June Wang

Call for abstracts: two sessions at the XXI ISA World Congress 2027, Gwangju. Abstracts due 14 October 2026.

June Wang

Hi! I’m a researcher working at the crossroads of political geography and cultural studies. My academic journey started in architecture during my undergraduate years, but I later ventured into human geography and cultural studies during my PhD. That shift sparked my curiosity about interdisciplinary topics—and perhaps gave me a tendency to think outside the box.

Over the years, I’ve explored a wide range of subjects, from heritage and cultural development to artist villages, film co-production, and immaterial labor. More recently, my work has focused on tech startups and digital platforms.

All my research, however, revolves around the Deleuzian question of (re-)territorialisation, that is, how the intertwined political, economic and sociocultural logics put human and non-human things on the move, resulting in ceaseless re-configuration of territory, economy and population.

Latest entry

August 2026

CfP: Sessions at ISA 2027

I am convening two sessions at the next ISA World Congress and would love to see your work there.

1. Streaming the Global Wave: Cross-Border Cultural Circulation, Labour, and Territory

RC14 Sociology of Communication, Knowledge and Culture / WG10 Digital Sociology, co-organised with HaeRan Shin, Seoul National University

What makes a drama, a film, or a game actually land somewhere? This session follows two entangled infrastructures of circulation: the platform-algorithm apparatus of licensing, geoblocking and recommendation, through which platforms act as diplomatic agents, and the diaspora-human network of translingual creators, subtitling collectives and fan communities whose labour re-narrates a product until it arrives. The Korean Wave is the paradigmatic case, but we welcome papers on Chinese drama, anime, Nollywood and beyond, including the beauty and medical-aesthetic corridors the Wave spawns. Cases from the Global South and cross-corridor comparisons are especially welcome.

2. Standards in Turbulent Times: Geopolitics, Labour, and Capture from 5G to AI

RC02 Economy and Society / RC23 Sociology of Science and Technology

When standards become data-driven, the standard is no longer a settled technical artefact but a process continually rebuilt from data. This session reads AI and data standards across two terrains: the high politics of states, committees and conformity assessment, where standardisation reterritorialises transnational production along lines of sovereignty and security, and the ordinary work of users, inspectors and annotators whose activity is recursively folded into the next benchmark. Where along these two terrains are authority and value captured?

Abstracts of up to 300 words are due 14 October 2026 via the ISA portal:

https://www.isa-sociology.org/isa-events/xxi-world-congress-of-sociology

Questions are welcome, by message or at june.wang@cityu.edu.hk.