Union for Democratic Communications
UDC 2025 Conference Announcement
Conference Theme: The Future We Want: Resistance and Resolve.
Conference Dates: June 19 - 22, 2025.
Abstract Submission Deadline: February 2, 2025.
Submission Link and Call for Papers are Below:
UDC 2025 Call for Papers
Conference Theme: The Future We Want: Resistance and Resolve.
In a time of ongoing challenges including pulls towards authoritarianism, militarization, anti-intellectualism, and empire, the role of media and communications in helping provide solutions to these challenges have never been more urgent. The possibilities for leftist organizing and media scholarship are vital in the face of the range of current social and political crises. November 5, 2024 brought into sharp relief that the persistence of Trumpism and ineptitude of the Democratic Party is now undeniable. We now face the continuation and acceleration of an ever-growing range of problems: a persistent neoliberal vision, now joined by an ascendant paleoconservative drive linked, if contradictorily so, to tech-sector neomonarchist utopic ambitions. Alongside we face new and ongoing wars; algorithmic interventions into all facets of life; and a host of economic challenges. This condition is not unique to the United States: authoritarianism, militarization, and empire increasingly shape the politics of countries from Italy to India to Israel. In the past, we have found light through the cracks and hope in community, coalition, connection, and communication. The stakes have now been raised considerably.
Our 2025 conference will be held at the University of Washington at Tacoma, from Thursday, June 19th to Sunday, June 22nd. This conference is part of a proud tradition dating back 40 years, during which time the Union for Democratic Communications has always been committed to challenging the steady march of neoliberal and fascistic politics by seeking to better embrace intersectional understandings, advocate for a more truly democratized education, and provide critical approaches to media platforms and technologies. As an organization in which so many of us have found strength and community, this conference offers us the opportunity to expand our connection to each other and our communities. Resistance and resolve will be key to challenging a coalescing neoliberal fascism, pushing back against rising authoritarianism, protecting individual freedoms, and creating the future we want.In spite of the challenges, recent years have also shown the possibility of a willingness to mobilize on a range of issues. In Germany, France, and Brazil, among other countries, we’ve seen increasing pushback and resistance to the divisiveness of the Right. This has been true even in the fraught context of the US. In the face of certain uncertainty, critical communication and media scholars and activists have a crucial role to play in meeting this moment. What solutions do we have to offer? What communities might we better connect with, and where are opportunities emerging which might allow us to better address the range of challenges we face?
The 2025 conference seeks to expand on these themes, pushing us to continue to fight for survival and transformation and to develop deeper theorizations of the currents we are observing globally.
We look to our scholarly, activist, and civic communities as ways to not only resist the pessimism that climate change, wars, genocides, neoliberalism and anti-democratic forces evoke, but to construct new spaces of resistance, resolve, and hope. As Rebecca Solnit notes, ‘hope’ helps us weather tumultuous times, reminding us that the future is ours to build. This year’s Union for Democratic Communication conference asks us to examine how we can address those challenges in the search for justice and paths forward, what solutions we have to offer, what communities we may engage with and might better connect with, to explore intellectual sites we may have missed, and where opportunities are emerging which might allow us to better address the range of challenges we face.
Submissions may be individual presentations or panels, workshops, and roundtable discussions. We welcome work from scholars, activists, artists and media-makers that elaborate on these themes through a range of lenses and approaches, including:
Communication policy
Political economy of communication
Media production and resistance
Challenging racisms, patriarchies, and other oppressive power structures and formations
Community engagement and organizing
Activism, social justice, resistance, and media/tech activism
Critical law and policy studies as a mechanism of change
Community, labor, working class, activist and other histories
Critical Pedagogies
Academic freedom, academic labor and values
The crisis in journalism and possible solutions
AI: Potentials and Challenges
Climate change, the environment, and the media
Media, art, and justice
Justice and advocacy
Advocacy through media, communication, and art
Tips to Enhance Chance of Acceptance for Individual Submission:
Don’t reveal your identity in the title or the abstract
Make sure your abstract relates to either the conference theme or the organization’s mission (and ideally, to both)
Describe clearly and concisely (300-500 words) what your submission does
Make sure it is well-edited.
Select 1-3 topic categories
Select the appropriate submission type from the pull-down menu at the bottom of the page.
Tips to Enhance the Chance of Acceptance for a Panel:
Have one member of the panel or workshop submit an overarching panel title and abstract and a list of all participants invited.
Each member should submit an individual abstract for their contribution and, if appropriate, a title for their contribution. They should also include just the panel title so they can be reviewed together.
Don’t reveal your identity or the identity of anyone on the panel in any of the submissions
Make sure all abstracts relate to either the conference theme or the organization’s mission (and ideally, to both)
In all abstracts, describe clearly and concisely (300-500 words) what your submission does.
Make sure it is well-edited.
Select 1-3 topic categories
All participants should select the appropriate submission type from the pull-down menu at the bottom of the page.
Tips to Enhance the Chance of Acceptance for a Roundtable or Workshop:
Have one member of the roundtable submit the overarching workshop title and abstract with a list of participants and the affiliations of all involved
Describe clearly and concisely what your submission does.
Make sure it is well-edited.
Select 1-3 topic categories
Select Roundtable from the pull-down menu at the bottom of the page.
Graduate students should submit full papers and abstracts to be considered for the Brian Murphy Student Paper Award, following the instructions for an individual submission but selecting the Brian Murphy Paper Award submission from the pull-down menu at the bottom of the page.
Notice of Acceptance: Applicants will be notified of their acceptance no later than March 15, 2025. All submissions undergo a double-blind review.
For any questions, please contact: support@democraticcomm.org
You can find ongoing conference information on this website or at any of our social media accounts:
Bluesky: @uniondemcomm.bsky.social
Twitter: https://x.com/udc2025
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theUDC/
What We Do
Conference
Every 18 Months we hold a conference where communication scholars and activists can share their research and experiences fighting for social, economic, and political justice. Established, emerging, and new scholars are welcome to submit abstracts and participate in our conference proceedings
Journal
Our journal, the Democratic Communique, is focused on critical media analysis. Topics range from legal critical legal studies to analysis of race/class/gender, to considerations of media content, industries, and consumers. We are also interested in book reviews on recently published works pertaining to critical media studies.
Connect
Join the organization, find collaborators, connect with others that share your research interests, and find out about the work current UDC members are doing.