HWS News
8 July 2025 • Faculty Shafer Helps Shape Global Media Conference on Digital Futures
Through her leadership in the #IFM conference, Associate Professor of Media and Society Leah Shafer fosters global collaboration and innovation in the ever-evolving world of media and technology.
This year, Associate Professor of Media and Society Leah Shafer hosted and moderated the New Book Panel through her work on the organizing committee of #IFM Interactive Film & Media conference, a global initiative that explores digital theory, big data, social media, games, virtual reality and interactivity in film and media through a multidisciplinary lens.
The panel featured two recently published books: Virtual Reality Narratives: embodied encounters in space by Kath Dooley (2024, Palgrave MacMillan) and The Multiverse as Theory in Postmodern Speculative Fictional Narratives by Angelica Cabrera Torrecilla and Franciso Saez de Adana (2024, Routledge).
“This community of scholars is very special,” Shafer says, “because it is a truly global collaboration that investigates the most cutting-edge work being done in media and film studies. One of my favorite parts of this conference is the ‘research creation’ sessions, in which creators of interactive documentaries, participatory public performance pieces, VR games, and more give walkthroughs of their projects and contextualize and explain their creative process.”
Shafer adds the conferences create a space where innovation, collaboration and exploration converge at the intersection of storytelling and technology. They offer room for active collaboration across borders and disciplines, such as Digital Humanities, Media Studies, Communication Studies, Film and Media Production, and Game Studies.
Shafer has been involved with the conference for several years and has served on the organizing committee for the past two. As a committee member, Shafer helps select the conference theme, organize the program, choose panel and research creation sessions, and coordinate speakers and events. The conference is held entirely online.
The IFM Conferences feature a blend of live virtual events and online platforms. This hybrid format reaches a global audience, transcending the limitations of physical spaces and bringing together voices, questions and solutions that resonate worldwide. The conference also maintains a dynamic year-round presence through streaming and social media, hosting workshops and speaker series – which Shafer helps produce.
Shafer, whose article “The Radical Restorative Justice of The People’s CDC” was published in the #IFM journal, also manages the #IFM Newsletter.
