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Call for Papers

Masculinity and the Metropolis

An Interdisciplinary Conference on Art History, Film, and Literature

University of Kent, 22nd – 23rd April 2016

Deadline for submissions: 20 December 2015.

This interdisciplinary conference, hosted by the University of Kent, takes as its starting
point the range of complex and contradictory engagements between masculinity and
the developing metropolis since the beginning of the twentieth century. Throughout this
period the metropolis maintained a paradoxical status as a place of liberation and
possibility, but simultaneously as one of alienation, sin, and oppression. What do
responses to the modern city in visual art, film, and literature tell us about masculinity as
it both asserts itself and registers its own anxieties, and subsequent representations of
the city? In what ways do these contrasting positive and negative conditions, which
encouraged complex responses, fit within the framework of masculinity?

 In the wake of industrialization artistic reactions to modern urbanity were spurred on by
the rapid growth of cities and the transition from rural to metropolitan living. This caused
socio-cultural changes and a diverse range of masculinities to develop within the
metropolis in terms of race, class, and sexualities. How has masculinity been visualized
with the construction of this modern cityscape and ideas of the urban? And later in the
20th Century, how did artists registering with ideas of deindustrialization or feminist and
queer art forms affect or approach theories of masculinity and the urban? Can we
construct an overarching lineage on this relationship? As one starting point, the so-called
“crisis of masculinity”, and the way it is represented in various media, can be
connected in interesting ways to the rise of the metropolis. This conference will bring
together scholars from varying fields in order to begin a dialogue regarding the way
theories of masculinity and the metropolis have developed in tandem, charting their
evolution from the beginning of the 20th Century to the present day. Scholars with
diverse interests and approaches to this broad subject are welcome with papers
concerning various media within the 20th and 21st centuries.

Examples of subjects invited for submission include, but are in no way limited to:

• Representations of the male and masculinity in metropolitan society
within literature, film, and fine art. Contributions from theatre, and music
are also welcome.
• Male as artist or witness to the evolving physical cityscape
• Modern and contemporary responses to 19th Century representations of
industrialisation and the urban / de-industrialization and the changing
nature of the urban and the masculine
• The metropolis as a milieu of capitalist oppression, and how this can be
related to masculinity
• Urban photography and the metropolitan male identity
• Masculine national identities within the cityscape
• Masculinity and the nocturnal city
• The modern or contemporary flâneur
• Cityscape planning and the organization of male spaces
• Destruction of the city and the crisis of masculinity
• The male Superhero
• Masculinities and sexualities within the metropolis
• Depictions of the urban male and race
• The relationship of masculinity to musical sub-cultures / the protest song
and music as social commentary
• Feminist, gay, and / or trans artistic reactions to masculinity and the
urban
• Masculinity and dramatic performance within the metropolis

Keynote Speakers
Dr. Deborah Longworth, University of Birmingham
Dr. Hamilton Carroll, University of Leeds
Dr. Gabriel Koureas, Birkbeck, University of London

Submission process

 We invite submissions of short abstracts (300 words) accompanied by a brief biography
(100 words). The time slot for presentations is 20 minutes with a 10 minute session for
questions at the end of each panel.
Please send your abstract as an attachment (.pdf or .doc) to: [log in to unmask]
The subject of the email should contain the words: “Masculinity and the Metropolis
submission”
The body of the email should include author(s) name, affiliation, abstract title and the
email address you would like us to use to communicate with you.
Deadline for submissions: 20 December 2015.
Notification of acceptance/non-acceptance: 26 January 2016.

More information: https://masculinemetropolis.wordpress.com<https://masculinemetropolis.wordpress.com/>

Contact: [log in to unmask]

Organizers
James Finch, History of Art
Hannah Huxley, American Studies
Sara Janssen, Film Studies
Margaret Schmitz, History of Art

With a special thanks to our sponsors: The University of Kent’s History of Art and Visual
Cultures Research Centre, Aesthetics Research Centre and the Centre for Film and
Media Research.

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Sara Janssen

PhD Student | Assistant Lecturer

Film Studies

University of Kent