IAMCR 2012 – Islam & Media Working Group Call for Papers

altIAMCR's Islam and Media Working Group invites submission of abstracts for papers and panel proposals for the IAMCR 2012 conference to be held from July 15-19, 2012 at the Howard College Campus of the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa.

The deadline for submissions is February 14, 2012. We request you to read this CFP carefully, and consider all details and requirements regarding submissions.

The conference will be held under the general theme, South-North Conversations. While the theme points to the asymmetry of and divides in global communication flows, it expresses at the same time a need for Western countries to listen to and learn from experiences from the global South. The theme thus calls for balanced and empowering narratives that do not regard those in ‘the South’ primarily as victims in need of hand-outs from the more affluent. Rather, the conference wishes to emphasize the communicative empowerment and the positive potential of constructive conversions between, cultures, civilizations and religions media scholars, and experts of North and South. 

The conference theme lies at the heart of the Islam & Media Working Group's interests as it calls for continuous, conversations, dialogue and negotiation with regard to media and communication in global and local contexts to reach a compromise that help creates better understanding and better relationships between groups with different cultures, civilizational backgrounds and communication perspectives.

The Islam and Media Working Group is based on the concept that Islam is not a religion in the traditional and relatively narrow Western sense. Rather, it is a culture and a law that deals with economy, politics and society. 

The Islam & Media Working Group welcomes submissions on all areas of interest to Islam, media and communication in its global and dynamic implications and is especially interested in research on the following topics:

  • Islam, communication and conflict management,
  • Islam, media and democracy
  • Islam, media and cultural dialogue
  • Islam, communication and international peace,
  • Digital divide: policies, regulations and the Islamic perspective
  • Media, communication and images of minorities
  • Social networks and the Arab spring
  • Islam, politics and identity in the new Middle East
  • Imbalanced flow of communication between Muslim & Non-Muslim countries
  • Marginalized languages on the net and cultural hegemony
  • Communication research, culture and Islam
  • Human rights, citizenship, communication and Islam,
  • Islam, old & new media and dialogue among civilizations
  • Arab Transformation of media systems between international standards and indigenous cultures
  • Convergence of Western and Islamic communication paradigms: challenges & opportunities and consequences
  • New media, Islam and overcoming the cultural divide
  • Cyberpolitics, cybercommunication, cyberculture and changing nature of power between north and south

Submission of paper and panel abstracts
Please make sure  that your abstract includes the following:

For individual papers
1. Title of the paper.
2. Author information: The name(s) of author(s) and title (professor, postdoctoral fellow, graduate student, etc.), institutional affiliation, e-mail address, postal, phone and fax information should be provided.
3. Length of abstract: 300 - 500 words.
4. Content: Reviewers  will evaluate abstracts according to the following:

  • Importance and relevance of the research topic,
  • Significance of the anticipated results,
  • Conceptual framework,
  • Soundness of the research method and data collection tools,

For panel submissions
The panel chair must provide the following information in a single document for the OCS: (a) panel title (b) panel participants, titles, institutional affiliation (c) panel rationale of about 200 words, (d) an abstract of about 300 words for each paper to be presented within the panel.

Mode of submission: All Abstracts should be submitted only via the central Open Conference System (OCS).

Number of submissions for the Group: Only one submission per author or panel chair or panel participant will be considered for review in the Islam and Media Working Group.

Deadlines: The deadline for submission of abstracts is February 14, 2012.

All submissions must be uploaded to the OCS system. The Online Conference System opened on December 1, 2011, and will close on February 14, 2012.

Decisions on acceptance of abstracts will be communicated to individual applicants by the Chair of Islam and Media Working Group no later than March 12, 2012

For those whose abstracts are accepted, full conference papers are to be submitted via the IAMCR OCS by June 10, 2012.

Information: For further information, please contact the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) or consult the Conference Organizers via the website at: http://www.iamcr2012.ukzn.ac.za/

Islam and Media Group Contacts:

Chair: Professor Basyouni Hamada, basyouni_hamada[AT]yahoo.com
Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo University, Egypt www.crcegypt.net

Co-Chair: Professor Bushra Rahman, bushrahr[AT]yahoo.com
University of the Punjab, Pakistan

Co-Chair: Professor  Fernando Resende,  fernandoresende1501[AT]gmail.com
Fluminense University, Journalism Studies, Brazil