Union for Democratic Communications 2019

The UDC has been a container for scholars to approach the political economy of media through class, gender, sexuality, oppression, and domination for over four decades. The UDC was founded in 1981 in Philadelphia and has been a place for scholars in the political economy of communications to articulate and sharpen theoretical concepts into the relationship between media, democracy, and equality. Every 18 months this conference takes place where the UDC collects abstracts and proposals of grad students, professors, authors, and scholars works. The Dallas Smythe Award is granted at every conference to a scholar that encapsulates the spirit of democracy through hegemonic systems. The award was given to George Cicerello Maher, a writer, organizer, and radical political theorists.

The purpose of this particular conference was to focus on Mass Communication and Transnational Empire: 50 Years of Transformations since Herbert Schiller. The Union for Democratic Communications-Project Censored 2019 conference invited contributions that reflect on the relationships between media, communication, and empire from a variety of perspectives. This year, the session topics included Theorizing Journalism and Propaganda, Media Activism, Gender Media and Labor, Corporate Media Criticism, Censorship & Academic Freedom in the Neofascist Age, and many more.

Photos by Andrew Lacey and Dylan Lazaga

Photos by Anthony Dones