CFP: Special issue of Punctum – Semiotics of the Web

Call for papers

Semiotics of the Web

Special issue of Punctum

The inaugural special issue on the ‘Semiotics of the Web’ is intended to connect the launch of the international semiotics journalPunctum with the most epoch-making and challenging recent development in the space of semiosis. In the past two decades the growth of the Web has vastly expanded the boundaries and complexity of the semiosphere, fostering, at the same time, its radical restructuring. Amongst the wealth of cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary responses these developments have provoked semiotics has been largely absent. Although regularly employed in more instrumentally oriented tasks, like webpage design and e-marketing, semiotic theory and research had failed to address the manifold issues raised by this whole new continent of signs and meaning-making processes in any sustained and systematic fashion.

Underscoring the need to recast the priorities of current semiotic research, the special issue on the ‘Semiotics of the Web’ aspires to contribute to the advancement of the semiotic study of communication processes and practices on the Web by inviting papers which engage in the analytical and critical investigation of the diverse Web environments, cultures and applications focusing on topics such as: graphic user interfaces, website design, digital symbol and sign systems, codes and textualities, digital literacies, epistemologies and ontologies, social networks, multiplayer games, online communication, identities and interaction.

Prospective authors should submit an abstract of approximately 300 words by mail to Gregory Paschalidis (paschagr@jour.auth.gr), including affiliation and contact information. Acceptance of the abstract does not guarantee publication, given that all full research articles go through the journal’s peer review process.

Timeline
Deadline for abstracts: January 15, 2015
Notification of acceptance of the abstract: January 30, 2015
Deadline for submission of full articles: April 30, 2015
Final revised articles due: June 30, 2015
Publication: Volume 1, Number 1 (July 2015)

Journal’s website: http://punctum.gr/