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<p class="xmsonormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black"><i>Culture Machine</i> is happy to announce that <b>Vol 25
(2026)</b>, <i>University
as Infrastructure</i>, will be guest-edited by </span><span
style="font-family:
"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:#C00000">Alexandra Anikina,
Johannes Bruder,
Megen de Bruin-Molé, Stephen Cornford, Kwame Phillips &
Geoff Cox</span><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">.
You can now read
the full <b>CfP</b> at Culture Machine’s website
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-university-as-infrastructure/">https://culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-university-as-infrastructure/</a></span><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">).
Some key excerpts
below:</span></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">Initiated by the </span><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:#C00000">Critical Infrastructures & Image Politics research
group </span><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">at
Winchester School
of Art in collaboration with the </span><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:#C00000">Centre for the Study of the Networked Image</span><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">,
London South Bank
University and </span><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:#C00000">Critical Media Lab</span><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">, Basel Academy of Art and Design, this special issue aims
to take
stock of the challenges and possibilities for <b><i>University
as
Infrastructure</i></b>. <br>
</span></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">One of the central references here is the second issue of
Culture
Machine, published 25 years ago, in which the editors examined</span><a
href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/culturemachine.net/the-university-culture-machine/prospectus/__;!!K7l7YuZ3_aFnun0eduI!kJ7Nc6Z8x6vNLaMZPyJBfT25yI-poTxLhaY6T8bJMEmIn0t03vQOmi9PP4HcczVKeGc8NoBJb8iQ3c6EsUBgy-EBwwoJ88qEC4g$"
target="_blank"
title="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://culturemachine.net/the-university-culture-machine/prospectus/__;!!K7l7YuZ3_aFnun0eduI!kJ7Nc6Z8x6vNLaMZPyJBfT25yI-poTxLhaY6T8bJMEmIn0t03vQOmi9PP4HcczVKeGc8NoBJb8iQ3c6EsUBgy-EBwwoJ88qEC4g$"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif"> the
idea of the university as a
culture machine</span></a><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black"> (Gary Hall and Simon Wortham, eds. <i>The University
Culture
Machine</i>, 2000). At that time concerns were raised about
the discourse of
league tables, teaching quality assessments, learning outcomes,
transferable
skills, student-centred learning, problem-solving and working in
teams,
tendencies which have been accelerated and supplemented by new
forms of
managerialism. </span><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:#C00000">The university machine is now more fully automated and
more
obviously integrated into wider circuits of capital, the
commodification of
knowledge and extractive practices</span><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">. To think about this infrastructurally helps to position
the
debate under contemporary conditions of ‘academic capitalism’
and its
logistical operations that are some of the colonial legacies of
institutionalising knowledge.</span></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><b><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">The list of potential themes includes, but is not limited
to:</span></b><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black"> <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">the university’s shift from culture machine to
infrastructure
machine <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">the logistical operation of university corporatisation,
marketisation and neoliberalisation of education <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">the dependency on outsourced online and automated services
<br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">recent developments in generative artificial intelligence
and
increased automation of knowledge systems <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">extractivism and the influence of the industrial-military
complex
within university <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">financial and governance models of universities <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">the ambiguous leveraging of freedom of speech & freedom
of
science by universities <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">universities’ responses to national regulations and
political
shifts <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">examining the changing roles, qualities and value of the
student
and staff experience <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">the tension between the lived experience and ‘well-being’,
‘mental
health’, ‘EDI’ as defined by university structures <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">affective/cognitive capital within university as
infrastructure <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">critical perspectives of the university that draw upon
queer &
transfeminist, postcolonial and critical </span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">race studies <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">grassroots open and adaptive alternatives <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">student and staff infrastructural activism <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">care in the development and maintenance of infrastructures
<br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">historical reflection on education as a key site of social
struggle <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">university responses to student occupations <br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">submissions that are critical or subversive towards the
format of
academic papers (</span></i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">please contact the editors to check if the format can be
supported
in the existing infrastructure of Culture Machine<i>)</i></span></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><i><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black"> </span></i></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><b><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:#EE0000">Calendar</span><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black"> <br>
</span></b></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><b><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black;background:yellow">Abstract</span></b><b><span
style="font-family:
"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black"> submissions (up to
300 words) are due
on <span style="background:yellow">15 September 2025</span> </span></b></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><b><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">Submit Drafts 15 December 2025</span></b></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><b><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">Peer Review 1 February – 31 May 2026</span></b></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><b><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">Revised Articles due on 1 August 2026</span></b></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><b><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">Publication in October 2026</span></b></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">Again, you can read the full CfP, with selected references,
</span><a
href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-university-as-infrastructure/__;!!K7l7YuZ3_aFnun0eduI!kJ7Nc6Z8x6vNLaMZPyJBfT25yI-poTxLhaY6T8bJMEmIn0t03vQOmi9PP4HcczVKeGc8NoBJb8iQ3c6EsUBgy-EBwwoJT8tRvc0$"
target="_blank"
title="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-university-as-infrastructure/__;!!K7l7YuZ3_aFnun0eduI!kJ7Nc6Z8x6vNLaMZPyJBfT25yI-poTxLhaY6T8bJMEmIn0t03vQOmi9PP4HcczVKeGc8NoBJb8iQ3c6EsUBgy-EBwwoJT8tRvc0$"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif">here</span></a><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-university-as-infrastructure/">https://culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-university-as-infrastructure/</a>.</span></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">All best, <br>
</span></p>
<p class="xmsonormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black">Culture Machine</span></p>
<p></p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Gary Hall
Professor of Media
Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://postdigitalcultures.org/about/">https://postdigitalcultures.org/about/</a>
Director of Open Humanities Press: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.openhumanitiespress.org">http://www.openhumanitiespress.org</a>
Website <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.garyhall.info">http://www.garyhall.info</a>
Blog: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/">http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/</a>
Latest:
Book: Masked Media: What It Means to Be Human in the Age of Artificial Creative Intelligence: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/masked-media/">http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/masked-media/</a>
Blog posts: 'The Commons vs Creative Commons II: On the Undercommons, Latent Commons and Uncommons': <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2025/6/23/the-commons-vs-creative-commons-ii-on-the-undercommons-laten.html">http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2025/6/23/the-commons-vs-creative-commons-ii-on-the-undercommons-laten.html</a>
'The Commons vs Creative Commons I: From Ostrom to Postcapitalism - and Back Again': <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2025/6/14/the-commons-vs-creative-commons-i-from-ostrom-to-postcapital.html">http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2025/6/14/the-commons-vs-creative-commons-i-from-ostrom-to-postcapital.html</a>
Recommended: Robot Review of Books #15 Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy by E. Glen Weyl, Audrey Tang and Community; and RRB #16 Pretentiousness: Why It Matters: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.robotreviewofbooks.org/">https://www.robotreviewofbooks.org/</a>
</pre>
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