Call for Conference Papers
CARP V: Gender, Power, and Politics in Character Assassination

Host: Lab for Character Assassination and Reputation Politics (CARP)
Location: George Mason University’s Arlington Campus (near Washington, DC)
Dates: March 20-22, 2025

Submission deadline: October 10, 2024

Character assassination (CA) is the deliberate destruction of an individual’s reputation. This timeless phenomenon appears in many shapes and forms in every cultural, political, and technological era. Various CA practices such as lies, insinuations and ridicule have been effective means of persuasion and influence in power struggles for centuries. As a field of scholarship, the study of character assassination has been experiencing a remarkable academic renaissance.

Given that character assassination appears in struggles for power, it should not surprise us that character assassins grab any tools at their disposal to gain the upper hand over opponents. Gender often provides an angle for character assassination. Gendered character attacks typically accuse a target of acting in a way that is inappropriate for their gendered identity. This may involve accusing a male politician of being “wimpy” or suggesting that a female politician is acting in a masculine or aggressive manner when she takes decisive action. Of course, what counts as appropriate gendered behavior is culturally and historically specific. It is also intersected by class, sexuality, and race.

We invite scholars and practitioners to submit research and works in progress which will discuss character assassination, gender, power, and politics from a variety of disciplinary and cultural angles. We welcome both theoretical work and case studies that explore this phenomenon across the globe and throughout history.

Possible Topics:

- Current cases of character attacks on female politicians
- Historical cases of gender-based attacks in politics
- The role of gender in negative political campaigns
- Political incivility and gender-based political ads
- Media coverage of gender in political campaigns
- The role of gender in political scandals
- Gender-based practices of ridicule in comedy shows
- Memes, caricatures, and visual misinformation
- The rhetoric of social media canceling
- Gender in international relations and diplomacy
- Responding to gendered character attacks
- Reputation management, image repair, and inoculation strategies

Please submit a 250-word abstract of your paper with a 100-word bio by the deadline listed above. Email the abstract as a single attachment to Sergei A. Samoilenko at ssamoyle@gmu.edu.