CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Second Doctoral Consortium of the Communication and Technology Division of the International Communication Association

Boston, 26 May 2011

The Communication and Technology (CAT) Division proudly announces the second Doctoral Consortium to be held in conjunction with the 2011 Conference of the International Communication Association. The consortium will be held on 26 May. The Doctoral Consortium will courteously be hosted by the Microsoft New England Research & Development Center.

Goal of the Doctoral Consortium
The consortium intends to bring together Ph.D. candidates working on Communication and Technology to give them the opportunity to present and discuss their research in a constructive and international atmosphere. The goals of the event are to provide feedback and advice to participating Ph.D. candidates on their in-progress research thesis. Moreover, the doctoral consortium will provide the opportunity to meet experts as well as fellow Ph.D. candidates from different backgrounds working on related topics.

During the consortium, students will be invited to present their work, following which they will receive feedback from their fellow students and faculty participants, all of whom will have read the proposals in advance of the Doctoral Consortium. In addition, one faculty participant will be assigned to respond in detail to each proposal. Besides the presentations of proposals, there will also be discussion of other topics such as ethics, research methods, publishing the thesis, and positioning one’s work for the job market.

Submission Process
Applicants must be advanced to candidacy, and have their dissertation proposal topic. Ideally, students will be in the early stages of their dissertation, where feedback would be helpful in refining and advancing their work. To apply, students must submit a proposal describing their research.

• Submissions must be related to the working area of the Communication and Technology Division of ICA. A description of the division’s primary interests can be found in the last section of this call.
• Proposals must identify the significant problems in the field of research, briefly outline current knowledge of the problem domain, and clearly formulate a research question. --Proposals must outline the proposed research approach, methods, and results obtained so far.
• Submissions should not exceed 6000 words, should include name and affiliation of the Ph.D. candidate.
• Applications should be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from the advisor stating how the Ph.D. candidate can benefit from participation in the Doctoral Consortium.

The proposal and letter of recommendation must be submitted as one PDF document and sent as an attachment in an e-mail to L.vandeWijngaert@UTwente.nl. The deadline for submission is 15 February 2011. Submitted proposals will be reviewed by the members of the program committee based on significance of research, specificity of research topic and/or questions, clarity of writing, and degree to which student can benefit from expert guidance and feedback. Notification of acceptance will be on 15 March 2011.

The Communication and Technology Division within ICA The Communication and Technology (CAT) Division is primarily concerned with the role played by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the process of communication. It is committed to enhancing theory and methodology pertaining to adoption, usage, effects, and policy of ICTs. Areas of research include human-computer interaction, computer-mediated communication, mobile communication, and other technologically mediated social interaction and networking in all contexts (interpersonal, group, organizational, societal/cultural) and at all levels of analyses. CAT invites papers that make an innovative and original contribution to our understanding of ICTs, with the primary focus on communication aspects of particular technological characteristics. Papers in which technology is not a specific object of investigation but is instead the context or backdrop for a communication study should be directed to other ICA Divisions.

As CAT, the Doctoral Consortium welcomes papers that follow any and all disciplinary approaches (psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and policy studies, among others) and all methodological orientations (quantitative, qualitative, critical, cultural, historical, legal, and institutional, among others).

Organization
Once a proposal is accepted students are expected to register through the regular ICA website. Costs for participation are $50 (US dollars) per student. Further details follow later.

Program Committee
Noshir Contractor, Northwestern U, USA 
Ben Detenber, Nanyang Technological U, Singapore
Nicole Kramer, U of Duisburg- Essen, Germany
Miriam Metzger, U of California, USA
Ronald E. Rice, U of California, USA
S. Shyam Sundar, Pennsylvania State U, USA
Lidwien van de Wijngaert, U of Twente, The Netherlands