2024 | ICA Mobile

2024 ICA Mobile Preconference

Mobilizing Communication Rights for Humans, More-than Humans, and Beyond

Call for Proposals is out (see PDF below)!

The 19th annual preconference takes place as an in-person event on Wednesday 19 June 2024, and will be held at HOTA, Home of the Arts, in Gold Coast, Australia. Join us as we explore the emerging trends and practices that connect mobile communication and human rights, with our pre-conference theme, "Mobilizing Communication Rights for Humans, More-than Humans, and Beyond."

Key facts

Location: HOTA, Home of the Arts (135 Bundall Rd, Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, QLD 4217, Australia).
Date: Wednesday 19 June 2024, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Deadline for Submissions: 15 January 2024.

This year's pre-conference theme

Mobile communication went from being new and revolutionary to a taken-for-granted and deeply embedded part of everyday life. However, very rarely has it been considered a human right, despite the fact that mobile communication has been co-extensive and deeply wound into the evolution of human rights. Whether related with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ Article 19, the rights of children and persons with disabilities, information, cultural, and sexual rights, or the rights of the environment and species—including the rights of the biosphere and more-than-humans--, mobile communication has offered platforms, ecosystems, cultures, practices, tools, and assemblages that enriched lives and worlds.

This pre-conference considers mobile communication as a human right, while also recognizing ways in which mobile media use can suppress human rights. In the current post-smartphone era, in which mobile communication is much more pervasive and widespread, connecting humans, spaces, and things, we witness the perpetuation of enduring injustices, inequalities, and threats that emerge and develop in conjunction with the use of mobile communication devices. And in the ‘transition’, who sets the terms for mobile equalities and sustainable, inclusive futures? And what about the human right to ‘disconnect’?

We invite scholars from diverse disciplinary, methodological, and theoretical backgrounds to join us as we explore the emerging trends and practices that connect mobile communication and human rights. We welcome a diversity of scholars at different stages in their careers: Ph.D. students, postdocs, junior faculty, along with more senior scholars to consider these issues in an open, informal, and conversational setting. Practitioners in the field are also encouraged to apply.

Similar to previous editions, the pre-conference will be organized in the form of several interactive Blue-Sky workshop sessions where teams of scholars will present ideas at various levels of gestation. We welcome research ideas that are just being formed, open questions to the field, as well as the sharing of research results, as long as they are presented in an interactive manner. We also welcome explorations of practical projects, such as mobile applications, mobile media artworks, and mobile games. This pre-conference is designed to cultivate a supportive and integrated community of mobile communication thinkers.

Workshop themes can focus on any dimension of mobile communication, including, but not limited to:

Uses of mobiles for activating or violating human rights;
Mobile theory/methods;
Mobile communication and activism;
Photography, mobile media art, and entertainment;
Mobile communication in organizations;
Mobile privacy;
Well-being;
AI, algorithms, and robotification;
Mobile social networks and location-based games;
Parenting and surveillance with mobiles;
mHealth;
mLearning;
Mobile technology use by the elderly, children, and/or minority/racialized groups;
Mobile communication in the Global South;
Urban mobilities and migration;
Mobile journalism.

In short, we are open to a wide variety of themes associated with the social uses of mobile communication and mobile media, especially ideas related to emerging trends and practices.

Guidelines for submissions

Each in-person workshop will be allocated a time slot of 60 minutes and should include “hands-on” or active audience participation. A workshop will typically be organized by four or five participants, but we will accept more or fewer organizers. Pre-conference attendees will be able to attend multiple workshops throughout the day.

Submissions should be between 500-800 words (excluding title and references) and include:

The title of the workshop;
The workshop’s description and goals;
The workshop’s connection to the pre-conference theme;
The scheduled 60-minute activities, detailing how participants and audience members will be involved, and
The list of workshop participants and their relationship/contribution to the workshop.

>> Proposals should be submitted via email to icamobilepreconference@gmail.com.

Review process

Submissions will be reviewed by a committee of scholars. Proposals will be selected based on:

Relevance for the field of Mobile Communication;
Originality;
Clarity;
Group’s composition;
Theoretical/practical contribution;
Degree of interactivity with the audience; and
Fit with the pre-conference theme.

The review process will NOT be blind. Notifications of acceptance will be emailed to contributors close to the date of the acceptance notification for the general conference, to accommodate travel planning.

Registration

Registration will open after we announce the pre-conference participants.

Questions? Contact the conference chair:

Adriana de Souza e Silva (NC State University, USA) at aasilva@ncsu.edu.

Local liaisons

Gerard Goggin (The University of Sydney, Australia)
Larissa Hjorth (RMIT University, Australia)

Organizing committee

Scott Campbel (Michigan University, USA)
Ragan Glover (University of Texas at San Antonio, USA)
Kathrin Karsay (University of Vienna, Austria)
Jonalou Labor (University of the Philippines, Diliman)
Morgan Quinn Ross (The Ohio State University, USA)
Cecilia Uy-Tioco (California State University, San Marcos, USA)