Dear ICA Community,
This is a reminder about our thrilling ICA25 Preconference, "Debating Creator Culture," hosted by the University of Colorado Boulder, College of Media, Communication, and Information, on June 11, 2025. The submission deadline is January 31, 2025.
What's the debate all about?
Building on recent research into creators, influencers, and digital labor and visibility, we wish to collectively explore whether "creator studies" constitutes a new subfield, an extension of communication studies, or something else entirely. Revisiting foundational debates around disciplines and field-setting, we ask (borrowing from Baym, 2005): What is the "right term" for this scholarly community and its work? Is it an academic "field" or "discipline"? To what extent does "creator studies" demand a unique scholarly space strengthened by interdisciplinary epistemologies and methods, especially from communication and media studies?
We particularly welcome papers or panels that explore and debate topics such as:
# Continuities and departures from media and communication history
# Studies that bring outside or novel epistemologies, theories, and frameworks into dialogue with existing communication scholarship
# New approaches, methods, or questions deemed central to creator studies
# Questions about the value of content-related terms, such as "format," "genre," and "engagement"
# The structural and material conditions of creator industries
# The global formations of creator industries, particularly in peripheral markets and the Global South, and in response to the conditions posed by platform nationalism
We're looking forward to seeing your submissions and engaging in meaningful conversations!
The CCSN
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Tom Divon
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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