*CFP* "MID-CENTURY MEDIASCAPES: LITERARY AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES", INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

Mid-Century Mediascapes: Literary and Historical Perspectives

5th and 6th August 2020, Durham University (UK)

Birley Room, Hatfield College

This interdisciplinary conference seeks to explore the significance of new media and technologies in Britain during the mid-century (1930s-1960s). We invite proposals for 20-minute papers that consider the rapid emergence and consolidation of different media forms (such as radio, telephone, music recording and reproduction, television, sound and colour film) and their significance and interaction with mid-century culture, politics, and society.

We are especially interested in proposals that address modern media and technologies vis-à-vis political conflict, ranging from the Spanish Civil War to the Cold War, as well as papers that consider wider historical or literary perspectives on the mid-century mediascape.

Proposals might include, but are not limited to,

• the deployment of media and technologies in times of conflict 
• the historical development of media and technologies during the period 
• literary and filmic representations of media and technologies 
• research methodologies for the historical and/or literary study of media and technologies 
• the relationship between evolving media forms and mid-century culture 
• the relationship between media and politics (e.g. propaganda) 
• other thematic or methodological discussions of media forms and technologies such as radio, telephone, film, or television

We particularly welcome submissions from PhD candidates and ECRs. The conference will provide a welcoming intellectual space for presenting work in progress and networking with other researchers in the field. We are pleased to support PhD candidates and ECRs with a workshop on ‘How to Publish your Monograph’ led by an editor at a major publishing house.

The event will include keynotes by Prof. Jo Fox (Institute of Historical Research, University of London) and Prof. Laura Marcus (University of Oxford), followed by an informal conference dinner.

The event is supported by the Department of English Studies and the Centre for Modern Conflict and Cultures (CMCC) at Durham University. We encourage all attendees of Mid-Century Mediascapes to stay in Durham for the conference The Writer as Psychological Warrior: Intellectuals, Propaganda, and Modern Conflict (organised by the Leverhulme Trust project ‘The Political Warfare Executive, Covert Propaganda, and British Culture’), which will take place on 6th and 7th August. Further information on the CMCC and the PWE project can be found here.

Applications:

Please submit an abstract of 250 words (including name and institutional affiliation), as well as a 50-word bio, including key research areas.

All proposals and enquiries should be submitted to midcentury.mediascapes@gmail.com by 1st May 2020. Applicants will be notified of the outcome within three weeks of the closing date.