Greetings, 

Please post, if apropos:

CALL FOR PAPERS
CFP: Film Noir

An area of multiple panels for the 2014 Film & History Conference:
Golden Ages: Styles and Personalities, Genres and Histories
October 29-November 2, 2014
The Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club
Madison, WI (USA)

DEADLINE for abstracts: June 1, 2014
AREA: The Golden Age(s) of Film Noir

Motion picture audiences have long grown accustomed to dramatic narratives in which the protagonist struggles to discover some element of truth among a myriad of circumstances and characters. As suggested by Kaplan, Spicer, Harvey, Place, and others, the style of Film Noir represented a different entity within the history of film; one that drew upon social eclecticism, and the seamy underbelly of popular culture. This style, or to some, film genre, forced audiences into re-examining American values, including traditional gender roles, race, and sexuality. 

While the war years of 1941-46 featured the private eye or hard-boiled detective’s trip through the social fantastic, the post-war years drew upon the social malaise that was a large part of American culture, and a war ravaged Europe. A later construct was that of psychopathic behavior and criminal intent in which villains and villainesses harbored dark childhoods, and psychological wounds of war. 

What can be said about the effects Film Noir, and the novels from which they derive, have had upon traditional Western societies? What cultural or historical factors affected audience perceptions of these stories, and their subsequent pleasures? How did female spectatorship factor prominently in postwar narratives? How has the anti-hero figured prominently in the deconstruction of patriarchy, if at all? This area, comprising multiple panels, explores the concept of “Golden Ages” across the production systems surrounding Film Noir. Topics might include the following:

• Decoding the Production Codes through Film Noir
• Feminism, female sexuality, and fandom
• Gay, Lesbian characters and Queer considerations 
• Racial relations, and social disruption
• The existence, or non-existence, of Neo-Noir 
• The Family in Film Noir
• The military man or woman in wartime Films Noir
• The recognizable star vs. the unknown actor in Films Noir
• The Tough Guy guise, and the fascination with the Femme Fatale
• Wet, dangerous, and dark: the visual tropes of the Film Noir city

Proposals for individual papers should include a 200-word abstract and the name, affiliation, and contact email of the presenter. Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. 
Deadline for Abstracts: July 1, 2014. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see: www.filmandhistory.org/The2013FilmHistoryConference.php

Please send submissions or queries to the area chair:

Darrell M, Newton
Salisbury University
[log in to unmask]




Darrell M. Newton, Ph.D.
Chair and Associate Professor
The Department of Communication Arts
Salisbury University
260 Fulton Hall
Salisbury, MD 21801
(410) 677-5060 Office
(410) 543-6229 Department
http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~dmnewton/
________________________________________
From: The History of the BBC [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anthony McNicholas [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 5:06 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [BBC-HISTORY] Journalism conference at the University of Westminster

CALL FOR PAPERS

Media Power – State, Market, Journalism, and the Limits of Free Speech


Date: 4 and 5 June 2014
Venue: University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS

The 6th Annual Conference of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University Westminster, held in association with the British Journalism Review, will focus on Media Power – State, Market, Journalism, and the Limits of Free Speech.

This conference is based on the premise that the media and in particular the news media are not merely a portal for the views of powerful vested interests but in today’s society are increasingly a power in their own right. Media power, therefore ‘is itself part of what power watchers need to watch’  There are undoubtedly structural imbalances of power between for example (some) sources of news and (most) journalists, but these relations are not fixed. So in the UK, the Leveson inquiry provided graphic evidence that not only have celebrities and private individuals been intimidated by powerful media organisations, so have politicians and even governments, with the result that even staunch free speech advocates are demanding more scrutiny of how the press regulates itself. India has seen the scandal of ‘paid news’ where news organisations demanded payment from politicians and political parties in order to be assured of favourable coverage. Elsewhere, the major problem for journalism and journalists in negotiating with power is the perennial question of state censorship and repression. Censorship is not the preserve of the usual suspects however, and the political pressure currently being applied to Japanese broadcaster NHK for example has shown that the carefully worked out balance of rights and obligations between journalism and the state is not one which can be taken for granted. In other parts of the world, most recently in Australia and the UK, public broadcasters and their journalism are under two-pronged attacks from ideologically driven governments and commercially driven competitors.

Journalism is about the getting, interpreting and imparting of information. In an age of convergence and ubiquitous social media we generate, consciously and otherwise, huge amounts of information about ourselves; our interests, our tastes, our movements. All of it can be harvested, by the state, by private companies and by those who simply have the know-how. But who owns this information this information? Who has the right to publicise it/keep it secret? What are the rights and obligations of journalism in this regard? Should journalism defend the right to individual privacy in the face of a supposed obligation to the state/society?

We welcome a variety of approaches and topics, either as individual papers or as panels.


PROGRAMME AND REGISTRATION

The conference will take place on Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 June 2014. The fee for registration will be £195 with a concessionary rate of £99 for students, to cover all conference documentation, refreshments, lunches, wine reception and administration costs. Registration will open end March 2014.


DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS

The deadline for abstracts is Monday 10 March 2014. Successful applicants will be notified by Monday 24 March 2014. Abstracts should be 250 words long. They must include the presenter's name, affiliation, email and postal address, together with the title of the paper. Please send abstracts to Helen Cohen at [log in to unmask]