Call for Chapters: Beyond the Empathy Machine: Critical Perspectives on Virtual RealityA book edited by the “VR as Empathy Machine: Media, Migration and the Humanitarian Predicament” Research Group at Utrecht Universityhttps://vrmigration.sites.uu.nl/2025/12/18/call-for-papers-beyond-the-empathy-machine-critical-perspectives-on-virtual-reality/ Editors: Professor Sandra Ponzanesi (s.ponzanesi@uu.nl), Dr. Jenny Andrine Madsen Evang (j.a.m.evang@uu.nl), Dr. Wouter Oomen (w.a.oomen@uu.nl), Laurence Herfs (l.l.herfs@uu.nl), and Lisa Burghardt (l.burghardt@uu.nl) Deadline for submissions of abstracts: February 15, 2026 Over the last decade or so, Virtual Reality (VR) has been honed as a new frontier in social tech. From Chris Milk and Gabo Arora’s invocation of VR as “the ultimate empathy machine” to the claims of VR as…

Call for Papers: The 14th International Workshop on Behavior Change Support Systems (BCSS 2026)In conjunction with the 21st International Conference on Persuasive Technology (PERSUASIVE 2026)March 10, 2026Hakodate, JapanBCCS 2026: https://bcssworkshop.wordpress.com/PERSUASIVE 2026: https://2026.persuasivetech.org/ Deadline for submissions: January 15, 2026 The 14th International Workshop on Behavior Change Support Systems – BCSS 2026 – will be held in conjunction with the 21st International Conference on Persuasive Technology in Hakodate, Japan. IMPORTANT DATES Submission deadline: January 15, 2026Notification to authors: February 5, 2026Final version deadline: February 20, 2026Event: March 10, 2026 DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT The Behavior Change Support Systems workshop, BCSS, organized in…

Call for Papers: New Challenges of Interactivity in Narrative CreationSpecial issue of Aniki: Portuguese Journal of the Moving Imagehttps://aim.org.pt/ojs/index.php/revista/announcement/view/79 Deadline for submissions: February 15, 2026 Narrative as a form of communication is one of the most important modes of human cognitive perception and understanding. In recent years, emerging media have significantly shaped that process, leading to new developments, opportunities, and challenges for the narrative form and its creation. In history, with each new media technology innovation—from the invention of writing to the printing press, and from the mass distribution of video to digital games—the relationship between narrative form and its…

Call for Abstracts: Fourth International Digital Mental Health and Wellbeing Conference (DMHW 2026)June 17-19, 2026University of Glasgow (United Kingdom)https://dmhw.net/ Deadline for submissions: March 30, 2026 DMHW is the venue for all actors interested in technologies revolving around mental health, from patients to clinicians, from entrepreneurs to researchers. Glasgow will host the fourth edition of the event, following those of Belfast 2023, Derry 2024 and Granada 2025. The event is hosted by the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Socially Intelligent Artificial Agents. — Mental ill health is prevalent, and citizens need more support to prevent mental ill health as well…

Call for Papers: CEEGS (Central and Eastern European Game Studies) Conference 2026Digital Earths | Material Realities: Sustainability of/in Video GamesNovember 20-22, 2026Warszawa, Polandhttps://ceegs.fsv.cuni.cz/ceegs-2026/ Deadline for submission of abstracts: February 14, 2026Deadline for submission of workshop proposals: May 30, 2026 ABOUT THE CONFERENCE CEEGS, the Central and Eastern European Games Studies Conference, is the annual conference of the DiGRA Central and Eastern Europe chapter dedicated to exploring various aspects of games, including digital, analog, and hybrid formats, as well as the cultural and social contexts in which they exist. CEEGS aims to promote and advance game research, particularly in Central and…

Call for Papers: Mediatization Conference 7, 2026Mediatization and Artificial Intelligence: Values, Principles, and Practices of AI-zation?March 19-20, 2026Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland, and onlineOrganizers: Institute of Social Communication and Media Science and Polish Communication Association, Mediatization Sectionhttps://www.umcs.pl/en/ms-cfp.htm/ Deadline for submission of abstracts: January 20, 2026 When observing the constant deepening of the mediatization process, one can ask what comes after mediatization? Is this term still relevant or should we look for an alternative, such as ‘AI-zation’, to describe and explain the transformations driven by Large Language Models witnessed by people in different fields and sectors of their private and…