachment:

Name(s), affiliation(s), email address(es) of the person(s) submitting.
Title of the text
Abstract of 400-600 words

Please note that Ada uses a two-level review process that is open to
members of the Fembot Collective. For more information about our review
policy, see these guidelines:
http://adanewmedia.org/beta-reader-and-review-policy/.

Important dates:

- Deadline for abstracts: 15th August 2013
- Notification of accepted papers: 1st September 2013
- Deadline for full essays: 5th December 2013
- Expected publication date: May 2014

About Ada:

Ada is an online, open access, open source, peer-reviewed journal run on a
nonprofit basis by feminist media scholars from Canada, the UK, and the
US. The journal's first issue was published online in November 2012 and
has so far received more than 75,000 page views. Ada operates a review
process that combines the feminist mentorship of fan communities with the
rigor of peer review. Read more at
http://adanewmedia.org/beta-reader-and-review-policy/. We do not — and
will never — charge fees for publishing your materials, and we will share
those materials using a Creative Commons License.

Information about the editors:

Aristea Fotopoulou is postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of
Sussex, working at the intersections of media & cultural studies with
science & technologies studies. She is interested in critical aspects of
digital culture, emerging technologies and social change, and in
feminist/queer theory. She has written about digital networks and
feminism, and recently, on information politics and knowledge production,
and on social imaginaries of digital engagement. She currently explores
practices of sharing in relation to biosensors and other smart
technologies, and also works with Kate to produce SusNet, a co-created
platform of feminist cultural production, art and activism.

Alexandra Juhasz is Professor of Media Studies, Pitzer College. She has
written multiple articles on feminist, fake, and AIDS documentary. Her
current work is on and about YouTube, and other more radical uses of
digital media. She has produced the feature films, The Owls, and The
Watermelon Woman, as well as nearly fifteen educational documentaries on
feminist issues like teenage sexuality, AIDS, and sex education. Her first
book, AIDS TV: Identity, Community and Alternative Video (Duke University
Press, 1996) is about the contributions of low-end video production to
political organizing and individual and community growth.

Kate O'Riordan is Reader in Digital Media and Associate Professor of Art
at the University of Sussex and the University of California Santa Cruz
respectively. She is the author and editor of three books, most recently
The Genome Incorporated: Constructing Biodigital Identity. Her interests
and expertise range from gender, sexuality and digital culture to human
cloning, genomics and other biodigital symptoms. She is currently engaged
in work at the intersections of art, science and media about in-vitro
meat, biosensors and smart grids and questions about sustaining knowledge
in feminist art and activism.

http://fembotcollective.org/blog/2013/07/09/cfp-ada-issue-4-queer-feminist-digital-media-praxis/