CALL FOR PAPERS:
All About Oscar or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Academy Awards
 
Networking Knowledge, the peer-reviewed, open access journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network is seeking abstracts of articles for its special issue on all themes relating to The Academy Awards. 
 
Deadline for abstracts: 8th January 2014
 
The 85th Academy Awards, held on Sunday 24th February 2013, was watched by 40 million Americans and hundreds of millions more in over 200 countries worldwide. It is the biggest media event of the year, blasted by some as nothing more than self-indulgent nonsense, praised by others as an important cultural tradition, and defined by the New York Times as ‘spectacularly trivial, paradoxically important, endlessly fascinating, and often vexing’. This special issue of Networking Knowledge aims to challenge the often negative representation of the Academy Awards, seeking articles that question and debate its global cultural significance. Articles of particular interest in this issue include, but are not necessarily restricted to:
 
·      A textual analysis of the Academy Awards ceremony and/or Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning films, especially concentrating on the textual construction of concepts like ‘Oscar-worthiness’ and ‘Oscar bait’
·      Studies of patterns and trends, particularly those that challenge prevailing assumptions with regards to the types of films, studios, and individuals that win Oscars. Where are the anomalies? Why are they there?
·      Issues of celebrity, fame, and star power and their relation to Hollywood’s awards
·      Notions of quality and ways in which this may or may not be represented by the Academy, its members, or its films
·      The history of the Oscars
·      The politics behind campaigning for and winning an Academy Award
·      Genre and the Oscars
·      The relationship between Oscar and Indiewood
·      The production, promotion, and reception of the Oscars telecast and nominated films
·      The business of the Academy and its impact on the global film industry.
 
The Academy Awards, though often neglected, offers a valuable centre point for interdisciplinary research, and this issue seeks a broad range of submissions that enable the collaboration of many fields across film, television, media, and cultural studies.
 
We invite articles by postgraduate and early career researchers, which are 5,000 to 6,000 words long. Please firstly send abstracts of up to 300 words along with a 50-word biography by January 8th 2014 to Liam Heffernan ([log in to unmask]) and Sam Ward ([log in to unmask]). Articles will be due on 01st May 2014.  Please contact the editors for any further information.
 
Liam Heffernan
Guest Editor
 
Sam Ward
Journal Editor


This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it.   Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment.  Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham.

This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment
may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system, you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.