*CFP* "SPIES AND SECRET AGENTS ON EASTERN EUROPEAN SCREENS", SPECIAL ISSUE, STUDIES IN EASTERN EUROPEAN CINEMA JOURNAL

While various generic manifestations of popular cinema in Eastern Europe have attracted increasing scholarly attention, as testified, for instance, by special issues of SEEC devoted to sci-fi and musicals, a  research gap can still be observed regarding the espionage genre in the region, despite the fact that some of the Eastern European titles of this variety have become box office hits. The lukewarm academic interest in Eastern European spy thrillers thus far can perhaps be partly explained by the low cultural prestige of the genre and its assumed adherence to the hegemonies and realpolitik of the Cold War – implicit preconceptions that the proposed special issue is designed to address.

 

Aside from screen stories with a central focus on clandestine affairs, we also encourage studies on works that present secret agents in a range of generic frameworks, such as historical dramas, biopics or comedies.

• Some of the possible topics and approaches include:
• The espionage genre and cinematic secret agents before World War II
• Spy films and Cold War

*CFP* "WHISTLEBLOWING", AN INCLUSIVE INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

Whistleblowing

An Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference

Sunday 14th March 2021 - Monday 15th March 2021

Lisbon, Portugal

Whistleblowers can play a vital role in exposing illegal, unjust or unethical behaviour on the part of businesses, governments and individuals in positions of power. However, whistleblowing is seldom a black and white matter. Exposing secrets can be instrumental in achieving positive change; but at the same time, such disclosures may run the risk of endangering innocent lives. Affording whistleblowers protection whilst also providing natural justice to those accused of wrongdoing can be a difficult balance to maintain. While whistleblowing empowers those who are generally without power, it could also contribute to the creation of a culture of surveillance and reporting that undermines positive engagement between colleagues, employees and citizens.

As a complex, fundamentally polarizing concept, whistleblowing can take many forms, from hourly workers informing bosses about unsafe working conditions, to high-end employees at international corporations informing the public about health risks, to anonymous informants disclosing illegal practices at the highest levels of governments around the world.

*CFP* "'TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY': ADAPTATIONS, HISTORIES, LEGACIES", EDITED COLLECTION

What accounts for the ongoing importance of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" in popular culture? First published in 1974, John le Carré’s novel has occupied an important place in the espionage imagination ever since, with a BBC television adaptation directed by John Irvin in 1979, BBC radio broadcasts in 1988, 2009 & 2016, and a film directed by Tomas Alfredson in 2011. The first in the Karla Trilogy, followed by "The Honourable Schoolboy" (1977) and "Smiley’s People" (1979), "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" continues the critique expounded in "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" (1963) to focus upon, not the sexy, triumphant heroism and techno-fetishism of the Bond franchise, but the everyday paranoid underbelly of the secret service. Many have discussed the links between representation and reality as a structuring feature of both "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and its author, who worked as a spy in his early professional life. Its central character, George Smiley, pushed from the Circus (fictional British intelligence agency) only to return covertly to investigate a mole at the very top of the organization, is a type of anti-heroic Prometheus figure bringing light to humanity through forms of deceit. Surrounding Smiley is the unstable edifice of the espionage trade: changing notions of empires and nations as new transnational forms appear; a spy trade being redefined within the dynamics of historical transformation; individual struggles for characters trying to make sense of their work and lives; nostalgia for times that modernity has subsumed in the name of progress; the increasing incursion of the security state into new areas of public and private life; the uncertain relation between truth and deception; and the search for a truth of which no one can any longer be certain.