*CFP* "EXPLORING MOTHERLY INSTINTICS: REPRESENTATION OF MOTHERS IN INDIAN CINEMA", SPECIAL ISSUE, CAFÉ DISSENSUS JOURNAL

The figure of the mother has always been glorified and depicted in black and white without shades of grey. However, time and again filmmakers and academic thinkers have strived to push this conventional depiction to accommodate various layers associated with the concept of motherhood, as they have sought to challenge the simplistic representation of mothers in popular media. It is important to explore the maternal world further in this highly digitized, globalized and gender-neutral environment.

This proposed issue of Café Dissensus aims to curate a collection of essays on the representation of mothers in films that go beyond the stereotypical portrayal of motherhood as epitomized in the figures of Nirupa Roy and Rakhee Gulzar in conventional Bollywood style, showing unconditional love toward her offspring. 

The proposed issue welcomes submissions on the following themes (though not limited to them):

• Queerness and motherhood 
• Good vs. bad mothers 

*CFP* "EXPLORING MOTHERLY INSTINCTS: REPRESENTATION OF MOTHERS IN INDIAN CINEMA", PROPOSED ISSUE, CAFÉ DISSENSUS JOURNAL

The figure of the mother has always been glorified and depicted in black and white without shades of grey. However, time and again filmmakers and academic thinkers have strived to push this conventional depiction to accommodate various layers associated with the concept of motherhood, as they have sought to challenge the simplistic representation of mothers in popular media. It is important to explore the maternal world further in this highly digitized, globalized and gender-neutral environment. 

This proposed issue of Café Dissensus aims to curate a collection of essays on the representation of mothers in films that go beyond the stereotypical portrayal of motherhood as epitomized in the figures of Nirupa Roy and Rakhee Gulzar in conventional Bollywood style, showing unconditional love toward her offspring. 

The proposed issue welcomes submissions on the following themes (though not limited to them):

• Queerness and motherhood 
• Good vs. bad mothers 

*CFP* "NATIONALISM AND MEDIA", 31ST ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF ETHNICITY AND NATIONALISM

31st Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN)

5-7 April 2022 in Antwerp (Belgium)

Nationalism and media

 

For as long as nationalist movements have existed, ideological pamphlets, historical novels that constructed a romantic national past to visual arts and hashtags such as #maga on Twitter have instrumentalised media. Next to disseminating explicit nationalist messages, media (printed press and visual arts included) also play a role for nationalism by making national symbols and discourses part of everyday life. By continuously providing representations of the nation and by presenting the world as a world of nations, media help to naturalise nationalism.

Since Karl Deutsch’s Nationalism and social communication (1953/1966), many studies of nationalism and national movements have pointed at the role of media. Most famously, in Imagined Communities (1983), Benedict Anderson emphasized the importance of ‘print capitalism’ in the emergence of modern nations. The growing distribution of newspapers, magazines, books and other print media facilitated language standardisation and literacy and through that to the development of a collective consciousness and the formation of an imagined community.

*CFP* "THE CLIMATE CATASTROPHE: A CREATIVE AND CRITICAL SURVIVAL GUIDE", BOOK PROJECT

The Climate Catastrophe: A Creative and Critical Survival Guide is a book project that builds on the ethos of the three (to date) eco_media symposia, in proposing an interdisciplinary response to the various catastrophes – human and nonhuman – currently threatening the planet. The editors of The Climate Catastrophe are posting an open call for chapter proposals. Chapters should address the current climate situation in various ways: some pieces will be critical/theoretical/empirical in nature, where others will recount and describe creative approaches through art, filmmaking, sound design, and photography.

With the circulation of vaccines around the world, we thought we were shifting to a new phase of life after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Delta variant of the virus threatens populations worldwide, plunging millions back into lockdown. The core questions for this publication will thus be: how might we maintain focus on environmental issues, on the ever-present existential threat that predated the chaos of 2020? How has the pandemic changed – and how does it continue to change – our approach to or understanding of our world and our place in it? What creative, theoretical, empirical or philosophical approaches might best help us move forward in innovative and responsible ways?

Topics could include — but are not limited to:

*CFP* "IDENTITY AND OTHERNESS IN FILM", INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FILM STUDIES

Over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st, cinema, television, and related media have become increasingly central both to individual lives and to the lives of peoples, groups, and nations. Cinema has become a major form of cultural expression and films both reflect and influence the attitudes and behaviour of people, representing their tensions and anxieties, hopes and desires and incarnating social and cultural determinants of the era in which they were made.

Cinema as a whole has historically offered a rich setting for understanding cultural interaction, however it functions within certain political and ideological limits. It offers fascinating source material for an examination of what, in the modern world, we understand as "otherness", the cinematic "Other" being constructed in terms of race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

This conference aims to consider film studies from a variety of critical, theoretical, and analytical approaches and to focus on how "self-other" relations are represented.

Papers are invited on topics related, but not limited, to:

*CFP* "USEFUL FILM IN (NEURO) PSYCHIATRY EUROPE, 1900-1950", WORKSHOP

Workshop “Useful Film in (Neuro) Psychiatry Europe, 1900–1950”

University of Lausanne 3-4 March 2022

This workshop is organized in the framework of the SNSF project Cinéma et (neuro)psychiatrie en Suisse: autour de la collection Waldau, 1920-1990

 

Since its inception, the cinematograph had many applications in the medical field, and particularly in the fields of psychiatry, neurology and neuropsychiatry. With surgeons, neurologists and psychiatrists are at the forefront of using film as a tool for analyzing, storing, archiving, and transmitting knowledge. For a long time, the (neuro) psychiatric films made by doctors as part of their teaching and research have been overshadowed by educational and health films. But since 2000, and especially 2010, scholars from different disciplines are increasingly interested in these practices. Several interdisciplinary teams have conducted research, with the aim of rehabilitating film as a privileged source for both the history of medicine and the history of cinema.

*CFP* "EXPLORING MOTHERLY INSTINCTS: REPRESENTATION OF MOTHERS IN INDIAN CINEMA", ISSUE 63, CAFÉ DISSENSUS MAGAZINE

The figure of the mother has always been glorified and depicted in black and white without shades of grey. However, time and again filmmakers and academic thinkers have strived to push this conventional depiction to accommodate various layers associated with the concept of motherhood, as they have sought to challenge the simplistic representation of mothers in popular media. It is important to explore the maternal world further in this highly digitized, globalized and gender-neutral environment. This proposed issue of Café Dissensus aims to curate a collection of essays on the representation of mothers in films that go beyond the stereotypical portrayal of motherhood as epitomized in the figures of Nirupa Roy and Rakhee Gulzar in conventional Bollywood style, showing unconditional love toward her offspring. The proposed issue welcomes submissions on the following themes (though not limited to them):

• Queerness and motherhood 
• Good vs. bad mothers 
• Evolution of the representation of mothers in cinema 
• Modern women and motherhood 
• Reimagining the domestic space 
• Masculinity and motherhood 

*CFP* "MEMORY, GUILT AND SHAME", 3RD INTERNATIONAL INTERISCIPLINARY ONLINE CONFERENCE

Memory, guilt and shame

3rd International Interdisciplinary Conference

Conference online (via Zoom)

 

The 20th century – an epoch of genocides – will be forever associated with feelings of guilt and shame. And it is not only the case of perpetrators. People are still ashamed of their ancestors and of the members of their nations, societies or families. Those who suffered from crimes and cruelties often experience survivor guilt, a mysterious phenomenon that psychotherapists try to tame. The status of bystanders is nowadays more and more often called into question, as it became clear that remaining “neutral” in the face of violence and atrocities was simply impossible. At the same time, many of both the victims and executioners make efforts to forget about the past events and repress the uncomfortable emotions. Others forget the facts involuntarily. Yet others cultivate false memories of what never occurred. Politicians impose their own narratives of history, with the hope of re-shaping the common convictions and achieving their short-sighted goals. Therefore, researchers dealing with memory studies of various kinds aim at explaining the complex relations of facts and phantasms, real and imagined guilt, justified and irrational shame.

*CFP* "COMUNICACIÓN, PROPAGANDA Y MOVIMIENTOS REVOLUCIONARIOS EN LA HISTORIA", NÚMERO ESPECIAL, RAEIC: REVISTA ESPAÑOLA DE LA ASOCIACIÓN DE INVESTIGACIÓN DE LA COMUNICACIÓN

RAEIC, Revista Española de la Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación, abre su llamada a propuestas para los artículos del número especial sobre “Comunicación, propaganda y movimientos revolucionarios en la historia”, que se publicará en mayo de 2022.

La comunicación planificada, especialmente de tipo persuasivo mediante diferentes estrategias y técnicas al servicio de emisores políticos, sociales o culturales, ha tenido un protagonismo relevante en los procesos revolucionarios a lo largo de la historia, sobre todo a partir de su difusión en los medios de comunicación de masas en períodos de crisis y/o conflictos sociales.

El uso de un periodismo militante y de los medios en la esfera pública como instrumentos de lucha política mediante la difusión de mensajes de agitación al servicio de causas que promueven el cambio de modelo político o social y sus instituciones en determinados períodos históricos, ha sido una constante en la historia contemporánea. Pero la capacidad seductora de los movimientos revolucionarios, tanto en su dimensión simbólica como en su cualidad sensacional para los medios periodísticos, ha potenciado su capacidad de impacto mediático y persuasivo.

*CFP* "QUEER VISUALS: GENDER, SEXUALITY AND INDIAN CINEMA", BOOK CHAPTER

How society represents its gender and sexual minorities, and whether the visual media should, at all, bear the responsibility of fair and equal representation, form two crucial discourses for a broader discussion in the field of gender studies at present. While ancient Indian society treated sexuality as a fluid concept, homosexuality eventually acquired the label of being a sin or crime primarily during the British Raj. However, the Indian society, as a whole, attempted to engage in constant historical, social and political struggles, the result of which was the decriminalization of the Act 377 terming it as ‘unconstitutional’ in 2018 by the Supreme Court of India. In the post-independent era, the cultural representation of gender identities had undergone a drastic transformation in various forms of visual media. Indian Cinema, one of the most common and easily accessible mediums of entertainment to the common mass, represented gender discourses not only through its stories, but also the songs that it incorporated and which served very much to forward the narrative of the plot, unlike its Western counterpart.

While commercial Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood, has come a long way in its depiction of diversified gender identities, the stereotypes of comical relief and voyeurism still remain its dominant feature. Since songs play a crucial role in facilitating the narrative of the plot, the lyrics used also form a crucial space for critical investigation in the field of gender studies, and to understand in what ways Hindi songs uphold or subvert traditional gender roles. Though in non-Hindi Indian cinema, gender representation in commercial films and songs has often paralleled their Hindi counterparts, there has often been acclaimed efforts by Indian filmmakers who handled the subject and presented the story with a sense of ingenuity, along with sensitivity and sincerity, thus making a mark of socio-cultural significance. 

*CFP* "ESSAYS ON POLICE AND POLICING IN 21ST CENTURY FILM AND TELEVISION", BOOK COLLECTION

The Black Lives Matter movement, the trial and conviction of Derek Chauvin, calls to defund the police, the prominence in the media of killer police such as Joseph James DeAngelo are recent manifestations of intense and even unprecedented levels of media attention on policing at interlocking points of race, inequality, social justice and political agendas.  Equally, exciting cross-disciplinary engagement between fields of justice studies, criminology, cultural studies and popular culture are increasingly opening up.

Police have been the inspiration for and focus of countless film and television stories, a long-standing dramatic strain that is a fictional backdrop to the intense recent public scrutiny, and at times rejection of policing. Perceptions of the police are shaped by these long standing narrative forms of film and television that can also convey other shapers of perception, from bodycam footage to mobile phone recordings. At this point of exceptional pressure on police conduct and the uncertain paths that policing will take in the 21st century, this collection is intended to be a topical opportunity to examine the themes of how police and policing are perceived and portrayed and these points are intended as the focal point for each contribution. We are assembling a special collection of essays that consider addressing the intersection of police and policing with film and television in the 21st century. 

*CFP* "REFLECTIONS AND REVERSALS. SYMBIOSIS BETWEEN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION AND AUDIOVISUAL FICTION", III INTERNACIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

 Reflections and reverslas. Symbiosis between political communication and audiovisual fiction

III International Symposium of Political Communication

Faculty of Philology and Communication

University of Barcelona

December 2-3, 2021

Even though audiovisual fiction is usually studied within cultural bounds (Trenzado Romero, 2000), it also presents an important political dimension taking into account that representations play a large role “when it comes to determining which social reality is to be constructed; that is, which figures and forms will prevail in the process of modelling life and social institutions” (Ryan and Kellner, 1988: 13). The spectacularisation of politics is inspired, partly, by the processes of fictionalisation and, at the same time, spheres such as the cinema or scenarios characteristic of serialised fiction are also a reflection of that reality (Rodríguez and Padilla, 2018). In turn, fiction can be a pretext of understanding so as to find the significance of knowledge and to try to bring it closer to a framework of reality (Oliveros Aya, 2010). However, beyond being a call and a reminder of certain events or political phenomena, fiction can also represent reality “by means of a different type of evidence and therefore it can offer a different and more complete approach to realism” (Whitebrook, 1991: 5). It can be said that, as a significant part of mass culture, audiovisual fiction contributes decisively to the formation, debate, inspiration and interpretation of a variety of political imaginaries.

*CFP* CALL FOR VIDEO-ESSAYS, ISSUE 8, TECMERIN: JOURNAL OF AUDIOVISUAL ESSAYS

Tecmerin. Journal of Audiovisual Essays launches its CFP for issue 8. It is a biannual, peer-reviewed journal, which also offers a monographic dossier each year. This journal is published by the research group Tecmerin (Television, Cinema, Memory, Representation and Industry) of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Department of Journalism and Media Studies).

The journal focuses on Spanish and Latin American cultural production, although not exclusively. Consequently, we especially invite scholars, researchers and creators to send pieces centered on the production, consumption, circulation and cultural exchange within these geographical areas.

Instructions for authors:

Researchers and creators may send their audiovisual essays to one of the following sections:

• Video-Essays:  audiovisual essays that offer a critical take on diverse aspects of cinema, television and popular culture. 
• Creators:  experimental or documentary pieces that approach a specific cultural topic.

*CFP* "A LICENSE TO HATE: ANTI-ASIAN PREJUDICE IN DIGITAL COMMUNICATION", 3RD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE PANEL

A License to Hate: Anti-Asian Prejudice in Digital Communication

University of South Florida

3rd International Conference: Approaches to Digital Discourse Analysis (ADDA3)

St. Petersburg, FL, USA: May 13-15, 2022

 

 

As reported, racism and anti-Chinese sentiments increased significantly after the start of the pandemic and have been directly linked to it (Vachuska, 2020). Disturbingly, over ¾ of Chinese Americans polled about their experiences reported being victim of at least 1 incident of COVID-19 racial discrimination online and/or in person, and over half perceived health-related Sinophobia in America and media-perpetuated Sinophobia (Cheah et al., 2020). Verbal and physical attacks on Asian Americans have been linked to racism and xenophobia deeply entrenched in the US society, and to the “us vs. them” worldview relegating Asian Americans to the bottom of the social hierarchy (Gover, Harper & Langton, 2020). Such feelings have been at least partly caused or exacerbated by the inflammatory rhetoric by the US politicians (Wu, 2020), and there has been evidence of ex-president Trump’s tweets to cause an uptick in anti-Asian verbal aggression on Twitter (Ziems et al., 2020). Researchers have analyzed the victims’ narratives (Satoh & Hata 2021) and even identified counter-discourses employing linguistic creativity to oppose hate (Zhu, 2020).

*CFP* "THE WORKS OF SHONDA RHIMES", SCREEN STORYTELLING EDITED VOLUME

This edited volume on the works of Shonda Rhimes will be the first book in a new series to be published by Bloomsbury Academic. Seeking 250-word abstracts for previously unpublished essays on television series created by Rhimes. Final essays will be 3,000-3,500 words, written for an audience of student readers, and will be due in the Spring of 2022.

The Screen Storytelling series is designed for students, professors, and enthusiastic consumers of film, television, and new media who seek information about contemporary and historically significant screenwriters that is both accessible and critically rigorous. The intention with this new series is to bring much-deserved attention to screen and television writers who have developed noteworthy films and television series of significant aesthetic or cultural achievement, critical acclaim, or commercial success, and to offer close readings of the films and series from the perspective of story, screenwriting craft, audience reception, and cultural impact. Each volume will explore the works of a single screen storyteller. The series will place a strong focus on examining works by screenwriters often left out of classroom syllabi, including women, writers of color, LGBTQ writers, and international writers. (Note: The Works of Jane Anderson is slated as the second volume in the series.)

 

The Works of Shonda Rhimes

*CFP* "ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE HUMAN. CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON SCIENCE AND FICTION", CONFERENCE AND EDITED VOLUME

Current debates on artificial intelligence often conflate the realities of AI technologies with the fictional renditions of what they might one day become. They are said to be able to learn, make autonomous decisions or process information much faster than humans, which raises hopes and fears alike. What if these useful technologies will one day develop their own intentions that run contrary to those of humans? The line between science and fiction is becoming increasingly blurry: what is already a fact, what is still only imagination; and is it even possible to make this clear-cut distinction? Innovation and development goals in the field of AI are inspired by popular culture, such as its portrayal in literature, comics, film or television. 

At the same time, images of these technologies drive discussions and set particular priorities in politics, business, journalism, religion, civil society, ethics or research. Fictions, potentials and scenarios inform a society about the hopes, risks, solutions and expectations associated with new technologies. But what is more, the discourses on AI, robots and intelligent, even sentient machines are nothing short of a mirror of the human condition: they renew fundamental questions on concepts such as consciousness, free will and autonomy or the ways we humans think, act and feel.

*CFP* CALL FOR CONTRIBUTION, NEXT ISSUES, BULLETIN OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR ROBIN HOOD STUDIES

The Bulletin of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, invites submissions on any aspect of the Robin Hood tradition. 

The editors especially welcome essays in the following areas: formal literary explication, manuscript and early printed book investigations, historical inquiries, new media examinations, and theory and cultural studies approaches. Proposals for guest-edited special issues are also welcome. 

Forthcoming special issues focus on Otto Bathurst’s 2018 Robin Hood film and Robin Hood games. We are looking for concise essays, 4,000-8,000-words long, in current CMS style with footnotes and end bibliographies. The journal is hosted by Ball State University’s Open Journals platform and is actively indexed in the MLA International Bibliography.

Submissions and queries should be directed to both Valerie B. Johnson (vjohnso6@montevallo.edu) and also Alexander L. Kaufman (akaufman@aum.edu).

*CFP* "SOCIEDAD E IDENTIDAD EN EL AUDIOVISUAL LATINOAMERICANO Y ESPAÑOL", NÚMERO ENERO 2022, MIGUEL HERNÁNDEZ COMMUNICATION JOURNAL

A lo largo del siglo XX, los medios audiovisuales han sido los constructores más potentes de imaginarios sociales e identitarios. En el siglo XXI, la realidad de la globalización, la generalización de Internet y de las redes sociales y el surgimiento de las plataformas de consumo online han impulsado exponencialmente el intercambio cultural de dichos imaginarios. Se ha conformado así una cultura global que aglutina de forma paradójica la homogeneidad y la diversidad.

Por este motivo, este monográfico intenta responder a algunas cuestiones que se plantean en torno a la construcción de los imaginarios audiovisuales y suscitar el análisis de esta realidad compleja, tanto en el pasado como en el presente. El espacio de debate propuesto establece como marco la producción audiovisual (cine, televisión y otros canales posibles) de España y de Latinoamérica, con el fin de centrarse en la evolución social de estos ámbitos geográficos a partir de su representación en los medios.

A continuación, se proponen algunas líneas generales, aunque no exclusivas en torno al tema propuesto para el monográfico

*CFP* CALL FOR MEDIA REVIEWERS AND PAPERS, MIDDLE WEST REVIEW

Middle West Review (MWR) is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal that examines the American Midwest. The journal is published biannually by the University of Nebraska Press.

MWR is seeking scholars to review media texts that engage with midwestern identity, history, and culture. From popular films and television series to online exhibitions and digital archives, MWR spotlights Midwest-oriented media texts in each issue. We welcome reviews of texts from our list below, as well as texts that are not currently on the list (including films and television series from across the histories of both mediums).

We accept rolling submissions of media reviews, review essays, and scholarly articles:

• Media reviews should be 900-1,500 words. 
• Review essays should be 2,000-3,000 words. These pieces may address multiple texts or more thoroughly consider a single film, television series, or other media object. 
• Scholarly articles should be 3,500-10,000 words. As an interdisciplinary journal, we invite submissions that utilize methodologies from a variety of fields, including film, television, media, and literary studies.

*CFP* "BEYOND PSYCHO: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF JOSEPH STEFANO AND HORROR IN THE OUTER LIMITS", BOOK CHAPTER

We invite chapter proposals (300-500 words) for an edited volume of critical essays dealing with screenwriter Joseph Stefano and elements of horror in the 1960s television program The Outer Limits.

This edited collection, with articles from film scholars working in the fields of horror and science fiction, will examine not only Stefano’s post-Psycho accomplishments as a scriptwriter but also his importance as a producer, establishing his gothic vision as a consistent characteristic of the show. The Outer Limits, filmed in black and white, employs an expressionist cinematography uncharacteristic of other broadcasts at that time, emphasizing the gothic elements of the plots while suggesting a new category of horror noir and science fiction drama. The Outer Limits, as horror noir, employs visual elements and narrative conventions of the art-house foreign films and noir drama of the past to create an ambiance of horror while anticipating future challenges of a society confronting accelerated scientific and technological change.

Essays will be structured around Stefano’s ten filmed screenplays and two contributed story ideas, while each essay also may examine other episodes, as appropriate, to illustrate how Stefano’s horror noir themes, tropes, and characterizations pervade the entire series.