March 27, 2020 — Virtual

2:15 p.m.

Keynote speaker: Professor Radhika Parameswaran

3 to 3:30 p.m.

Roundtable on Media in the Age of the Pandemic

Logan Brown, Brent Hale, Jared Meisinger, Lexi Newman

3:30 to 5 p.m.

Lightning round presentations (five-minute talks)

Friday, April 9

9:45-10 a.m.

Opening remarks by conference chair Narmeen Ijaz and Media School Graduate Association chair Xan Smith

10-11 a.m.

Keynote address: “Peaks and Freaks: Approaching Floods as Mass Media Events”

Stephanie C. Kane, professor, Department of International Studies, IU Bloomington

Moderated by: Khurram Nawaz Sheikh

11:10 a.m.-12:25 p.m.

Framing Ideologies through Media: Legitimacy and Reconfigurations 

Moderated by Jacob Eddy

• Lucia Cores Sarria, The Media School, IU Bloomington: “The joy of overload: Intensified (dis)Continuity in K-dramas”
• Cole Nelson, The Media School, IU Bloomington: “Corresponding with the Revolution: 'Correspondence' and the Problematics of a Workers' Newspaper”
• Osman Mohamed Osman, The Media School, IU Bloomington: “Media Framing of Westgate Mall Terror Attack: A Comparative Examination of News Frames Employed by U.S. and Kenyan Newspapers”

12:35 p.m.-1:35 p.m.

Keynote Address: “Communicating Health Risks in a Glocalized World”

Esi Thompson, assistant professor, The Media School, IU Bloomington

Moderated by Narmeen Ijaz 

2-3:15 p.m.


Transforming Cultures: Digital interfaces, Platformization and Community-building

Moderated by Cole Stratton

• Kimberley Bianca, Critical Media Practices, University of Colorado-Boulder: “circuitBoard: an Ecomedia Platform for Critical Making”
• Forrest Greenwood, The Media School, IU Bloomington: “Platform Afterlife: The Nintendo DS and the Challenges of Videogame Preservation”
• Ken Rosenberg, The Media School, IU Bloomington: “Talking about chatting: What our Overcooked 2 experiment can tell us about studying online video game play”

3:30-4:30 p.m.

Media Objects

Moderated by Narmeen Ijaz

• Sean Purcell, The Media School, IU Bloomington: Live-streamed demo of a video installation
• Caleb Allison, The Media School, IU Bloomington: short film
• Khurram Nawaz Sheikh, The Media School, IU Bloomington: experimental film

Saturday, April 10

10-11:15 a.m.

Politics of Representation: Experimental Cinema, Media Arts and Game Design

Moderated by Chih Ju (Carol) Lin

• Sean Purcell, The Media School, IU Bloomington: “Remediating Medicine: Creative Historiographic Praxis and its Violence”
• Anthony Silvestri, The Media School, IU Bloomington: “Onan in the Anger Archives: Exhibition, New American Cinema and the Japanese Avant-Garde, 1963-1969”
• Xan Smith, The Media School, IU Bloomington: “Choose your gender: Exploring character creation and avatar choice for non-binary video game players”

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Keynote Address: “Mapping the Global Conjuncture: Nationalism and Covid-19”

Ishan Ashutosh, assistant professor, Department of Geography, IU Bloomington

Moderated by Mallika Khanna

1-2:15 p.m.

Reconfiguring Media Ecologies: Technology, Infrastructures and Globalization

Moderated by Hailey Pierce

• Caleb Allison, The Media School, IU Bloomington: “Rediscovered, Restored, and Released: Milestone Film & Video’s Restorative Politics”
• Cole Stratton, The Media School, IU Bloomington: “The Political Ecology of iPhone 5c Polycarbonate”
• Bailey Troutman, Communication, University of Colorado-Boulder: “Cooling the Cloud: Water complexities of Internet sustainability”

2:30-4 p.m.

Globalization and South Asia: Perspectives towards Transnational Media Flows

Moderated by Professor Radhika Parameswaran

• Navdeep Sharma, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi: “The Development Film in Post-Independence India: an Analysis of the Film Sponsorship Practices of three Transnational Agencies”
• Christian M. James, Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, IU Bloomington: “Baṛā Mazā Aye: Co-present Performance and Cultural Flow in North Indian Feminist Song”
• Mallika Khanna, The Media School, IU Bloomington: “Desi Diasporic Cultural Entrepreneurs: Trauma, Self-branding and Self-Empowerment in Social Media Spaces”
• Khurram Nawaz Sheikh, The Media School, IU Bloomington: “Entanglements of Local, Global and Regional Scales: Role of Film Talents Workshop for Cultural Diplomacy in Pakistan”


5-6:30 p.m.


Closing remarks 

Networking events: informal roundtable

Awards ceremony

Award winners

Four students won awards at the Common Ground Conference 2021. The winners were also awarded monetary prizes for their innovative research and media-based projects. Fellow presenters and attendees of the conference voted on the awards.

Best paper

First place: Lucia Cores Sarria, "The Joy of Overload: Intensified (dis)Continuity in K-dramas"
Second place: Khurram Nawaz Sheikh, "Entanglements of Local, Global and Regional Scales: Role of Film Talents Workshop for Cultural Diplomacy in Pakistan"
Third place: Xan Smith, "Choose your gender: Exploring character creation and avatar choice for non-binary video game players"

Best presentation

Khurram Nawaz Sheikh, "Entanglements of Local, Global and Regional Scales: Role of Film Talents Workshop for Cultural Diplomacy in Pakistan"
Best practice-based research
Sean Purcell, "Remediating Medicine: Creative Historiographic Praxis and its Violence"

Read an article about the conference