Ethnicity and Race in Communication
Division Update

The 2012 ICA conference in Phoenix promises to be a memorable one for ERIC members. Beyond a slate of exciting paper panels and roundtables, the Division is pleased to announce a number of SPECIAL EVENTS geared to critical reflection and dialogue about ICA's 2012 location in Arizona. Our hope is that these events will help transform our presence in Arizona into rich opportunities for exchange on matters of pressing political and social concern for us all.

• A daylong PRECONFERENCE entitled BORDERS, MIGRATION, COMMUNITY: ARIZONA AND BEYOND, cosponsored by ERIC and five other ICA divisions, that will feature an international roster of scholars, artists, radical filmmakers, and activists, and includes a field trip (via chartered bus) in which ERIC members will have the opportunity to visit local border activist organizations in the Phoenix area. The preconference will be held on May 24, 2012 at the Walter Cronkite School on the campus of ASU in downtown Phoenix. We invite you to register for the preconference and be part of the day’s events. Watch your e-mail and ERIC’s website for additional details in the coming weeks.
  
• Our EXTENDED SESSION, the newest ICA session format, will feature an international panel of ethnicity and race scholars from across the U.S./Mexico border in a session entitled BATTLEGROUND ARIZONA. The extended session offers ERIC members an opportunity for sustained discussion about ongoing struggles over citizenship, marginality, and community against the ravages of ethno-racial repression playing out in Arizona. Time and location TBA.
  
• ERIC’s proposal to host a film screening of the new documentary, PRECIOUS KNOWLEDGE (Ari Palos and Eren McGinnis, 2011, 75 min), has been selected as ICA’s THEME EXTENDED SESSION for the 2012 conference. The film follows students enrolled at Tucson High School as they mobilize against new state legislation that seeks to ban Ethnic Studies in Arizona high schools. The session will include a screening of the film followed by a discussion with the filmmakers and several of the Tucson High School students featured in the film. Time and location TBA.

Watch your e-mail and check our website for updates on these and other events in the coming weeks.

We look forward to seeing you in Phoenix.

Instructional/Developmental Communication
Call for Papers

The George Gerbner Conference on Communication, Conflict, and Aggression
June 1-2, 2012 in Budapest, Hungary

Inspired by the life and work of Budapest native and renowned Communication and Media scholar Dr. George Gerbner (1919-2005), the Budapest College of Communication and Business invites scholars, researchers, practitioners, students, and other interested parties to submit paper and panel proposals for presentation at the George Gerbner Conference on Communication, Conflict, and Aggression. This conference will take place from Friday, June 1 to Saturday, June 2, 2012 in Budapest, Hungary. The goal of the conference is to bring together individuals with a common interest in aggressive communication and conflict so as to foster international relationships that lead to research collaboration and knowledge exchange. The inaugural Gerbner Conference, held in May 2010, featured presentations by scholars from seven countries and three continents.

This international conference will focus on aggressive communication and behavior, conflict, and other types of antisocial communication and behavior across contexts. Specific topics include, but are not limited to: media violence, media coverage of crime and violence, violence in advertising, political violence, workplace violence and aggression, aggression in instructional settings, war rhetoric, peace and conflict communication, verbal aggression, crime, oppression, injustice, incivility, assertiveness, argumentativeness, disagreement, bullying, indirect aggression, psychological abuse, anger, frustration, hostility, deception, child abuse, spousal abuse, domestic violence, youth violence, school violence, gang violence, sexual violence, discrimination, conflict styles, conflict resolution, the origins, causes, and predictors of aggression, and the management and prevention of aggression.

Interested individuals are invited to submit an abstract (in English) of 200 to 500 words describing their individual presentation or panel idea to Rebecca.Chory@mail.wvu.edu by March 1, 2012. Decisions regarding the acceptance of papers and panels for presentation at the conference will be made by March 19, 2012. Completed papers should be sent to Rebecca.Chory@mail.wvu.edu by May 1, 2012. With the authors’ permission, top papers will be published in the journal Kommunikáció, Média, Gazdaság (Communication, Media, Economics), which is published by the Budapest College of Communication and Business or in an edited book. One scholar will also be honored with the Gerbner Award. The conference registration fee is expected to be approximately $50 to $60 (50 to 60 US dollars).

Co-organizers of the conference are Dr. Jolán Róka, Vice Rector for Research and International Relations at the Budapest College of Communication and Business, and Dr. Rebecca M. Chory, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at West Virginia University and 2009 Fulbright Scholar at the Budapest College of Communication and Business. For more information, please contact Jolán Róka at jroka@bkf.hu; +36-20-366-5023 (tel); Budapest College of Communication and Business; Nagy Lajos király útja 1-9; 1148, Budapest, Hungary; or Rebecca M. Chory at Rebecca.Chory@mail.wvu.edu; 304-293-3905 (tel); P.O. Box 6293, 108 Armstrong Hall; West Virginia University; Morgantown, WV, 26506; USA.