CFP: “Transgressive Identities and Subjectivities” BCMCR Conference 17th-18th June 2025

Date & Time:

17th June, 09:00

Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research invites you to the 2025 BCMCR conference “Transgressive Identities and Subjectivities”

Venue: Parkside Building, Birmingham City University (and online)

Date: Tuesday 17^th and Wednesday 18^th June 2025

Time: 9am-5.30pm both days

Closing date for abstracts: 7 February 2025, 23:59 (anywhere in the world).

Abstracts of no more than 300 words for an individual presentation (20mins + Q&A), or no more than 500 words for a panel proposal (60mins + Q&A) should be submitted as a Word document/PDF attachment via email to the conference organisers Dr Poppy Wilde poppy.wilde@bcu.ac.uk and Dr Matt Grimes matt.grimes@bcu.ac.uk

Please also submit a short bio (no more than 100 words) with your abstract

This conference seeks to highlight the impact of media, culture and society in shaping transgressive identities and subjectivities. We use these two terms, identities and subjectivities, to indicate the shifting understandings of selfhood that occur across media and cultural studies, in order to be attendant to the affects and effects that are shaped beyond the individual.

Historically, transgression has been understood and positioned in terms of deviance and deviant behaviours. In discussing a deeper understanding of “transgression” Wolfreys (2008) posits that transgression is deeper than a form of deviance and instead “is the very pulse that constitutes our identities, and we would have no sense of our own subjectivity were it not for a constant, if discontinuous negotiation with the transgressive otherness by which we are formed and informed”.

Additionally, Jenks (2003) argues that “[t]ransgression is a deeply reflexive act” that “serves as an extremely sensitive vector in assessing the scope, direction and compass of any social theory.” In doing so this allows individuals and communities to consider how media, culture and society empowers and enables people to move outside of the spaces of expected conformity, to deny and affirm different modes of being and selfhood.

Moreover, the debates surrounding transgressive identities and subjectivities are not unidirectional; they are countered by forms of resistance and that challenge dominant narratives of transgression. Alongside these forms of resistance is a need to understand and recognise the limitations of transgression, transgressive behaviours, identities and subjectivities, where their cyclical and historically fluid nature have in many ways become commodified and integrated into mainstream cultures.

We therefore see this conference as an opportunity to explore both the potentials and the limitations of transgression and transgression of “selfhood” in media, culture and society. This is particularly pertinent at present, where, in many parts of the world expressions of transgression are being stifled and stymied through acts of secular and religious laws.

Jenks, C (2003) Transgression. London: Routledge.

Wolfreys, J. (2008) Transgression: Identity, Space, Time. London: Bloomsbury.

This conference aims to bring together perspectives to then inform an edited book proposal for the BCMCR New Directions in Media and Cultural Research book series published by Intellect.

We are seeking contributions from a range of disciplines and methodological approaches including, but not limited to media studies, cultural studies, history, communication studies, art and design, humanities, performing arts, and the political and social sciences. We also encourage proposals from independent scholars, artists, journalists, industry experts, and those working outside of formal academic institutions.

We encourage submissions for individual presentations of 20minutes in length, but also for panel proposals from research groups, clusters, or networks for 60minutes in length (followed by time for Q&A). We will also consider performances, screenings, or other alternative modes of presentation – please be clear in your abstract of your desired mode of delivery, time required, and any technical requirements.

Selected presentations and panels could cover, but are not limited to, the following themes:

how media and culture enable people to move outside of the spaces of expected conformity
media representations of transgressive identities and subjectivities
how media forms and cultural practices allow for different modes of being and selfhood
transgressing (cis-hetero) normative bodies and sexualities
creating alternative political and economic models
how different media texts encapsulate a desire for being beyond – beyond norms, beyond boundaries, and beyond convention
the contemporary, contextual, and historical understandings of transgression, “being transgressive”, and its consequences
media reporting of transgressive identities and subjectivities, and how this shapes ideological understandings
in response to cultural crises – economic, ecological, identity-based (e.g. the “crisis” of masculinity), etc. how is transgression practiced, embodied, and displayed?
what can transgression do for the self?
what can transgression do for communities and group identities?
how can the impact of transgressive identities, subjectivities, and acts on wider culture and society be understood?
what are the potentials of transgression (especially politically, and in terms of protest, activism, etc.)?
what are the limitations of transgression (becoming integrated, normalised, commodified etc.)?

In-person conference fee: £30 waged, £15 students/unwaged (refreshments and lunch provided both days)

Online conference fee: £15. We encourage in-person attendance as far as possible for delegates presenting at the conference, as there will be a limited amount of online presentation opportunities

Closing date for abstracts: 7 February 2025, 23:59 (anywhere in the world).

Please also submit a short bio (no more than 100 words) with your abstract and indicate if you intend to present in person or online.