Marxism and Communications Conference

Boston, Nov. 16, 2005

"Marxism and Communication Studies: Key Debates and Core Concepts"

Announcing: A one day Preconvention Seminar Conference at the National Communication Association Annual Meeting

8:30 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005, Boston, MA

Seminar Leaders: Lee Artz, Purdue University, Calumet; Dana Cloud, University of Texas, Austin; Stephen Macek, North Central College

Seminar Description: The current explosion of critical communication scholarship would be unthinkable without the achievements and insights of classical and Western Marxist thought. Notions derived from the Marxist tradition — "ideology," "hegemony," "reification," "commodification," "the dialectic," and "imperialism" — are regularly deployed in NCA conference presentations and journals such as Critical Studies in Media Communication and Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies. They even show up from time to time in textbooks on rhetorical and communication theory. Yet far too often such concepts are used in ways that obscure their Marxist roots and divorce them from any hint of materialism or recognition of class conflict.There is, thus, an urgent need for an extend conversation about what exactly a historical materialist view of communication involves, about the central debates within Marxist communication studies and about what distinguishes the Marxist perspective from its various liberal humanist, postmodern and "post-Marxist" competitors. Building on last year's enormously successful preconvention seminar conference, "Looking Back on Marx/Moving Forward with Marxism: Marxism and Communication Studies in the 21st Century", this day-long conference will bring together communication scholars, scholars from other disciplines and political activists from outside the academy for just such a discussion.

Requirements: Position papers (10-15 minutes long) are invited on all topics relevant to the preconference's central theme, but we are especially interested in contributions that directly address the following:

1. Communication and Historical Materialism;

2. Communication Practices: Diversity, Identity and Class;

3. Imperialism: War, the State and the Media;

4. The Health of the Discipline: A Marxist Assessment

Participants should submit 75-to 200-word proposals by July 15, 2005. Please include your full contact information. Proposals should be sent by email to:
Lee Artz, Purdue University Calumet, 219.989.2988, artz@calumet.purdue.edu;

Dana Cloud, University of Texas, Austin, 512. 471.1947, dcloud@mail.utexas.edu;
and Stephen Macek, North Central College, shmacek@noctrl.edu