Sent on behalf of Sofia Mason (RHUL)
CHILDHOOD AND NATION IN WORLD CINEMAS:
BORDERS AND ENCOUNTERS SINCE 1980
CONFERENCE OF THE LEVERHULME FUNDED INTERNATIONAL NETWORK:
17th- 20th APRIL 2016, ROYAL HOLLOWAY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
Call for Papers:
Figuring filmic
representations of the child is an important recent trend in cinema
studies. Adult cultural investments in the child are acknowledged
whilst the most exciting work simultaneously pushes at the boundaries of
film theory to create a new cinematic politics of childhood in filmic
portrayals of the child’s experience.
This conference
aims to take forward children’s perceptions of, and involvement in,
screen representation. At the same time, it acknowledges the importance
of the child in figuring ideas of nationhood in adult cultural and
social consciousness, as it is explored through film. Given the current
debates over national film studies, and serious concerns over the
status of the nation as a meaningful cultural unit, our aim is not to
assume some pre-social geopolitical empathy of child and political
entity. Rather, we wish to observe how, why and indeed whether the
cinematic child is aligned to concepts of modern nationhood, to concerns
of the state, and to geo-political organizational themes and precepts.
World cinema is understood not as a commercial label but as a discursive
site for the mapping and remapping of local, national and transnational
understandings of both child and nation and for the exploration of
themes of belonging, encounter and experience as well as agency and
representation. Cinema may include home video, participatory video and
found footage as well as commercial cinema whatever its distribution
strategy. Scholars may examine the structures of national feeling in
places of production and distribution, and the manner in which the child
is deployed to maintain, reflect or interrogate these structures. The
category of childhood is itself in slippage across classes, ethnicities
and regions whilst the complex relations between national borders,
language and political cultures are likely to produce conflicted
representations of the national subject, all of which require
politically and culturally informed and nuanced readings of the filmic
text.
We seek
submissions on childhood, nation and cinema for our international
conference in April 2016. The conference aims to bring together scholars
from around the world to explore the child and nation on screen. We
seek proposals that address some of the key issues in relation to
childhood and nation on screen in post-1980 cinema.
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Professor Vicky Lebeau
Professor Karen Lury
Professor David Martin-Jones
Topics may include (but are not limited to):
-
the child’s POV and new cinema aesthetics in national or transnational cinemas
-
participatory video or child-led cinema
-
the child as gendered or sexual subject on screen
-
the liminality of childhood and its relation to questions of nationhood on screen
-
children’s rights to benefits such as health, education, housing and security across borders and nations
-
emerging nations, strong nations and childhood as national avatar
-
national belonging, intra-national encounter and the child
-
trauma or memory and the child
Submissions:
Abstracts of 250 words should be sent to [log in to unmask] by 1st September 2015.
All submissions should be accompanied by brief bio. Postgraduate
students may prefer to submit a proposal for a poster paper, which we
would also welcome.