*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* "EPISTEMIC CONTESTATIONS IN THE HYBRID MEDIA ENVIRONMENT", SPECIAL ISSUE, POPULAR COMMUNICATION: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MEDIA AND CULTURE

The aim of this special issue is to explore how a multiplicity of competing epistemologies interact and compete in the “post-Truth” marketplace of ideas in online popular communication. We invite contributions to a special issue on the intersections of popular communication, disinformation, and misinformation. We are especially interested in how popular communication can challenge and even upend traditional and inherited belief systems and knowledge regimes in religion, politics, fandom, and other institutions.

As traditional ideologies and other thought regimes collapse and new ones arise, recent scholarship has examined the contributions of digitalization and datafication of popular communication that contest older communitarian worldviews (e.g. Fuller, 2020). The internet has augmented collective understandings of the world but also undermined a broader sense of belonging, while enabling a new scope of contestation over “epistemic capital” (Robertson, 2016, 2021). In popular communication, especially, the social construction of meaning and worldviews is more manipulable than ever through disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda.

*CFP* "THE AUDIOVISUAL THINKING PROCESS IN CONTEMPORARY ESSAY FILMS", ISSUE 18 (SPRING 2022), COMPARATIVE CINEMA JOURNAL

Born out of modern cinema, the essay film departed from the dominant forms of fiction and documentary cinema in order to explore an unknown territory defined by subjectivity, hybridization and reflection, evolving to become “a form that thinks,” as Jean-Luc Godard defined it. The final decades of the 20th century witnessed the consolidation of the essay film, which was enabled by postmodern thought and culture, as well as by the development of video recording technology. In this mode, works by Chris Marker, Roberto Rossellini, Orson Welles, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jonas Mekas, Harun Farocki, Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders, Guy Maddin, Peter Watkins, Chantal Akerman, Alexander Kluge or Johan van der Keuken, among many others, developed a practice of audiovisual thinking for which Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-1998) could be considered the epitome, marking a turning point that also took place at the century’s end. Over the last twenty years, this essayistic practice has proliferated due to the digital revolution, facilitating diverse experiences of subjectivity and intimacy, and multiplying the possibilities of audiovisual editing; that is, of the very thinking process that defines this filmic form. Taking this itinerary into account, the 18th issue of Comparative Cinema proposes to address the specificities of the audiovisual thinking process in the contemporary essay film.

The most notable studies devoted to the essay film have established its key traits – the audiovisual expression of the thinking process and the self-reflexiveness of subjectivity – and its specificities – issues related to its genealogy, historical path and bond with the literary essay – allowing for the consolidation of this research area. Several edited volumes have been decisive in this regard, including: L’essai et le cinéma (Liandrat-Guigues and Gagnebin, 2004); La forma que piensa (Weinrichter, 2007); Jeux sérieux. Cinéma et art contemporains transforment l’essai (Bacqué et al., 2015); and Essays on the Essay Film (Alter and Corrigan, 2018). 

*CFP* "THE AUDIOVISUAL THINKING PROCESS IN CONTEMPORARY ESSAY FILMS", Nº 18 (SPRING 2022), COMPARATIVE CINEMA JOURNAL

Born out of modern cinema, the essay film departed from the dominant forms of fiction and documentary cinema in order to explore an unknown territory defined by subjectivity, hybridization and reflection, evolving to become “a form that thinks,” as Jean-Luc Godard defined it. The final decades of the 20th century witnessed the consolidation of the essay film, which was enabled by postmodern thought and culture, as well as by the development of video recording technology. In this mode, works by Chris Marker, Roberto Rossellini, Orson Welles, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jonas Mekas, Harun Farocki, Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders, Guy Maddin, Peter Watkins, Chantal Akerman, Alexander Kluge or Johan van der Keuken, among many others, developed a practice of audiovisual thinking for which Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-1998) could be considered the epitome, marking a turning point that also took place at the century’s end. Over the last twenty years, this essayistic practice has proliferated due to the digital revolution, facilitating diverse experiences of subjectivity and intimacy, and multiplying the possibilities of audiovisual editing; that is, of the very thinking process that defines this filmic form. Taking this itinerary into account, the 18th issue of Comparative Cinema proposes to address the specificities of the audiovisual thinking process in the contemporary essay film. The most notable studies devoted to the essay film have established its key traits – the audiovisual expression of the thinking process and the self-reflexiveness of subjectivity – and its specificities – issues related to its genealogy, historical path and bond with the literary essay – allowing for the consolidation of this research area. 

*CFP* "GIALLO! THE LONG HISTORY OF ITALIAN TELEVISION CRIME DRAMA", SPECIAL ISSUE, JOURNAL OF ITALIAN CINEMA AND MEDIA STUDIES

Most of the Italian television drama able to circulate internationally belongs to the multifaceted crime genre, both in some sparse examples from the past and in growing contemporary productions (from premium channels and digital platforms to public service and commercial broadcasters). However, for many decades, only a limited range of titles has been given scholarly attention, drawing a useful yet partial account of an otherwise dense and multi-layered history. Moreover, exceptions have often been studied far more than the most conventional crime series in the ‘giallo’ spectrum: most police procedurals are deemed too formulaic, or too popular, to be distinguished. Therefore, this special issue intends to overcome these limits by focusing on the historical evolution of the crime genre inside the development of Italian television, from the early stages to the latest mainstream and niche successes, and by highlighting the many crime titles that have become familiar to large Italian audiences.

Through the Italian crime drama and its evolution over the decades, an original history of Italian television and media can be easily outlined, where ‘giallo’ would often mark changes of pace, innovations, successes and failures. Already in the first twenty years of the so-called paleo-television and monopoly period, crime drama was facilitating the Italian ‘sceneggiato’’s turn towards a medium-long seriality: the investigations of ‘tenente’ Sheridan (from 1959 to 1972, first with Giallo club. Invito al poliziesco and later with Ritorna il tenente Sheridan, Sheridan squadra omicidi and Le donne del tenente Sheridan) or Le inchieste del commissario Maigret (1964-1972), starring Gino Cervi; or Nero Wolfe (1969-1971). 

*CFP* "TRANSMEDIALIZACIÓN Y CROWDSOURCING EN LA CULTURA MEDIÁTICA CONTEMPORÁNEA", SEMINARIO INTERNACIONAL

Seminario Internacional 

“Transmedialización y crowdsourcing en la cultura mediática contemporánea”

16, 17 y 18 de junio de 2021, Granada (España)

 

Se abre el plazo de presentación de comunicaciones para el Seminario Internacional Transmedialización y crowdsourcing audiovisual en la cultura mediática contemporánea, organizado por el Proyecto Transmedialización y crowdsourcing en las narrativas de ficción y no ficción audiovisuales, periodísticas, dramáticas y literarias (Ref. CSO2017-85965-P), los Grupos de Investigación “Teoría de la literatura y sus aplicaciones” (PAIDI HUM-363) y “Procesos de Creación, Producción y Postproducción Audiovisual y Multimedia” (PAIDI SEJ-585), con la colaboración de la Facultad de Comunicación y Documentación, la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, el Departamento de Lingüística General y Teoría de la Literatura, y el Departamento de Información y Comunicación de la Universidad de Granada.

*CFP* "LOS AÑOS 90 EN LA LITERATURA Y EL ARTE IBEROAMERICANOS", NÚMERO MONOGRÁFICO, REVISTA [SIC]

La revista [sic] invita a participar en su próximo número monográfico `Los años 90 en la literatura y el arte iberoamericanos´, coordinado por Álvaro Lema Mosca. El plazo para el envío de propuesta se cierra el 20 de marzo de 2021.

Se reciben artículos de investigación vinculados a esta periodización y sus principales características.

Ejes temáticos:

• La literatura de los 90: ruptura, transición, identidad.
• Los 90 entre la posmodernidad, el neoliberalismo y la revolución tecnológica en el campo de la cultura: estudios culturales, el problema de la identidad nacional, la crítica.
• Relacionamientos entre la movida contracultural postdictadura (segunda mitad de los 80) y principios de los 90.
• La novela negra, el thriller, el policial, lo fantástico, el realismo sucio, la ciencia ficción en los 90.
• La novela histórica de los 90: continuidad, ruptura, revisión.

*CFP* "DETECTING EUROPE IN CONTEMPORARY CRIME NARRATIVES: PRINT FICTION, FILM, AND TELEVISION", INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

“Detecting Europe in Contemporary Crime Narratives: Print Fiction, Film, and Television”

21-23 June 2021

Link Campus University

Via del Casale di San Pio V 44 – Rome (IT)

 

Among the different expressions of popular culture, no other genre more than crime – meant as a composite made up of many different variants or subgenres -- has proved able to travel and expand its reach into international markets and with audiences. Nor has any other genre been more adept at laying bare the conflicts and contradictions – social, political and historical – that characterise contemporary European societies. The Detecting Europe conference offers an open forum to explore and discuss how narratives of crime and investigation, as well as their production and reception, have helped define the major industrial, commercial, thematic and stylistic trends of European popular culture since 1989, fostering both the transnational circulation of its products and the appearance of new transcultural representations in line with the emergence of new social identities. We welcome proposals that interrogate the notion of Europeanness as a critical category, and its viability for the study of contemporary popular culture, both in print and screen media. We wish to explore both the scope and limits of the interrelated notions of transnational identity and cosmopolitanism when applied to the works of European crime fiction, including print fiction, film, and TV.

*CFP* "DETECTING EUROPE IN CONTEMPORARY CRIME NARRATIVES: PRINT FICTION, FILM, AND TELEVISION", INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

International Conference

Detecting Europe in contemporary crime narratives: print fiction, film, and television

21-23 June 2021

Link Campus University

Via del Casale di San Pio V 44 – Rome

Among the different expressions of popular culture, no other genre more than crime – meant as a composite made up of many different variants or subgenres -- has proved able to travel and expand its reach into international markets and with audiences. Nor has any other genre been more adept at laying bare the conflicts and contradictions – social, political and historical – that characterise contemporary European societies. The Detecting Europe conference offers an open forum to explore and discuss how narratives of crime and investigation, as well as their production and reception, have helped define the major industrial, commercial, thematic and stylistic trends of European popular culture since 1989, fostering both the transnational circulation of its products and the appearance of new transcultural representations in line with the emergence of new social identities. We welcome proposals that interrogate the notion of Europeanness as a critical category, and its viability for the study of contemporary popular culture, both in print and screen media. We wish to explore both the scope and limits of the interrelated notions of transnational identity and cosmopolitanism when applied to the works of European crime fiction, including print fiction, film, and TV.

*CFP* "EMOTIONS, POPULISM AND POLARISATION", SECOND HELSINKI CONFERENCE

First call for papers for the Second Helsinki Conference on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation

The first CfP for our HEPP2 conference 6-8 May 2021 is out. Please consider filling the webform to submit your abstract.

The Second Helsinki Emotions Populism and Polarisation Conference: Call for Papers

After the success of our conference in August 2019, the Helsinki Hub on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation and its associated projects, Mainstreaming Populism in the 21st Century (MaPo) and Whirl of Knowledge: Cultural Populism in European Polarised Politics and Societies (WhiKnow), invite proposals for papers for the Second Helsinki Conference on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation, to be held both in person and online from 6 to 8 May 2021.

*CFP* "LA REPRESENTACIÓN DE LA FAMILIA EN EL MANGA Y EL ANIME", MONOGRÁFICO 8, REVISTA ADMIRA

Durante las últimas décadas, el cómic japonés (manga) y la animación japonesa (anime) se han consolidado como objetos de investigación relevantes en los Estudios de la Comunicación, los Estudios Japoneses y los Estudios Culturales. La creciente presencia internacional de estos productos comunicativos y su éxito entre varias generaciones de audiencias extranjeras han propiciado multitud de investigaciones centradas en las características estéticas, narrativas, ideológicas, económicas y socioculturales de los cómics y las animaciones procedentes de Japón. 

Con el fin de contribuir al conocimiento sobre manga y anime así como sobre el modo en que las obras de estos medios representan la sociedad japonesa para una audiencia extranjera, la Revista ADMIRA lanza una convocatoria de artículos para su próximo número. Bajo el título “La representación de la familia en el manga y el anime”, este monográfico coordinado por el investigador Francisco Javier López Rodríguez tiene como objetivo reflexionar sobre el modo en que los cómics y las animaciones de Japón (de)construyen, critican, promocionan o cuestionan determinados valores, roles de género, actitudes o acciones en el seno de la familia. 

*CFP* "GENDER AND TRANSNATIONAL TV", CONFERENCE

Gender and Transnational TV conference,

Liverpool 

11-12 June 2020

This conference aims to forge interdisciplinary links between those working in Television and Media Studies, Modern Languages and Gender Studies. Television and media research is changing, the rapid evolution of this medium has been theorised in terms of the technological advances that changing modes of distribution bring, its textual, narrative and aesthetic developments, and its role as a mediator of cultural identity. Scholarship in this area has produced prolific studies of US and, to a lesser degree, UK television to exemplify the ways in which constructions of gender are mediated through different televisual formats and genres. 

This conference will refocus this research through analysis of television made beyond these English-speaking territories and consider the important work being done in Modern Languages to understand and analyse the ways in which transcultural and transnational mediations of gender are made visible, produced and understood through popular television.

*CFP* “TABOO-TRANSGRESSION-TRANSCENDENCE IN ART & SCIENCE”, 2020 CONFERENCE

Taboo - Transgression - Transcendence in Art & Science 2020  

26-28 November 2020

University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria

The fourth international conference Taboo - Transgression -Transcendence in Art & Science, supported by the Department of Audio & Visual Arts of the Ionian University since its beginning in 2016, will take place November 26–28, 2020, in Austria, hosted by the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Including theoretical and art practice presentations, TTT2020 continues to focus (a) on questions about the nature of the forbidden and aesthetics of liminality as expressed in art that uses or is inspired by technology and science, and (b) on the opening of spaces for creative transformation in the merging of science and art.

*CFP* CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS, GLOBALISING MEN'S STYLE CONFERENCE

Globalising Men’s Style. Papers, presentations, and in-conversation discussions are welcomed for the Globalising Men’s Style conference to be held on Friday 26 June 2020, with an evening reception on Thursday 25 June 2020, at London College of Fashion. 20 John Prince's St, London W1G 0BJ.

Co-Convenors: Charlie Athill and Jay McCauley Bowstead

Over the past two decades men’s style, fashion and grooming have enjoyed an accelerated expansion. At the same time, the hegemony of Western fashion capitals has been challenged by innovative menswear practices, street style, and high-end design emanating out of new centres of creative practice. Shifting approaches to masculine aesthetics, expanding and emerging markets, and the proliferation of representations via social media, has stimulated – and brought to a wider global attention – a set of diverse manifestations of men’s style. Menswear designers from Georgia, China, and South Korea are celebrated in the International fashion media, while sartorial subcultures from Central Africa and South Asia have gained international attention.

*CFP* "HIBRIDITY AND STAR TREK", SPECIAL ISSUE, INTERDISCIPLINARY LITERARY STUDIES: A JOURNAL OF CRITICISM AND THEORY

Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theory. We invite essays that investigate the concept of hybridity within the Star Trek universe.

Accepted essays will be published in a Special Issue of the peer-reviewed journal Interdisciplinary Literary Studies (Penn State University Press). Please submit essays of no longer than 7,500 words to Editorial Manager. Select “Special Issue Article” before uploading your manuscript.

Deadline for receipt of essays is May 18, 2020

Possible topics include hybridity and:

*CFP* "GENDER AND TRANSNATIONAL TV", CONFERENCE

Gender and Transnational TV conference

Liverpool 11-12 June 2020

This conference aims to forge interdisciplinary links between those working in Television and Media Studies, Modern Languages and Gender Studies. Television and media research is changing, the rapid evolution of this medium has been theorised in terms of the technological advances that changing modes of distribution bring, its textual, narrative and aesthetic developments, and its role as a mediator of cultural identity. 

Scholarship in this area has produced prolific studies of US and, to a lesser degree, UK television to exemplify the ways in which constructions of gender are mediated through different televisual formats and genres. This conference will refocus this research through analysis of television made beyond these English-speaking territories and consider the important work being done in Modern Languages to understand and analyse the ways in which transcultural and transnational mediations of gender are made visible, produced and understood through popular television.

*CFP* "SUJETOS, ESPACIOS Y TIEMPOS EN LAS PRODUCCIONES CULTURALES HISPÁNICAS", XVII CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL ALEPH CONSTRUCCIONES IDENTITARIAS

XVII Congreso Internacional Aleph Construcciones Identitarias: 

“Sujetos, espacios y tiempos en las producciones culturales hispánicas”

Universitat de València; Asociación de Jóvenes Investigadores de la Literatura Hispánica (ALEPH)

Avenida de Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, 62, 46010, Valencia (España)

Del 31 de marzo al 3 de abril de 2020

La Universitat de València y la Asociación de Jóvenes Investigadores de la Literatura Hispánica (ALEPH) invitan a particpar en este congreso que se celebra del 31 de marzo al 3 de abril de 2020 en Valencia (España). El propósito es recorrer los territorios de lo identitario: fronteras, centros, espacios, tiempos, lenguajes y textualidades. La fecha límite para el envío de propuestas se cierra el 20 de diciembre de 2019.

Líneas temáticas:

*CFP* “CINEMA AND THE CITY: INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES”, 2019 CONFERENCE

Cinema and the City: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

29-30 de Noviembre, 2019

University of Palermo, Italia

The conference aims to explore the relationships established between cinema and urban areas. We want to stress the connections woven between cities and cinema, films, fiction and documentaries – important unconventional sources for the understanding of social and cultural contexts. We intend to focus on the modalities used in films to tell stories – through images and speech – concerning cities, territories, and places, residents’ lives in relation to spaces, to buildings, to landscapes, as well as to its urban culture as a whole. The perspective we have chosen for this conference is interdisciplinary and cinema will be considered as a medium to be understood and interpreted in several, possibly comparative, ways. Actually, cinema, as a specific cultural artefact, expresses both individual and collective viewpoints mirroring cultures and hybridizations that can be explored by various disciplines and comparative perspectives. 

*CFP* "COMPLEXITY, HIBRIDITY, LIMINALITY: CHALLENGES OF RESEARCHING CONTEMPORARY PROMOTIONAL CULTURES", ECREA CONFERENCE

Complexity, hybridity, liminality: Challenges of researching contemporary promotional cultures

A European Communication Research and Education Association conference co-sponsored by the ECREA Organisational and Strategic Communication section; the Department of Media and Communications, LSE; and the School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester.

Date/Time: Friday 21 February 2020, 09:30-17:30

Venue: The Silverstone Room, Department of Media and Communications, Fawcett House (7th floor), London School of Economics and Political Science, London WC2A 2AE

We live in a time characterised by uncertainty, hybridity and complexity, when the powerful dualisms that characterised the post-Enlightenment era (nature/society, human/machine, male/female, etc.) are being problematised in a fundamental way. This conference explores how we research the promotional cultures that have become central to the liminal times in which we live. What strategies do we use to explore and attempt to understand the assemblage of technologies, texts, networks, and actors in contemporary promotion?

*CFP* "DISSOLVING BOUNDARIES OF HYBRID JOURNALISM", THEMATIC SECTION - SCOMS

Studies in Communication Sciences (SComS). Call for Papers for the Thematic Section 1/2020. "The Dissolving Boundaries of Hybrid Journalism: Rethinking News Work Between Datafication, Hacking and Activism" .- Guest editors: Dr. Colin Porlezza (City, University of London) & Dr. Philip Di Salvo (Università della Svizzera italiana)

As journalism becomes increasingly networked and datafied – produced by different actors with different backgrounds, intentions and norms – new types of hybrid journalism arise. These hybrid forms of journalism often transcend traditional conceptions as journalists increasingly engage in activism or in collaborations with whistleblowers, hackers algorithms and artificial intelligence or machine learning. While this trend challenges the binary thinking of what journalism is and what it is not, it also enables new forms of journalistic truth-telling (Baym, 2017). This call wants to explore, discuss and shed light on the different types and forms of hybrid journalism, what hybridity actually means and what consequences it entails for news work.