Call For Papers: Porn Cultures and Policy

The Centre for International Communication Research (CICR) the Media Industries Research Centre (MIRC) and the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds

Porn Cultures: Regulation, Political Economy, and Technology

Monday 15th and Tuesday 16th of June in Leeds.

Call for Papers


The pornography industry is an under-researched culture industry. Its links to mainstream media and to the sex industry are intensifying. The mainstreaming of certain aspects of the industry in global popular culture raises questions about the adequacy, efficiency or appropriateness of existing policy. Other aspects of the industry, such as its labour conditions, its geographies of production and consumption practices associated with it have largely fallen under the radar of scholarly analysis, while much more attention has been paid to the potential for emancipatory uses of aspects of sexually explicit cultural expression.

Meanwhile, technological aspects of the industry¹s operation are challenging our assumptions about Œchoice, Œprivacy, and Œfreedom. With the proliferation of the pornographic product embedded in everyday life now more than ever before existing and new questions require our urgent attention about human rights, migrants, workers and communication rights, media literacy, media ecology and the public sphere, global production and consumption cultures as well as underlying politics of gender, class and Œrace.

This conference aims to bring together scholars, policymakers and activists to discuss the global pornography complex. It is the second of two conferences organised within the British Academy funded project Socialisation of the global sexually explicit imagery: challenges to regulation and research. The project has given birth to an international Porn Cultures and Policy Network, which involves scholars from a number of countries, engaged in comparative studies with an emphasis on policy. 

We are inviting colleagues to take part in this debate and colleagues who would be interested in working with the existing network to join us. Information on this and our first conference can be found on http://sgsei.wordpress.com.

Please send your 200 word abstract, along with a 50-word bio and contact details to Steven McDermott (cssem@leeds.ac.uk) by March 15th or earlier.

There will be a small fee to cover catering and room facilities. Please let us know if you require an earlier decision regarding your paper. If you would like to discuss a panel/round-table proposal and /or your paper please contact Katharine Sarikakis (K.Sarikakis@leeds.ac.uk).

Speakers include

Prof Alison Beale
Co-Director, Centre for Policy Studies on Culture and Communities,
Simon Fraser University Vancouver

Dr Karen Boyle
Glasgow University

Dr Marcus Breen
Northeastern University Boston

Prof Gail Dines
Professor of American Studies, Wheelock College Boston

Elizabeth Law
UK Board Member, European Women¹s Lobby

Dr Stephen Maddison
University of East London

Dr Valentina Marinescu
University of Bucharest Romania

Prof Clare McGlynn
Deputy Head of Law School, Durham Law School, Durham University

Murray Perkins
Senior Examiner (18 and R18 Categories) British Board of Film Classification

Prof Julian Petley
Brunel University

Prof Karen Ross
Liverpool University

Dr Rebecca Sullivan
University of Calgary

Dr Liza Tsaliki
University of Athens

Prof Ian Walden
Acting Chair of Internet Watch Foundation, Institute of Computer and Communications Law 

Centre for Commercial Law Studies Queen Mary, University of London

Dr Rebecca Whisnant
University of Dayton