Call for Papers

Ege University
20th Cultural Studies Symposium
“AI & Cultural Production”
6–8 May 2026 | Faculty of Letters, Izmir, Türkiye

Artificial Intelligence has distinctly shifted from being a technological tool to a shaping factor in present-day cultural practices. Ranging from AI-related literature, music, and visual arts to AI-enabled storytelling, translation, and co-creative practices, AI confronts traditional concepts of authorship, creativity, agency, and responsibility. Furthermore, AI raises critical moral and political considerations with respect to power, bias, labour, and representation.

The 20th Cultural Studies Symposium encourages scholars, artists, and practitioners to critically reflect on the ways in which AI is transforming cultural production. Of particular interest is a critical approach that situates AI discursively in social, cultural, and geopolitical contexts. How do AI systems transform artistic agency and audience interaction? In what ways do they reinforce or contest existing inequalities? Can AI function as a cultural actor? If so, what are the implications of attributing creativity or responsibility to non-human systems?

Our transdisciplinary series encourages submissions from cultural studies, media studies, digital humanities, literature studies, art studies, musicology, translation studies, and other related disciplines.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

• Authorship, creativity, and co-creation in AI-generated or AI-assisted works
• AI as cultural actor, agent, or collaborator
• Cultural bias, representation, and inequality in AI systems
• AI and global media, publishing, music, and film industries
• AI in visual arts, music, and emerging aesthetic forms
• AI and storytelling, narrative experimentation, and genre
• Ethics, labour, and power in AI-driven creative industries
• AI, surveillance, and creative autonomy
• AI in Indigenous and non-Western cultural contexts
• AI-assisted translation, language politics, and cultural mediation

Submission Guidelines

• Abstracts of up to 250 words with 3–5 keywords for 20-minute papers
• Proposals for pre-constituted panels (3–4 speakers) are welcome
• Submissions should include presenter's name, affiliation, contact details, and a short biography (approx. 150 words)

Extended deadline: 18 January 2026
Notification of acceptance: 20 February 2026

Please send proposals to egecss2026@gmail.com with the subject line “CSS2026 Proposal.”

We look forward to an engaged and critical discussion on AI and the future of cultural production.

For further information see: https://css.ege.edu.tr/tr-21968/call_for_papers.html