In an era of increasing authoritarianism, militarization, and continuing media consolidation, the need for robust democratic communication and more powerful social movements has become urgent. The new US administration has rushed to further inequality, racism, sexism, and the destruction of the environment, including leaving the Paris Accords, while targeting undocumented workers, immigrants, refugees, women, and people of color, in particular—all of which has emboldened a rabid, white supremacist rising. Globally the US and its myriad transnational allies actively attack any and all democratic movements from Latin America and Africa to the Mideast and Asia, while financing and fomenting wars and interventions that displace millions and destroy the lives of thousands. Transnational media everywhere obscure the instigators and realities of rising inequality, providing spectacle and entertainment for promoting military actions, austerity, and the gutting of civil liberty and human rights.

In the midst of these attacks, powerful resistance and inspiring social movements continue to emerge: from Black Lives Matter and the Fight for $15, to the North Dakota Water Protectors; from mass social movements across Latin America to battles by organized workers in China, Greece, and South Africa; from powerful women’s movements in India and the women’s march in the US to the expanding international environmental movement.

This conference seeks to traverse the intersections of Media, Resistance, and Justice through presentations and conversations that offer insights and suggestions for advancing and securing a more democratic, just society.

The Union for Democratic Communication 2018 conference invites contributions on Media, Resistance, and Justice that address our contemporary crises and the rise of state and non-state right wing attacks. In particular, we invite contributions that highlight the means and methods for active resistance, democratic communication, and the promotion of social justice. New and established scholars, graduate students, activists, and media creators are encouraged to submit proposals.