CFP: The 26th Annual University of Florida Critical Theory Reading Group/MRG Conference- Deadline Extended

“Marxism and the Digital Public”

Weekend of April 12-14, 2024

University of Florida

Gainesville, FL

Keynotes: M.E. O’Brien (Pinko and Parapraxis) and Jasper Bernes (University of California, Berkeley)

Near the end of the 20th century, cyberspace was understood as a space of utopian potentiality. William Gibson, in Neuromancer, referred to cyberspace as a “consensual hallucination” mediated by technology. In Larry McCaffery’s Storming the Reality Studio, Gibson observed the ability of these spaces to transport their users to another space and temporality. In the same collection, Darko Suvin describes cyberspace “a utopia out of video arcades and pachinko parlors.” Fredric Jameson, in The Ancients and the Postmoderns, notes that cyberspace itself is a “literary construction,” which does not actually exist in a spatial sense but which “we tend to believe.” As social media, video calls, and online video games become more prevalent, our belief in this fiction increases. In some cases, cyberspace spills into empirical space. The 2010s networked protests, such as Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring movements, were nourished and emboldened by the possibilities for communication and organization promised by social media. 

However, more recently, the utopian possibilities of social media, cyberspace, and the digital public have been tempered by the increasing surveillance, commodification, “appification,” and “enshitification” of the digital public. Geert Lovink opens Sad by Design by observing, “disillusionment with the internet is a fact.” Nick Dyer-Witheford and Svitlana Matviyenko similarly note the bleak outlook for digital social movements in the face of intensifying cyberwarfare.

Our conference will examine where we are now in relation to the digital public. The digital will be interpreted broadly including such disparate topics such as new literary and film movements,streaming media, fandom spaces, the intersection of cyberspace and global capital, and potential utopian aspects of the digital. How are we currently navigating the digital public sphere in academic, para-academic, or non-academic ways? How do literature, cinema, and other cultural forms think about, affirm, and critique the digital world? Is the digital public tethered to or wholly separate from our own “real” public space? And, in the digital, whither Marxism?

While the conference is open to any contribution to the ongoing Marxist problematic, we would especially welcome presentations related to this year’s conference themes.

Potential topics may include:

• Marxism and Digital Culture, Cybernetics, New Media, or Social Media/Activism

• Marxism and Digital Cinema, Animation, or Humanities

• Marxism and Utopian Spaces/Possibilities

• Marxism and Speculative Fiction or Fan Culture

• Marxism and Globalization, International Relations, or Networks/Systems

• Marxism and Environmentalism/the Anthropocene

• Marxism and Postcolonial and Indigenous Studies

The conference will be held in-person at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Please submit a 250-word abstract with 4-5 keywords, along with contact information and a brief author biography. We will also consider panel proposals. Individual presentations will be limited to 15-20 minutes. Please indicate any A/V requests.

We would especially ask you to let us know if you have participated in past MRG conferences or if you are a UF-MRG alumnus.

Send this information to theufmrg@gmail.com. The updated deadline for abstracts is February 16th. 

Authors of accepted presentations will be notified by February 23rd.

For questions concerning the conference, please contact us at theufmrg@gmail.com. For more information, visit https://ufmrg.wordpress.com.