Memories of Singapore may still be fresh in the minds of ICA members, but we are well into planning for the conference in Boston, 26-30 May 2011. And things are looking good.
Dates to remember: the deadline for submitting papers and panel proposals is 11 pm EST, 1 November 2010. To avoid any technical problems, early submission is always recommended. The conference submission website has been live since 1 September. To reach the conference website, go to the ICA home page at http://www.icahdq.org and follow the link for 2011 Conference Submission.
The conference theme, Communication @ The Center, asserts that communication studies can rightfully claim a central role not only in the basic general education of an informed citizenry, but also in understanding and clarifying many of the central challenges of our rapidly changing world. Communication scholars have the opportunity to draw upon a wealth of disparate theoretical and empirical strands in order to clarify questions of real societal import, illuminate complex realities and help explore solutions to pressing problems as well as long standing intellectual mysteries. The 2011 conference theme is intended to highlight the centrality of communication scholarship by encouraging panels that identify core components of critical challenges and issues, such as those noted above, and explore the role of communication studies in addressing them. At the same time, we will focus on the centrality of communication - as a phenomenon and a field of study - to any coherent and convincing intellectual worldview. Please consider submitting theme panels and papers, as the best contributions will be collected in a book to be edited by the 2011 Theme Chair, Professor Steve Jones (U of Illinois-Chicago).
Planning is proceeding for the plenary sessions, and I am delighted that Craig Calhoun, president of the Social Science Research Council, University Professor of the Social Sciences at NYU, and Director of NYU's Institute for Public Knowledge, will headline the opening plenary, speaking on "Communication as the Discipline of the 21st Century." Professor Calhoun will be joined in this session by a panel of distinguished ICA scholars. Plans are underway for an exciting closing plenary as well. Stay tuned.
We have accepted 12 proposals for preconferences to be held on Thursday, 26 May, covering many topics and interests; some are continuations of familiar successful formats, others are new ventures. We will also be developing a set of "professionalization" workshops, dealing with, among other topics, publishing, and nonacademic career paths.
Finally, as I hope you know, we will be building on last year's successful experiment in online conferencing, in collaboration with our publishing partners, Wiley-Blackwell. The 2011 conference will include an expanded "virtual overlay" that will be available to conference attendees and also to folks around the world via the Internet. The virtual overly will include live streaming of the opening and closing plenaries, prerecorded lectures by eminent scholars, and paper sessions with respondent comments that will be open to commentary and discussion throughout the conference. There will also be an online book exhibit and publishing workshops. In all, this promises to be a very exciting venture into new territory that is most appropriate for ICA to pioneer.
So, be sure to submit by 1 November, and I look forward to seeing you in Boston and/or online!
