ZIZI PAPACHARISSIAffective Publics and COVID-19: Solidarity and Distance
Thursday 28 January 2021, 15:00CET (2pm UK; 9am EST; 11pm JST)
Information for those in possession of a Zoom link for this seminar, which is now fully booked [link]
Information about the rest of the DIGZOOM series [link]
This talk by Zizi Papacharissi will be recorded and published on [digsum.org].
In this talk, I explain how affective publics help us connect, disconnect and identify ourselves during times of crisis, upheaval, and uncertainty. Information is central to the formation of affective publics, as these publics are convened around unique and emotively charged renderings of information that fall together into liminal narratives. I discuss what the concept means in pandemic times. I then turn to the post-pandemic moment and discuss the meaning of technology for democracy. This talk draws from Affective Publics (OUP, 2014) and the forthcoming After Democracy (YUP, 2021).
Dr. Zizi Papacharissi is Professor and Head of the Communication Department, Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and University Scholar at the University of Illinois System. Her work focuses on the social and political consequences of online media. She has published nine books, over 70 journal articles and book chapters. Zizi is the founding and current Editor of the open access journal Social Media and Society and serves on the editorial board of fifteen journals. She has collaborated with Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Oculus and has participated in closed consultations with the Obama 2012 election campaign. She sits on the Committee on the Health and Well-Being of Young Adults, funded by the National Academies of Science, the National Research Council, and the Institute of Medicine in the US, and has been invited to lecture about her work on social media in several Universities and Research Institutes in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Her work has been translated in Greek, German, Korean, Chinese, Hungarian, Italian, Turkish, and Persian. Her 10th book, titled After Democracy (Yale University Press), will be out in early 2021.