Reminder - Call for Panelists: The Significance and Contribution of Raymond Williams’s Work to Critical Global Media Studies - ICA 2019

Call for Panelists
The Significance and Contribution of Raymond Williams’s Work to Critical
Global Media Studies
ICA 2019 (Washington, D.C.) - Philosophy, Theory and Critique Division




We are looking for 2-3 more panelists for the following proposed ICA 2019
panel on the significance and contribution of Raymond Williams’s work to
critical global media studies. The panel will be proposed to the
Philosophy, Theory and Critique Division. If you are interested in being
part of the panel, please send a 150-word (max) abstract and title to
Rianne Subijanto ([email protected]) and Brice Nixon (
[email protected]) by Oct. 20.

Panel Title: The Significance and Contribution of Raymond Williams’s Work
to Critical Global Media Studies

Panel Organizers:

   -

   Rianne Subijanto (Assistant Professor, Department of Communication
   Studies, Baruch College, City University of New York)
   -

   Brice Nixon (Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Media and
   Communication Studies, Ursinus College; Lecturer and Postdoctoral Visiting
   Scholar, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania)

Panel Description:

Raymond Williams, one of the founders of British cultural studies, has long
been recognized for having contributed a significant legacy to cultural
theory and analysis. One important part of that legacy is his perspective
of “cultural materialism.” Williams defines his position of “cultural
materialism” as a theory of cultural production as a social and material
process of meaning production. He viewed culture as a realized signifying
system in which the means of communication are means of production, and
specific signifying practices are material practices of production
occurring under specific material and social conditions. This materialist
perspective provides a way to analyze the political-economic conditions of
the production of meaning, the development of the technological means of
production, the relations of distribution and exchange, the conditions of
reception and consumption, the development of cultural forms, the
specificities of cultural practices, and the processes of consciousness.
While at present these processes have taken a global and transnational
character, the implications of Williams’ cultural materialism for a
critical global perspective on the social production of meaning remain
largely unexplored.

In this panel, we seek to explore the significance, relevance, and
contribution of Raymond Williams's work for critical inquiries in global
media studies. Here, “global” is not understood merely as the study of
non-Western societies nor of the whole world. Rather, we perceive the term
as the study of relations, exchanges, connections, and entanglements and,
in that regard, also disconnectedness, disentanglements, and exclusion
across geographical and cultural boundaries. Media of communication are
central to the core global capitalist infrastructure, which includes
(unequal) exchanges, connections, and movement of images, labor, capital,
and ideology. The entanglement of media ownership, infrastructure and
audience crosses traditional national boundaries and states. Equally
important, media—from cellphones to Twitter—facilitate global social
movements and the emergence of new sources of political resistance.

Thinking with Williams, we ask how does the notion of cultural materialism
allow us to renew our understanding of global culture? What so far
unexplored aspect of his work might be useful to think about globalization?
What “keywords” might be necessary to understand and imagine a different
structure and culture of global society? Using Williams’s work on culture
and media, how can we rethink, critique, and renew socialism and global
solidarity?


Brice Nixon, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Media and Communication
Studies, Ursinus College
Lecturer, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
bricenixon.com
www.asc.upenn.edu/people/faculty/brice-nixon

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