Calls & Grants

Es handelt sich um einen laufenden Call for Papers. Einreichungen sind jederzeit möglich. Die Zeitschrift "Interkulturelles Forum der deutsch-chinesischen Kommunikation" (IFDCK) ist ein wissenschaftliches Forum für den Austausch zwischen Forscher*innen der interkulturellen Kommunikation zwischen China und den deutschsprachigen Ländern. Sie ist die einzige deutschsprachige Zeitschrift, die sich hauptsächlich diesem Thema widmet. IFDCK konzentriert sich auf Erfolgsmodelle, Mechanismen, Probleme, Missverständnisse und Konflikte in der interkulturellen Kommunikation. Sie richtet sich an Wissenschaftler*innen, die theoretisch und praxisorientiert arbeiten möchten. Die Zeitschrift veröffentlicht originäre Forschungsergebnisse, die auf Ansätzen der Sprachwissenschaft, Literaturwissenschaft, Erziehungswissenschaft und Soziologie basieren. Sie ist offen für interkulturelle Untersuchungen in Politikwissenschaft, Geschichte, Philosophie, Management, Wirtschaft und Psychologie. Beiträge werden in folgenden Rubriken veröffentlicht: Interkulturelle Wissenschaftskommunikation Interkulturelle Medienkommunikation Interkulturelle Wirtschaftskommunikation Interkulturelle politische Kommunikation Interkulturelle Kanonrezeption Zusätzlich können Rezensionen und Interviews mit Persönlichkeiten aus Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur erscheinen. Die Publikationssprache ist Deutsch, englische Beiträge sind in Ausnahmefällen möglich. Es werden nur Erstveröffentlichungen akzeptiert. Die Redaktion wird von der Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (China) geleitet und die Zeitschrift erscheint zweimal jährlich bei De Gruyter (Deutschland) und der Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (China).

In migration research, as in social research more generally, the role of participants is critical in shaping both the data collected and the knowledge generated from it. Depending on the methodological approach and research question, participants may be seen as mere providers of information, or be involved as more active contributors and co-creators of knowledge. How researchers engage with participants profoundly influences the results, ethical considerations, and validity of studies. This also holds true with respect to long-established qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-mode approaches, but also considering methods building on artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and digital behavioral data, where the continuum may run from the collection of digital traces of individuals that are not even aware of being studied to their voluntary, informed data donations.

In 2025, the Iinstitute will award the Roman Herzog Research Prize for Social Market Economy for the twelfth time. The prize is endowed with 35,000 euros. The prize is awarded to three current scientific research papers that contribute to shaping our economic and social order. Submissions from all subject areas are welcome. Dissertations and post-doctoral theses in German or English are accepted. The age limit is 40 years. Parental leave will be taken into account. Cumulative contributions are included.

Special Issue DIGITCULT@Scientific Journal on Digital Cultures. Digitcult journal calls for research papers on the novel concept of Future Screen, a cross disciplinary topic that has the potential to reshape immersive media, film, narrative and game design, music and performing arts and more broadly the sector of Creative industries, Culture and Entertainment. We would contributors to explore the innovative impact of emerging technologies from XR (Augmented, Virtual- and Mixed- Realities) and Dome Visualisation, to Video Mapping, Virtual Production, Mobile, Wearable and Embedded ‘internet-of-things’ media; from macro perspectives (analyse the broad, societal impacts of future screen technologies) to micro perspectives (delve into micro-level changes in individual behaviours and community interactions). We ask papers to reflect on Future Screen as a catalyst definition aiming at a unified view for screenbased technologies and their emergent uses in the future, and how this could reframe audience, storytelling, industries and communities of practice and questioning some of the key aspect of media studies. The special issue calls for contributions that shed new light on theoretical, analytical and empirical insights that help to understand the impact of Future Screen(s) on Space, Audience and Content: How are new screen technologies altering physical and virtual spaces? What are the implications for content creation and consumption? How do these changes affect the dynamics between creators, audiences, and industries? Please send your abstracts (300-500 words) to editors email: g.corino@plymouth.ac.uk; andrew.prior@plymouth.ac.uk; tatiana.mazali@polito.it Deadline: • Abstract Submission Deadline: December 31, 2024 • Full Paper Submission Deadline: March 31, 2025

We are delighted to announce the very first DiGRA showcase platform for early career and precarious academics. This will take place in one of the plenary slots, in place of a keynote. The session is intended to provide a platform for (1) those beginning their academic careers and (2) those who lack institutional support for their own research because they are precariously employed. We are defining the ‘early career’ period as up to four years out of the PhD, and precarious (teaching and/or research) employment as including ad hoc employment, fixed-term contracts, hourly paid arrangements, zero hours contracts, and any combination of these. We are however aware that employment arrangements vary across geographical locations, so if you feel you fit into this category of precarity but your contractual conditions differ from the above, please let us know in your personal statement/bio. Each participant will have 10-15 minutes to introduce themselves and present their research interests. Our intention with this session is to highlight scholars who are pointing toward new possible futures for game studies as a field and DiGRA as an organization, and we will select applications in such a way as to highlight the plurality of methods and perspectives that make up game studies. Participating in the Early Career and Precarious Positions showcase does not preclude submission of full papers and/or extended abstracts. Indeed, participants are warmly encouraged to submit their work. In order to apply, please send a 200-word bio/personal statement, and a 200-word description of your research interests. We are looking for relevant contributions from diverse fields and backgrounds. The candidate should write persuasively about how they expect their work will transform the field (or how it has been transforming it so far), and explain in detail how the spotlight session would allow them to contribute both internationally and locally.

In recent years, European schools and classrooms have become increasingly dependent on Big Tech ecosystems and their promises to seamlessly interconnect physical devices, educational software and apps, and cloud services. With companies such as Google, Microsoft and Apple tightening their grip on classrooms’ transition into digital environments, Big Tech is asserting control over the material infrastructures, discursive framings, and economic logics undergirding educational digitalization. As noted in recent scholarship, the process of platformization provides a useful conceptual tool to describe the implications of this dynamic, namely the transformation of educational content, activities and processes to become part of a (corporate) platform ecosystem, including its economies (data) infrastructures and technical architectures (Kerssens & Dijck, 2021; Srnicek, 2016). In educational research, the broad field of study encompassed under the sociologies of education has proven to provide especially fertile soil for critically analyzing the roles and effects of digital technologies as they become entangled with educational ideas, professional practices, and school materialities (Selwyn, 2019). Applying the analytical lens of platformization, recent work has examined Big Tech influence in public education, including the power of corporate cloud companies and infrastructures in educational governance (Cone et al., 2022; Kerssens, 2024; Kerssens et al., 2023; Williamson et al., 2022). One strand of these studies has engaged specific platform brands such as ClassDojo (Manolev et al., 2019), Google Classroom (Perrotta et al., 2021), as well as various country-specific platforms (Gorur & Dey, 2021; Hartong, 2021), exploring how users and pedagogies are configured in and through the platforms’ technical arrangements (Sefton-green & Pangrazio, 2021). Others have taken up the political economy underpinning platformisation, probing how and to whom data is generated, circulated, turned into assets as it moves across platforms, governmental entities, educational institutions, teachers, and other actors (Birch & Muniesa, 2020; Komljenovic, 2021; Pangrazio et al., 2023). Another strand of research has examined how platformization affects the day-to-day relations of teachers and students in schools and other lived, institutional settings (Apps et al., 2023; Cone, 2023, 2024). Yet as the monetary models, materialities, and embodied effects of Big Tech education come under increasing scholarly, political, and regulatory scrutiny, the apparent disaffection permeating much of the literature on platforms and platformization begs the question of how and where to look for alternatives – both from a practical, administrative, pedagogical, and ethical viewpoint. Specifically, recent years have seen a growing body of calls for critical scholars, activists, and teachers to explore possibilities for reimagining digital education ecosystems that can challenge the status quo of the platform as the infrastructural and pedagogical default for educational digitalization (Selwyn, 2022; Selwyn et al., 2020). With this special issue, we seek to give space for empirical presentations and theoretical frameworks that can nurture such forms of questioning of post-platform education and thereby mobilize the global educational research community around the critical study of platformization – not to reject but rethink the use and potentiality of digital technologies in education (Macgilchrist, 2021). The special issue invites papers that explore possibilities for grounding digital technologies in primary and secondary schooling in other forms of pedagogical and sociological reasoning, infrastructural arrangements, and forms of governance. This can include, but is not limited to studies of: Alternative infrastructures and economic arrangements for digital educational governance of primary and secondary education, hereunder explorations of the promises and pitfalls of alternatives based in open-source or other non-proprietary models for digital design and development Digital degrowth and other critical theoretical resources for thinking with and beyond platforms in ways that foreground other values and criteria of evaluation in schools Studies of power asymmetries and inequality in EdTech development and markets for school education, hereunder alternative forms of market-making and feminist design practices Collective forms of mobilization against big tech across different stakeholders (teachers, unions, politicians) and levels (institutional, sectoral, national, transnational) Countervailing discourses and framings of EdTech, especially in light of current digital backlashes unfolding in different regions Postdigital concepts and design processes that recognize educational realities as messy and historical rather than ahistorical problems to be solved Sociotechnical imaginaries of digital education based in post-platform pedagogies or other models for re-imagining digital ecosystems in schools Institutional interventions based on extending the terms and interests connected to post-platform education.

Recent global challenges and the rise of far-right governments worldwide have intensified the persecution of migrants, transforming borders into harsh zones of exclusion and surveillance. In this climate, migration is increasingly criminalized, and those seeking safety and opportunity are often met with hostility, reinforcing narrow nationalist ideologies. This environment has posed new methodological challenges for research in migration contexts, as well as prompted reflexive considerations on how knowledge is generated, how participants are cared for, and how spaces are created to support human dignity and mobility. This conference invites researchers to propose abstracts that address methodological and reflexive perspectives in the exploration of multifaceted migration experiences and intercultural communication in the context of migration persecution and border closing. Creative methods, such as digital storytelling, participatory media projects, ethnographic film, and arts-based research, offer rich and nuanced perspectives that address current challenges in migration criminalization. These methods not only capture the complexities of diasporic lives, but also empower communities to express their own narratives and co-create knowledge. We encourage contributions that reflect on these innovative approaches to migration and media studies, as they have the potential to deepen our understanding of how identities, relationships, and cultural dialogues are shaped and redefined through media. Beyond methodological approaches, we also encourage researchers to explore more broadly a reflexive analysis of the dynamic intersection of migration, media, and communication. We encourage submissions that propose alternative, reflexive creative methodological approaches and critical epistemologies to address topics such as: - Intercultural encounters and intercultural dialogue - Practices of exclusion, surveillance, and persecution at the border - AI, platform affordances, and infrastructures in relation to migration and intercultural communication - Digital counter publics and diasporic activism - Digital communication - Ethical dimensions of researching migration, media, and intercultural dialogue - Identity formation and sense of belonging In addition to the conference, we will be hosting a joint workshop for PhD students on the 16th of September 2025, in Tallinn. The workshop will focus on creative methods of research, alternative ways of writing, and reflexive approaches to migration, media, and intercultural dialogue. If you are a PhD student and would like to participate, please submit your application via online submission form. Please note that it is possible for Doctoral researchers to attend both the workshop and the conference, or only one event.

Although the early twenty-first century fuelled feminist-hopes that the Internet would revolutionise women and girls’ lives, digital platforms have not necessarily helped society to cast-off the shackles of patriarchy. A cyberfeminist utopia has been replaced by digital labour practices, both paid and unpaid, that remain acutely gendered (Gregg and Andrijasevic 2019; Jarrett 2016). While networked intimacies, desires, and sexualities have proliferated, creating radical potential (e.g., Dobson et al. 2018), they have also generated big business for the technology companies that mediatize and profit from forms of gender-based violence and objectification. Simultaneously, digital platforms have not completely cancelled out creative approaches to challenging sexism and misogyny (Mendes et al. 2019). However, despite the proliferation of hashtag campaigns – for example, to end sexual exploitation and gender-based violence – social media has become a limited channel for feminist consciousness-raising, legal arbitration, or political participation, and at the very least is concurrent with forms of networked misogyny (Banet-Weiser 2018). Meanwhile, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is exacerbating the production, exchange, and normalisation of deep fake and unsolicited pornography at viral scale (Chowdhury and Lakshmi 2023). To address the ambivalence, enduring gendered power dynamics, and inequalities of more-than-digital culture, this call for papers is titled: Postdigital Feminisms: Platformed-Lives, Labour, Intimacies and Activism. The special issue (SI) invites scholars to contribute to the theoretical development of postdigital feminisms and feminisms in the postdigital by exploring critical feminist topics, including gendered intersectional platformed lives, labour, intimacies, and activism. We are interested in creating a dialogue about postdigital theorising, in all its openness and eclecticism (Jandrić et al. 2022), and feminist analysis of postdigital contexts where feminisms come together with other theoretical frameworks within the ‘post’ to be applied to an increasingly blurred digital and non-digital world to understand its particular gendered consequences (Evans et al. forthcoming). We are also interested in challenging what a theory or concept of the postdigital can do in feminist scholarship, research, and activism (Bassett 2015). The SI is open to a range of feminist approaches, methodologies and case studies. This includes discussion of feminist philosophy; feminist histories; activism; language; new tech; AI; labour; class; culture; education; postcolonialism; decolonialism; and feminist futures. Contributions can consider threshold postdigital concepts, principles, and scholarship to develop feminist objects, methods, and concepts of research (Mikulan 2024; Hurley and Al-Ali 2021; MacKenzie 2023). Articles could explore postdigital feminisms’ scope for critical exploration and intersectional feminist analysis of the systemic injustices, internalised misogyny, everyday oppression and suppression of women and girls as well as men/masculinities from a feminist postdigital perspective. Informed by feminist theories of social justice, intersectionality, and technologies, contributions have the opportunity to consider the complexities, exploitation, and imaginaries of the acutely gendered postdigital condition (Evans and Riley 2023; Hurley 2021). Although the SI is not expected to pre-empt or solve all the challenges faced by feminists in the postdigital age, it will facilitate a reflexive space for engaging with the postdigital, both contextually and theoretically, and with a range of feminisms, while debating and developing postdigital feminisms’ parameters, borders, concepts, methods, and interlocutors. Papers can include but are not limited to the below areas and themes: Postdigital feminist theorising Postdigital feminist philosophies. The scope of feminist ontologies, epistemologies, onto-epistemologies, and critical methodologies for theorising the postdigital condition. Postdigital feminist histories. Discussions of the historical roots of feminist engagement with technology, from early women in computing to grassroots online activism; fourth-wave feminism; cyber feminism; cyborgs; manifestos; feminist hashtags; open-source projects; hackers; inclusive design; and diverse user experiences. Postdigital feminist reflexivity. The scope of critical feminist self-reflexivity for considering power dynamics, gendered processes and outcomes of postdigital research. Postcolonial feminisms. Articles considering how digital technologies are framing, representing and inhibiting postcolonial identities, while challenging stereotypes and promoting diverse narratives that reflect the complexities of gendered postdigital experiences. Decolonial feminisms. Challenges to western-centric frameworks of knowledge to highlight Indigenous women, including LGBTQ+’s experiences of technology, ensuring that their unique identities and contributions are recognised and valued while acknowledging that what counts as Indigenous is unstable. Postdigital feminist futures. Speculative articles for reimagining and creating alternative more-than-digital futures that prioritise equity, justice, and sustainability, resisting the commodification and exploitation often associated with mainstream digital practices. Postdigital feminisms. Discussion of postdigital feminism(s) as an open set of theorising as well as intersectional theorising of postdigital feminist contexts/conditions. Platform patriarchy, lives and labour Postdigital feminist languages. Examination of how language functions in the postdigital age, including examples of feminist advocacy for more equitable and inclusive communication practices. Postdigital cultures. Studies of platform architectures; creator economies; neoliberal and postfeminist content and culture analysis to explore the ambivalent gendered visibilities and subjectification by women, girls and non-binary social actors in the postdigital age. Postdigital feminist education. Studies ranging from early years through to primary, secondary, higher education, and de-schooling. Feminist new tech and AI. Analysis of bias encoded within emerging technologies, including large language models and data training sets. Postdigital labour. Evaluation of how participation in the gig economy, including freelance or contract work, occurs within an intersectional nexus of gender, class, race, religion, and sexualities, while being constituted by platform patriarchy and marginalisation of women working in Big Tech. Postdigital intimacies Critical intimacies. Research on and through the postdigital that draws on digital, data, platform, and mediated intimacies literatures to generate new accounts of postdigital intimacies through feminist, queer, anti-racist, and postcolonial theory. Contested intimacies. Exploring feminist accounts of the postdigital that recognise intimacy as violent, failed, incomplete; challenging preconceived ideas of intimacies as based on reciprocity. More-than-human intimacy: Relationships with technology; networked connections as intimate relations; feminist new materialist accounts of the postdigital. Feminist intersubjectivity: Developing more-than-digital accounts of intelligibility, recognition, and relationality, as well as illegibility, misrecognition, and disconnection, that both reproduce and challenge gender power relations. Postdigital activism Postdigital feminist activism: Studies of activism and social movements which challenge the ‘normalised’ culture of misogyny, molestation, and sexual harassment of schoolgirls and women. Global South feminist activism: Case studies discussing digital gender activism in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America, as well as by postdigital diaspora, beyond and within the Global North. Activist groups: Case studies of the LGBTQ+ movement; eco-feminisms; and/or indigenous feminist activists in a range of postdigital contexts.

The notion that digital games have the capacity to support learning has long captured the imagination of educators, industry, and the public. As digital technologies have advanced, so has the sophistication of digital games, leading to more ambitious claims about their potential to fundamentally challenge traditional approaches to education, and assertions about their social and cultural role in contemporary society. However, ideas emanating from postdigital studies offer new conceptual tools for rethinking tech-human relations and questioning simplistic narratives and assumptions surrounding digital technologies (Jandrić and Knox 2022). The postdigital rejects the notion of a clear divide between the digital and non-digital realms, recognizing that technology is deeply entangled with social, cultural, and material contexts (Fawns 2022). It acknowledges the continuities and histories that shape our relationship with technology (Knox 2019), rather than viewing it as a disruptive force that operates independently from human experiences. Efforts to expand how we think about digital media—in terms of interconnected network imaginaries (Jagoda 2016) or massive and dynamic interrelations of processes, objects, beings, and things (Fuller 2005)—have created opportunities to revisit how we understand digital games and their relationship to learning and education. For example, Apperley (2010) uses the concept of digital game ecologies to argue for contextually dynamic, ecological, and situated understandings of digital games. Other more recent work employs postdigital concepts to examine relationships between digital games, learning, literacy, and education (Bacalja 2024; Bacalja et al. 2024). Whether conceptualised in terms of digital games, videogames, gaming, or even game literacies, we agree with James Gee’s (2024) recent declaration: we need to focus less on the little g games (the software), and more on the big G games (social and institutional actions that surround the software). This book aims to achieve two main tasks: to expand approaches to conceptualising digital games and gaming in light of our postdigital condition, and to interrogate assumptions about the relationship between digital games, learning, and education. We welcome shorter conceptual chapters (up to 3500 words) as well as longer empirical chapters (up to 7000 words). We also encourage graduate students and early career academics to submit. Contributions may include following topics: ● Postdigital game ecologies and their entanglements. ● Critical inquiries into games and gaming. ● Games as research methodologies and objects of study. ● The interplay between games and education. ● Games as contexts and models for learning. ● Language and literacy practices in and around games. ● Gaming beyond digital/analog binaries (e.g., board games). ● Hybrid and transmedia gaming experiences. ● Platformatization of gaming and gaming culture. ● Games, EdTech, and the education industry. ● Techno-financial futuring in gaming. ● Economic and political actors and narratives.

The Weizenbaum Institute is organizing its seventh annual Conference on the subject of “Empowering People in Online Spaces: Democracy and Well-being in Digital Societies”. We invite interested scholars to submit papers for presentations. The conference will take place at bUm – Raum für soziales Miteinander in Berlin, Germany from 4 to 5 June 2025. As digital technologies become increasingly embedded in the social fabric, their architectures and affordances co-shape individual and collective experiences across various dimensions. Interdisciplinary research highlights how people use different tools to nurture personal and professional relationships, enhance education, develop new skills, and foster healthier habits. Digital platforms, often powered by artificial intelligence systems, also serve as mediators for community connections, citizen-state interaction, and different forms of political participation, exerting growing influence on individual and collective well-being. This impact, however, is framed by imbalances in economic and political power related, for instance, to the global dominance of technology corporations and the capacity of nation-states to regulate and exert influence over the rapidly evolving digital markets. TOPICS OF INTEREST The conference aims to examine these issues from a citizens and user perspective. It seeks to highlight theoretical and empirical research approaches focused on empowering people’s agency within online environments at both personal and collective levels. Ultimately, we would like to connect research that engages with the interface of digital technologies, democratic participation and individual well-being: - Impacts of (anti)democratic news consumption - The interplay of algorithmic and individual activity in online spaces - Community organization and fringe digital spaces - Online political participation and social cohesion in- and out-side times of crisis - Digital Elections, data-driven electoral campaigning and propaganda - Illiberal communications, reactionary speech and democratic transformations - Public values and political representation in an evolving public sphere - Digital state and platformized public services - Digital identity, collective and individual contestations of digital technologies - Accessibility, inequalities, and vulnerable populations in online spaces - Loneliness and kinship in the digital era - Digital interventions for deliberation and well-being online - Media and digital literacy - Regulatory approaches, ethical guidelines and values for digital governance - Democratic regulatory approaches to digital platforms and artificial intelligence SUBMISSIONS We welcome submissions rooted in inter- or transdisciplinary backgrounds. We are open to theoretical/conceptional contributions, empirical analyses, and technical contributions.

Seventh call in this bilateral collaboration, 2024/2025 The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) are launching a call for proposals for outstanding joint UK-German research projects in the humanities. Both funding agencies want to strengthen international cooperation in the fields of arts and humanities to fund academic research of the highest quality within their own countries, and are aware that some of the best research can only be achieved by working with the best researchers internationally. The scheme will provide funding for integrated UK-German projects. The partner agencies will organise a coordinated peer review and a single joint selection process. Funding will be distributed among the research partners according to scholars’ place of work and, more generally, according to the funding rules of each individual agency. Proposals may be submitted in any area of the humanities, as defined in the research funding guidelines of both agencies. Only proposals whose primary aim is to make fundamental advances in human knowledge in the relevant fields may be submitted in response to the call for proposals. Applicants who are uncertain whether their proposal would be eligible should contact the relevant agencies for clarification. Projects must have well-defined joint working programmes that are clearly demonstrating the added value of UK-German collaboration. We expect that each partner substantially contributes to the common project; this also includes taking on organisational responsibilities. Immediate resubmission of unsuccessful proposals from one call to the next is not permitted, but is acceptable for future calls. Applicants who were not successful under the last call may submit different proposals for this call. The duration of the projects will normally be – and must not exceed – three years. Successful projects will be expected to start in early 2026. The UK component may seek up to £420,000 Full Economic Costs (FEC) to which the AHRC will normally contribute 80% FEC. Projects should be integrated but do not have to be symmetrical in the sense that neither the sums nor the items requested have to be identical on the UK and German sides. However, we would expect the work packages to be delivered in reasonably equal shares. The closing date for this call is Wednesday, 19 February 2025. Proposals under this call will need to be submitted through the DFG’s elan portal (by 11:59 p.m. German time). German applicants should note that if they are using the elan system for the first time, they need to set up an elan account by 12 February 2025 at the latest.

Rupture signifies a break or interruption in continuity. It can also represent a breakdown of social relations. The concept of ruptures connects to diverse fields, such as archeology and genealogy, as methods and tactics that interrogate the relationship between knowledge and power, challenge hierarchies, question dominant discourses, and reactivate local knowledge. This conference theme focuses on the idea of exploring alternative internet histories and theoretical perspectives on the internet and technologies, often overshadowed by the dominance of Western discourses and big tech media. Despite often not being recognized as technology producers due to our colonial history, Brazil’s history of dissidence and breach of norms has fostered innovation, and dissidence creating different time layers in both creating and consuming them, from early tech adopters to movements bridging the digital divide, from social activism to entertainment. These disruptions are processes that deeply influence vernacular and popular cultures, intellectual frameworks, interfaces, social platforms, and networks. An important recent rupture was Brazil’s challenge to the economic and cultural dominance of the platform “X,” defending its political sovereignty in a court of law. The theme of ruptures for #AoIR2025 recognizes these significant contemporary moments and the broader impact of such breaks on society and technology. Brazil has played a pioneering role in developing theoretical frameworks for the study of digital cultures, media, activism, and digital law, as well as in the promotion of open-access science. In the early 2000s, Brazil hosted major international events and key discussions on free software community and culture and initiated programs like “Cultural Points,” a State digital literacy initiative. Additionally, since the 1960s, both Brazil and Latin America have been at the forefront of disruptive uses and reflections on digital technologies. The widespread use of social media platforms in Brazil since the early 2000s, such as Orkut, apart from the intense production and consumption of games and other digital artifacts like memes and fan works plays has also played a crucial role in shaping sociabilities and subjective experiences. However, digital transformations and platformization, coupled with an economic crisis, have also led to challenges, such as the intensification of precarious labor, the proliferation of disinformation, and conspiracy theories became a local and global challenge. Countries from the Global South have become data colonies, as legal frameworks lag behind and platforms from the Global North exploit local labor and data, as many of these countries were unable to approve legislation to avoid data exploration because of different lobbies from these platforms. Queer, Black, Indigenous, Feminist, and other marginalized communities are actively resisting these trends by developing alternative imaginaries, metaphors and uses for digital technologies. Drawing on these reflections, we encourage diverse conceptualizations and approaches to the theme of ruptures in the context of the internet and digital technologies. We ask: How do both ruptures and continuities shape the histories of digital technologies? How can we develop strategies and tactics to address the ruptures caused by platformization? What creative digital experiments have emerged—and disappeared—through the use of these technologies? How can we engage with intersectionality, race, gender, and geography in these discussions and in the future of Internet Studies? How can we dismantle data colonialism and build emancipatory alternatives? We specially seek research that expands critical perspectives and challenges current understandings of digital ruptures and continuities from both local and global perspectives. We welcome submissions on the following topics and beyond: Alternative internet and technology histories Ruptures and continuities of digital media scholarship Digital Humanities methodologies Everyday practices of technological dissidence Internet infrastructures and sustainable futures Disinformation and the public sphere Disruptions in audio/visual models on digital platforms Algorithmic antagonisms Community dynamics in digital platforms Celebrity and fan culture disputes and affects (transformative/toxic fandom, cancel culture, etc.) De-platforming strategies and tactics Intersectional dissidences in social media practices and representations Law, sovereignty and regulation of digital platforms Digital labor ruptures Peripheral creator economies and digital influencers Climate change and scientific digital practices Popularization of science in digital platforms Ruptures in Digital Humanities studies Archiving and collecting as a disruptive practice in Internet Studies Digital solidarity economies Low-tech creativities Tactical ruptures in the history of art and media activism Practices of disconnectionWe also welcome submissions on topics that address social, cultural, political, legal, aesthetic, economic, and/or philosophical aspects of the internet beyond the conference theme. The committee extends a special invitation to students, researchers, and practitioners who have previously not participated in an AoIR event to submit proposals, and to scholars from the Global South, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color globally, LGBTQIA+ peoples, scholars living with disabilities, and people outside or adjacent to the academy. With this in mind, AoIR is committed to investing more than ever before in travel scholarships, as well as other initiatives, to support conference participants. Moreover, we will for the first time experiment with forms of multi/bilingualism to further our mission of diversity and inclusivity within internet research.

The society is continuously changing with a rapid pace under digital transformation. Taking advantage from a solid transformation of digital communication and infrastructures and with great progress in AI (Artificial Intelligence), IoT (Internet of Thinks), ML (Machine Learning), Deep Learning, Big Data, Knowledge acquisition and Cognitive technologies, almost all societal areas were redefined. Transportation, Buildings, Factories, and Agriculture are now a combination of traditional and advanced technological features. Digital citizen-centric services, including health, well-being, community participation, learning and culture are now well-established and set to advance further on. As counter-effects of digital transformation, notably fake news, digital identity risks and digital devise are also progressing in a dangerous rhythm, there is a major need for digital education, fake news awareness, and legal aspects mitigating sensitive cases. DIGITAL 2025 continues a series of international events covering a large spectrum of topics related to digital transformation of our society. We solicit both academic, research, and industrial contributions. We welcome technical papers presenting research and practical results, position papers addressing the pros and cons of specific proposals, such as those being discussed in the standard fora or in industry consortia, survey papers addressing the key problems and solutions on any of the above topics short papers on work in progress, and panel proposals. Industrial presentations are not subject to the format and content constraints of regular submissions. We expect short and long presentations that express industrial position and status. Tutorials on specific related topics and panels on challenging areas are encouraged. The topics suggested by the conference can be discussed in term of concepts, state of the art, research, standards, implementations, running experiments, applications, and industrial case studies. Authors are invited to submit complete unpublished papers, which are not under review in any other conference or journal in the following, but not limited to, topic areas.

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) supports researchers who have fled their home countries by making it easier for them to join research projects and apply for funding under the Walter Benjamin Programme. The following requirements must be met in principle: The person has not been outside their home country for more than three years at the time of application and they have residential status in connection with an asylum procedure within the EU and are recognised as being at risk, or in lieu of proof of residency status, they are able to present credible third-party evidence of being at risk no more than 12 months prior to application. This way, the DFG also underlines its solidarity with researchers from Ukraine and Russia who had to flee their home country due to the current war situation triggered by the Russian attack. By integrating them swiftly in the German research system, the aim is to enable them to maintain continuity in their academic work. Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) unterstützt aus ihrem Heimatland geflüchtete Forschende durch die Erleichterung der Mitarbeit an Forschungsprojekten und die erleichterte Antragstellung im Walter Benjamin-Programm (Option Walter Benjamin-Stelle). Voraussetzungen: - Die Person darf sich noch nicht länger als drei Jahre außerhalb ihres Heimatlandes aufhalten (Zeitpunkt der Antragstellung) und - Es muss ein aufenthaltsrechtlicher Status im Zusammenhang mit einem Asylverfahrens innerhalb der EU vorliegen, aus dem eine anerkannte Gefährdung hervorgeht oder - Statt eines aufenthaltsrechtlichen Staus muss ein glaubwürdiger Nachweis der Gefährdung von einer dritten Stelle vorgelegt werden, der nicht älter als 12 Monate alt sein darf (Zeitpunkt der Antragstellung). (Information available in German and English. The deadline is just a dummy, the grant is open at the moment)

Do you study the past? Perhaps you even do historical research and know the difference between the Internet and the Web, and even how to historically and technically explain them? Chances are this Call for Articles may be of interest to you... Are you conducting groundbreaking research in the field of Internet or web history? Do you spend hours immersed in the archives of the web? You didn't dare but would like to propose an article for a first publication... Would you like to share methodological and critical issues that demonstrate a promising work in progress? Do you want to discuss your project with advanced researchers who will be ready to help you develop your paper and support you in this first experience with friendliness and rigor? This Call is definitely for you! This call for papers is addressed to early career researchers whose research focuses on the history of the internet and/or the web, and histories of digital cultures — or any historical topic within the scope of the Internet Histories journal. We invite any interested early career researchers (masters students, doctoral students, and post-doctoral researchers) to send us an original article, between 6,000 and 8,000 words, by 1 October 2025. If the scholar has a PhD degree this must not have been awarded more than three years prior to the time of submission, exclusive of any leaves (parental, medial, etc.). Co-authored submissions will be accepted if all authors are early career researchers. In this case, the award will be evenly split between all authors. The journal embraces empirical as well as theoretical and methodological studies within the field of the history of the internet broadly conceived — from early computer networks, Usenet and Bulletin Board Systems, to everyday uses of the Internet with the web, through to the emergence of new forms of the internet with mobile phones and tablet computers, social media, and the Internet of Things. The journal is the premier outlet for cutting-edge research in the closely related area of histories of digital cultures. All selected articles will be published in a special issue of the journal Internet Histories in the second half of 2026 and also automatically be nominated for the “Internet Histories Early Career Researcher” Award, which carries a prize of 500 euros. In addition to the prize the winner will be asked to give a brief talk about the article (online or onsite). The winning article will be made free to access for one year.