*CFP* EXPERIMENTAL WRITTING ON POPULAR MUSIC, RIFFS JOURNAL

The editorial team of “Riffs: Experimental Writing on Popular Music” and guest editor Simon Jones (author of “Scientists of Sound: Portraits of a UK Reggae Sound”) invite 300-word proposals for the Volume 2 Issue 2 of “Riffs” from ECRs, PhD, MA and BA students, and anyone else with an interest in experimental writing on popular music.

“Playing music, for me right, it gets some heads together.... get a little tribal thing going on, you know. Get the frequency up.... Everybody’s on that frequency. It’s always been about that…and exciting people and changing their frequency.” - Robbo Dread, Birmingham 2017.

*CFP* CONGRESO "LA MITOLOGÍA EN LA NARRATIVA AUDIOVISUAL: CINE", CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS FILOSÓFICOS, POLÍTICOS Y SOCIALES VICENTE LOMBARDO TOLEDANO

El Centro de Estudios Filosóficos, Políticos y Sociales Vicente Lombardo Toledano organiza el Congreso "La Mitología en la Narrativa Audiovisual: Cine", que se celebrará el 13 y 14 de diciembre de 2018 en Valencia (España), tiene como objetivo analizar temas trasversales en el cine en relación a la mitología, para comprender la relevancia del mito y la narrativa audiovisual en la configuración del ser humano, la ciencia, la sociedad y la cultura. Los temas concretos del Congreso, que se abordarán en simposios específicos, están enumerados más abajo.

Este Congreso está dirigido a docentes e investigadores interesados en la reflexión crítica en torno a la mitología y el cine, desde disciplinas como la filosofía, el arte, las humanidades, la comunicación, el cine, la ciencia, la antropología, la religión, la historia, la política y el activismo.

*CFP* EDITED COLLECTION FOR NEO-VICTORIAN STUDIES BOOK SERIES

Recent developments in neo-Victorian cultural production seem to have at least partially acknowledged the steadfast urge put forth by actors, readers/viewers, and critics to include Black experiences in their storyworlds. TV formats like Penny Dreadful (2014-2016), The Frankenstein Chronicles (2015- ), Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2015-), and Peaky Blinders (2013- ) as well as films such as Wuthering Heights (2011), Belle (2013), and Lady Macbeth (2017) feature Black characters as part of their screenscape. Yet even though extensive research has brought to light the manifold Black experiences in Victorian Britain, filmmaker Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) continues to justify the overwhelmingly white cast in his period productions through a whitewashed conception of historical accuracy. 

Thereby, as Kehinde Andrews argues, "big budget films present as the historical hallucinations to support the distorted view of reality produced by Whiteness." (2016, 436) Similarly, literary fidelity has been upheld as yet another mechanism to exclude Black characters from neo-Victorian film. The scarcity of Black portrayals and concerns with issues of race in neo-Victorian film and TV holds true for its literary counterpart as well. This steadfast tension between inclusion and exclusion, between presence and absence, calls for an equally attentive, critical, and comprehensive interrogation.

*CFP* BOOK REVIEWS, REVISTA CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION

Central European Journal of Communication (ISSN 1899-5101) – the official Journal of the Polish Communication Association is published twice a year by the University of Wrocław Press.

Central European Journal of Communication provides an international forum for empirical, critical and interpretative, quantitative and qualitative research examining the role of communication in Central Europe and beyond. The journal welcomes high quality research and analysis from diverse theoretical and methodological approaches, as well as reviews of publications and publishes notes on a wide range of literature on media and communication studies. Submission of original articles is open to all researchers interested in communication and media. 

The Central European Journal of Communication is introducing a section dedicated to book reviews and commentaries of media and communication studies literature published in Central and Eastern Europe. The reviews section is edited by Paweł Baranowski from the University of Wrocław (Poland).

SEMINARIO INTER-UNIVERSITARIO DE ESTUDIOS CULTURALES. MÚSICA, SUBCULTURAS E INDUSTRIA MUSICAL

El Seminario Inter-universitario de Estudios culturales nace con el objetivo, en esta primera edición, de mostrar distintas perspectivas, enfoques, teorías e investigaciones que traten las manifestaciones que la música ha tenido en la cultura popular en los últimos 50 años.

La accesibilidad a la escucha y la accesibilidad a la producción son los dos grandes efectos del desarrollo tecnológico, económico y sociocultural, los cuales habilitan que haya un intrincado conjunto de relaciones en la música, como producto cultural que refleja las formas de vida de lo cotidiano así como proceso de apropiación y expresión y de invención de lo cotidiano. Aporías, expectativas, deseos, prejuicios, valores y formas de relaciones entre sujetos, dinámicas de reconocimiento y, en resumen, la producción de identidades sociales y experiencias que se articularan a través de las músicas, como fenómeno terminado, pero también como fenómeno creativo.

*CFP* "MÉXICO ESPECTRAL. FANTASMAS Y MUERTOS QUE HABLAN EN LA CULTURA MEXICANA CONTEMPORÁNEA", IMEX REVISTA

"México espectral. Fantasmas y muertos que hablan en la cultura mexicana contemporánea". La persistencia de la muerte y sus figuraciones en las culturas visuales y narrativas mexicanas es un reconocido lugar común en la cultura mexicana. El Mictlán, Xibalbá y otros inframundos, la Catarina, la Santa Muerte, fantasmas, muertos danzantes o narradores post-mortem, son figuras reconocibles en su folclore, religión, artes plásticas, literatura y cine. 

La revista iMex. México Interdisciplinario / Interdisciplinary Mexico invita contribuciones inéditas que interroguen las transformaciones y devenires de estos lugares comunes en los géneros artísticos, literarios y audiovisuales contemporáneos. Invitamos artículos que examinen desde un fondo teórico sólido y/o desde una perspectiva interdisciplinaria discursos y representaciones de lo fantasmal y la muerte. 

*CFP* INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "ENDANGERED BODIES: REPRESENTING AND POLICING THE BODY IN WESTERN POPULAR CULTURE", UNIVERSITY OF LISBON

The International Conference "Endangered Bodies: Representing and Policing the Body in Western Popular Culture" will take place at the School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon (Portugal), on the 8th and 9th of October, 2018, Anf. III.

The notion of 'endangered bodies', or bodies in danger, arises from our concern with current western political and socio-economic tendencies and practices against the discriminated or disenfranchised Other, whose body is physically, materially and symbolically subjected to internal pressures towards normalization and homogenization. The vulnerability or differential power of the Other's body becomes, in this sense, subject to social control and / or commodification. The different pressures and actions taken against these bodies are filtered and manipulated through popular culture, in ways that do not always provide accurate representations of the social / political / material issues they raise, many times exacerbating them in insidious forms of policing.

*CFP* "FAMILY AND THE MEDIA: CULTURAL POLITICS AND PUBLIC NARRATIVES", THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL POLITICS

Family as a form of social coexistence is widespread in political, cultural and media debates; cultural politics with respect to family can stir elections, fill media content, sell products and (re)construct socio-cultural and -political discourses. The presentation of families in the media is contextual, culturally encoded and socially determined in accordance with or opposition to predominant cultural politics and political ideologies.

The International Journal of Media and Culture (The IJMCP) invites contributions to the June 2019 special issue dedicated to “Family and the Media: Cultural Politics and Public Narratives”. The focus of this issue is on the analysis of (re)representations of family matters in diverse media. We ask: How and with which effect are family/families constructed/reflected in cultural politics and public narratives, in media as diverse as TV-series and film, (print) journalism and photography, blogs and microblogs (Twitter), social media apps (Snapchat or Instagram), radio and podcasts, or computer games? How do these media narratives construct, shape and/or influence public (political) discourses?

*CFP* "TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY TRUE CRIME", ALBEIT JOURNAL

Albeit is an internet literary journal focusing on the intersection between traditional scholarship and teaching documents. We seek to bring the scholarship to the students, and offer professors and teachers documents easily fitted into existing syllabuses. Each issue of albeit will feature articles, lesson plans, book reviews, and like documents. 

Albeit invites scholarly articles, detailed lesson plans, book reviews, creative pieces, and nonfiction essays exploring the evolving genre of true crime.

*CFP* CINEMA STUDIES CONFERENCE, "FAILED CINEMA", CINEMA STUDIES GRADUATE STUDENT ASSOCIATION

The Cinema Studies Graduate Student Association is pleased to announce our organization's Cinema Studies Conference, on the topic of "Failed Cinema" with Keynote Speaker Richard T. Rodriguez (University of California, Riverside). This conference seeks to explore failed media, acknowledging all the nuanced and slippery connotations encapsulated in the very concept of failure.

At what point can an artistic endeavor be defined as a failure? If a film achieves critical acclaim and countless accolades, yet disappoints in its returns at the box office, has it failed? Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was the second highest-grossing film in the US and Canada as well as the bestselling home media release of 2009. However, the film was panned critically, holding a 19% on Rotten Tomatoes and winning three Razzies for Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay at the 30th Annual Golden Raspberry Awards. Some “bad” movies have faded into obscurity while others have endured as guilty pleasures and cult classics. 2003’s The Room, generally considered one of the worst movies of all time, enjoys regular screenings in packed theaters for adoring fans. Is it fair to refer to either of these films as “failures”? What if a film fails in its domestic country, but enjoys massive successes with international audiences? What contributes to these outcomes and who gets to decide what constitutes such a subjective designation? Critics, audiences, scholars, other filmmakers? 

*CFP* "ANIMALS IN THE CINEMA", THE CINE-FILES

The Cine-Files, an online journal of cinema scholarship, is now accepting submissions for its Fall 2018 special issue on "Animals in the Cinema" that will be edited by Catherine Grant and Tracy Cox-Stanton. 

Since John Berger’s 1991 essay “Why Look at Animals?” studies of animals in visual culture have steadily advanced, culminating in the 2015 anthology Animal Life and the Moving Image (BFI, Michael Lawrence and Laura McMahon, editors).  In this work, scholars employ a diversity of theoretical frameworks to extend many of the insights of animal studies into the terrain of film and media studies.  Issue 14 of The Cine-Files seeks to build on that work, inviting scholars to contemplate the significance of animals in a variety of audiovisual media.

*CFP* EDITED COLECCTION "LATINO FATHERHOOD: PAPÁ IN POPULAR NARRATIVE"

Latino fatherhood and paternal figures are ever present in literature, film, and television, yet there is a lack of scholarly attention on their representation. Research has largely focused on Latina/Chicana motherhood and maternal figures. The purpose of this edited collection, titled "Latino Fatherhood: Papá in Popular Narrative", is to address this major gap in Latinx cultural studies by investigating how Latino fatherhood is defined, represented, and challenged in literature, film, television, and art. 

Proposals dedicated to Latinx cultural productions as well as Hollywood and media treatments of Latino fatherhood are both welcomed.

*CFP* "WATCHING TELEVISION SERIES, WRITING CRITICISM", REVISTA ANIKI

This thematic dossier focuses on the critical appreciation of particular television series, while also examining the distinctive practice of writing television criticism. Our understanding of television criticism echoes that of Alex Clayton and Andrew Klevan in their edited volume The Language and Style of Film Criticism (Routledge, 2011). It is a form of writing that addresses television series “as potential achievements and wishes to convey their distinctiveness and quality (or lack of it)” (Clayton and Klevan 1). The significance of criticism stems from the way it “deepens our interest in individual [series], reveals new meanings and perspectives, expands our sense of the medium, confronts our assumptions about value, and sharpens our capacity to discriminate” (Clayton and Klevan 1, emphasis in original).

The last ten years have seen a welcome and growing direction of scholarly interest towards the aesthetic dimensions of television fiction and the particular issues of judgement and value they raise—see, for example, Jason Jacobs and Steven Peacock’s volume Television Aesthetics and Style (Bloomsbury, 2013). Nevertheless, the practice of detailed stylistic criticism remains relatively rare in television studies; also underexplored are the unique challenges of writing detailed criticism in response to television series. Those challenges pertain to both the temporal expansiveness of series, and the need to articulate values in television fiction that may not have straightforward counterparts in traditions of film, literature, or fine art criticism. The dossier will add to the existing body of detailed writing on television series, while deepening our understanding of its distinctive challenges and values.

*CFP* THE LEFT CONFERENCE - PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM CRITICISM, UNIVERSIDAD DE LISBOA

Faculty of Belas Artes of the University of Lisbon and Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of Universidade NOVA de Lisboa are glad to announce a call for papers concerning the 3° International Conference “The Left Conference – Photography and Film Criticism” to be held at Faculty of Fine Arts of  University of Lisbon, on 9 and 10 November 2018.

The aim of the third edition of The Left Conference, Photography and Films to debate the use of photographs and film from a leftist stance. In particular, to critical examine and explore the relation of documentarypractices with political commitment in different historical circumstances throughout the twentieth century and the early twenty first century.

The seminar/conference together will take place at the Faculty of Belas Artes of the University of Lisbon on the 9th and 10th November 2018.

*CFP* EDITED COLLECTION ON MEDIA, INCARCERATION, PRISONS

Prisons, prisoners, and crime are attracting unprecedented levels of interest from both predictable sources (tabloid media) to more unexpected (such as the prison setting of Paddington 2).

Globally, but especially in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, the real life prison population is rising dramatically. The fictional presentations of prison, which may be prurient and sexploitative, high minded or fantastical, is matched by the barely factual and highly sensationalized prison of reality television. Orange is the New Black is only the latest example of the compulsion media of all types have to look inside the prison.

This proposed book is for an edited collection of international contributors. Its focus on the (real or imagined) spaces of the prison and prisoners and the stories told about prisons and justice in media both fictional and non-fictional media and perhaps more importantly in the uncertain space between both. Reality television, tabloid media, crime and horror films, soap opera and pornography are all possible areas of focus.

*CFP* "EMERGING CHINESE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MEDIA", LCM JOURNAL

"Emerging Chinese theory and practice of media" is the focus of a 2018 issue of the journal Languages Cultures Mediations (Issue nr. 2 vol. 5, publication December 2018). Co-editors Hugo de Burgh, Emma Lupano, and Bettina Mottura would like to remind their invitation for submissions of full papers by 30 June 2018.

China has developed its own model of media management and journalism since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. This model, which traditionally encompasses a very strong relation between politics and media practices, has evolved over the last 40 years of reforms. At the national level, it has transformed into a much more complex and nuanced system based on the mediation between political, commercial and professional interests. At the international level, the ambition of China to contribute to the media agenda and flow of information has grown significantly.

*CFP* II COLOQUIO INTERNACIONAL "GÉNERO Y SEXUALIDAD EN LAS CULTURAS HISPÁNICAS", UNIVERSITAT DE LLEIDA

El Segundo Coloquio Internacional “Género y sexualidad en las culturas hispánicas”, enmarcado dentro del proyecto de investigación “Diversidad de género, masculinidad y cultura en España, Argentina y México” (FEM2015-69863-9 MINECO-FEDER), se celebra en la Facultad de Letras de la Universitat de Lleida los días 8 y 9 de octubre de 2018.

Este Segundo Coloquio Internacional se plantea como un espacio de reflexión e intercambio entre las más recientes investigaciones producidas, en el contexto de las Humanidades, sobre diferentes aspectos relacionados con los estudios de género y sexualidad. El Coloquio busca, así, establecer un diálogo entre propuestas procedentes de áreas como la historia, la literatura, la lingüística o las artes con el fin de ofrecer una mirada amplia, compleja e interdisciplinaria en torno a los debates que ocupan actualmente el interés académico sobre este ámbito, tanto en España como a nivel internacional.

*CFP* “LOS DISCURSOS DEL ODIO”, REVISTA RAEIC

La Revista Española de la Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación abre su convocatoria de propuestas para los artículos del monográfico sobre “Los Discursos del Odio”, coordinada por Francisco Seoane Pérez (Profesor de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), Óscar Pérez de la Fuente (Profesor de la Univerisdad Carlos III de Madrid) y Katharine Sarikakis (Profesora de la Universidad de Viena).

Los llamados “discursos del odio” han cobrado una inusitada importancia social en tiempos recientes. El ascenso en Europa y Estados Unidos de movimientos considerados populistas, caracterizados en ocasiones por un lenguaje rayano en lo ofensivo, así como el anonimato que brindan las redes sociales para propagar insultos y comentarios despectivos a personas y minorías étnicas, sexuales o religiosas con casi total impunidad, han contribuido a un renovado interés académico por los límites a la libertad de expresión.

*CFP* CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL "CINE, TV Y CULTURA POPULAR EN LOS 90: ESPAÑA-LATINOAMÉRICA"

El Grupo Tecmerin de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, en el marco del Proyecto “Cine y televisión en España 1986-1995: modernidad y emergencia de la cultura global” (CSO2016-78354-P), organiza el Congreso Internacional “Cine, TV, y cultura popular en los 90: España-Latinoamérica” los días 17, 18 y 19 de Octubre, 2018 (V Encuentro Académico Tecmerin).

Los años noventa del siglo XX, que inauguran un nuevo ciclo histórico tras la paulatina hegemonía de las concepciones neoliberales y la simbólica desaparición de la frontera-muro de Berlín, constituyen un momento clave en la reconfiguración de la cultura en diversos ámbitos, y el audiovisual—tanto el cine como la televisión—no fue una excepción. Se puede incluso argumentar como hipótesis que la actual producción cultural española y latinoamericana es en gran medida heredera directa de varios de los procesos industriales, culturales y estéticos que cristalizaron en este periodo. De igual modo, es un momento en el que se establecen una serie de conexiones con la producción audiovisual entre España y Latinoamérica con el fin de re-evaluar los vínculos con los diferentes agentes culturales en este continente y trazar, potencialmente, nuevas plataformas de intercambio.