Call for Papers: The Archers in fact and fiction: Academic analyses of life in rural Borsetshire

Dr Cara Courage, University of Virginia, and Dr Nicola Headlam, University of Oxford, with Prof Carenza Lewis, University of Lincoln, invite the submission of abstracts to a seminar on the subject of BBC Radio 4’s The Archers. 

February 2016 saw the first ever 'Academic Archers' symposium in London, which was a great success, including papers illuminating life in Ambridge which ranged from accents to Othello.  The event was heavily over-subscribed, so a second symposium in 2017 in Lincoln hopes to pick up some themes from 2016 as well as develop new ones – and will include a trip to the village which inspired the creation of the series in the 1950.   The second Academic Archers seminar will feature a strand on the Helen and Rob storyline alongside papers from any and all other aspects of life in Ambridge and Borsetshire. 

Submissions are invited from any academic discipline and of the following formats: 
•	Keynote (45 minutes, incl. Q+A)
•	Paper (15 minutes with 5 minute Q+A)
•	Quick pitches (5 minutes)

Papers might include but are by no means limited to: 
•	Clicktivism and crowd-sourcing philanthropy 
•	Archers tribes – ethnographic accounts of a fandom differentiated by online activity
•	The housing crisis in South Borsetshire
•	Route B as “local democracy as usual”
•	Are all educated older women permanently stoned?
•	Rural and village economics, from the village store to agribusiness
•	Divisions of labour on a family farm 
•	The implications of coercive control for the legal and penal system 

This list is not meant to be exclusive or exhaustive, but is meant to inspire you to think how your academic research, sector professional expertise or listener forensic knowledge of The Archers can illuminate and explain life in Ambridge and Borsetshire. The day is intended to give fans of The Archers a platform to exercise their love of the programme and their subject area.

The seminar will take place at University of Lincoln, 17th to 19th February 2017 and will include a field trip to the village which inspired the creation of the series. 

If you are a fellow Archers fan and/or academic who has ever thought about how listeners or scriptwriters of 'The Archers' would benefit from seeing it through the lens of your particular academic knowledge or professional expertise, we would be very pleased to consider including your paper in the 2017 symposium.  Please submit your abstract of 200 words to [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] and [log in to unmask] by 1st November, indicating the type of presentation you are intending. Programming will be determined by an Academic Archers panel and will be communicated by mid-November. 

Further information on Academic Archers can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AcademicArchers/.