>
> With apologies for cross-posting:
>
> University of Kent Annual Department of Film Studies Symposium
>
> 'TELEVISION, GENRE AND EVALUATION'
>
> Thursday 1st June, 2006, 10.00am-4.00pm
> Grimond Lecture Theatre 3, Canterbury Campus
>
>
> Programme:
>
> 10:00am             Arrival; tea and coffee
> 10.25am             Welcome and introduction
> 10.30am             Professor John Ellis - 'No Genre, No TV'
> 11.20am             Short break
> 11.25am             Dr Su Holmes - '(Re)visiting The Grove Family
>                     (1954-57) - "Neighbours to the Nation" (1954-57):
>                     Television History and Approaches to Genre'
> 12.15am             End of morning sessions. Lunch break.
> 1.25pm              Introduction to afternoon sessions
> 1.30pm              Professor Robin Nelson - 'Rich mixes: worth- 
> potential
>                     in contemporary TV drama hybrids'
> 2.20pm              Short break
> 2.25pm              Dr Steven Peacock - 'Borders and boundaries in  
> Deadwood'
> 3.15pm              End of afternoon papers; short break for tea  
> and coffee
> 3.30pm              Informal open discussion
> 4:00pm              End of symposium
>
> Rationale:
> Despite the 'virtual omnipresence' (Mittell, 2004) of generic  
> categories in
> television, from television scheduling and listings, channel  
> branding, and
> everyday talk, through to academic study, the complexity of the  
> medium's
> relations with genre has rarely been subjected to sustained  
> analysis. Given
> contemporary developments in television itself, as well as the on- 
> going
> development of Television Studies as an academic discipline, the  
> time seems
> right to revisit the question of genre within the medium. With this  
> in mind,
> the University of Kent is hosting a one-day symposium that aims to
> interrogate television's relations with genre, as these range across
> questions of history, methodological approach, aesthetics and  
> evaluation.
> The fact that generic categories are never 'neutral' -- that  
> ascribing or
> debating generic categories also involves processes of evaluation  
> -- forms a
> particularly important theme of the day. The symposium aims to  
> offer an
> eclectic range of papers, including those that address specific  
> programme
> texts, and those that offer explorations of broader conceptual,  
> theoretical
> and historical debates, as well as time for open discussion of the  
> themes
> addressed.
>
> Speakers:
> Professor John Ellis, Royal Holloway, University of London, is the  
> author of
> Seeing Things: Television in the Age of Uncertainty (I.B.Tauris  
> 2000) and
> Visible Fictions (Routledge 1982). From 1982 to 1999 he also ran  
> Large Door
> Productions making documentaries for British TV. His current research
> interests include broadcasting and television history, and  
> documentary. He
> has recently been principal researcher on two AHRB funded projects:  
> 'Did ITV
> Revolutionise British TV?', and the AHRC Resource Enhancement  
> project that
> created a database from the TV Times programme listings 1955-1985.
>
> Dr Su Holmes is Lecturer in Film and Television at the University  
> of Kent.
> She is the author of British TV and Film Culture in the 1950s:  
> Coming to a
> TV Near You! (Intellect, 2005); and the co-editor of Understanding  
> Reality
> Television (Routledge, 2004) and Framing Celebrity: New Directions in
> Celebrity Culture (Routledge, August, 2006).
>
> Robin Nelson is currently Professor of Theatre and TV Drama at  
> Manchester
> Metropolitan University. He has published widely on theatre and  
> media topics
> in books and journals such as Media, Culture & Society, Performance
> Research, European Journal of Cultural Studies and Journal of  
> British Cinema
> and Television. His books include TV Drama in Transition  
> (Macmillan, 1997)
> and (with Bob Millington) 'Boys from the Blackstuff': The Making of TV
> Drama, (Comedia, 1986). His forthcoming book, State of Play:  
> Contemporary
> "High End" TV Drama will be published by Manchester University  
> Press early
> in 2007. Robin has also contributed substantially to the  
> development of
> 'practice as research' and a chapter entitled 'Modes of PaR  
> knowledge and
> their place in the Academy' will shortly be published in the  
> conclusions of
> the five-year PARIP research project.
>
> Dr Steven Peacock is a Senior Lecturer in Film and Television  
> Studies at
> Southampton Solent University. He is the co-editor (with Sarah  
> Cardwell) of
> the 'Good Television?' issue of the Journal of British Cinema and  
> Television
> (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, July 2006); the editor of  
> Reading
> 24: TV against the Clock (London: I.B Tauris, December 2006); and  
> the author
> of Colour, 'Cinema Aesthetics Series' (Manchester: Manchester  
> University
> Press, forthcoming September 2007).
>
>
> This one-day event is the latest in a series of annual Film Studies  
> symposia
> held at Kent since 1998 (previous keynote speakers have included David
> Bordwell, Kristin Thompson, Victor Perkins, Steve Neale, Richard  
> Allen and
> Robert Stam). The 2006 symposium is organised by Dr Sarah Cardwell
> (Adaptation Revisited [2002]; Andrew Davies [2005]) and Dr Su Holmes
> (British TV and Film Culture in the 1950s: Coming to a TV Near You!  
> [2005];
> Understanding Reality TV [2004], co-editor). Entrance is free. For  
> further
> information please contact Jan Langbein ([log in to unmask];  
> tel. 01227
> 823177) or Dr Catherine Grant ([log in to unmask]; tel. 01227  
> 823749).