*CFP* "DECOLONISING FILM EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND", SYMPOSIUM

Symposium: Decolonising Film Education in Scotland

Friday April 24th 2020, 10am-4pm

Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

Lectures and discussions focusing on the decolonisation of the curriculum have taken place around the UK in the last few years, and QMU’s Film & Media scholars are contributing to this debate by organising a one-day event that focuses on Scotland’s film education in all its shapes and forms.

At this event we hope to go further than merely diversifying the canon, by thinking through the meaning and practice of decolonising reading lists, staff quotas, educational resources, film screenings and other educational content. This event has been conceived to challenge longstanding omissions that limit how we understand Scottish identity and society. In order to continue to interrogate and broaden our vision of a Scottish future on the screen, we need to include a wider range of perspectives, reflecting the increasing diversity of Scottish experiences and identities in terms of class, disability, gender, geography, language and race.

We will reconsider who teaches whom, what the subject matter is and how it is being taught, in order to challenge any ingrained structural inequalities. This symposium sets out to challenge educational power structures and calls for deeper thinking about the content of our courses, lessons, resources and outreach initiatives and how we facilitate them. In addition to this, we see this event as an information sharing session where we can hear about, and learn from, the existing efforts from all of those working in film education to decolonise film canons and filmmaking.

We invite film education officers, archive professionals, festival curators and programmers, teachers, tutors, students, policy makers, as well as educators and scholars concerned about what we offer to pupils, students and audiences. We welcome proposals for a paper, a panel or workshop that will enable us to think about decolonisation of film education in Scotland.

Examples for topics (not an exhaustive list):

• Policy changes in primary and secondary education 
• Curriculum for Excellence and the canon 
• Teaching world cinema to a white student body 
• Teaching the big screen through the small screen 
• Working with young people from diverse backgrounds 
• Decolonising aesthetics and form in filmmaking practices 
• The continued relevance (or not) of canonical films & filmmakers for contemporary audiences

Deadline: December 20th

Proposals should be submitted to rmunro@qmu.ac.uk by December 20th. Please include a 250-500 word abstract, and a short biographical note. Applicants will be notified of acceptance by January 31st 2020.

Organisers:

Dr Robert Munro, Lecturer in Digital Media and Communication, QMU

Dr Stefanie Van De Peer, Lecturer in Film and Media, QMU