*CFP* "'ACCESS ALL AREAS?': EXPLORING DISABILITY AND IN/ACCESSIBILITY IN FILM, TELEVISION AND MEDIA", CATHICON 2020 POSTGRADUATE CONFERENCE

CATHICon 2020

“Access All Areas?”: Exploring Disability and In/accessibility in Film, Television and Media

Postgraduate Conference hosted by the Cinema and Television History Institute (CATHI), 

De Montfort University, Leicester.

Wednesday 10th June 2020.

Phoenix Independent Cinema, 4 Midland Street, Leicester, LE1 1TG.

Some limited MA travel bursaries are available - please email cath.postgrad@gmail.com for more information.

De Montfort University’s Cinema and Television History Institute (CATHI) is pleased to invite postgraduates, early career researchers and independent scholars to its ninth annual postgraduate conference. This year, the focus of the conference is on issues of accessibility as presented within and by the film, television and media industries. This conference aims to investigate, challenge, and spotlight issues of accessibility in all forms, across all areas of film, television, and media history, culture, production, and pedagogy.

Whilst these industries may be experienced as “incredibly democratic and accessible” by some (Banksy, 2010) recent statistics problematise this idealistic appraisal. For instance, in 2019 ‘no disabled filmmakers received support from the £3m BFI Network Fund for emerging filmmakers, despite an internal target of just 7%...and, in 2018, no funding went to disabled directors or producers for the second year running’ (Gosling, 2019). In addition, issues of accessibility and disability are also incredibly underrepresented on-screen, with disabled individuals making up ‘just 6.5% of onscreen staff and 5.5% of off-screen staff in television’ (Ryan, 2017).

Issues of accessibility are also inextricably linked to societal understandings of class, gender, and race. With higher education existing against an ever-evolving backdrop of consumer-focused neoliberalism, access to learning itself is becoming a question of physical, mental, emotional, and financial accessibility.

This conference seeks to platform to these issues and offer an opportunity to highlight both the progression and stagnation of issues of accessibility in relation to the film, television and media industries of any era, from any part of the globe. We welcome a broad range of proposals from a diverse range of voices.

Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:

• Representations of in/accessibility and disability on-screen. 
• In/accessibility and disability in relation to industry or “behind the camera” roles. 
• In/accessibility and disability in relation to international and global cinemas. 
• The in/accessibility of higher education and University learning in the neoliberal landscape. 
• Physical in/accessibility in relation to the spaces of higher education (e.g. classrooms, lecture halls, archives). 
• Representations of in/accessibility and disability in relation to the journalism, radio, internet, social media, and gaming industries. 
• In/accessibility and disability in advertising and promotional materials. 
• Representations of disabled and/or chronically ill bodies. 
• Representations of mental health on and off screen. 
• Neurodivergence on and off screen. 
• Pedagogy, teaching, and accessibility.

Proposals for twenty-minute presentations (both traditional and non) should include the title of the presentation, a 250-word abstract, and a brief biographical statement. Proposals should be submitted to cath.postgrad@gmail.com by Friday 3rd April 2020. Applicants will receive a response by late April.

More information about the conference will be circulated in the near future. If you have any questions, or any accessibility requirements you would like us to note, please do let us know via email.

Submission deadline: April 17th, 2020.

Submission notification: April 30th, 2020.