IAMCR 2015: Health Communication and Change and HIV and AIDS Communication Working Groups - Deadline 9 February

The Health Communication and Change and HIV and AIDS Communication Working Groups invites submissions of abstracts for papers for the 2015 IAMCR conference to be held from 12-16 July, 2015 at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montreal, Canada.

Conference theme: “Hegemony or Resistance? The Ambiguous Power of Communication”

See the conference key dates and deadlines: http://iamcr.org/congress/montreal2015-keydates

See all Calls for Papers for IAMCR 2015: http://iamcr.org/congress/montreal2015-cfp

Visit the conference website: http://congresiamcr.uqam.ca

Health communication scholarship focuses on the many and varied ways in which media and communication shape ideas about health, illness and disease, potentially influencing people’s behaviours, health outcomes, governmental policies and community understandings. We learn about health issues and what it means to be healthy through our personal experiences, families, health professionals, news media, the internet and social media, films and advertisements. Many of us have ready access to information about health risks and actions we can take to preserve our health and wellbeing as well as access to health care providers when we need it, but many also experience barriers to accessing such resources. What role does communication, or its absence, play in these processes? How do various forms of communication promote hegemonic ideas about what health means and how it should be achieved? Equally, what can we learn from practices of health resistance?

This year’s conference theme ‘Hegemony or resistance? The Ambiguous Power of Communication’ lends itself to a range of sub-themes and topics pertinent to researchers and practitioners working in areas of Health and HIV and AIDS communication. More information about the conference theme is available at http://iamcr.org/congress/montreal2015-cfp We invite papers and panel proposals in (but not limited to) the following areas:

  • Practices and implications of health resistance
  • Structural drivers and social determinants of health
  • Medicalisation and its critics
  • (Dis)Empowering aspects of health communication and promotion
  • Mediatisation of health and medicine
  • Ethical dimensions of public health interventions
  • Health activism and advocacy
  • Innovative approaches to HIV and AIDS communication for development and social change
  • Emerging methodologies and innovations in Health and HIV and AIDS communication
  • Social, political and economic underpinnings and effects of the circulation of health knowledge, research, products and services

We are interested in facilitating interactions between practitioners and researchers and sharing and creating strategies to increase the relevance and uptake of research findings.
Other areas of interest to the working groups include: how digital media is transforming people’s relations to medical authority and creating space for redefining notions of health; the contexts in which online communication is a source of empowerment or disempowerment for users; contexts and implications of mediatisation within the fields of health and medicine; representations of health/diseases and people affected; stigma and discrimination; health risk perceptions; critical evidence, methodologies, and frameworks for evaluating the success and failure of health communication interventions; and improving the use of strategic data in policy and programming.

We encourage papers from multiple disciplinary perspectives and are particularly interested in qualitative approaches and critical theoretical contributions. The sessions of the working groups will be organised to suit emerging themes from submitted abstracts.

Panel proposals are also welcome. Such proposals should provide a panel title, a framing text (with the overall idea of the panel in maximum 500 words) and short abstracts for the included papers with titles and authors. A panel chair and a discussant can also be proposed. The panel framing text and the individual paper abstracts need to be submitted separately and each individual abstract should include the title of the panel of which it is part.

Abstracts need to be around 300-500 words in length and should include the overall research objectives, theoretical framework and methodology. Submissions must include: the name(s) of author(s) and professional title(s); institutional affiliation; and e-mail address/contact information. Abstracts must be submitted through the online Open Conference System at http://iamcr-ocs.org from 1 December 2014 – 9 February 2015. Early submission is encouraged. There are to be no email submissions of abstracts addressed to any Section or Working Group Head. Submitted abstracts will generally be evaluated on the basis of: 1) theoretical contribution, 2) methods, 3) quality of writing, 4) literature review, 5) relevance of the submission to the work of the working groups, and 6) originality and/or significance of the work.

This working group accepts abstracts in English or French, and will arrange for presentations in both languages. Presentations need to have powerpoint in English, but we will work with the presenter to facilitate their presentation if it is in French.

It is expected that for the most part, only one (1) abstract will be submitted per person for consideration by the Conference. However, under no circumstances should there be more than two (2) abstracts bearing the name of the same applicant either individually or as part of any group of authors. Please note also that the same abstract or another version with minor variations in title or content must not be submitted to other Sections or Working Groups of the Association for consideration, after an initial submission. Such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be automatically rejected by the Open Conference System, by the relevant Head or by the Conference Programme Reviewer. Such applicants risk being removed entirely from the conference programme. Failure to present at the conference after confirming your attendance and without notifying the Working Group heads of any changed circumstances is strongly condemned and such individuals might not be allowed to submit for future conferences.

Upon submission of an abstract, you will be asked to confirm that your submission is original and that it has not been previously published in the form presented. You will also be given an opportunity to declare if your submission is currently before another conference for consideration.

Presenters are expected to bring fully developed work to the conference. Prior to the conference, it is expected that a completed paper will be submitted to Section, Working Group, Session Chairs, and/or Discussants.

Please note that if your abstract is accepted, you may be called upon to facilitate or moderate one of the working group sessions.

If you have trouble with the online submission process or questions related to this call for papers, please contact the co-chairs of the working groups (cc all co-chairs).

Health Communication and Change and HIV and AIDS Communication Working Groups:

Co-Chairs:

Nanna Engebretsen
nanna.engebretsen[at]hil.no

Sarah Cardey
s.p.cardey[at]reading.ac.uk

Ravindra Kumar Vemula
ravi [at] efluniversity.ac.in

Kate Holland
kate.holland[at]canberra.edu.au

Marjan DeBruin
Marjan.debruin[at]uwimona.edu.jm

See the conference key dates and deadlines: http://iamcr.org/congress/montreal2015-keydates

See all Calls for Papers for IAMCR 2015: http://iamcr.org/congress/montreal2015-cfp

Visit the conference website: http://congresiamcr.uqam.ca

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