16.1.Blues culture. Creators – media – institutions (recruitment of texts until November 5, 2023)
In recent years, important music albums have been released by legendary blues artists, to mention only the representatives of Chicago blues, Buddy Guy (The Blues Don't Lie) and John Mayall (The Sun is Shining Down). Inspiring new recordings are also published by artists of various generations with an already established position in the world of blues (blues rock) - such as Dana Fuchs, Joe Bonamassa, Beth Hart, Gary Clark Jr., Jack White and The Black Keys. Over a hundred years have passed since Trixie Smith sang the important song My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll), over sixty years since The Rolling Stones' first performance (on July 12, 1962 at London's Marquee Club). Of course, important anniversaries can be multiplied. We propose that national studies on musical culture return to the roots of popular music. In the planned issue of the periodical "Studia de Cultura", we suggest viewing the structures of the long duration of blues, taking a look at the beginnings of the genre, but also the evolution, contemporary emanations and resonances of this musical and cultural phenomenon.
In connection with the main topic of the volume, we propose to consider the following framework issues:
- Blues from the perspective of the genology of (popular) music,
- Specificity of domestic and world blues,
- Blues in the perspective of the history of music carriers,
- Blues and the issue of gender and racial difference,
- Blues scenes in Poland and around the world
- Poetics of blues music videos,
- Blues cover iconography,
- Lyrics of blues songs from the perspective of song studies,
- Blues in the music media; media and institutional aspects of blues,
- Anthropology of the blues,
- Film contexts of blues; documentary (auto)biographical films,
- Recipients, fans, music lovers, collectors of blues records,
- Cultural memory of the blues; blues and the category of nostalgia and retromania,
- Works of blues forerunners; young generation of creators; continuators and imitators.
We invite you to send original scientific articles on the issues outlined above, including texts presenting the results of your own research. Please send finished articles prepared in accordance with the journal's editorial requirements (see https://studiadecultura.up.krakow.pl/about/submissions) to:studidecultura@gmail.com by November 5, 2023.
16.2. Audiality: culture, media and audio narratives (recruitment of texts until January 20, 2024)
In the planned issue devoted to audiality, we propose reflection on the following issues:
- audio culture and audio narratives as an inter-/transdisciplinary subject of humanistic, social, medical and technical research; components of audio culture, methods and tools for its research; analog and digital audio culture: between history, media archeology and the present day;
- medical, social, psychological, neurocognitive, technological, media conditions of hearing and listening and their impact on contemporary media culture;
- audiosphere in research in the field of hearing psychology, (neuro)aesthetics and cultural research and contemporary communicationology;
- the role of media and digital technologies in "matrixing" patterns, strategies, rituals of creating and receiving audio messages online and offline;
- genres and formats of audio messages: aesthetic, ideological, economic and technocultural aspects;
- audio messages and media in the remix culture and the culture of participation: cultural and legal conditions;
- memory, sensitivity and auditory imagination: educational strategies in contemporary media culture - traditional and post-traditional education;
- images in the mind and audio narratives: perspectives of research on the user and recipient of audio media;
- audio competences as a form of cultural, media and cognitive competences;
- phenomenology of perception of audio messages - directions and results of research in the 21st century;
- contemporary aesthetics towards audio culture and its products;
- acoustic landscapes of cities, places and social environments in the context of research on humanistic geography and the sociology of audiality;
- human sound space: cultural, geographical and social conditions;
- audio narratives as ways of understanding and experiencing the world: narratological, phenomenological, neurocognitive, neuroaesthetic research;
- the role and types of sound in the natural environment and in artistic creation;
- radio plays, audiobooks and audio series: reception and production as well as institutional, psychological and cultural aspects;
- podcasting – cultural and economic contexts;
- audio-porn and the sensory sphere of recipients: aesthetic, psychological and economic aspects;
- noise, silence, pause as aesthetic means in media narratives;
- semantics of silence and sound interspaces in radio genres and audio performances;
- types of audio spaces and creating media narratives;
- audio media in the context of research on cultural, individual, autobiographical memory, etc.;
- audio media in the context of users' needs and motivations and in the light of affordance theory and research in the field of user experience.
Please send your texts to: studidecultura@gmail.com by January 20, 2024.
16.3. Digital competences and artificial intelligence in contemporary humanities and social research (recruitment of texts until March 20, 2024)
In the planned issue devoted to digital competences and artificial intelligence in contemporary humanities and social research, we propose reflection on the following issues:
- Ways of defining digital competences and their components in the EU, EC and UNESCO recommendations
- Artificial intelligence in projects in the field of humanities and digital art: executive and reception competences
- Digital competences 4.0 in relation to key competences and the challenges of the digital knowledge society and solutions based on AI and artificial neural networks
- Digital competences in the context of the digital transformation of the labor market and the challenges of industry 4.0.
- Catalogs and models of key competences in European countries
- Basic linguistic, communication, cognitive, social and executive competences and their role in developing digital competences
- Executive digital competences: products, narratives, services
- Digital competences in the face of the challenges of artificial intelligence - sociocultural, aesthetic and cognitive aspects
- The role of non-human agents in communication and social services
- Transversal competences and "soft competences" and their role in the development of digital competences
- Educational policies and content of digital competences and artificial intelligence applications in EU countries
- Methods and tools for measuring digital competences and competence profiles in relation to specific age groups, education levels and professional groups
- Components of digital competences and methods of developing them in relation to the psychology of human life and the assumptions of continuing education
- Digital competences in formal and informal education: media practices and strategies
- The role of digital competences for the development of democracy and civil society
- The role of digital competences for sustainable development programs
- Development of digital competences in VR and AR environments
- Digital education in schools and universities in Europe: educational practices, policies and learning content
- Digital education and artistic and cultural projects in the 21st century: analysis of specific activities and presentation of good practices
- Digital education in the context of the development of creative industries, culture of participation and democratization of contemporary art and culture
- The issues of inclusive education in relation to the development of digital competences and projects using artificial intelligence
- Digital (self-)exclusion and cyberphobia: cultural, economic, psychological and environmental conditions
- Pro-innovation and creative thinking in the development of digital competences and projects using artificial intelligence
- The concept of T-shaped skills towards the challenges of digital transformation
- The role of digital competences in the promotion of artistic, film and musical creation
- Digital competences and the prevention of risky behavior online and pathological forms of using new technologies and digital media
- Digital competences, disinformation and hybrid threats
- Systemic education of teachers and media literacy educators in relation to the challenges of education 4.0 and artificial intelligence
- National institutions responsible for monitoring and implementing educational activities related to digital competences and artificial intelligence.
Please send your texts to: studidecultura@gmail.com by March 20, 2024.
16.4. Queering Cyber- and Popular Culture: New Cultures of Resistance and Contestation
Special Issue of “Studia de Cultura”
Co-editors: Magdalena Stoch, Agnieszka Urbańczyk
The term queer can be understood as pertaining to a set of various resistance practices, whose purpose is to oppose forced normativization and to deconstruct oppressive gender and sexual norms. Since the 1990s, queer identity has been described as an ever-growing blend of possibilities, fissures, collisions, dissonances, lapses, and a surplus of possible meanings, as well as their relationship with individual identities. Contemporary queer tactics are understood as means of taking not only a stance but a conscious action, as a social project facilitating the search for alternate narratives that would allow for more inclusive communities to emerge. Queering is an approach affecting the political, the ethical and the aesthetic; it is a way of perceiving and understanding the world, it is both a perspective and a way of gaining and re-gaining identity that can be enacted in cyberspaces and in popular culture.
We invite papers presenting new interdisciplinary approaches to the ways in which cyberculture and popular culture are being queered. The scope of the thematic issue includes (but is not limited to):
- the means and ways of construction and expression of queer identities in cyberspaces (i.e., in social media, blogs, podcasts and other forms of online communication) and popular culture (film, literature, music, visual arts, among others)
- new research perspectives and approaches in queer digital humanities
- the experiences of trans people with cyberworlds and online gaming
- the affordances of video games in regard to shaping the looks and the body of a character; available romance options and gay button
- the construction, experience, and negotiation of gender identity in cyberspaces and in popular culture (TV and streaming series, comic books, fan cultures, etc.)
- queer activism in social media (e.g., forming communities on social media platforms, promoting social change, and resisting oppressive structures)
- the non-human characters in speculative fiction (e.g., AI, extraterrestrials, supernatural beings) functioning outside of the gender binary: representation but also potential dehumanization of non-binary people
- non-cisheteronormative retellings of classics in both the sanctioned and fan cultures
- queer readings and headcanons, and their influence on fanworks
- the influence of internet’s growing accessibility on the development and popularization of queer reading practices
- the educational aspect of queer social media communities, groups, servers, and profiles; sexual education in fandom spaces and the controversies surrounding the issue (e.g., the approach to portrayal of toxic relationships in fanworks; the anti- and proshipper movements).
Please submit your paper proposal (3,000 characters, between 400 words and 700 words) to magdalena.stoch@up.krakow.pl by February 1, 2024. Authors whose abstracts are selected will be notified by February 15, 2024.
Selected authors will be asked to submit complete manuscripts (40.000 words = between 6000 and 10000 words, including notes and references) to magdalena.stoch@up.krakow.pl by May 5, 2024.