CfP:Re-enchantment of Arab Television

Call for conference paper and subsequent book proposals

The New Islamic Public Sphere Programme invites proposals for papers at the Conference on
Re-enchantment of Arab Television: Audience responses and identity constructions
to be held in
Copenhagen, 27 ­ 29 May 2011

The main issue of this conference is how Arab audiences respond to religion and
religious programming on Arab television. A focus on Islamic programming is particularly
requested, but also papers on audience responses to other religious programming are
encouraged. In spite of the common recognition that the effect of media has to be
understood in the encounter between media discourse and audience responses, very often
the Arab television audiences seem to be perceived as a passive, impressionable and
homogenous mass. This raises the need for further and critical reception and audience
analyses taking the heterogeneity and transnationality of the Arab audiences into
account. Thus, the main objective of the conference, and subsequent book proposal, is to
gain new knowledge about the Arab audiences and how they make use of TV in their
construction, negotiation and rejection of religious identities and practices.

The conference objective is to present and discuss qualitative and comparative studies
of Arab television audiences. This approach raises questions related to media and
(religious) identity formation as well as a number of methodological questions of
general interest for media and cultural studies. Concepts like meaning making and
individual identity construction are introduced as key notions in general but three
interrelated analytical approaches are suggested for further exploration. Firstly,
audience identification with religious identity as collective memory constructed through
storytelling. Secondly, audience use of religious programming as an instrument to live
and identify transnationally. And, thirdly, audience interpretation of religious
programming as basis for resistance towards political hegemonies.
These topics will be investigated at three seminar sessions wherein the following
questions might be examined:

•       How does tthe audience integrate the mediatised form of religious storytelling
in its own identity discourse and how does the audience construct collective identity
through media use?
o       Arab/Muslim audience as an analytical and theoretical concept with a focus on
theoretical discussions hereof.
o       Media theory on Arab/Muslim audience responses with a focus on methodological
and analytical questions.
o       Case studies on audience responses using cases related to television.

•       How is the transnationality of the Arrab television practiced and consumed by
the audience and what does this add to the transnational perspective as a theoretical
perspective on religious and cultural identity?
o       The Arab/Muslim Diaspora and its TV media practices.
o       The construction of transnational communities as spatial and/or virtual
communities.

•       How do Arabs/Musslims in different societal contexts make use of religious
narratives offered by the Arab television to negotiate, reject, and contest cultural and
political ideas, values and identities?
o       Arab/Muslim audience as a political public using religious television as source
for opposition and resistance.

Submission of proposals:
Abstracts (300 ­ 500 words) should be sent by 30th October 2010 too Ehab Galal at
(ehab AT hum.ku.dk).

Abstract, following this order: author(s), affiliation, email address, title of
abstract, body of abstract, short CV (max. 150 words).

A full draft paper of 8000 words should be submitted no later than 1st May 2011.

Selection of the papers will be made on the basis of quality and relevance to the
conference themes. Only accepted papers will get an answer by the date mentioned below.
Selected papers will be published in a special volume in English.

Deadlines:
o       Submission of abstracts: 30th October 2010
o       Notification of acceptance of abstracts: 1st December 2010
o       Submission of full papers: 1st May 2011

Financial and other support:
All participants will be provided basic accommodation free of cost for a maximum of
three nights for participants within Europe; for participants outside Europe individual
arrangement will be made.

For additional information:
Organizer Ehab Galal
Assistant Professor in Modern Islam and Middle Eastern Studies
Department for Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
University of Copenhagen
Snorresgade 17-19
DK-2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark
E-mail: ehab AT hum.ku.dk

The conference will take place under the auspices of The New Islamic Public Sphere
Programme at the University of Copenhagen. For further information, see:
http://www.nyislamiskoffentlighed.hum.ku.dk/english/