Workshop "Digital Diaspora: Gender, Identity, Belonging"

The Center for Gender Studies at the University of Latvia is pleased to open a call for participation in the interdisciplinary workshop for interested scholars and postgraduate (M,, PhD) students Digital Diaspora: Gender, Identity, Belonging which will be held on June 20-21, 2017, at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Latvia (Visvalža 4a, Riga).

The rise of digital communications and improved travel technologies has facilitated migrations and diasporas, that change and give complex meanings to places, that move us to rethinking the notions of home and self. In these contexts of mobilities and connectivities, the concepts of gender, race and diaspora are intensively addressed with regard to nation, national identity and belonging. The aim of the two-day workshop is to investigate the relations between transnational networks, diasporic flows/spaces and practices of digitality, in particular, the ways in which gender and race inflect digital domains of identity, home and self.

The lectures are intended to introduce innovative methodological, theoretical and practical platforms at the intersection of digital humanities, diaspora studies, gender and critical race research. The event will gather a group of prominent scholars:

Prof. Lisa Nakamura (University of Michigan, USA) is Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor of American Culture in the Department of American Cultures and the Department of Screen Arts and Cultures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  Her main areas of research are representations of race in digital media, particularly within gaming cultures. She is the author of the books Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet, Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identify on the Internet, Race After the Internet.

Prof. Ulla Kaarina Nikkunen (University of Tampere, Finland) is Professor of Media and Communication Hee research explores the ways in which media constructs understanding of the world. She studies the relations between media structures, popular engagements and affective dimensions of media,and how conditions of media shape the ways we engage with social and political issues, how this guides our understanding of our role and responsibility as political subjects. Researchthe list of her research interests includes: media solidarity, affect capitalism and media impact. Her  major publications - Media in Motion: Cultural Complexity and Migration in the Nordic Region (2011); More with Less: Recession and Technological Change in the Finnish Newsrooms/ Enemmän vähemmällä: laman ja teknologisen murroksen vaikutukset suomalaisissa toimituksissa 2009-2010. (2010)

Prof. Indrek Ibrus (University of Tallinn, Estonia) is Professor at Baltic Film, Media,Arts and Communication School at  the University of Tallinn and Director of TU Centre of Excellence in Media Innovation and Digital Culture (MEDIT).The list of his research interests includes: an impact of audiovisuality to the differences in formation of nowadays identity, digital culture heritage. His latest articles are Web and mobile convergence: Continuities created by re-enactment of selected histories. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 22 (2) (2016); Dialogic control: Power in media evolution. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 18 (1), 43−59 (2015); has is co-editor with prof. Carlos Scolari of Crossmedia Innovations: Texts, Markets, Institutions (2012).

The workshop director: Dr. Marija Semjonova (Coordinator of the Center for Gender Studies), marjsem@gmail.com. The workshop research adviser – Prof. Irina Novikova (Director of the LU HZF Center for Gender Studies), e-mail: irina.novikova@lu.lv)

The workshop will consist of a cluster of lectures and discussion sessions. Participants will receive a certificate of completion after the end of the programme. The workshop e-reader will be provided.

To register for this workshop, please, fill in the registration form and send it to the Center e-mail: DzSC@lu.lv  by May 20, 2017