2021 Cancel Culture Conference
Location: Virtual Dates: September 24-26, 2021 Guest registration is now open: https://bit.ly/38WwcOV
September 24, 2021, 8:00 AM to September 26, 2021, 5:00 PM EDT
VIRTUAL
Cancel Culture and Character Assassination
Location: Virtual
Dates: September 24-26, 2021
Guest registration is now open: https://bit.ly/38WwcOV
Description
While character assassination has taken a variety of forms throughout history, a particularly current and controversial practice of social ostracism has bred “cancel culture.” Cancel culture refers to when a person, typically a public figure, is expelled from their social or professional circles as a result of offensive behavior, real or alleged. The expression is mostly used by those who feel they are being unfairly punished for minor transgressions. As a form of public shaming, those who are “canceled” may be scapegoated or stigmatized and exposed to the judgment and bullying of the public. Canceled individuals may, in perception or reality, find themselves silenced and unable to speak on their own behalf. While cancel culture is often linked to the rise of social media, practices of silencing and social exclusion have many historical antecedents, ranging from public scapegoating rituals to rebellious mobs tearing down the statues of disgraced individuals.
To better understand this phenomenon and its historical antecedents, we invite scholars to submit research and works in progress which will discuss character assassination and cancel culture from a variety of disciplinary and cultural angles. We welcome both theoretical work and case studies.
Friday, September 24, 2021
| TIME | TOPIC | PARTICIPANTS |
| 10 am-1pm (EST/New York) |
Welcome address Meet and greet participants CARP progress report CARP textbook launch CARP 2021 conference framing questions |
All registered participants and guests invited to attend |
Saturday, September 25, 2021
| TIME | TOPIC | PARTICIPANTS |
| Opening Panel 8:00-9:15 am (EST/New York) |
New Insights into Character Assassination (CA) Theory |
CARP Board: |
| 9:15-10:30 | Keynote Address | Emily A. Vogels (Pew Research Center) |
| Panel 2 10:30-11:45 |
The Impact of Cancel Culture on Public Opinion | Chair: Martijn Icks (U of Amsterdam) Panelists: Gwen Bouvier (Zhejiang U, China), Cancel culture: The limits of Twitter for social justice campaigns. Ricardo Matos de Araújo Rios and Marina dos Santos Franco (Centro Universitário Presidente Antônio Carlos, Brazil), When morality meets cancel culture: How Karol Conká became the most hated person in Brazil. Perry B. Johnson and Caitlin J. Dobson (Annenberg School for Communication, U of Southern California), “Principled struggle”: The complexities of cancel culture and the possibilities of transformative justice. Ilya Bykov (Saint Petersburg State U, Russia), Cancel culture in the political discourse of Russia. |
| Panel 3 11:45 am-1:00 pm |
Cancel Culture, Online Platforms, and Strategic Deception |
Chair: Jennifer Keohane (U of Baltimore) Panelists: Inna Suvorova (U College London, UK) and Sergei A. Samoilenko (George Mason U), The present and future of deepfakes and strategic deception campaigns. Rafaela Tabasnik (Unisinos U, Brazil), The narratives of cancel culture: A study about patterns and its categories in digital platforms. Candice Lanius (U of Alabama in Huntsville) and Nathan Fisk (U of South Florida), An examination of contemporary linkages between cyberbullying and cancel culture. Carlo Berti and Enzo Loner (University of Trento, Italy), Character assassination as a right-wing populist communication tactic on social media. |
| Panel 4 1:00-2:15 |
Cancel Culture and Institutional Policy | Chair: Sergei Samoilenko (George Mason U) Panelists: Rod Caveth (Morgan State U), Sharon Osbourne versus cancel culture? Michael Dudley (U of Winnipeg, Canada), Academic freedom, cancel culture, and the Shakespeare authorship question Amy Schumacher-Rutherford, (U of Kansas), Cancelling by any other name Leslie J. Reynard (Center for Applied Communication Research, Inc.), Shamed to death: The fatal institutional “cancellations” of professors Shiveley and Adams. |
| Panel 5 2:15-3:30 |
Character Assassination and Cancel Culture Theory |
Chair: Eric Shiraev (George Mason U) |
| 3:30 - 5:00 | Networking Session | Moderator: Sergei Samoilenko (George Mason University) |
Sunday, September 26, 2021
| TIME | TOPIC | PARTICIPANTS |
| Panel 6 8:00-9:15 am (EST/New York) |
Character Assassination in International Relations | Chair: TBD Panelists: Ekaterina Egorova (Political Profiler, US), CA in information warfare in international relations. Athina Limnioudi and Athanassios N. Samaras (U of Piraeus, Greece), The case of Cosco and China in the Greek Communist press and parliamentary discourse. Irina Tsukerman (Independent Scholar), How the Gulf Crisis of 2017 weaponized CA in "total war by cancelation." Divine Narkotey Aboagye (U of Maryland, College Park), Unilateral international sanctions, cancel culture, and the rhetoric of U.S foreign policy on Iran and North Korea. |
| Panel 7 9:15-10:30 |
Cancel Culture, Social Movements and Political Campaigns | Chair: TBD Panelists: Stephen J. Farnsworth (U of Mary Washington), S. Robert Lichter (George Mason U), Farah Latif (George Mason U), Kate Seltzer (U of Mary Washington) and Sally Burkley, (U of Mary Washington), Late night political humor, cancel culture and the 2020 presidential campaign. Kanwalpreet Baidwan (Punjab U, India), Cancel culture and a secular mobilization of masses. Phillip Voight (Gustavus Adolphus College), Courting the cancel culture: Commodity activism and corporate communication in a divided age. Jenny Hodges (Montgomery College), Cancel culture and the slippery slope of anti-immigrant sentiment. |
| Panel 8 10:30-11:45 |
Character Assassination and Cancel Culture in History | Panel 8 Chair: TBD Panelists: Tyler Johnson (The U of Oklahoma), A little bit more than the law will allow: Biography, history, and attitudes toward memorials to Robert E. Lee Florian Krüpe (Marburg U, Germany), “He urged upon chaotic fact / the necessary lie”: On the cancellation of Julia, Augustus’ daughter. Henri van Nispen, Radboud U Nijmegen, the Netherlands), The defamation of Gaius Caligula |
| 12:00-1:00 pm | Wrap up discussion and closing remarks | Chair: Eric Shiraev, (George Mason U) |
Photo: @markuswinkler
