Archive for April, 2015

Theology, Religion and Popular Culture

April 29, 2015

Theology, Religion and Popular Culture – A Major Conference for Faith Community Practitioners and Academics

You are warmly invited to ‘Fandom and Religion’, a conference organised by the international, UK-based Theology, Religion and Popular Culture Network.

28th – 30th July 2015, University of Leicester

Main speakers:
Matt Hills (Aberystwyth)
John Maltby (Leicester)
Chris Partridge (Lancaster)
Tracy Trothen (Queen’s, Ontario)

The UK launch of The Routledge Companion to Religion and Popular Culture, with John Lyden and Eric Mazur (co-editors).

Over 40 short paper presentations, plus other sessions, including a session solely for faith community practitioners.

Bookings now being taken at:  http://www.le.ac.uk/fandom

Tourism: Visuality and Memory

April 13, 2015

Tourism: Visuality and Memory.
An interdisciplinary conference

University of Plymouth 3 – 5thAugust 2-015

Call for papers

From the early days of the Grand Tour and the collecting of paintings and drawings, to the advent of the first still and movie cameras, via postcards, travel posters and travel documentaries to our contemporary use of digital cameras, camcorders, camera phones and travel blogs, tourism has always been intertwined with the technology of visual imagery. The use of such technology is more than a means to simply record and remember events and places, as it is embedded in complex social practices that encompass notions of both private and cultural memory as much as the creation and consumption of leisure time/spaces.

The aim of this interdisciplinary conference is to examine the relationship between tourism, personal and cultural memory and the technologies of visual imagery in a number of interrelated ways: first, to focus on the social practices involved in the production and consumption of tourist imagery in both contemporary and historical contexts; and secondly, to address the relationship between public and private memory and tourist imagery, and thirdly, to address the use of visual methods in tourism research.

Possible themes include film and TV tourism, including documentaries and films about tourism; the ways in which the visual informs tourist behaviour; the use of personal photographs, home movies and videos; the use of digital images in travel blogs; using photography and video as a research method; analysing photo and film archives and tourism history; analysing postcards and visual memorabilia such as travel posters and other ephemera.

We welcome contributions from a range of disciplines including filmmakers/video producers and photographers who have focussed on tourism or who have worked with the tourism industry in the production of visual promotional material.

Submissions:  Abstracts of no more than 250 words can be submitted to members of the organising committee by June 5th

In addition we strongly encourage people to offer works for screening and exhibition as well as posters, for further details please send an outline of you proposed exhibition/screening to Kevin Meethan / Graham Busby

Organising Committee:

Kevin Meethan           Plymouth University kmeethan@plymouth.ac.uk

Hazel Andrews           Liverpool John Moore’s UniversityH.J.Andrews@ljmu.ac.uk

Graham Busby            Plymouth University  gbusby@plymouth.ac.uk

Les Roberts                 Liverpool University  les.roberts@liverpool.ac.uk

Matthew Pontin       Fotonow, Plymouth   matt@fotonow.org

Film Tourism Workshop

April 2, 2015

On May 15th 2015, Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow is delighted to host a one day workshop on Developing Film Tourism: Theory and Practice. 

This workshop brings together academics and industry professionals in order to enhance our understanding of film tourism and to consider the resonances it has with other forms of tourism, such as festival, heritage, dark, and medical tourisms. 

Full details, including full abstracts and speaker information, and info on how to register, are available at the link below:

http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/cca/research/theatrefilmandtelevision/developingfilmtourism/

You can also find us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/750373691745174/

Chelsea Birks
PhD Student, Film and Television Studies