IAMCR newsletter January 2026
Dear IAMCR colleagues and friends,
As IAMCR enters its 69th year of activity, the planning and organisation work of the Conference Organising Committee (COC) and of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) towards our 2026 conference in Galway is well under way and I would like to remind you of the forthcoming deadline for abstract submission on 3 February 2026 at 23:59 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). Please feel free to visit the 2026 Galway conference website for further information on how to do so. We are grateful to the local organising team for taking up the challenge of preparing for the event, focusing this year on the theme Peripheries and Connections: Media, Communication, and Transformation. We are looking forward to seeing many of you in Galway on 28 June - 2 July 2026.
May I take this occasion to thank also those of you who have submitted pre- and post-conference proposals. We will be sharing further information on these events in due course. Importantly, IAMCR offers a range of awards and grants for authors of papers accepted for presentation at the 2026 conference. These include travel grants, the Herbert I. Schiller Memorial Award, and three thematic awards: for Urban Communication, Decolonising the Digital, and the newly launched Reformulation of Media Production in a Global Context of Automation award. Please visit this page on the conference website for more information.
As shared with you back in December, from 1 January 2026 Dr. Salvatore Scifo has taken over as IAMCR’s new Executive Director. Salvatore brings wide experience in academic and organisational leadership. He is a former co-chair of IAMCR’s Community Communication and Alternative Media Section and has served in leadership roles with the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), the Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE) and the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA). He holds a PhD in communication from the University of Westminster. To ensure continuity, Bruce and Salvatore are working closely together throughout January during the transition period. Please feel free to reach out to him at sscifo@iamcr.org to introduce yourself and welcome him into the role.
Salvatore succeeds Bruce Girard, whose partnership with IAMCR began in 2006 when his organisation began providing technical and membership services, and who became Executive Director in 2015 with the establishment of our permanent Secretariat. His commitment and leadership have been instrumental to strengthening the association and I would like to take this occasion to thank, on behalf of all of you, for all his hard work over these 20 years that has helped IAMCR to become the solid organisation it is today.
Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and peaceful 2026,
Daya Thussu
President, IAMCR