CFP for ICA 2027

We are an international group of disability communication and media scholars who have been active within the International Communication Association (ICA). To learn more about our work, please visit our website at www.icadisability.com.

We are seeking contributions for a series of proposed panels on disability, communication, and media for the 77th Annual ICA Conference across 10 Divisions, to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, from 3–7 June 2027. This is part of our organizing towards an interest group on disability communication and media at ICA. For ease of reference, a list of the divisions targeted and titles are as follows, and more details of each CFP and details required can be found towards the bottom of the email.

• CFP 1: Media Industry Studies Division—Disability, Labour, and Affect in Media Production

• CFP 2: Game Studies Division—Centering Disabled Players: Agency, Access, and Belonging

• CFP 3: Journalism Studies Division—Accessibility in Production: Disability and Technology in the Newsroom

• CFP 4: LGBTQ Studies Division—Trans-Crip Worldmaking

• CFP 5: Visual Communication Studies Division—Centering Disability: Power and the Visual Politics of Staring

• CFP 6: Popular Media and Culture Division—Centering Authentic Disability Representation in Popular Culture: Next Steps for Action

• CFP 7: Children, Adolescents, and the Media Division—Artificial Intelligence and Disabled Childhoods

• CFP 8: Feminist Scholarship Division—Centering Disability in Feminist Digital Media Studies

• CFP 9: Language and Social Interaction Division—Language, Disability, and Social Interaction

• CFP 10: Activism, Communication and Social Justice Division— Disability, digital citizenship, and participation

The theme of ICA27 is “Centering the Human: Communication in an Age of Uncertainty.” The theme invites communication scholars to consider what it means to center the human amid the expansion of artificial intelligence and other technological transformations, as well as intensifying political, social, environmental, and epistemic uncertainties. For more information on the conference theme, see the ICA27 website at https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/ICA27-theme.

Please submit your materials to icadisability@gmail.com by 30 September 2026, Anywhere on Earth.

We endeavor to notify contributors of the selection outcome by 15 October 2026.

Please also note the following:

• Your submission should indicate the specific CFP that you are interested in.

• We need to balance diversity in the panels (as defined by ICA), so please do indicate any relevant information in your author bios.

• All presentations should ideally be made in person. However, per ICA policy, limited exceptions may be made for disability accommodations. If you would like to request specific disability accommodation to present virtually, please indicate this in your submission to us.

• Selection through this call means that a contribution will be included in a proposed panel submitted to the relevant ICA Division. It does not constitute acceptance by ICA. All completed panel proposals will remain subject to the relevant Division’s peer-review and selection process.

We are also happy to discuss ideas, so feel free to reach out.

Any questions should be directed to icadisability@gmail.com.

CFP 1: Media Industry Studies Division—Disability, Labour, and Affect in Media Production

Proposed Panel Chairs: Priyam Sinha (Nanyang Technological U) and Elizabeth Ellcessor (U of Virginia)

In this panel, we are keen to explore how disability is produced and negotiated within media industries, with a particular focus on labour, affect, and production cultures. We welcome research examining how industrial practices and working conditions shape disabled people’s participation, creative agency, and experiences of media production. Please note that submissions to the Media Industry Studies Interest Group should foreground the industrial and organisational dimensions of media, connecting disability to production practices, labour relations, and the conditions of cultural production.

• Research spotlighting disability creator economies, production cultures, mediatised activism and disability aesthetics in networked societies

• Research that pins down the distinctiveness of disability, global media industries and social media platforms in the Global South while attending to its intersection with class, gender, race, sexuality, caste, ethnicity, and religion.

• Research methods that enable documenting disability and media studies.

If interested, please submit:

• Title and 300-word abstract for your paper

• 150-word bio for each author, including your background and qualifications regarding the proposed topic

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/MIS_CFP

CFP 2: Game Studies Division—Centering Disabled Players: Agency, Access, and Belonging

Proposed Panel Chair: Wenqi Tan (U of Sydney)

In this panel, we are keen to explore disability in games, play, and virtual environments, centering disabled people’s experiences, knowledge, and agency. We invite contributions that examine whose bodies, abilities, and ways of playing are recognised within game design and gaming cultures. We welcome critical disability and crip perspectives on how games and play shape communication, identity, and belonging, and how disabled players negotiate and reshape the conditions of participation in gaming industries and communities.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Disabled players’ experiences of access and agency

• Disability representation, avatars, and embodied experiences of play

• Ableism, inclusion, and belonging in gaming communities and related spaces

• Disability perspectives on game design, AI, and assumptions about player abilities

• Disabled people’s participation in virtual environments, including virtual worlds and social VR

Please note that submissions to the Game Studies Division should engage with games, play, virtual environments, or related communities and media in relation to human communication. Research on both digital and non-digital games is welcome.

If interested, please submit:

• Title and 150-word abstract for your paper

• 100-word bio for each author, including your qualifications regarding the proposed topic

• Complete contact information for each author

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/GAME_CF

CFP 3: Journalism Studies Division—Accessibility in Production: Disability and Technology in the Newsroom

Proposed Panel Chair: Jocelyn McKinnon-Crowley (U of Memphis)

It is crucial for equity in news production to address ableism within the profession. Norms such as the expectation that “shoe leather” journalists should be able to “hit the pavement” can reproduce assumptions about mobility and the ideal news worker. At the same time, the expansion of digital and hybrid work has created new possibilities for access while introducing technologies and workplace arrangements that may remain inaccessible.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Ableism and assumptions about the ideal worker in journalism

• Disabled journalists’ experiences of newsroom labour and working conditions

• Disability and Accessibility in news production across digital and hybrid newsroom environments

• Access across news production, distribution, and engagement

Please note that submissions should contribute to Journalism Studies by examining journalism or news work, including its professional practices, working conditions, organisational structures, technologies, production processes, or systems of distribution and engagement.

If interested, please submit:

• Title and 150-word abstract for your paper

• 100-word bio for each author, including names, ranks, affiliations, and contact information

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/JS_CFP

CFP 4: LGBTQ Studies Division—Trans-Crip Worldmaking

Proposed Panel Chair: M. Remi Yergeau (Carleton U)

In this panel, we are keen to explore trans-crip worldmaking as a communicative, critical, and cultural practice. Bringing trans studies and critical disability studies into conversation, the panel asks how trans and disabled people negotiate, contest, and remake communicative worlds structured by ableism, cisnormativity, and dehumanization.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics identified in the organizing correspondence:

• Anti-trans media

• Technoableism and anti-trans information ecologies

• Rhetorics and communicative practices of dehumanization

• Transing and cripping as critical-cultural methods

• Trans-crip approaches to media, culture, communication, and worldmaking

Please note that submissions should engage substantively with LGBTQ communication scholarship, trans theory, queer theory, critical disability studies, or their intersections. The LGBTQ Studies Division welcomes scholarship addressing LGBTQ+ lives and applying trans, queer, intersectional, or related critical approaches to questions of media, culture, identity, discourse, and communication.

If interested, please submit:

• Title and 400-word abstract describing your contribution to the panel

• A brief 100-word bio outlining your background and qualifications regarding the proposed topic

• Your name, rank, affiliation, and contact information

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/LGBTQ_CFP

CFP 5: Visual Communication Studies Division—Centering Disability: Power and the Visual Politics of Staring

Proposed Panel Chair: Samira Rajabi (U of Colorado)

In this panel, we are keen to explore staring as a visual and communicative act through which disability and relations of power are produced, negotiated, and contested. Drawing inspiration from Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s work on staring, the panel considers how disabled people are positioned within visual relations and how the act of looking may reproduce, complicate, or challenge those relations.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

• Staring, looking, and power in visual encounters with disability

• Disability representation and the politics of visibility

• Disabled embodiment in still and moving images

• The production, circulation, and reception of visual narratives about disability

• Disabled people’s agency in contesting or reshaping visual conventions

• Visual communication practices that center disabled perspectives and knowledge

Please note that submissions to the Visual Communication Studies Division must address a specifically visual dimension of communication. Papers that mention visual media without analysing visual form, practice, experience, theory, or methodology may not fit the Division’s scope.

If interested, please submit:

• Title and 400-word abstract for your paper

• 100-word bio for each author, including your background and qualifications regarding the proposed topic

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/VISUAL_CFP

CFP 6: Popular Media and Culture Division—Centering Authentic Disability Representation in Popular Culture: Next Steps for Action

Proposed Panel Chair: Beth Haller (Towson U)

In this panel, we are keen to move discussions of disability representation in popular culture toward questions of action, intervention, and change. Disability media scholarship has extensively examined how disabled people are represented; this panel asks what should follow from that critique and how research might contribute to more authentic and accountable representational practices.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

• Practical tools for improving disability representation on screen

• Disabled people’s participation in media production and decision-making

• Moving from representational critique toward action and institutional change

• Collaboration among disabled communities, researchers, creators, and media industries

• Accountability for harmful, tokenistic, or stereotypical representations

• Examples of interventions that seek to transform disability representation

Please note that submissions should contribute to the study of popular media and culture by examining relevant media forms, cultural practices, representations, production processes, or interventions. Papers should explain how their proposed actions or solutions respond to specific problems in disability representation.

If interested, please submit:

• Title and 150-word abstract for your paper

• A brief description of no more than 100 words outlining each author’s background and qualifications regarding the proposed topic

• Names and affiliations of all authors

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/PMC_CFP

CFP 7: Children, Adolescents, and the Media Division—Artificial Intelligence and Disabled Childhoods

Proposed Panel Chairs: Chelsea Temple Jones (Brock U) and Meryl Alper (Northeastern U)

In this panel, we are keen to explore the relationships among artificial intelligence, media, and disabled childhoods. We invite research examining how AI-enabled media and technologies enter the everyday lives of disabled children and adolescents, and how these technologies shape communication, participation, identity, representation, learning, play, and social relationships.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

• Disabled children’s and adolescents’ experiences with AI-enabled media and technologies

• Disabled children’s agency in interpreting, adapting, resisting, or reshaping AI technologies

• Parents’ and caregivers’ perspectives on disabled children’s AI and media use

• Ethical and methodological approaches to researching AI with disabled children and adolescents

Please note that submissions to the Children, Adolescents, and the Media Division should focus on media or technologies aimed at, used by, or affecting children and adolescents, generally from birth through the late teenage years. Research addressing parents’ and caregivers’ perspectives on children’s media and technology use is also welcome.

If interested, please submit:

• Title and 150-word abstract for your paper

• 100-word bio for each author, including names, ranks, affiliations, and contact information

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/CAM_CFP

CFP 8: Feminist Scholarship Division—Centering Disability in Feminist Digital Media Studies

Proposed Panel Chairs: Jess Rauchberg (U of Leeds) and Krysten Stein (U of Cincinnati)

In this panel, we are keen to bring critical disability scholarship into conversation with feminist approaches to digital media and communication and how we can canter the human within conversations about digital media.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

• Feminist approaches to disability, ableism, and digital media

• Disability, gender, embodiment, and digital identity

• Disability within creator and influencer cultures

• Feminist analyses of accessibility and exclusion on digital platforms

• Ableism and gendered labour and care in media and technology industries

• Feminist methods and ethics for researching disabled people’s digital experiences

Please note that submissions to the Feminist Scholarship Division should engage directly with feminist theories, methodologies, or practices. Addressing gender only as a demographic variable is not sufficient for fit with the Division.

If interested, please submit:

• Title and 150–250-word abstract for your paper or contribution

• 100-word bio for each author, including names, ranks, affiliations, and contact information

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/FSD_CFP

CFP 9: Language and Social Interaction Division—Language, Disability, and Social Interaction

Proposed Panel Co-Chairs: Xie Zhuoxiao (Nanjing U) and Vincent Guangsheng Huang (Zhejiang U)

In this panel, we are keen to explore how disability is constituted, negotiated, and contested through language, discourse, and social interaction. We invite research examining how communicative practices shape understandings of disability, disabled identities, participation, agency, and relations between disabled and nondisabled people. We are particularly interested in how language and interaction make particular bodies, minds, voices, and communicative practices recognizable—or unrecognizable—as fully human as well as how disabled people use, reshape, or resist communicative conventions across interpersonal, institutional, cultural, and mediated settings.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

• Language, discourse, and the social construction of disability

• Material semiotics of disability

• Ableism in conversation, public discourse, and mediated communication

• Voice, silence, listening, and communicative participation

• Embodied, multimodal, or non-normative forms of communication

• Disability language and representation across languages and cultural contexts

• Disability discourse in multilingual or minority-language media

• Disabled people’s negotiation or resistance of dominant linguistic categories

Please note that submissions to the Language and Social Interaction Division should make language use, discourse, or situated interaction a central object of analysis. The Division welcomes theoretical, empirical, critical, and applied work across approaches including conversation analysis, discourse analysis, critical and cultural discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, semiotics, ethnography of communication, multimodal analysis, and embodied communication. Most work submitted to LSI includes empirical analysis of situated discourse.

If interested, please submit:

• Title and 150-word abstract for your proposed contribution

• 100-word bio for each author, including names, ranks, affiliations, and contact information

• A brief indication of the language, communicative setting, material, or interaction examined

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/LSI_CFP

CFP 10: Activism, Communication and Social Justice Division— Disability, digital citizenship, and participation

Proposed Panel Co-Chairs: Filippo Trevisan (American U) and Abdul Rohman (Ketemuhub)

In this panel, we are keen to explore the intersection of disability, digital media, and political participation, with particular attention to how disabled people claim rights, organize collectively, and seek to influence policy, social, and institutional change. We welcome research examining disability and digital citizenship, accessibility, electoral participation and the “disability vote,” digital disability rights and activism, political representation, advocacy, and the communicative processes through which disabled people and disability organizations seek to shape public agendas and policymaking. Please note that submissions to the Activism, Communication and Social Justice Division should foreground questions of activism, citizenship, civic engagement, communication, and social justice, and engage with relevant scholarship on activism, social movements, and media and communication. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• the nexus of disability, media, and citizenship, including digital citizenship, civic participation, political communication, voting and electoral participation, access to political information, and the accessibility of democratic and civic institutions.

• disability media activism, including disability movements, collective identity, advocacy, protest, digital and platformed activism, political representation, and the possibilities and limits of mobilizing a distinct “disability vote.”

• how disabled people, disability organizations, activists, and communities use media to participate in and influence policymaking, including consultation, co-production, public engagement, lobbying, advocacy, and grassroots organizing.

• how governmental and non-governmental institutions use - or don't use - technological tools to better involve disabled people in governance, institutional, and decision-making processes.

• We especially welcome work attentive to how disability intersects with class, gender, race, sexuality, caste, ethnicity, geography, and other forms of social difference.

If interested, please submit:

• Title and 300-word abstract for your proposed contribution

• 150-word bio for each author, including names, ranks, affiliations, and contact information

For more info, see: https://www.icahdq.org/mpage/ACSJ_CFP

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