University of Bamberg | Department of Communication Studies | Bamberg, Germany (in cooperation with University of Applied Sciences Kufstein-Tyrol), 29. September - 1. October 2022 in Bamberg

Politics appears to have entered a mode of perpetual crisis and growing dysfunctionality. The rapid succession of scandals may be a symptom of this crisis, while being its catalyst at the same time. With respect to this very broad diagnosis, the conference aims to better define a political scandal and discuss how such scandals are relevant for a polity and public discourse.

The conference theme acknowledges the growing presence of populism, partisanship, and polarization and the need to analyze what this means for scandalization processes. Thus, the aim of this conference is to better understand possible impacts of these phenomena on public discourse and media practices from an interdisciplinary and critical scientific perspective.

The organizers call for proposals in all subfields of communication studies, political communication research as well as related disciplines and invite conceptual, empirical, and methodological proposals reflecting on political scandals and the role which media and/or communication plays therein. The conference encourages submissions of both empirically and theoretically focused work from advanced scholars as well as graduate students or doctoral candidates.

For more information about the Scandalogy research initiative visit our website.