Call for Papers
Symposium Themes
We welcome contributions that engage critically with the following themes as they relate to creative media theory and/or socially engaged practice. This list is indicative, not exhaustive. If your work doesn’t fit neatly into a category, submit it anyway.
- Digital Identities and Online Cultures - The self, community, and culture in networked and digital spaces.
- Representation, Audiences, and Global Citizenship - Media’s role in supporting or obstructing understanding across cultures, nations, and communities.
- Equity, Diversity and Inclusion – Representation (of class, gender, ability, identity, race, ethnicity), access, and power in media production and consumption.
- Ecology, Technology, and Environmental Practices - The role of digital media in environmental storytelling, climate activism, or ecological harm.
- Intersectionality and Identity - How overlapping identities shape media experience, practice, and critique.
- Anti-Racism and Decolonisation - Critical perspectives on the histories and legacies embedded in media institutions, archives, and practices.
- Media Power - Platforms, corporations, attention economy, surveillance capitalism, labour/economic justice, and the political economy of media.
Key Dates
- Submission deadline: 28th September 2026
- Symposium: Autumn 2026 (exact date to be confirmed)
- Notifications: contributors will be informed as soon as possible after the deadline
Contribution Formats
We welcome the following formats:
Presentation (5 minutes)
A short presentation of your research, critical reflection, argument, or analysis. Presentations may be accompanied by slides or other visual materials.
You may also choose to present a creative media artefact — a short film, interactive work, design, game, photography, audio piece, animation, or other project — alongside a critical reflection on its themes, process, and significance. In this case, the artefact and reflection together would form the contribution.
5 minutes is the guide length, however if you have a longer piece you are interested in presenting, please indicate the duration in your application. Presentation sessions will be followed by an opportunity for dialogue.
Poster Display
As part of the symposium there will be an opportunity to have work displayed during the day. If you have visual work that connects with the themes of the symposium you could submit it for this format.
Other Formats
We are open to other formats. If you have an idea for a contribution that doesn’t fit the above we’d love to hear from you. Please describe your proposed format briefly in your submission.
Why Contribute?
Whether you are a first-year student just beginning to think critically about media, a final-year student preparing to move into postgraduate study or industry, or a graduate several years out — subtext is for you.
Contributing gives you the opportunity to:
- Share your work with an audience beyond the classroom or studio
- Connect with peers across year groups and with graduates working in the field
- Build confidence in presenting and discussing your ideas in a supportive peer environment
- Engage with current topics in media, culture, and global justice
- Be part of building a culture of critical practice within CDM
For graduates, subtext is also an invitation to remain connected - to share what you’ve learned since leaving, to mentor and inspire those coming after you, and to stay part of a community of practice.
Submission Process
Please submit your proposal using the link provided. Submissions will be reviewed by a staff panel and contributors notified shortly after the deadline. We aim to include as wide a range of voices and approaches as possible.
You are welcome to get in touch informally before submitting if you’d like to talk through your idea first. Please contact: Siobhán Enright (siobhan.enright@tudublin.ie), Nina Lyons (nina.lyons@tudublin.ie, or Irene McGinn (irene.mcginn@tudublin.ie) for informal feedback or guidance.
Submit Abstract
How to Submit
Please send the following to [contact email] by [submission deadline]:
- Your name (or names of group members)
- Contact information
- Current year of study or year of graduation
- Preferred contribution format (presentation, poster, etc)
- Title of your contribution
- Summary: describe the theme, approach, and purpose of your contribution
- For practice-based contributions: a brief description of the artefact, and a link if available