Deadline: 30 October 2010
Copenhagen University, Denmark
The New Islamic Public Sphere Programme
RE-ENCHANTMENT OF ARAB TELEVISION:
AUDIENCE RESPONSES AND IDENTITY CONSTRUCTIONS
Call for conference paper and subsequent book proposals
The New Islamic Public Sphere Programme invites proposals for papers at the Conference on Re-enchantment of Arab Television: Audience responses and identity constructions to be held in Copenhagen, 27 29 May 2011
The main issue of this conference is how Arab audiences respond to religion and religious programming on Arab television. A focus on Islamic programming is particularly requested, but also papers on audience responses to other religious programming are encouraged. In spite of the common recognition that the effect of media has to be understood in the encounter between media discourse and audience responses, very often the Arab television audiences seem to be perceived as a passive, impressionable and homogenous mass. This raises the need for further and critical reception and audience analyses taking the heterogeneity and transnationality of the Arab audiences into account. Thus, the main objective of the conference, and subsequent book proposal, is to gain new knowledge about the Arab audiences and how they make use of TV in their construction, negotiation and rejection of religious identities and practices.
The conference objective is to present and discuss qualitative and comparative studies of Arab television audiences. This approach raises questions related to media and (religious) identity formation as well as a number of methodological questions of general interest for media and cultural studies. Concepts like meaning making and individual identity construction are introduced as key notions in general but three interrelated analytical approaches are suggested for further exploration. Firstly, audience identification with religious identity as collective memory constructed through storytelling. Secondly, audience use of religious programming as an instrument to live and identify transnationally. And, thirdly, audience interpretation of religious programming as basis for resistance towards political hegemonies. These topics will be investigated at three seminar sessions wherein the following questions might be examined:
How does tthe audience integrate the mediatised form of religious storytelling in its own identity discourse and how does the audience construct collective identity through media use?
o Arab/Muslim audience as an analytical and theoretical concept with a focus on
theoretical discussions hereof.
o Media theory on Arab/Muslim audience responses with a focus on methodological
and analytical questions.
o Case studies on audience responses using cases related to television.
How is the transnationality of the Arrab television practiced and consumed by the audience and what does this add to the transnational perspective as a theoretical perspective on religious and cultural identity?
o The Arab/Muslim Diaspora and its TV media practices.
o The construction of transnational communities as spatial and/or virtual
communities.
How do Arabs/Musslims in different societal contexts make use of religious narratives offered by the Arab television to negotiate, reject, and contest cultural and political ideas, values and identities?
o Arab/Muslim audience as a political public using religious television as source for opposition and resistance.
Submission of proposals:
Abstracts (300 500 words) should be sent by 30th October 2010 too Ehab Galal at (ehab AT hum.ku.dk). Abstract, following this order: author(s), affiliation, email address, title of abstract, body of abstract, short CV (max. 150 words). A full draft paper of 8000 words should be submitted no later than 1st May 2011. Selection of the papers will be made on the basis of quality and relevance to the conference themes. Only accepted papers will get an answer by the date mentioned below. Selected papers will be published in a special volume in English.
Deadlines:
o Submission of abstracts: 30th October 2010
o Notification of acceptance of abstracts: 1st December 2010
o Submission of full papers: 1st May 2011
Financial and other support:
All participants will be provided basic accommodation free of cost for a maximum of three nights for participants within Europe; for participants outside Europe individual arrangement will be made.
For additional information:
Organizer Ehab Galal
Assistant Professor in Modern Islam and Middle Eastern Studies
Department for Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
University of Copenhagen
Snorresgade 17-19
DK-2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark
E-mail: ehab AT hum.ku.dk
The conference will take place under the auspices of The New Islamic Public Sphere Programme at the University of Copenhagen.
More information here.
Copenhagen University, Denmark
The New Islamic Public Sphere Programme
RE-ENCHANTMENT OF ARAB TELEVISION:
AUDIENCE RESPONSES AND IDENTITY CONSTRUCTIONS
Call for conference paper and subsequent book proposals
The New Islamic Public Sphere Programme invites proposals for papers at the Conference on Re-enchantment of Arab Television: Audience responses and identity constructions to be held in Copenhagen, 27 29 May 2011
The main issue of this conference is how Arab audiences respond to religion and religious programming on Arab television. A focus on Islamic programming is particularly requested, but also papers on audience responses to other religious programming are encouraged. In spite of the common recognition that the effect of media has to be understood in the encounter between media discourse and audience responses, very often the Arab television audiences seem to be perceived as a passive, impressionable and homogenous mass. This raises the need for further and critical reception and audience analyses taking the heterogeneity and transnationality of the Arab audiences into account. Thus, the main objective of the conference, and subsequent book proposal, is to gain new knowledge about the Arab audiences and how they make use of TV in their construction, negotiation and rejection of religious identities and practices.
The conference objective is to present and discuss qualitative and comparative studies of Arab television audiences. This approach raises questions related to media and (religious) identity formation as well as a number of methodological questions of general interest for media and cultural studies. Concepts like meaning making and individual identity construction are introduced as key notions in general but three interrelated analytical approaches are suggested for further exploration. Firstly, audience identification with religious identity as collective memory constructed through storytelling. Secondly, audience use of religious programming as an instrument to live and identify transnationally. And, thirdly, audience interpretation of religious programming as basis for resistance towards political hegemonies. These topics will be investigated at three seminar sessions wherein the following questions might be examined:
How does tthe audience integrate the mediatised form of religious storytelling in its own identity discourse and how does the audience construct collective identity through media use?
o Arab/Muslim audience as an analytical and theoretical concept with a focus on
theoretical discussions hereof.
o Media theory on Arab/Muslim audience responses with a focus on methodological
and analytical questions.
o Case studies on audience responses using cases related to television.
How is the transnationality of the Arrab television practiced and consumed by the audience and what does this add to the transnational perspective as a theoretical perspective on religious and cultural identity?
o The Arab/Muslim Diaspora and its TV media practices.
o The construction of transnational communities as spatial and/or virtual
communities.
How do Arabs/Musslims in different societal contexts make use of religious narratives offered by the Arab television to negotiate, reject, and contest cultural and political ideas, values and identities?
o Arab/Muslim audience as a political public using religious television as source for opposition and resistance.
Submission of proposals:
Abstracts (300 500 words) should be sent by 30th October 2010 too Ehab Galal at (ehab AT hum.ku.dk). Abstract, following this order: author(s), affiliation, email address, title of abstract, body of abstract, short CV (max. 150 words). A full draft paper of 8000 words should be submitted no later than 1st May 2011. Selection of the papers will be made on the basis of quality and relevance to the conference themes. Only accepted papers will get an answer by the date mentioned below. Selected papers will be published in a special volume in English.
Deadlines:
o Submission of abstracts: 30th October 2010
o Notification of acceptance of abstracts: 1st December 2010
o Submission of full papers: 1st May 2011
Financial and other support:
All participants will be provided basic accommodation free of cost for a maximum of three nights for participants within Europe; for participants outside Europe individual arrangement will be made.
For additional information:
Organizer Ehab Galal
Assistant Professor in Modern Islam and Middle Eastern Studies
Department for Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
University of Copenhagen
Snorresgade 17-19
DK-2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark
E-mail: ehab AT hum.ku.dk
The conference will take place under the auspices of The New Islamic Public Sphere Programme at the University of Copenhagen.
More information here.
