[NEW DEADLINE] Call for papers for the CECS’ IX Doctoral Conference

The IX Doctoral Conference, organised by the Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS) of the University of Minho, will take place on October 13 and 14, at the Gualtar campus in Braga. Unless other regulations apply, given the pandemic circumstances, the activity will be held on-site. The call for papers is open until July 15 July 31.

The IX Doctoral Conference invites doctoral and post-doctoral students in Communication Sciences, Cultural Studies, Sociology and Geography to share experiences, questions, advances related to ongoing research. Thus, the communication proposals, regardless of the PhD’s scientific area, should seek to reflect and raise debate on one of the following themes applied to their project:

• The relevance of the research: how to define the social and scientific relevance of a PhD or post-doctoral project.What impacts of the research can be expected and the complexity of measurement in social research;
• New approaches to the disciplinary field: the critical discussion of concepts as a starting point, the intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary intersections and the construction of new areas of investigation;
• The originality of the research question: how to identify gaps in knowledge, how to approach social issues from unique or creative perspectives, what are the limits to originality and what is the value of confirmation/continuity questions as strategies to validate and/or extend the field;
• The literature review as a critical organisation of the state of the art and thinking: challenges and constraints in building a theoretical review, the (lack of) linguistic, cultural and contextual diversity of available publications; how to assess the scientific and theoretical validity of published works;
• The analysis model as a structuring element of the research: challenges in the elaboration of analysis models, strategies for validating indicators and dimensions, new approaches to the definition of assumptions and methodological choices;
• Epistemological and methodological coherence: how to adapt the methodology to research purposes, the place of qualitative and quantitative methodologies in social sciences, triangulation, social networks and new challenges in the recruitment of subjects, difficulties and caution in the use of different methodologies; the validity of ‘experiment’ and experimental design in social sciences;
• The challenge of participatory methodologies: how and when to promote the involvement of subjects in the course of research; what is the place of active participation and how to ensure scientific rigour; the value of action research;
• Ethics in social sciences: how to think about the ethical challenges emerging from research; incorporation of procedures and mechanisms for ethical safeguards;
• Disclosure and dissemination as integral parts of research: communication with peers and the scientific community as part of the journey; selection of ‘stages’ for presenting or publishing and the peer review process, when and how to disseminate to other audiences.

The Doctoral Conference aims to reinforce the CECS’ doctoral students’ research work, providing them with forums for dialogue and debate, where they can also collect new contributions to their projects. Furthermore they aim to promote the exchange of experiences and constructive critical assessment. They are open to the participation of all and invite especially the academic community related to the fields of Social Sciences that integrate the CECS. Besides the students, from whom active and constructive participation is expected, CECS researchers whose work focuses on the proposed topics will contribute to the debate and critical scrutiny,along with those responsible for the scientific guidance of doctoral and post-doctoral projects.

The IX Conference will be held over two days with debate panels in the morning and afternoon, a round table and a conference. Each paper will be allocated 15 minutes, with 10 minutes for discussion and comments.

Abstracts, with about 600 words and 3 to 5 keywords, should be sent in Word format to jornadascecs@ics.uminho.pt until July 15 July 31. They should include in the email message, but not in the abstract, data on the proponent’s and the scientific advisor’s identification and institutional affiliation and their respective e-mail addresses.

All abstracts will be submitted to the evaluation of the conference’s scientific committee and classified according to academic merit and relevance to the themes and objectives of the conference. Confirmation of acceptance will be given until September 13.

The full text of the selected papers, edited according to rules to be disclosed in due course, should be sent until the November 15 for peer review and later publication according to the nature of the submissions to be defined.

For any further information, please get in touch with elsa.silva@ics.uminho.pt

[Posted: 26-04-2022]