Baltimore, February 22-25, 2018
Mini-Conference on Digital Sociology
Call for Abstracts
Eastern Sociological Society
Baltimore, February 22-25, 2018
In keeping with the Eastern Sociological Society’s theme of “As Time Goes By: Social and Institutional Change” the Digital Sociology Mini-Conference seeks papers that address the intersection of time and the digital. The mini-conference especially welcomes theoretical interrogations of temporality, and examinations of the role of the digital in social and institutional change. We also seek abstracts, and wholly constituted panels, on a wide range of topics, including, but not limited to, the following themes:
- Critical Theories of the Digital & Temporality: How have we theorized the digital and time? What challenges do digital media platforms change our relation to temporality?
- Digital Sociological Methods: How do traditional, analog sociological methods become digital? Are there new, “born digital” sociological methods? Is knowledge production different now? Will big data replace survey methodology?
- Digital Structures, Digital Institutions: The datafication of everyday life is posing unique challenges to the composition of social institutions and giving rise to new instantiations of education, finance, labor, and governance. How do we theorize, study, and reconceptualize these institutions?
- Identity, Community, and Networks: How do sociological concepts of micro and macro, personal and public, “front stage” and “back stage,” evolve as digital and mobile technologies increasingly blur these boundaries? How do digital environments shape identities of race, gender, sexuality and queerness? And how do the identities of those who create the platforms we use shape the platforms? How do race, gender, sexuality and queerness shape the communities and networks in which we participate?
We encourage submissions from scholars at all levels, and are particularly enthusiastic to support the work of graduate students and early career researchers. We welcome submissions for individual papers and for entirely constituted sessions. The organizers share a commitment to creating a field that honors diverse voices, and as such are excited to see scholars from groups that are typically underrepresented in sociology. When proposing entirely constituted panels, please keep this commitment to diverse voices in mind.
If you have any questions about proposals, topics, or session ideas please contact one of the organizers: Leslie Jones (lesjones@sas.upenn.edu), Rachel Durso (rdurso2@washcoll.edu) or Jessie Daniels (jdaniels@hunter.cuny.edu).
For individual presentations, please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words, as well as the title of the paper, name of presenter, institutional affiliation and contact details.
For wholly constituted sessions, please include a short description of the concept behind your session, and then include all of the abstracts (along with names and affiliations of presenters) in one document.
Please use the ESS submission portal (www.essnet.org) and indicate that you would like to have your paper (or panel) included in the Digital Sociology Mini-Conference. Use keyword: "mini-conference digital sociology".
Proposals not accepted for the Mini-Conference will be submitted to the ESS general call for submissions.
Posted: September 21, 2017, 10:49 AM