Call For Proposals: IS|CS “Terms & Conditions: Rethinking Digital Literacy Futures”
UPDATE (26-Feb-2024) The conference will be postponed while there is a labour disruption at York.
We are pleased to announce the 2024 edition of Intersections|Cross-Sections, an annual graduate student conference & art symposium hosted by the joint graduate program in Communication and Culture at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) & York University. This year’s programming will be presented mainly in person (with options for remote presenter participation) on Saturday, March 9th, 2024.
Entitled “Terms & Conditions: Rethinking Digital Literacy Futures,” IS|CS 2024 revolves around digital ecosystems and human participation. The field of digital literacy emerged from Paul Gilster in 1997 as an essential movement towards building skills beyond computer technology. Gilster viewed digital literacy “as the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when presented via computers” (Gilster 1997). However, conceptions of what it means to be ‘digitally literate’ have evolved in communication and media disciplines along with the technological development of a digital world. Richard Latham argues that being ‘digitally literate’ is to be “skilled at deciphering complex images and sounds as well as the syntactical subtleties of words” (Latham 1995).
In 2023, with the Western adoption of AI tools like ChatGPT, digital literacy has become ever-important with our increasing interdependence upon technological and digital communications. Possessing digital skills allows us to not only navigate the digital world accessible at our fingertips but also dictates our capability to create, use, and share content. The depth of our literacy also impacts our online identities and marks the tasks or performances we operationalize. IS|CS calls for a critical reimagining of the future of digital ecosystems through a critical cognizance of prominent forces and efficacious drivers mastering the digital universe. From using our personal data to crafting our online identities, how are we understanding the terms & conditions of being in a digital world?
Potential topics and themes for presentations include:
- Redefining Digital Awareness and Critical Thinking in an AI Age
- The Urgency of Digital Fluency and Data Awareness Models
- Political Economy of Digital Literacy: Who’s at Stake?
- The Future of Social Media Landscapes, Datafication and the Next Digital Leap
- Digital Empowerment and Resistance
- Recrafting Digital Identities: Digital Citizenships vs. the Individual
- AI: Future Virtual Spaces and Digital Identities amidst Hyper-complexity
We welcome graduate students, emerging scholars and artists from a diverse array of backgrounds to submit proposals. If you are interested in participating in IS|CS 2024, please fill out this (google form) Google Form (external link) and attach an abstract (for essays) or project description (for artwork/research-creation) of no more than 300 words, including a title and brief biography. The deadline to submit your application has been extended to February 15, 2024.
IS|CS values a wide range of perspectives and accordingly, we hope to provide an inclusive and comfortable forum for people from all walks of life to engage in cross-disciplinary discussion. To note, our scope is not strictly limited to applicants within the communication and media fields. Scholars and artists from any discipline and any digital background are highly encouraged to submit proposals; all submissions with relevance will be considered. If you have any questions/concerns about the conference’s format or accessibility, do not hesitate to reach out via email at iscs.conference@gmail.com. Thank you to all those who apply!