Call for Papers [CFP]
We invite abstracts for ‘Propaganda and Emerging Technologies,’ a conference hosted by the Information Society Project, and to be held at Yale Law School on April 5–6, 2024.
Problems of propaganda, hate speech, misinformation, manipulation, and electoral influence have persisted for years. These problems will likely increase as generative AI and extended reality technologies become more sophisticated and accessible. Because the problems are global as well as domestic, the solutions require a global as well as a domestic perspective. This international and interdisciplinary conference aims to explore how generative AI, extended reality, and other emerging technologies create new problems for the public sphere, and the best ways to deal with these problems. The goal of the conference is to help lawyers, policy makers and social media companies anticipate and plan for a new wave of propaganda in the age of artificial intelligence.
We invite abstracts from legal scholars and experts, as well as scholars from other disciplines – including history, public health, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, media studies, information science, computer science, statistics, and cultural studies – that investigate questions of propaganda: historic, contemporary and emerging. We welcome papers that explore (but are not limited to) how new technologies like AI and extended reality might undermine or increase distrust in knowledge-producing and credentialing institutions, including science, journalism, and academia, and how best to counteract these effects. We also seek work that discusses how new technologies will produce new forms and new kinds of propaganda.
Please submit your 500 words abstract in this submission form. Authors whose papers are accepted will be expected to provide full paper drafts by March 1st prior to the conference, which will be circulated to all conference participants. Please send your questions to salwa.hoque@yale.edu.
Conference format: The conference will be by-invitation only and will be held in-person; we may live-stream sessions with speakers’ consent to allow people from around the world to follow the conversations.
Deadline: Our submissions portal will close on November 10th. We request people who will require an invitation letter to apply for a U.S. visa, to apply by October 30th. Yale-ISP is unable to assist with visa procedures for international presenters; all presenters are requested to obtain the necessary visa(s) and make their own travel arrangements.
Funding: We will cover travel, accommodation and reasonable travel expenses (as per Yale University policies and procedures) for participants invited to present papers at the conference.
In November 2022, the Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School announced the launch of its Majority World Initiative (MWI). The initiative will support social media governance scholars from the Majority World, commonly referred to as the Global South, by amplifying their work and thinking, and drawing them into the global social media governance scholars’ community.
Check back soon for more information.