Call for Abstracts: 2026 CDCS Symposium
“Good Vibes Only? How Affects and Emotions Are Mediated for Justice in Digital Culture”
2026 CDCS Symposium: “Good Vibes Only? How Affects and Emotions Are Mediated for Justice in Digital Culture” will take place April 9-10, 2026.
Contemporary digital cultures are affective cultures. Memes, viral videos, and stories on social media both generate and thrive on affects and emotions. Their endless production, circulation, repetition and reproduction both sustain and depend on global cultures and economies of affects and attention. They shape both the experiences of ordinary people and the fates and fortunes of large and small social groups and nation-states.
Affects and emotions take numerous mediated forms on social media. They can be textual or multi-modal. They are the lifeblood of livestreaming videos, hashtags, emojis, music, photographs, personal memories and stories. Fake news transmits and feeds on affects and emotions.
How are digital affects and emotions related to social movements, everyday activism and social justice work? What mediated forms do they take and how to study these mediated forms and practices? How might affect and emotion help us understand discourses related to digital tribalism, misinformation and disinformation in online spaces, and as an organizing force in the face of fascism and militarism? How might they be weaponized and with what consequences?
Without drawing a strict line between affect and emotion, we welcome submissions which focus on either or both. We also welcome studies of specific kinds of digitally mediated affective/emotional practices, from depression and anxiety to anger and joy, and more. We particularly encourage empirical studies of affects and emotions in relation to digital activism and social justice struggles. Submissions from both early career and established researchers are welcome.
Topics to be covered include but are not limited to the following:
- Emotions and digital storytelling
- Affective economies of social media
- Affects of digital objects in activism
- Digital archival practice and affects
- Playful emotions online
- Affective publics and digital networks
- Rage-baiting and sensationalism
- Authoritarianism and mis/disinformation campaigns
- Digital tribalism and echo-chambers
- Memes, gifs, and mediated humor and satire
- Mediated joy as resistance
- Affective refusal
- Algorithmic resistance and creativity
- Digital love
- Feelings of obsolescence
- Feelings of victimization
- Digital diasporas and affective cultures
- AI chatbots and artificial empathy
- Emotions and AI-generated art and narratives
Please submit your 800-word abstract to cdcs@asc.upenn.edu before December 1, 2025. Notification of acceptance will be sent by December 20, 2025.
Complete papers are due three weeks before the symposium.
The symposium will take place at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania on April 9-10, 2026.
Conference organizers will cover hotel and provide partial funding for travel for invited paper presenters (pending budget availability). Final papers presented at the conference will be edited for a special journal issue.
This symposium is organized by the Center on Digital Culture and Society at the University of Pennsylvania.
