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The graduate program at Simon Fraser University’s School of Communication annual CONDUITS conference invites scholars to think through our 2023 theme of Ex:tension.

Extension, the act of lengthening, is a dynamic movement, and Marshall McLuhan suggests that the use of media as a tool is a mutual shaping process: elongation shapes the direction and understanding of that medium, and in turn, the use of media to extend shapes how we make sense of the world.

Since its publication in 1964, McLuhan’s theory of extension has been subject to critique in both scholarly and non-scholarly work. Scholars have suggested such conceptualization as being too deterministic (Postman, 1985; Carey, 1989; Williams, 1990; Poster, 2010), limited in scope (Murray, 1997; Bolter and Grusin, 1999; Hayles, 1999), reductive (Williams, 1974; Debrays, 1996; boyd, 2014), insular and narrow-minded (Rushloff, 2013; Kittler, 2002), optimistic (Carr, 2010; Lanier, 2010), and inattentive to dimensions of power and control (Dean, 2010; Lovnik, 2011; Turkle, 2011; Noble, 2018).

More recent interventions have emphasized that McLuhanian extension is both singular and universalizing. It is not all bodies being extended, but rather one very specific body, resulting in a theory that doesn’t meaningfully consider the ways media and technology structure contemporary experiences of race, gender, sexuality, and class (Sharma, 2017; 2022). Rather than entirely disregard McLuhan, these interventions suggest that we instead think about his work as a springboard to explore the more generative dimensions and understandings woven into extension.

Drawing upon the idea that McLuhanian extension doesn’t account “for everything and everyone” and is “up for grabs” (Sharma, 2022, p. 180), the theme of Ex:tension encourages emergent and contemporary understandings, reworkings, expansions, complications, deepenings, remixes, resistances, and refusals of what technological and mediated extension is, was, and can be. We also invite work that considers the gaps, fractures, and slippages along extended lines, as well as explorations of liminal spaces that negotiate the boundaries of mediated and technological extension.

Submissions that engage with the theme of Ex:tension might include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Feminist, environmental, Indigenous, queer, critical race, intersectional, and/or interdisciplinary theories and approaches that illuminate and animate contemporary forms of mediated and technological extension
  • Over/extensions of state or corporate power and/or the corresponding contestations of that power
  • Studies of social movements such as the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, Extinction Rebellion, and Indigenous Rising
  • Considerations and practices of futurisms and radical imaginaries through creative communication
  • Case studies of intertextual extension and immersion into/of emerging media technologies
  • Extractivist and neo-colonial ideologies of overextension in environmental and data studies
  • Reflections on mediated and technological formations of compassion and care
  • Popular culture as extension of pedagogy, informal learning, and entertainment as education

  • Digital in/visibility and the positioning of migrants in liminal space through questions of identity, representation, sovereignty, voice, and subjectivity
  • Political economic analyses of creative and technological industries, platforms, and labour dimensions

The CONDUITS organizing committee values the interdisciplinary nature of the graduate program at the School of Communication at SFU, and as such, we welcome submissions from a wide variety of academic backgrounds. Past presenters at CONDUITS have come from a wide range of different fields and disciplines, including media studies, film production, geography and urban studies, environmental sciences, computer sciences, anthropology, gender studies, sociology, and political science.

Maria Sommers (she/her)
MA Student | School of Communication
Researcher | Digital Democracies Institute
Simon Fraser University
maria_sommers@sfu.ca

 

Call for Submissions: PLASTIC

tba: Journal of Art, Media, and Visual Culture, is pleased to announce that we are accepting submissions for our upcoming issue, PLASTIC. tba is an annual peer-reviewed journal organized by graduate students of the Visual Arts Department at Western University in London, Ontario (CA). It provides an interdisciplinary forum for emerging and independent artists and scholars by bringing together studio, art history, cultural studies, theory and criticism, creative writing, and related fields. Academic articles, poetry, short fiction, and artworks are welcome. Experimentation and risk is encouraged.

Topics can include, but are not limited to:

  • Pliability, malleability, plasticity
  • Artistic and curatorial materials, les arts en plastiques
  • Materialisms, historical materialism, new materialism
  • Microplastics, plastics pollution
  • Pollution as colonialism
  • The globalization of plastics, petrocapitalism
  • Toxicity, toxic ecologies, climate crisis
  • Health and plastics – biology and technology
  • Anthropocene, plastics in the geologic record
  • Aesthetics of plastic, plastic surgery
  • The synthetic, the ersatz, and authenticity
  • History of plastics, plastics futurity

To be plastic is to be pliable, moldable, and adaptable to change. It is both a material quality and a conceptual one–plasticity was a commonly used word in the arts, applied to discussions of artist materials like paint and clay but also to techniques and gestures. Today, plastic refers to a diverse array of polymer and monomer combinations mainly derived from oil that have come to replace more expensive applications of natural resins, rubbers, and shellacs, as well as metals, glass, wood, and fibers like cotton and wool. Plastic has become so ubiquitous a material it’s impossible to imagine contemporary life without it. But what we recognize as plastic today isn’t nearly as pliable as the original word implies. Commercial plastics are not designed for durability, but rather for expediency. They crack and crumble into forever smaller pieces, bioaccumulating at the molecular level into all manner of life. Perhaps a redefinition of the term is in order: to be plastic is to be omnipresent, insidious, and even toxic. But not everything about plastic is bad. Plastics have become a necessity for administering vaccines, for providing clean drinking water to remote communities, offering temporary emergency shelters and preserving the shelf life of foods that would otherwise go to waste. For better or for worse, it would seem that plastic is here to stay.

We invite you to submit your work by May 21, 2023. Submissions must be completed through the journal’s website, which uses OJS software to ensure contributer/reviewer anonymity. Emailed submissions will not be accepted. If you’re interested in supporting the review process, we are currently seeking peer reviewers–we welcome you to get in touch at tbaedit@uwo.ca with your CV and research area(s).

Emily Cadotte, Editor
Ana Moyer, Associate Editor, Art History
Imogen Clendinning, Associate Editor, Studio

For inquiries, please write tbaedit@uwo.ca
website: www.tbajournal.ca

 

The University of Calgary’s Department of Communication, Media and Film (CMF) presents

r/evolution in Media(Scapes): A CMF Graduate Student Conference

Conference dates: Wednesday, May 10th to Thursday, May 11th , 2023

Conference location: Online via Zoom
Potential in-person events: Afternoon on Thursday, May 11 th

We are pleased to announce that this year’s CMF Graduate Student Conference theme is r/evolution in Media(Scapes). The concept of Revolution, once a powerful force for change, has become less striking recently, it’s Evolutionary potential growing muddled. The power of Revolution in the critical lexicon has diminished because of society’s growing fragmentation and polarization. By deconstructing established notions of Revolution and reforming our approach to transforming Mediated landscapes via creativity and innovation, we hope our theme will help build new avenues for thought and action.

  • Why r/evolution
    We seek to reform contemporary perspectives and redefine Revolution as an Evolutionary process – as a ludic and imaginative space where we are all invited to partake in novel, unprecedented, and sometimes messy ways.
  • Why Media(Scapes)?
    The study of Media(Scapes) examines the complex relationships between technology, culture, and politics by exploring creative and transformative ways of using media to shape and reshape social and cultural landscapes.

Our theme, r/evolution in Media(Scapes), encourages all scholars to actively challenge traditional norms and re-envision social, political, cultural, and mediatized landscapes using innovative and reformative approaches.

Call For Papers

This is a Call For Papers (CFP) for the 2023 CMF Graduate Student Conference. Please, submit your proposals here. The proposal submission deadline is 11:59 pm MT on March 31st, 2023.

Some of the research topics you may wish to present on for this year’s Conference include:

  • Cinema, documentary, photography, and sound
  • Community, society, and culture
  • Embodiment and subjectivities in media
  • Emerging media and technologies (artificial intelligence, data centres, telecom, etc.)
  • Media, social movements, and activism
  • New media industries (social media platforms, etc.)
  • Representation and power in media
  • Theories and practices

The above list is not exhaustive and merely includes some of the topics you may wish to present on for this year’s Conference. We welcome submissions from the many different research backgrounds that fall under our theme, even if they do not directly address one of the topics listed here.

We welcome any proposal submissions for the following three presentation formats:

  • Short talks (200-word abstract): A shorter presentation, five to seven minutes in duration, followed by a Q&A session. An ideal choice for any presenter wishing to share and discuss an idea or research-in-progress. First-time presenters, MA students, and senior undergraduates are encouraged to apply.
  • Long talks (300-word abstract): A longer presentation, 10 to 15 minutes in duration, followed by a Q&A session. An ideal choice for any presenter wishing to share and discuss an in-depth and developed analysis of their research topic.
  • Alternative format (250-word abstract): We welcome proposals for alternative formats, 10-15 minutes in duration, to be followed by a Q&A session. When proposing an alternative format, please include a description of your chosen format (i.e., interactive session, multi-speaker panel, etc.) in your 250-word abstract proposal. While we cannot guarantee that we will be able to accommodate your alternative format, we will try our best to do so.

All applicants are asked to consider an equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) framework in their proposal submission and will be prompted to complete the EDIA pledge as part of their proposal submission.

Click here to access the form to submit your proposal and here for our Conference website. We will alert all applicants regarding the status of their submissions by mid-April. A full conference schedule and Keynote speaker announcements will occur closer to the Conference date.

If you have any questions about this CFP, please contact Matthew Halajian (mhalajia@ucalgary.ca) or
Liz McIver (elizabeth.mciver@ucalgary.ca.

Thank you in advance, and we look forward to your submissions!

This Conference is being held online via Zoom to encourage participation from those unable to attend in person. Organizing any optional in-person social events in Calgary will be confirmed at a later date and communicated to the conference participants.

We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprising the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai First Nations), as well as the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations). The city of Calgary is also home to Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3.

 

APPEL À COMMUNICATIONS : Colloque international « Jean-Marc Vallée : du Québec à Hollywood »
Cinémathèque québécoise (Montréal), 8 et 9 juin 2023

Le 25 décembre 2021, Jean-Marc Vallée nous quittait prématurément à l’âge de 58 ans. Titulaire d’un diplôme en études cinématographiques émis en 1986 par l’Université de Montréal, Jean-Marc Vallée a reçu de manière posthume, lors d’une cérémonie de collation des grades qui s’est tenue en août 2022, l’Insigne du mérite de la Faculté des arts et des sciences de cette université. Cet honneur témoigne de l’excellence, québécoise dans un premier temps, et internationale dans un second, de son parcours.

C’est d’abord le retentissement francophone de films comme C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) ou Café de Flore (2011) qui le consacre comme l’un des talents québécois les plus en vue; puis les succès de Dallas Buyers Club (2013), Wild (2014) et Demolition (2015) l’installent comme l’un des metteurs en scène les plus convoités du cinéma nord-américain d’auteur. La production sérielle, qui tient désormais une place prépondérante au sein de l’industrie audiovisuelle via le développement des plateformes numériques et l’influence du récit feuilletonnant à travers le médium télévisuel et le médium cinématographique, est également un domaine où se démarque le cinéaste québécois : ses séries Sharp Objects (2018) et Big Little Lies (2017-2019) ont rencontré un grand succès populaire.

Réalisateur, scénariste ainsi que producteur de cinéma et de télévision, Vallée se présente comme l’un des artistes les plus féconds d’une nouvelle vague de cinéastes qui participent au rayonnement international de l’art québécois. Le triomphe critique et commercial des œuvres de Vallée le place également, avec quelques autres, comme l’un des fers de lance d’une génération d’artistes de la Belle province ayant conquis l’industrie hollywoodienne. Jean-Marc Vallée, Denis Villeneuve, Xavier Dolan et Philippe Falardeau sont en effet aujourd’hui régulièrement sollicités pour les projets intimistes, le cinéma de genre, le cinéma à grand spectacle ou la production sérielle d’Hollywood.

Le colloque international Jean-Marc Vallée : du Québec à Hollywood souhaite à la fois étudier l’œuvre cinématographique et télévisuelle de Vallée et réfléchir à cette tendance du cinéma québécois et de ses artistes à s’exporter à l’international, notamment en France et à Hollywood. L’événement s’adresse tant aux connaisseurs de l’œuvre de Jean-Marc Vallée qu’aux non-initiés qui s’intéresseraient néanmoins au renouveau du cinéma québécois et aux transferts interculturels entre le Québec, l’Europe et Hollywood. Par le prisme de l’œuvre de Vallée, ce colloque souhaite enfin susciter des réflexions au sujet de questions aujourd’hui essentielles en recherche et en création pour tous ceux et celles s’intéressant au cinéma
québécois.

Nous invitons des propositions de communication individuelles qui explorent des thématiques propres à l’œuvre et au parcours de Jean-Marc Vallée. Les communications peuvent aborder les sujets suivants, sans toutefois s’y limiter :

  • l’évolution de l’esthétique valléenne, des premiers courts métrages jusqu’aux séries télévisées;
  • les thématiques structurantes de l’œuvre de Jean-Marc Vallée (par exemple celle des rôles féminins et de leur indépendance ; celle de la présence ou de l’absence de la figure du père ; celle de la complexité psychologique des personnages);
  • l’intérêt croissant du cinéaste pour le média télévisuel et sériel;
  • l’univers musical de l’œuvre cinématographique et télévisuelle de Jean-Marc Vallée (notamment l’importance du pop rock, du jazz ou du blues dans son œuvre) ou encore ses collaborations avec des compositeurs et compositrices de renom;
  • sources d’inspiration, approches scénaristiques et conceptuelles en amont de la réalisation;
  • l’étude de l’utilisation des effets visuels et les technologies numériques;
  • les collaborations régulières qui constituent « l’univers Vallée »;
  • la mise en scène et le rapport du cinéaste aux acteurs et aux actrices;
  • l’inscription de Jean-Marc Vallée comme fer de lance du renouveau de la cinématographie québécoise des années 2000;
  • la réception de son œuvre au Québec, en Europe et aux États-Unis;
  • le modèle de travail hollywoodien (entre Montréal et Los Angeles) mis en place par Jean-Marc Vallée et ses équipes québécoises.

Les propositions de communication (maximum 500 mots), en français ou en anglais et accompagnées d’une courte notice biobliographique, devront être envoyées à l’adresse colloquevallee@gmail.com d’ici le 20 avril. Les présentations acceptées seront d’une durée de 20 minutes.

Comité d’organisation
Thomas Carrier-Lafleur, Baptiste Creps, André Gaudreault, Santiago Hidalgo, Bernard Perron et Isabelle Raynauld

Site web : https://colloquevallee.labocinemedias.ca/

CALL FOR PAPERS: International Conference: “Jean-Marc Vallée: From Quebec to Hollywood”
Cinémathèque québécoise (Montreal), June 8 and 9, 2023

On 25 December 2021, Jean-Marc Vallée left us prematurely at the age of 58. A graduate of the cinema studies program of the Université de Montréal in 1986, Jean-Marc Vallée received posthumously, during a degree conferral ceremony in August 2022, the Insigne du mérite award of the Faculté des arts et des sciences of that university. This honour demonstrates the excellence of his work initially in Quebec and then internationally.

First came the interest created in the French-speaking world by films such as C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) and Café de Flore (2011), consecrating him as one of the most prominent Quebec filmmakers; the success of Dallas Buyers Club (2013), Wild (2014) and Demolition (2015) then established him as one of the most sought-after directors of North-American auteur cinema. The production of series, which now has a preponderant role in the audiovisual industry through the growth of digital platforms and the influence of serial narratives throughout television and cinema, was also a field in which Jean-Marc Vallée stood out: his series Sharp Objects (2018) and Big Little Lies (2017-19) met with great popular success.

As a director, scriptwriter and producer of film and television, Jean-Marc Vallée was one of the most productive artists of a new wave of filmmakers who have contributed to the international visibility of Quebec art. The critical and commercial triumph of his work also established him, along with a few others, as one of the spearheads of a generation of artists from the Belle province who have conquered Hollywood. In recent years Jean-Marc Vallée, Denis Villeneuve, Xavier Dolan and Philippe Falardeau have been sought out to work on intimist projects, genre films, big-budget productions and Hollywood series.

The international conference Jean-Marc Vallée: From Quebec to Hollywood seeks both to study Jean-Marc Vallée’s film and television oeuvre and to reflect on this trend which sees Quebec cinema and its artists being exported abroad, particularly to France and Hollywood. The event is also aimed at both connoisseurs of Vallée’s oeuvre and neophytes to his work who are nevertheless interested in the resurgence of Quebec cinema and in intercultural transfers between Quebec, Europe and Hollywood Through the prism of Vallée oeuvre, this conference seeks, finally, to prompt thinking about questions which today have become essential in research and creation for all those interested in Quebec cinema.

We invite proposals for individual presentations which explore topics specific to the work and career of Jean-Marc Vallée. Presentations can address the following topics, without being limited to them:

  • the evolution of Vallée’s aesthetic, from the earliest short films to the television series;
  • The structuring themes of Jean-Marc Vallée’s work (such as that of female characters and their independence; the presence or absence of a father figure; or the psychological complexity of the characters);
  • Vallée’s growing interest in televised and serial media;
  • the musical world of Jean-Marc Vallée’s film and television work (and in particular the importance of pop rock, jazz and blues in his work) or his collaborations with renowned composers;
  • pre-production sources of inspiration and scriptwriting and conceptual approaches;
  • study of Vallée’s use of visual effects and digital technologies;
  • the regular collaborations which made up the “Vallée universe”;
  • directing and Vallée’s relationships with actors and actresses;
  • Jean-Marc Vallée’s status as spearhead of the resurgence of Quebec cinema in the 2000s;
  • the reception of Vallée’s work in Quebec, Europe and the United States;
  • the Hollywood working model put in place (in both Montreal and Los Angeles) by Jean-Marc Vallée and his Quebec film crews.

Presentation proposals of no more than 500 words in English or French, accompanied by a brief bio-bibliography, should be sent to colloquevallee@gmail.com by 20 April. Presentations will be allotted 20 minutes.

Organising Committee
Thomas Carrier-Lafleur, Baptiste Creps, André Gaudreault, Santiago Hidalgo, Bernard Perron and Isabelle Raynauld

Website : https://colloquevallee.labocinemedias.ca/en/home/

 

Cinema and Media Studies, Department of Cinema & Media Arts, School of Arts, Media, Performance & Design, York University

The Department of Cinema & Media Arts, School of Arts, Media, Performance & Design, York University invites highly qualified candidates to apply for a two year Contractually Limited Appointment (CLA) in Cinema and Media Studies at the rank of Sessional Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream to commence July 1, 2023. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. All York University positions are subject to budgetary approval.

The Department of Cinema & Media Arts seeks a candidate who can teach a range of undergraduate and graduate courses in histories and theories of film and media from a global perspective, including CMA 1400, a large enrollment introductory class. The successful candidate must be suitable for prompt appointment to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. The candidate will also provide creative educational leadership in enhancing teaching and learning through curricular and pedagogical innovation.

The Department is particularly interested in applications from individuals with expertise in areas such as: history and theories of mid-twentieth century cinema and media; approaches to film criticism, including videographic criticism; documentary; contemporary world cinema; Asian cinemas; and/or contemporary media platforms, including games and social media. Candidates should demonstrate capacity to apply principles of decolonizing, equity, diversity, and inclusion (DEDI) in their pedagogy. CLAs are also expected to contribute to service through membership on some committees.

A PhD in Cinema and Media Studies or related field is required, with a demonstrated record of excellence in teaching. ABD students may be considered, with evidence that degree completion will occur prior to June 30, 2023.

York is a leading international teaching and research university, and a driving force for positive change. Empowered by a welcoming and diverse community with a uniquely global perspective, we are preparing our students for their long-term careers and personal success. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

York University has a policy on Accommodation in Employment for Persons with Disabilities and is committed to working towards a barrier-free workplace and to expanding the accessibility of the workplace to persons with disabilities. Candidates who require accommodation during the selection process are invited to contact Anya Morea (morea@yorku.ca).

York University is an Affirmative Action (AA) employer and strongly values diversity, including gender and sexual diversity, within its community. The AA Program, which applies to women, members of racialized groups, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and those who self-identify as 2SLGBTQ+, can be found at www.yorku.ca/acadjobs or by calling the AA line at 416-736-5713. Applicants wishing to self-identify as part of York University’s Affirmative Action program can do so by downloading, completing, and submitting this voluntary self-identification form.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and Indigenous peoples in Canada will be given priority. No application will be considered without a completed mandatory Work Status Declaration form.

The deadline for receipt of completed applications is March 31, 2023. Applicants should submit a letter of application, an up-to-date curriculum vitae, a teaching dossier that includes a statement of teaching philosophy and interests, and a short reflection on how commitments to equity, diversity, and decolonization inform classroom teaching, and the names and positions of three references with contact details to: Caitlin Fisher, Chair, Cinema and Media Arts, at fmsearch@yorku.ca. Reference letters and sample syllabi will be requested for short-listed candidates.

 

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: ECOLOGIES OF/AND ADAPTATION
LITERATURE / FILM ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE
UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA, MISSOULA, MONTANA SEPTEMBER 21-23, 2023

With each passing year, the pressures of climate change make it clear that the natural world and human endeavor are irrevocably intertwined. As we head to Western Montana in 2023, we invite scholars to explore how the concept of “adaptation” can serve to further questions of ecologies: the relationships between living organisms and their environments. Adaptations, after all, are always already about networked relationships, exploring not only the connections between texts – including the written word, film, and media – but also the relationships between images and music, performers and performance, human and nonhuman, and bodies and physical spaces. Where do film, literature, and media fit within the larger web of global ecologies, and how can ecological thinking enrich our understanding of the interactions between nature, culture, and adaptation? Inspired by recent work in the environmental humanities and ecocriticism, we invite proposals that bridge the study of the environment (broadly conceived) and the study of textual adaptation.

While we welcome papers on any aspect of film and media studies, we are especially interested in papers exploring one or more of the following topics concerning ecology and adaptation:
● The environment as text
● Landscapes and adaptations
● Adaptation and the anthropocene
● Parasitic and symbiotic adaptations
● Apocalypse or post-apocalypse and adaptation
● Multiverses and alternate realities and adaptations
● Relationships between past, present, and future
● Worldbuilding and transmedia storyworlds as narrative ecologies
● Narratives of survival
● The relationship between biological adaptation and textual adaptation
● Ecocritical re-imaginings of well-known stories
● Fandoms as evolving ecosystems
● How adaptations operate within media ecosystems

We also have significant interest in general studies of American and international cinema, film and technology, television, new media, and other cultural or political issues connected to the moving image. In addition to academic papers and pre-constituted panels, presentation proposals about pedagogy or from creative writers, artists, video essayists, and filmmakers are also welcome.

Please submit your proposal, which will consist of a title, 250-word abstract, and keywords, via this Google Form by April 7, 2023. You will receive a confirmation email within 48 hours. If you have any questions or concerns, contact Amanda Konkle at litfilmconference@gmail.com. Accepted presenters will be notified by April 24, and the conference program will be available by June 1 to enable travel planning.

The conference registration fee is $200 ($150 for students and retirees) before September 1, 2023 and $225 ($175 for students and retirees) thereafter. All conference attendees must also be current members of the Literature/Film Association. Annual dues are $20.
Presenters will be invited to submit their work to the Literature/Film Quarterly for potential publication. For details on the journal’s submission requirements, visit their website here.

Call for Authors of Recent Publications to Participate in Adaptation Conversations:
Have you recently published a work on adaptation? Would you like to participate in an inaugural Adaptation Conversation via Zoom about your work? There’s a space for that on the conference proposal form, or you can reach out to akonkle@georgiasouthern.edu with information about your publication.

 

Film and Media Studies Association of Canada (FMSAC) Graduate Colloquium

Carleton University Film Studies Friday March 10 – Saturday March 11, 2023 (In-Person)

Call for papers: “FAMILIAR STRANGER”

Submission Deadline: February 10th, 2023

Event Date: Friday, March 9th, and Saturday, March 10th, 2023
Format: In-person at Carleton University
Presentation Length: 15-20 minutes
Contact Email: makenziesalmon@cmail.carleton.ca

“You could say I have lived, metaphorically speaking, on the hinge between the colonial and post-colonial worlds; because of radically changing locations, I have belonged, in different ways, to both at different times of my life, without ever being fully of either” 
(Stuart Hall, Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands, p.11) 

From the ongoing injustices related to race, gender and sexuality, continued colonial violence and renewed and reinvigorated gestures towards sovereignty to the fundamental changes brought on by an increasingly digital and remote post-pandemic state of the world and mind, recent years have felt like both becoming a stranger in a familiar place with the familiar itself becoming strange. These new times we find ourselves in have indeed impacted the ways in which we gather, research, make, consume and conserve art, affecting how we see the world and ourselves in it. The state of in-betweens, or the simultaneous existence between the familiar and the strange, seems to resonate as a frame for contemplating the conditions of our milieu, which continue to affect cinema and media and their study. 

The colloquium’s thematic throughline is fueled by the legacy of Stuart Hall, an undeniable force, a multi-decade-spanning, discipline-defining, and defying cultural theorist, sociologist, and political activist. Critiques of discourses of race and racism are among his most important work and remain essential tools with which to probe the resurgence of nationalist and nativist divides. His memoir, Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands, reflects on being “the last colonial subject” and offers the provoking observation of always existing in the in-betweens. One of the key dimensions of Hall’s work was his uncanny ability to put his finger on the pulse of the times, even theorizing the concept of “new times.” Hall and his contemporaries, including Raymond Williams, formed the practice of cultural studies through their attention to transience and shaping spatial and temporal reconfigurations of the now: this conference asks, how does Hall’s (and Williams’) work help us to think and rethink our times? Could in-between-ness itself be the new structure of feeling in a “proto post-pandemic era”? Objects of inquiry impacted by their work and invited for discussion in this conference include film, media, formulations of identity, migration and diaspora studies, sociology, post-structuralism, semiotics, critical race theory, feminism, Marxism, postcolonialism, gender and other interdisciplinary nodes.

Hall’s famous proposition that cultural identity is in an infinite state of production inspires cultural perspectives on the object of film. How is the in-between-ness of culture negotiated in filmic representation? How might film itself be in a state of in-betweenness? How has the production, exhibition, circulation, reception, and archiving of film and media objects struggled with in-betweens of where film can be made, seen, experienced and preserved? This conference also asks participants to consider the following questions: in what ways are we strangers in familiar places, or re-familiarizing ourselves in spaces that have become strange? How is the experience of in-betweenness rendered in filmic practices? How is cinema, too, a state of in-between-ness?

Presentations that engage with the legacies of Stuart Hall and other theorists of the Birmingham School directly are welcomed, although not required.

Sample topics may include but are not limited to: 

  • Interdisciplinarity 
  • Diaspora 
  • Migration 
  • Marginalization 
  • Gender and Queer studies 
  • Streaming and evolving media landscape 
  • Identity and representation 
  • Postcolonial, decolonial, anticolonial ways of thinking 
  • Film programming, curating, archiving 
  • Stuart Hall/cultural identity 
  • Raymond Williams/structures of feeling 
  • Systemic violence/legacies of violence 
  • Legacies of film history and historiographic film scholarship/methods
  •  

 
Submissions: Interested graduate students can submit a brief abstract (up to 350 words) as a PDF file in English by February 10th, 2023, to makenziesalmon@cmail.carleton.ca
 
Submissions should include the following information: 

  • Your name 
  • Level and program of study 
  • Name of your University 
  • Title of your presentation 
  • Abstract 
  • Short bibliography (3 to 5 sources) 
  • 3-5 keywords in your research 
 

Canadian Association for Italian Studies (CAIS) Annual Conference: University of Montreal, May 04-07, 2023

Session Title: Framing Ferrante: Adaptation and Intermediality from Troubling Love to The Lying Life of Adults

This panel surveys the cinematic and televisual adaptations of Elena Ferrante’s literary works, from Mario Martone’s L’amore molesto (1995) and Roberto Faenza’s I giorni dell’abandono (2005) to Saverio Costanzo’s L’amica geniale series (2018-), Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter (2021), and Edoardo De Angelis’s Netflix series La vita bugiarda degli adulti (2023). In their 2021 collection, Ferrante Unframed, Roberta Cauchi-Santoro and Costanza Barchiesi set out to “unframe” Ferrante, “releasing [her] from the tight confines” of the debate around the strangely problematic status of a successful author whose writing has generally been associated with the works of Italian women writers. This panel seeks to build on this research by considering the literal framing and re-framing of Ferrante on TV and film screens. The aim is to extend and expand upon existing scholarship by considering the older forays into Ferrante adaptation alongside the more recent, 21st century remediations. In this respect the panel organizers seek papers that conjoin questions of modality (analog or digital), medium, mediation, and transmediation, with those of authorship, authority, and gender, around such key issues as genre and influence, commercial vs. independent, arthouse vs. ‘prestige,’ etc.

Please send 250 word paper proposals and a brief bio note to Russell Kilbourn (Wilfrid Laurier University) and Roberta Cauchi-Santoro (St. Jerome’s, University of Waterloo, Ontario)
Email: rkilbourn@wlu.ca
Email: roberta.cauchi-santoro@uwaterloo.ca

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 01, 2023

 

Call for Papers: ReFocus: The Films of Don Siegel

Don Siegel is the rare Hollywood director who worked successfully in both classic Hollywood of the 1930s and 40s and, after the studio system reinvention, New Hollywood into the 1980s. From his start in classic Hollywood as a montage director on Casablanca, through genre work in film noir, science fiction, westerns, and war films, Siegel acted as director, and often producer, to generate a versatile collection of iconic films including Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the remake of The Killers, Dirty Harry, Charley Varrick, and Escape from Alcatraz. Yet, for all his successes, in particular in the five films he made with Clint Eastwood, there is a near absence of critical writing on Siegel.

As this volume will be the first comprehensive study in Don Siegel’s work we seek to contextualize, problematize and theorize his entire canon. We welcome essays from a variety of theoretical, historical, and methodological approaches, and are especially interested in essays that discuss Siegel’s work from a feminist and/or critical race perspective while situating the relevance of his film work in the contemporary moment. Topics may include, but are not limited to, a single film, group of films, his work with Clint Eastwood, his direction on John Wayne’s last film The Shootist, themes and topics that pervade his work, and/or his television directing or influence, the critical and commercial reception of his films especially during the 1970s. We are currently soliciting abstracts of approximately 350 words for essays to be included in a book-length anthology on Don Siegel’s cinema, including his work in television, to appear in 2024. The Films of Don Siegel will be a scholarly volume published in the University of Edinburgh’s ReFocus series, examining American film directors. Series editors are Robert Singer, Gary D. Rhodes, and Frances Smith. ReFocus features a series of contemporary methodological and theoretical approaches to the interdisciplinary analyses and interpretations of the work of these American directors, from the once-famous to the ignored, in direct relationship to American culture –its myths, values, and historical precepts.

Essays accepted and included in the refereed anthology should be approximately 6,000 to 8,000 words and referenced in Chicago endnote style.

A link to the series: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/series-refocus-the-international-directors-series

Please send a 350-word proposal and a short bio to both editors: Doctor Jamie Popowich (jamie.popowich@ntu.ac.uk) & Aaron Tucker (artucker@yorku.ca)

About the editors

Jamie Popowich is a writer and filmmaker. His next book, Punch Lines (Potential Books, 2023) examines the thin line between jokes and tears. He is currently working on a book about the politics of prank comedy. He holds a doctorate from the University of Hertfordshire and teaches at the University of Surrey.

Aaron Tucker is the author of two film studies monographs, Interfacing with the Internet (2014) and Virtual Weaponry (2017), both with Palgrave Macmillan. His current research utilizes film theory to analyze and critique the cinema of facial recognition technologies. In addition, he is a poet and novelist, whose second novel, Soldiers, Hunters, Not Cowboys, will be published by Coach House Books in Spring 2023.

 

ASAP/14 Call for Papers – Arts of Fugitivity

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 31, 2023

Seattle and Bothell
October 4-7, 2023
Submission deadline March 31, 2023; accepted proposals to be announced in late Spring 2023.

ASAP/14 will have in-person programming, as well as virtual streams, at University of Washington’s Seattle and Bothell campuses in order to maximize accessibility and explore how and why we gather together. We are especially pleased to be able to partner with the Henry, a museum for contemporary art and ideas on the UW campus, and Wa Na Wari for events.

The conference theme—Arts of Fugitivity—addresses strategies of survival and imagination. We encourage the exploration of fugitivity as a concept, practice, and method in contemporary art and culture — what does it mean to hide within plain sight, to create alternative ways of being, seeing, and doing, to escape? More than just longing for something else, arts of fugitivity show us how to get there and suggest that we might, in fact, already be there. Fugitivity is a keyword in Indigenous studies, where it asks us to think critically about the politics of movement and place and their intersections with settler-colonialism. As Jarrett Martineau and Eric Ritskes write, “Fugitivity finds its energetic potency in remaining illegible to power, incommensurable with colonialism, and opaque to appropriation, commodification and cultural theft. That which is fugitive proposes an insurgent force of dissident visibility; it is the hidden that reveals itself in motion.” We are curious about how fugitivity emerges as lines of flight, creative camouflage, and aesthetics. Since we are meeting in the Pacific Northwest–specifically the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Duwamish, Puyallup, Skykomish, Snohomish, Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations–how might fugitivity complicate our understanding of mobility and the global, how might it inform our ideas of travel and home, and how might it shift our practices of engagement? As Fred Moten writes “Fugitivity is immanent to the thing but is manifest transversally.” What emerges when we look elsewhere, sideways, and askance for ways to survive? What happens to representation, creativity, and possibility? How do arts as object, epistemology, and method – across visual arts, music, theatre, performance, film, literary, media, and multidisciplinary arts – animate fugitive ways of being, knowing, and imagining?

We invite proposals from scholars, artists, writers, curators, activists and other practitioners whose work addresses and expands upon the study, collection, exhibition, teaching, and writing of art and culture. We invite proposals with alternative, experimental writing practices and modes of presentation, including workshops that break form with the typical conference paper, panel, or roundtable, as well as with the constraints and possibilities of the conference’s hybrid format. We wish to explore fugitivity as strategy, method, mode of being–all of which we see to be grounded in practice. Panels and papers that consider a range of disciplines and methods, and that speak across geographies, (non)traditional institutional or intellectual divides are especially encouraged. Given the conference’s theme, we welcome submissions that rethink and revisit the stakes, limits, pleasures, and discomfort of representation, movement, and evasion.

Panels and papers are encouraged to engage our theme, but participants are welcome to submit other proposals which contribute to our broader project of exploring the arts of the present. Participants may address the following topics, but are welcome to explore others as well:

  • Movement, mobility, and complications of home and the global
  • Pace, syncopation, and questions of access
  • Camouflage
  • Technologies of evasion, escape, or cover
  • The minor, the fleeting, the ephemeral
  • Escapism, daydreaming, and wandering
  • The undisciplined, unschooled, and unruly
  • Crossing Borders, Evading Boundaries, (Re)Making Spaces
  • Pedagogies of Inwardness, practices of illegibility

ASAP/14 Organizing Committee
Amber Jamilla Musser, Conference Co-Chair/President 2022-23, CUNY Graduate Center
Jasmine Jamillah Mahmoud, Conference Co-Chair/Member-at-Large, University of Washington, Seattle
Kenneth Allan, Secretary, Seattle University
Amaranth Borsuk, University of Washington, Bothell
Ching-in Chen, University of Washington, Bothell
Nijah Cunningham, Member-at-Large, Hunter College, CUNY
Jennifer Doyle, 2nd Vice President, UC Riverside
Olivia Michiko Gagnon, University of British Columbia
Summer Kim Lee, Member-at-Large, UCLA
Julian Wong-Nelson, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 31, 2023

More info: https://www.cvent.com/c/abstracts/843cdba0-9182-4526-8879-b9248d01d129