Kappa Phi’s First International Conference „Communication between Domination and Emancipation“
Banja Luka College of Communications Kappa Phi, June 24–26, 2016
Banja Luka College of Communications Kappa Phi is pleased to invite you to participate in its First International Communication Conference “Communication between Domination and Emancipation.” The conference will be held in Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 24-26, 2016.
Organizer
Banja Luka College of Communications is a small, independent, non-profit institution of higher education, founded in 2000. The founding idea of the school was to introduce communication studies to higher education, as well as to introduce dialogic communication to education in our country. It was a long time ago that we kicked the podiums, desks and benches out of our classrooms. We wanted to talk to each other. We wanted to make knowledge achievable by other means. That is what our school has stood and struggled for ever since. This conference is organized in part to mark 15 years of communication education at our school. Thus the theme of the conference also subsumes a major educational dilemma. And 15 years on, it seems that the importance of talking to each other has only become more germane, not only to education.
Participants
We expect to host participants from the region as well as from other European countries, USA and elsewhere. Our keynote speakers, who are leading scholars in the field, will provide an engaging forum for the debate and opportunity to learn from the best about the current ideas in communication studies and related disciplines.
Conference theme
The theme of the conference is communication between domination and emancipation.
Communication can be viewed, analyzed and conceived of as a means or even form of domination. Communicative domination can be operationalized as control, persuasion, propaganda or influence, as well as other forms of “strategic” communication. At macrosocial levels, domination can also be viewed as hegemony.
Communicative emancipation, on the other hand, is often associated with the liberating potential of communication. The liberating potential of communication can be embodied in knowledge, truth, empathy, education, ritual and, at macrosocial levels, in democracy.
These are vast areas of human experience and of corresponding communication research. Thus, the idea of communication at the opposite ends of the spectrum sometimes may seem as having few discernible common features. The goal of the conference is to explore the various aspects of the theoretical concept and practice of communication, as well as to probe the middle ground and offer research that would shed more light on the most defining feature of humanity, community and society.
In this context, language and other communication media are especially important because they may often reflect various communicative intents or contain specific features that can be identified and related to different communicative intents, i.e., “dominational” or “emancipatory”, for example, in communication analysis.
Especially interesting and potentially valuable research would also be welcome in the area of identifying relationships of certain forms of domination or emancipation with forms and content of communication, at various communication levels, from interpersonal to mediated (public) communication.
The question of relationship between communication and democracy being perennial, here it would be interesting to explore the potential of either dominational or emancipatory communication in bettering democracy.
Participants are welcome to explore the main theme within different paradigms, from the functionalist and cognitive to the critical and cultural one. Papers are welcome in, but not limited to, the following communication clusters of traditional subfields and topics: 1) codes and media (semiotics, language, visual and nonverbal communication, media technologies); 2) levels and contexts (interpersonal/small group/speech/ mass communication – drama/film, journalism, public relations, advertising; social media; organizational, political and educational communication; (trans) cultural/ethnic/gender/group communication); 3) topics (surveillance, privacy, defensive and violent communication, conflict resolution and peacemaking, dialogic communication, democratic communication, mediatization); 4) communication theory and philosophy.
We invite you to submit your abstracts and register for the conference. Submission guidelines and other information about the conference can be found on our site. You are welcome to register either as a presenting or non-presenting participant.
Important Dates
Deadline for submission of abstracts extended to: April 30, 2016
Notification of acceptance of abstracts: Consecutively/May 14, 2016
Regular registration: February 1 – May 21, 2016
Conference details, submission guidelines and other information can be found on our site.
We look forward to seeing you and talking to you at the Conference!
