In conjunction with the Picturing Politics exhibition I’m organising a conference to be held on the 14th June. If you fancy submitting a paper proposal, here is the Call For Papers.
Parties, People and Elections: Political Communication since 1900: Call for Papers
Date: 14th June 2012
Location: People’s History Museum, Manchester
The way politicians talk to the people, and how they do so has undergone a dramatic change since 1900. The demise of the mass platform, the birth of radio, cinema and television, and the advent of new social media, has radically reshaped how parties and people interact. Furthermore, increased centralisation, ‘professionalisation’ and the use of experts schooled in the techniques of advertising have all affected what parties say and how they say it.
The conference, sponsored by the Centre for British Politics at the University of Nottingham, will explore how parties spoke to the people. It will analyse what these communications looked like, and what (if any) impact they had on the people. The conference aims to be inter-disciplinary and we invite papers from those working in the fields of history, political science, political communication, cultural studies, and art history. In addition to the academic content, the conference aims to include advertising executives and politicians who have participated in past election campaigns.
Confirmed participants include Professor Jim Aulich (Manchester Metropolitan University), Dr Stuart Ball (University of Leicester), Graham Deakin (Advertising executive), Dr Jon Lawrence (University of Cambridge), Dr Nicholas Mansfield (UCLan), Dr Mark Pack (former Head of Innovations at the Liberal Democrats, www.markpack.org.uk), Benedict Pringle (advertising executive www.politicaladvertising.co.uk ), Dr David Thackeray (University of Exeter), Dr James Thompson (University of Bristol), Dr Dominic Wring (University of Loughborough)
The conference complements the exhibition Picturing Politics: Exploring the Election Poster in Britain at the People’s History Museum Manchester, 12th November 2011 – 17th June 2012.
Please contact Chris Burgess to submit abstracts (250 words) by 2nd April 2012, or for further details ldxcb7@nottingham.ac.uk
Picturing Politics 
This looks great, wish I could attend. I am producing an exhibition/catalog of my own about social justice posters of the San Francisco Bay Area (California), in which one component is the narrower “political” poster genre dealt with in your show. Posters have not gotten the respect I think they deserve as vectors of democratic discourse. Best wishes.
Thanks, I agree about the historic importance of the role of posters, especially interesting that they can be sites of protest, methods of control by autocratic governments, and used by paties as part of their electoral appeal in democratic states. Please send details of the exhibition when it is up.