APPLICATION GUIDELINESfor

The International Workshop for Social and Information Studies (SIS)

Contemporary Media Technologies and Nationalism:
Asia and the World
The purposes of the International Workshop for Social and Information Studies (SIS) in Gunma
University are 1) to provide early career scholars who do not have fulltime teaching positions anopportunity to give presentations in English and 2) to exchange opinions with peers and middle-career
researchers from various parts of the world to make stable yet flexible academic linkages.

This year, The Organizing Committee of the International Workshop for SIS aims to focus on theuses of contemporary media technologies and nationalism.
In recent years, we have begun to observe a lot of nationalistic movements on our societies suchas ‘XXX-First’, whose followers appeal to a wide group of people to place the benefit of their belonging
country above anything else. Of course we immediately note that these appeals often have inclination tolimit the scope of being a national citizen to smaller ethnic group.
There seems to be a correlation between the progress of those phenomena and contemporary
media technologies. For example, “Cyber Cascade” (Sunstein 2007), a type of Group Polarization, issupported by the personal computer and the portable devises being accessible to the Internet whichmakes many and unspecified people connect to each other. Additionally, these phenomena have had thetendency to be accelerated by the information which is not necessarily based on the fact such as ‘FakeNews’. On the other hand, those contemporary media technologies are absolutely imperative for thepeople including foreign migrants and their supporters, who are often regarded as ‘unpatriotic’ by thefollowers of contemporary nationalism, to survive and associate with each other.
The above confirmation is a popular generalization and we can easily imagine that therelationship between contemporary media technologies and nationalistic movements differ from one
country (area) to another country (area). One of the purposes of this workshop is to share the actual
conditions and the agendas of that relationship through various methods of academic research.
On the other hand, in Benedict Anderson’s remarkable book Imagined Communities: Reflections
on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Anderson 2016), print capitalism is drawn attention as one ofthe origin of nationalism. What we have to notice here is that he deduces his analytical perspective andfindings from his case studies in Southeast Asian countries. If we can find a lot of nationalistic
movements supported by contemporary media technologies all over the world, our facing situation may1

be able to be described as ‘many spectres of comparisons’ in accordance with Anderson’s expression
being derived from José Rizal (Anderson 1998). Another purpose of this workshop is, as is shown in thesubtitle of our workshop, to figure out the perspective for the analyzation of nationalism supported bycontemporary media situations by having an in-depth discussion with presenters, keynote speakers anddiscussants from Asia and the world.
We are looking forward to hearing from a lot of applicants who are trying to examine thischallenging theme.

References:
Anderson, B., (1998). The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and the World. New
York: Verso.
―――――, (2016). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
Revised Edition. New York: Verso.
Sunstein, C., (2007). Republic.com 2.0. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

I. Application Guidelines
1. Schedule for the International Workshop for Social and Information Studies (SIS):
Sep. 20, 2017 Application Deadline for Submission of Application Form
Sep. 30, 2017 Results of Screening Due
Oct. 31, 2017 Deadline for Submission of First Drafts (2,000 - 4,000 words)
Nov. 24, 2017 Pre-meeting of the International Workshop for SIS
Nov. 25, 2017 The International Workshop for SIS
Feb. 20, 2018 Deadline for Submission of Final Papers (4,000 - 7,000 words, final version for
the Special Issue of the Journal of Social and Information Studies. The Organizing
Committee will prepare a style-sheet with instructions (MS-Word format) forpapers)
Jun. or Jul. 2018 Publication of the Special Issue of the Journal of Social and Information Studies(tentative, from the Faculty of Social and Information Studies, Gunma University)

2. Number of Presentations: Maximum 4 presentations

3. Language: English

4. Venue: Aramaki Campus, Gunma University (Maebashi city, Gunma, Japan)2

5. Travel and Accommodation Grants: Only presenters are eligible (1 person per presentation) (fordetails, please see note 6). These will be funded by Gunma University.

II. Notes for the International Workshop for Social and Information Studies inGunma University
1. Topics: Related to contemporary media technologies and nationalism

2. Number of presentations to be accepted: Maximum 4 presentations

3. Deadline for Application: Sep. 20, 2017 (JST)

4. Eligibility for applicants: Ph. D. students, Ph. D. candidates, post-doctoral fellows, and similar
positions. Master course students are also welcomed. However, those who have fulltime teachingpositions are not eligible.

5. Application form and process: An English application form is available. Please email it to:tomohira_AT_si.gunma-u.ac.jp (Please replace “_AT_” to “@”)*Contact: Organizing Committee of the International Workshop for SIS in Gunma University*Please mark the beginning of your application: For attention: Ph.D. Tomohisa Hirata (GunmaUniversity)

6. Travel and Accommodation Grants: The Organizing Committee will arrange hotel accommodationfor presenters from overseas (1 presenter per presentation) from the 23rd to 25th of November
maximum (check-out on the 26th). A round-trip air ticket (from the nearest airport of theuniversity/institution to which the presenter belongs to Narita/Haneda International Airport) and around-trip train/airport bus ticket (from Narita/Haneda International Airport to Gunma University), forthe most direct and economical route to Gunma University for 1 presenter per presentation, will also
be covered by the Organizing Committee.
If you extend your stay in Gunma or Japan, you should arrange additional accommodationindividually at your own cost. The Organizing Committee CANNOT provide any fees regarding theobtainment of a visa and/or travel insurance. You will need to cover daily expenses such as food andlocal transport with your own funds.

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