Author Archive

CFP: New Heart and New Spirit: Perspectives on the Modern Biblical Epic

July 8, 2016

The extreme profitability of Mel Gibson’s
The Passion of the Christ in 2004 came as a great surprise to the Hollywood establishment, particularly considering its failure to find production funding through a major studio.  Since this time, the big-budget mainstream biblical epic, long thought dead in terms of widespread marketability, has become a viable Hollywood studio product with regards to seeking both profits and critical acclaim, as well as outlets for auteurist ‘passion projects’ such as Gibson’s film, Darren Aronofsky’s Noah (2014), and Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings.  With this year seeing two new fiction films featuring depictions of Jesus, the crucifixion, and resurrection [Risen (dir. Kevin Reynolds) and Ben-Hur (dir. Timur Bekmambetov)], academic consideration of the modern biblical epic is both timely and highly relevant.

This is a preliminary call for papers and proposals for an edited collection using a broad range of approaches in the analysis of these films and this phenomenon specifically.  Proposals can address, but are not limited
to:

Stylistic and narrative analysis

Considerations of genre

Historical and political contexts

Industrial efforts to capitalise on this trend (see the short-lived Fox Faith studios in the mid 2000s and its products)

Critical viability and acceptance

Intersections of, or discord between, faith and fandom

Representations of race and gender

Auteurist analyses of these films

Philosophical and more broadly theoretical approaches to these films and this trend.

Proposals and abstracts of approximately 300 words with a short bio can be submitted to Wickham Clayton by 31 August, at wickscripts@hotmail.com.  Also feel free to email for expressions of interest and questions regarding the project.

CFP: Tolkien and Jackson Fan Studies Special Issue

June 6, 2016

CFP: Tolkien and Jackson Fan Studies Special Issue (10-01-16)

Proposals are sought for fan studies scholarship on any aspect of fan production, creation, or activities relating to J. R. R. Tolkien’s Legendarium and/or Peter Jackson’s live-action film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

The editors hope to co-sponsor at least one dedicated paper session at the national Popular Culture Conference (San Diego, April, 2017), and then to develop those papers to submit to a special theme issue of Journal of Tolkien Research the same year.

NOTE: There is no requirement that scholars must present at the Popular Culture conference in order to submit proposals to the journal, nor does participation at PCA mandate submitting to the journal issue.

However, this option, we believe, will allow for multi-disciplinary dialogue among and between scholars in the preparatory stages of thinking about the special issue.

JTR is an open-access, electronic, peer-reviewed journal: 

http://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/

Timeline:

Popular Culture Submissions:  July 1-October 1, 2016

Popular Culture Conference: April 12-15th, 2017

Deadline for submission to editors:  June 1, 2017 (Proposal or First Drafts)

Deadline for submission to JTR: September 30, 2017 (Final Drafts)

Co-editors:

Katherine Larsen klarsen@gwu.edu
Robin Anne Reid robin.reid@tamuc.edu

CFP: Monstrous Women in Comics—an Interdisciplinary Conference on Women in Comics and Graphic Novels

June 6, 2016

CFP: Monstrous Women in Comics—an Interdisciplinary Conference on Women in Comics and Graphic Novels

May 2017, University of North Texas, Denton, TX

Keynote: Dr. Carol Tilley, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The relationship between women and the comics industry is contested perhaps now more than ever before. Fresh conflicts in mainstream presses reveal lingering aversions to women creators, and fan-reactions to reboots demonstrate similar dis-ease with “non-canonical” re-imaginings of female characters. Far from being novel, these tensions are rooted in the very history of western comics. From the Golden Age, women were erased or marginalized in comics through, for instance, the use of “gender-neutral” monikers. Female characters were aesthetically constructed to meet and satisfy the male gaze and overwhelmingly, their narratives were penned by male authors. Women readers of comics were historically “pandered to” with romance comics but were otherwise ignored as a target audience. Even within the medium of graphic novels, where women’s work has arguably been more visible, women creators are being erased by industry-standard events like the Angoulême Festival. Here, as in other areas of popular culture, women are treated in very Aristotelian ways—at best, they are deemed to be monstrous derivatives of men, and at worst, they are simply monsters for daring to enter what has been overwhelmingly characterized as man’s domain. From a feminist perspective, there is ample room for critique of the ways in which women in comics are made into monsters, but now we want to ask if that is all there is? Must a theoretical investigation of monstrous women in comics be limited to surveys of marginalization and erasure?

Building on the work of postmodern scholars like Donna Haraway, and following from recent iterations of Monster Studies, we seek to critically engage with, and re-evaluate, monstrous women in comics. For Haraway, the figure of the monster is one who simultaneously illuminates and threatens boundaries; the monster is a creature who resides in borderlands and embodies transgression; she is the imbrication of text, myth, body, nature and the political—she is neither “self” nor “other.” To be deemed monstrous is to be situated in the margins, to be placed outside, and yet the monster is one who always threatens those margins, who promises to leak into and over. Constructively engaging with the monstrous can ultimately lead us into an “imagined elsewhere,” the monster can be full of promises. Therefore, we are seeking interdisciplinary examinations of monstrous women in comics not only in order to critically question and contest normative boundaries, but also to begin to imagine how the relationship between women and comics might be otherwise.

We invite all interested participants to join us in thinking about monstrous women in comics across genres: papers may engage with historical studies of women in comics, mainstream comics, graphic novels, indie comics, religious comics, or web comics. Paper proposals, in the form of 250-word abstracts, may also address—but are not limited to—any of the following topics:

  • The monstrosity of (early) women creators
  • Romance comics and “girl comics” as monstrous
  • Female characters as monstrous derivatives of male superheroes
  • Women characters/creators/readers as monstrous because of their sexuality, corporeality, race, religion, or (dis)ability
  • Monstrous female characters as manifestations of patriarchal desires/anxieties/fears
  • Monsters who are female
  • Female characters who transgress human/inhuman boundaries
  • Women readers/fans as monsters
  • Women fan/creator collectives as transgressive & monstrous
  • Maternity and monstrosity
  • Indie & web comics as monstrous
  • Monstrous feminism & comics

In order to further emphasize the fruitfulness of transgressing boundaries and engaging with the monstrous, this conference also seeks to leak over the boundaries of academia by inviting women comics creators who would like to submit their work for a temporary gallery exhibition and/or who would be interested in tabling the event. All interested creators/vendors should email a short bio and any relevant links to portfolios or previous works.

Accepted participants will be invited to present their 20-minute papers, or to exhibit their work, at a two-and-a-half-day interdisciplinary conference at the University of North Texas in Denton. To submit a paper proposal, or to express interest in exhibiting/tabling, please send an email tomonstrouswomen@gmail.com with the following information:

  • Name, institutional affiliation, email address
  • 250-word abstract (if applicable)
  • Short bio & portfolio links (if applicable)

Call for Proposals: Welcome to Night Vale

March 5, 2016

Proposals related to the podcast Welcome to Night Vale are solicited for chapter contributions to an edited scholarly collection to be published by Palgrave.

The editor seeks to include a range of approaches focusing on both form and content. Topics may include but are not limited to:

• internal themes and allusions
• genre and influences
• performance, music, and effects
• politics and historical contextualization
• podcast production, distribution, and consumption
• reception and fandom
• paratexts, marketing, and merchandise

250-word proposals and abbreviated CV indicating academic position and publications due by June 15th, 2016.

5000-word chapters due by February 15th, 2017. 

Inquires and proposals to Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock at Jeffrey.Weinstock[at]cmich.edu

Call for Participants: ASEASUK 2016

March 4, 2016

ASEASUK 2016 (16-18 September 2016) at SOAS London

The title of our panel is “Politics of Tastes in Southeast Asian Cinema”
Abstract: https://www.soas.ac.uk/cseas/aseasuk-conference-2016/file109439.pdf and we are looking for another 3-4 panelists and/or a chair.

If you have a paper related to our panel proposal, please consider to submit to our panel.

Alternatively, if you have an idea but not suitable with our panel proposal, probably you can consider joining a more general panel: Emerging trends in SEA Literature and Screen Cultures.

Click to access file109440.pdf

The deadline is 30 March.

Call For Papers: Theorising the Popular

February 11, 2016

Theorising the Popular

Liverpool Hope University
June 28th-29th 2016

The Popular Culture research group at Liverpool Hope University welcome papers from academics and graduate students for its sixth annual international conference, ‘Theorising the Popular’. Its aim is to demonstrate the intellectual originality, depth and breadth of ‘popular’ disciplines, as well as their academic relationship with and within ‘traditional’ subjects. The group breaks down disciplinary barriers and challenges academic hierarchies.

 We would especially welcome papers in the following areas, although we invite proposals from all disciplines. As well as papers from established and early career academics, we encourage proposals from graduate students:
•       Film
•       TV
•       Music
•       Drama & Participation
•       Gender:Feminism/Femininities/Masculinities/Queering/Sexualities/Representations of the Body
•       Literature/Fiction
•       Language/Linguistics
•       Fan Cultures
•       Comedy
•       Politics
•       Sport
•       Media/Communications
•       Business Studies

Papers should be 20 minutes in length. Please send abstracts of 300 words to Dr Jacqui Miller millerj@hope.ac.uk by Thursday 31st March, 2016.

Connect with us on social media:
Facebook: Theorising the Popular Conference
Twitter: @TheorisePopular

CFP: Console-ing Passions

December 10, 2015

CALL FOR PAPERS — DEADLINE JANUARY 30, 2016

CONSOLE-ING PASSIONS

International Conference on Television, Video, Audio, New Media, and Feminism

June 16-18, 2016
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana

Console-ing Passions was founded in 1989 by a group of feminist media scholars and artists looking to create a space to present work and foster scholarship on issues of television, culture, and identity, with an emphasis on gender and sexuality.  The first Console-ing Passions conference was held at the University of Iowa in 1992.  Since then, Console-ing Passions has expanded to become not only the most important conference for scholars studying gender in television but also among the top conferences for scholars of media generally.

The 2016 Conference Organizing Committee invites proposals for individual papers, pre-constituted panels, and pre-constituted forums that consider television, video, audio, or new media alongside gender, sexuality, race, or other intersected components of identity.  We also welcome proposals for video, audio, or new media creative works related to gender and other modes of identity.

Possible paper, panel, and forum topics include:

●      media production and industries

●      media audiences and fans

●      textual analysis and criticism

●      media theory

●      feminist, queer, and critical race theory

●      media history

●      neoliberalism and the economy

●      transmedia and convergence culture

●      globalism and transnational cultural flows

●      theories of post-television

●      social media and the Internet

●      music and sound studies

●      gaming and virtual worlds

●      social movements and media activism

●      politics and gender

●      religion and media

●      youth culture and media

Submission Guidelines

The deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM (US Eastern Daylight Time) on Saturday, January 30, 2016.

Please submit your proposal here:  https://console-ingpassions.submittable.com/submit

Proposers may propose only one paper or creative project, and only one CP Forum.  Attendees may present only one paper or creative project, and may participate in only one CP Forum.

Individual Papers: Individuals submitting paper proposals should provide an abstract of 250 words, a short bio, and contact information.  Co-authored papers are acceptable. 

Panels: Panel coordinators should submit a 250-word rationale for the pre-constituted panel as a whole.  Coordinators should submit a 250-word abstract, a short bio, and contact information for each panel participant. Panels should include 3-4 papers.  Co-authored papers are acceptable.  Panels that include a diversity of panelist affiliations and experience levels are strongly encouraged. 

CP Forums: Building upon the success of discussion-based roundtables at Flow and other conferences, we invite proposals for a limited number of pre-constituted roundtables that focus either on scholarly topics in the field or matters of professional interest.  We are especially interested in roundtables that are likely to engage wide participation by conference attendees, and which reflect our field’s diversity of cultural identities, institutions, methodologies, and professional rank or employment status.  Proposals should be submitted by a convener, who will propose a question (<100 words) and solicit brief (<250 words) responses from 5-7 respondents.  Proposals should also include a brief bio and contact information for the convener and each participant.  If the proposal is accepted, each participant will write a response to the question of no more than 600 words, which must be submitted to the conference organizers 2 weeks prior to the conference.  Those papers will be circulated to all attendees and will form the basis of a public discussion during the CP Forum sessions. Roundtable participants’ remarks at the conference should be brief in order to create substantive discussion with attendees.

Creative Works: We invite proposals for video, audio, or new media screenings or exhibits.  Proposals should consist of a 350-word abstract (including the length and format of the work), a short bio of the producer/director, and contact information.  If the work is viewable online, please submit a URL.

Please direct any questions about the conference and the submission process to:cpatnd2016@gmail.com.

Visit our website http://www.console-ingpassions.org/conf-nd/ for updates about events, schedules, travel information, and more.

Conference Organizers: Christine Becker, Michael Kackman, Mary Celeste Kearney, Susan Ohmer, and Pamela Robertson Wojcik / Department of Film, Television, & Theatre / University of Notre Dame.

CFP: Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies Bridging Gaps Conference

November 8, 2015

This updated version has corrected dates.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Bridging Gaps: What are the media, publicists, and celebrities selling?

Red Room, Four Points by Sheraton Barcelona Diagonal

Barcelona, Spain

July 3rd – 5th, 2016

Public personalities hold the power to draw attention to products, services, and charities through their endorsement. Celebrity activists, for example, can help to change the world. From Elizabeth Taylor to George Clooney, celebrities have proven that their status can help raise awareness and funds for issues such as aids, poverty and global warming. However, many activists have also gained fame by standing up for their beliefs such as Harvey Milk, Dian Fossey, Malala Yousafzai, and Rosa Parks, thereby bridging gaps between celebrity activists and activists as celebrities. Thanks to social media, people today have a platform to share their views and gain a following, meaning activism is now in the power of the people. They can bring communities together from around the world to make a difference.

We invite you to send in abstracts about media control, activism, and celebrity status to interrogate, draw attention to the good that is being done, and suggest ways we can improve the world. What actions need to be taken and how can celebrity status help achieve this? How much power does a celebrity really have? Can someone create celebrity status through their activism? What role does public relations and the media play in promoting messages from beauty ideals to saving the planet?

The Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) Bridging Gapsconference series aims to connect scholars with industry professionals and generate a discussion and practice that will inspire change. CMCS in association with sponsors Centre for Ecological, Social, and Informatics Cognitive Research (ESI.CORE) and WaterHill Publishing, invite academics, filmmakers, journalists, publicists, advertisers, charity organizers, and guests to attend, speak and collaborate at the international conference. Attendees may present papers, take part in a workshop or create a roundtable discussion on the theme of celebrity activism, media ethics and endorsements.

Extended versions of selected papers will be published in an edited book by WaterHill Publishing, while others will be invited for the opportunity to publish work in the CrossBridge Journal.

We also invite people to send in videos for the Celebrity Chat Award. The best video/documentary will be selected based on its ability to draw attention to a significant matter, be relevant to the conference theme and inspire change.

Registration includes: Your printed conference package, catered lunch, coffee / tea breaks, evening drinks, professional development workshop, access to evening receptions, eligibility to publish in edited book, and consideration for the $100 best paper and screen awards.

Submission guidelines:

250-word abstract or workshop / roundtable proposalInclude a title, your name, e-mail address, and affiliation if applicable. Submit to conference Chairs Dr Jackie Raphael and Dr Celia Lam at email address: celeb.studies@gmail.com
Deadline for abstract submission: December 20, 2015
Notification of acceptance: January 20, 2016
Full text due: June 4, 2016
Pre-Conference Reception: July 3, 2016
Conference presentation: July 4-5, 2016
Publication of edited book:Approximately November 30, 2016

Celebrity Chat Video Submissions:

Video length should be 10-20 minutes. Include a title, your name, e-mail address, and affiliation if applicable. Submit to conference Chairs Dr Jackie Raphael and Dr Celia Lam at email address: celeb.studies@gmail.com
Deadline for submission: December 20, 2015
Notification of acceptance: January 20, 2016
Conference screening: July 4-5, 2016

Topics include but are not limited to:

Mass media and social media
Public relations and publicity
Social Advocacy
Human rights and animal rights
Environmental sustainability
Celebrity activists 
Activists as celebrities
Endorsements
Advertising
Branding
Persona
Journalism and newsworthy topics
Fame and Fortune
Beauty Ideals
Interviews
Audiences
Fandom
Literature
Film and Video
Television
Photography
Laws and Policies
Theory and Methods
Research Agenda
Business Models
Ethics and Morality
Cognition and Memory
Media Literacy
Social Innovation and Change
Education and Advocacy
Community Building
Business and Community Partnerships

Conference Chairs: Dr Jackie Raphael and Dr Celia Lam

Conference Committee Members: Dr Samita Nandy, Dr Louis Massey, Josh Nathan, and Andrea Marshall

Conference URL http://cmc-centre.com/conferences/barcelona/

CFP: 3rd International Celebrity Studies Conference: Authenticating Celebrity

October 19, 2015

3rd International Celebrity Studies Conference: Authenticating Celebrity

June 28-30, 2016
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam
http://celebritystudiesconference.com/

Routledge, Celebrity Studies Journal, and the University of Amsterdam are pleased to announce the third Celebrity Studies conference. The conference will take place in Amsterdam, June 28th-30th, and will be organized by Gaston Franssen, James Bennett, Hannah Hamad, Su Holmes, and Sean Redmond.

The 3rd International Celebrity Studies Conference will be themed on the question of ‘Authenticating Celebrity’. This subject will run through our plenaries and form a strand running throughout the conference. 

Drawing on the strength of the CSJ editorial team, the conference welcomes submissions from a broad range of disciplines that generate new ways of thinking and understanding celebrity: from film, television, literary, digital media and theatre studies through to psychology, sociology, politics, and business studies.

We invite abstracts for individual 20-minute papers or pre-constituted panels of 3 x 20-minute papers on any topic related to the conference theme.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:
• David Giles, University of Winchester
• Joke Hermes, University of Amsterdam/Inholland University of Applied Sciences
• Jo Littler, City University London
• Alice E. Marwick, Fordham University
• Ginette Vincendeau, King’s College London

A Special Issue of the best papers from the conference will be published inCelebrity Studies in 2017. Stipends to help with conference costs will be awarded for the best PhD abstracts submitted.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
• Celebrity and the experience of authenticity
• Sincerity and stardom
• Committed celebrity
• The phenomenology of fame
• Authenticating celebrity and gender, race, class, ethnicity
• Reality-tv celebrity
• Audience and affect
• Representations of talent and genius
• Fame in virtual reality
• Socializing celebrity
• Online authenticity
• Disingenuous and/or exposed celebrity
• True fans/anti-fans
• Trusting celebrity
• Gossip culture
• Celebrity hoaxes
• Celebrity facts, celebrity fictions
• Sport stars, performance and authenticity
• (In)sincerity and political celebrity
• Memory and celebrity authenticity.
• The will to truth: stories of the celebrity self
• Auto-ethnography and reflections of the real
• Fandom and the search for celebrity authenticity
• Celebrity pilgrimages
• Illness and celebrity
• Marketing authenticity
• Celebrity do-gooders and ambassadors
• Documenting the celebrity
• Rock idols and rebellion

Deadline for abstracts: November 6th, 2015 (250 words, plus a 50 word biography)

Successful abstracts will be notified by: December 11th, 2015

Enquiries/abstracts to: celebritystudies@gmail.com

CFP: Revisiting Audiences: Reception, Identity, Technology

October 12, 2015

Revisiting Audiences: Reception, Identity, Technology

9th – 10th, June 2016

Second MFCO Early Career-Graduate Conference hosted by the Department of Media, Film and Communication, University of Otago, New Zealand

Featuring: Associate Professor Sean Redmond (Deakin University, Australia) & Associate Professor Catherine Fowler (University of Otago, New Zealand)

Conference conveners: Owain Gwynne and Kevin Fletcher

We are surrounded by media texts – films, television shows, songs, comics, videogames to name but a few. With the growing range of technologies at our disposal, our relationships with media texts and practices are continually evolving, opening up new avenues for inquiry into audiences and reception research. What do these texts mean to us? How do they shape our lives and experiences? Rather than merely receive the texts they encounter, audiencesexperience texts, not as commodities, but as instances of intense emotional or affective engagement. Texts shape our understanding of the world and the ways we experience it – they make us laugh, cry, think and dream. They delight and infuriate. They have the power to help us create realities, to relive the past, or to stir us to action and activism. Our everyday interactions with media take many forms and range from identity performance on social media, to nostalgic attachments, and to fandoms. This conference is interested in new ways of making sense of these special relationships between texts and audiences, taking into account how such textual interactions are situated culturally, transnationally and historically.

This interdisciplinary conference invites papers to address the ways in which audiences receive, create, engage withand experience texts. Papers that address (but are not limited to) new approaches to the following topics / questions are welcome:

·  Youth audiences – How might younger audiences engage with texts in different ways than older audiences? Does new media affect generational engagement?

·  Fandom – What does it mean to be a ‘fan’ of something? How are different fandoms enacted / performed, including in an academic context? What is the distinction between research and fandom?

·  Celebrity culture – How does contemporary celebrity culture inform industrial shifts in media production and consumption? What are the racialised and geographical dimensions of celebrity and star production?

·  Paratexts – How do people take up paratexts (e.g., trailers, prequels, conventions)? How do paratexts construct frameworks of expectations or redefine the meanings of the primary text?

·  Relocating moving images – How are accepted models of viewing and reception changed by the ‘relocation’ of cinema in art galleries, museums, public and private spaces?

·  Audience research and methodologies – What new research and technological developments are being employed in the study of audiences? How do new technologies such as eye tracking, virtual and augmented reality contribute to reception studies?

·  Affective audiences – How do debates about embodiment and cognition offer new ways of understanding viewer engagement with texts in both domestic and theatrical contexts? How does phenomenological research intersect with moving-image culture?

·  Audiences and intellectual property – What is the audience’s role in contributing marketing labour to media companies in the contemporary global copyright regime? How do fan-activists use copyrighted texts to promote counter-hegemonic interests?

·  Audiences and space – What is the role of space in fandom, cinephilia and telephilia? How do diasporic people engage with texts from the ‘homeland’?

·  Old versus new media in audience studies – How does the focus on new media displace the continuing importance of old media for audiences? Does engaging with ‘old’ media through new media platforms complicate that engagement, and if so how? What do ‘new’ media forms reveal about ‘older’ audience practices?

The conference is free for accepted presenters and open to interested attendees. There will also be a masterclass led by Associate Professor Sean Redmond on June 8, and a workshop on audience study methodologies by Dr. Rosemary Overell. The masterclass and workshop are also free but are open to a limited number of participants. For more information on the masterclass and the workshop, and how to register, please contact the conference conveners below.

Presenters at Revisiting Audiences will be offered the opportunity for a refereed publication in Working Paper Series in the Department of Media, Film and Communication’s flagship journal (http://www.otago.ac.nz/mfco/research/otago040229.html)

Please contact the conference conveners with any enquiries and / or expressions of interest. Abstracts of about 200 words with an accompanying bio of no more than 50 words should be submitted as an email attachment in Microsoft Word to the conference email address: mfco_ecg@otago.ac.nz by April 15, 2016. A response to all submissions will be sent by May 1, 2016


Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started