Locked out of Social Platforms: An iCS Symposium on Challenges to Studying Disinformation

(27-28 October 2018), The IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark

After years of exalting rhetoric praising the democratisation of public discourse with the diffusion of the internet, informed observers have sounded a note of alarm about the scope for the distortion of electoral processes in democratic countries. The Brexit campaign, along with recent elections in the US and France have been linked to disinformation, misinformation or propaganda campaigns seeking to strategically diffuse content that heightens partisanship and erodes the general trust in democratic institutions.

In the run-up to the 2018 US mid-term elections,  the aftermath of the Irish abortion referendum and the Italian general elections, this two-day symposium aims to address the topical question of how independent, ethical research on dis/misinformation in political communication can be conducted in a corporate environment that favours platform ‘lockdowns’ and the throttling of API access in response to the strategic use of data analytics, bots, trolls, fake news, and dis/misinformation operations in electoral politics, public information campaigns, and activist communication.

What are the challenges for independent academic research examining these developments? How can researchers investigate disinformation in a context of narrowing access to trace data?  How can these challenges be met, and what meaningful ways can be imagined for making social media platforms more accountable to the democratic constituencies where they operate? How is such disruptive communication designed, executed, with what effects and how are these measured? What data policies can be envisaged to strike a balance between safeguarding privacy and enabling academic research into the impact dis/misinformation or propaganda campaigns have on social media and beyond, in the attitudes and behaviours of their users?

We encourage submissions that address but are not limited to the following aims:

• reflect on the structural and contextual factors that have acted as fertile ground for dis/misinformation and propaganda;
• determine the scope and intricacies of dis/misinformation and propaganda campaigns;
• explore the relationship between dis/misinformation and the polarization of public opinion;
• consider the weaponization of social media platforms and discuss the interdependencies among the vast plurality of newsmakers operating in the current hybrid media ecosystem;
• reflect on the political, cultural or socio-economic costs of distortive communication, the relevance of such research to industry and public policy and the ethical implications attendant to such studies;
• untangle technological design choices and ideological leanings that shape platform communication, enable dis/misinformation and propaganda and their bearing on independent research;
• examine the implications for academic research of controlled access by private owners of data produced in public communication spaces such as the Facebook page of a political candidate, and methodological solutions for sustaining the investigation of these topics;
• consider the changing social media research landscape as the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force in May 2018;

A selection of papers presented at the symposium will be published in a special issue of the journal Information, Communication & Society (iCS). 

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rics20/current

Registration opens early August

https://blogit.itu.dk/ics2018/

Death & Culture II Conference

Thursday 6 September 2018, 9.00am to 7 September 2018

Speaker(s): Professor Dina Khapaeva Professor Dorthe Refslund Christensen Professor Joanna Bourke Professor Stephen Regan 

This biennial conference focuses on the impact of mortality on culture, and the ways in which the very fact of death has shaped human behaviour, evidenced through thought, action, production and expression. The conference, in its second iteration, seeks to continue engaging with the study of mortality as an academic enterprise, supported by evidence and framed by theoretical engagement. This truly interdisciplinary event brings together death scholars, including postgraduates, as well as those who might not consider themselves death scholars whose work that overlaps with death and the dead.

The conference will cover topics such as:

• Governance of mortality
• Death in the popular imagination
• Death and the digital realm
• Work in the death industry
• Mass death in the age of individualism
• Artistic death

Location: University of York, Alcuin B Block

Registration: CLOSED

Email: death-and-culture@york.ac.uk

Conference Website

BSA Postgraduate Forum Event: The Promise and Perils of Researching Sensitive Issues

20 November 2018 (09:00-17:00)

Call for papers
Research concerning sensitive and emotionally demanding issues is vital but challenging work in which the onus of care tends to be placed directly on the researcher. These issues may be internal or external, ethical or emotional, or concern the researcher or participant.

As stated in the BSA Statement of Ethical Practice (2017, §12) as researchers we havea ‘responsibility to ensure that the physical, social and psychological well-being ofresearch participants is not adversely affected by the research’. As such, it is the aim of this one-day symposium to offer an opportunity to consider, in a safe and supportive environment of peers, the challenges presented in the conducting of sensitive research, for both participant and researcher, on issues concerning, but not limited to: abuse, atrocity, death, dying, gender, grief, loss, marginalisation, mental health, violence, racism(s) self-harm, sexuality, stigma, trauma and xenophobia(s). Alongside a keynote address from Dr Donna Poade (University of Exeter) we welcome abstracts for papers lasting twenty-minutes.

We welcome abstracts engaging with the above discussed themes, but not limited to:

• Emotional labour and emotion work
• Facing emotions within research
• Responsibility to participants and self
• Sensitive methodologies
• The presentation of sensitive research
• Ethical issues associated with sensitive research
• The place of the researcher
  
  Submitting an abstract
  Abstracts of no more than 200 words should be supplied, along with a biography of up to 100 words to rosii@york.ac.uk by no later than 31 August 2018.
  
  Event details
  The symposium will be held at the University of York and is being convened by Matt Coward (matt.coward@york.ac.uk) and Daniel Robins (daniel.robins@york.ac.uk). It isgenerously supported by the British Sociological Association’s Postgraduate Forum regional day event fund with assistance from DaCNet: Interdisciplinary Death & Culture Research (www.york.ac.uk/dacnet)
  
  Registration
  BSA Members - £5.00
  Non-Members - £15.00https://portal.britsoc.co.uk/public/event/eventBooking.aspx?id=EVT10749

Regimes of Reproduction: The Mexican System of Assisted Reproduction

Monday 23 July 2018, 3.00pm to 4.00pm

Speaker(s): Sandra González-Santos (Phd in Sociology, Sussex) - National Research System Member (in Mexico)

A few weeks ago there was news of a crisis in the USA: The temperature of couple of tanks holding embryos had drastically dropped. The embryos that were there were in danger, as were the dreams and hopes of those who had kept them there. In this seminar I look at the epistemic and material infrastructure as well as the (bio)politics that make up the AR system with the purpose of highlighting the regimes of reproduction that are assembled and enacted in and through this system. I argue that these stories speak of how reproduction is undergoing a process of redefinition and revaluation affected by the current types of globalisation, commodification, industrialisation, and marketisation.

Location: Wentworth College W/243

Admission: FREE Eventbrite

Email: sarah.shrive-morrison@york.ac.uk

Representing Popular Street Parade in the Museum - Symposium by European Centre for Cultural Exploration

This symposium explores historical and contemporary popular street parade including the kazoo 'jazz' marching bands of the coalfields areas; the entertaining troupes and carnival display morris troupes of the North West of England; brass bands and majorettes, town carnival and Caribbean carnival; and the ‘queens of industry’ interwar phenomenon in the North of England. Street parade and performance are important aspects of historical working-class leisure; contemporary forms involving girls and women are particularly likely to be hidden from view.

The event is aimed at museum professionals and will showcase practical examples of participatory mapping, oral history collection, curation and exhibition, digitisation, archive and database creation, as well as joint projects with visual artists and academic researchers.

Five museums and eleven universities are taking part in this event, which will conclude with a roundtable event with funders and stakeholders. The symposium will lay the groundwork for further research collaborations and funding bids. We anticipate that the museums involved will take a leading role in ongoing research, collection and public engagement into popular street parade and performance.

Funding for the symposium was generously provided by the Creativity and Culture & Communication Theme Research Champions priming funds at the University of York. The event is organised by Dr Frances Thirlway, Dr Lucy Wright and Dr Laurie Hanquinet in partnership with Woodhorn Colliery Museum, the National Museums of Wales and the Huis van Alijn Museum of Everyday Life (Belgium).

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Programme

Tuesday 10 July 12-12.30pm: arrival and lunch

12.30-2.30pm Session 1:  ‘Jazz’ marching bands & coalfield areas - historical
Discussant: Dr Sue Bruley (Portsmouth University)

Dr Steve Thompson (Aberystwyth University)
Jazz bands in the south Wales coalfield in the 1920s

Ceri Thompson (National Museum Wales)
‘A Dreadful Noise’; Marching bands in the Big Pit collections

Louise Dickerson (National Museum Wales)
The jazz band experience in South Wales and the North East of England today

Georgina Ascroft (Woodhorn Colliery Museum)
Jazz bands and carnivals: a regional museum perspective?

3-4.30pm Session 2: Jazz bands & coalfield areas - contemporary

Discussant: Dr Laurie Hanquinet (University of York)

Dr Claire Barber (Huddersfield University)
‘Mining Couture: A Manifesto for Common Wear’ at Snibston Discovery Museum

Dr Trish Winter (Sunderland University) and Lynn Killeen (artist)
Whose Culture Counts? Participatory Mapping as a way of investigating culture with communities

Dr Frances Thirlway  (University of York)
Jazz bands and the national imaginary: an autonomous working-class culture?

5-6pm Session 3: Entertaining and carnival morris troupes in the North West of England
Discussant: Professor Theresa Buckland (Roehampton University)

Dr Lucy Wright (University of East Anglia)
"Hidden Dancers": Girls' morris dancing and entertaining troupes and the politics of participation'

Dr Dave Petts (Durham University)
Traditional dance and material heritage: a northern perspective

Wednesday 11 July from 9.30am

  

9.30-11am Session 4: Brass bands, carnivals and pageants Discussant: Jo Reilly (Heritage Lottery Fund) 

Marie Vandecaveye & Hanne Delodder (Huis van Alijn Museum of Everyday Life, Ghent)
The ‘En avant, marche!’ project: digitising majorette and brass band archives in Belgium and the associated exhibition and public engagement

Tola Dabiri (Leeds University)
Archiving Intangible Heritage

Dr Mark Freeman (UCL Institute of Education, London)
Pageants, Places & Publics: reflections on ‘The Redress of the Past’

11.30am to 1pm Session 5: Queens of industry, queens of carnivalDiscussant: Dr Emily Zobel Marshall (Leeds University)

Sonya Dyer (free-lance artist and curator)
Curating ’50 years of Leeds Caribbean Carnival’ 2017

Anne Bradley (National Coalmining Museum, Wakefield)
Coal Queens: the Nation’s Friendliest Beauty Competition

John McGoldrick (Leeds Museums)
From Loom to Limelight: Putting the Industry Queens Back Together Again

1-2pm Closing session & lunch: Round table discussion with stakeholders and funders

With Karen Buchanan (Arts & Humanities Research Council), Angela Chappell (Arts Council), Jo Reilly (Heritage Lottery Fund) and Abdou Sidibe (Big Lottery Fund).

REGISTER HERE

Highlights from today's Sociology Hour - Pre-exam Dog Petting

Studies suggest that petting dogs releases the "feel-good" hormones serotonin, prolactin, and oxytocin, as well as lowering the stress hormone cortisol. Ahead of your examinations (and dissertation hand-ins, for third year students) we felt this would a good reason to bring in some dogs for you all to pet!

We are delighted that York charity Keep Your Pet are working with us to bring in some dogs for this event. You can find out more about Keep Your Pet on their website. They are a great cause making a huge difference to local people (and their pets) and we will be collecting donations for them on the day - please do be generous with any spare change you have. We're also grateful to Bethany Robertson for making all the arrangements with Keep Your Pet.

Here are some pictures from today's Pre-exam Dog Petting - a very popular and successful Sociology Hour !

Sociology students having fun with the dogs



Visiting dogs



Sam Bayley & Bethany Robinson (with Jack)



Enjoying the visitors

Empowered Bodies - PhD Conference 2018

Tuesday 26 June 2018

09:00-17:00pm

Speaker: Professor Karen Throsby - Unviersity of Leeds, Professor Nick Crossley - University of Manchester

Art Exhibition: Sally Hewett - http://www.sallyhewett.co.uk/

Presentation:

We are pleased to announce our Postgraduate Conference for students and researchers interested in the role of the body in social sciences and the concept of embodiment as a source of critical reflection in diverse disciplines.

With a diverse of background and studies levels we are pleased to announce that our conference will be composed by four panels that cross along the following topics:

• Identities
• Fat Studies
• Health
• Race
• Representation
• Standards
• Beauty
• Migration
• Senses
• Spaces
• Media
• Discourses

To review the detailed programme please follow the link to view the: PROGRAMME

We are welcoming delegates from all research levels that would like to participate in supportive discussion that would enhance the topics and the conference itself, as well as make it a great opportunity to meet other students and share experiences.

Our registration fee is £5.00 that will help us to provide lunch and refreshments during the day: http://store.york.ac.uk/product-catalogue/sociology/postgraduate-conference-2018-empowered-bodies

Besides of the payment we are asking the delegates to fill a registration for that is available in this link: http://docs.google.com/forms/d/1d-bs1cHUfRyb44c4J_AcAy-GK1NmXfRog94AjOeoXhM/edit

The Research Centre for Social Sciences is located in Heslington West campus, just in front of the Science Park, you can visit their website: http://www.york.ac.uk/social-science/about/directions/

From the train station we recommend to take the 66 Bus that will take you to JB Morrell library and then take a 5 minutes’ walk towards Science Park.

If you have any further queries or questions please contact us at empowered-bodies@york.ac.uk