Call for Papers

2008 Film & History Conference

"Military Science, the Science of War" Area

Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond

October 30-November 2, 2008

Chicago, Illinois

www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory

Second-Round Deadline: May 1, 2008

 

Area: Military Science, the Science of War

 

Many filmmakers have attempted to capture the essence of warfare, the experience of the soldier, and the effect of war on the civilian population. Sometimes these representations have been romanticized and distorted reality-in service of what? And sometimes they have accurately chronicled what it means to wage war. How much does it matter that filmmakers get "right" the science of warfare-the logistics, the techniques and tactics, the machinery, the principles of engagement, the social and cultural negotiations? What happens to our sense of war when its causes or effects are fictionalized or distorted? In what ways do films about war prepare or handicap citizens for the exigencies of real combat? And how are soldiers themselves affected by military fictions?  

 

This area examines how cinema and television represent the science, practice, and ethics of war. Panelists can use documentaries, movies, television programs, or other cinematic media. Presenters are not limited to American representations; foreign films and productions are welcome.

 

Please send your 200 word proposal by 1 May 2008 to the area chair:

 

Dr. Daniel Paliwoda, Chair of the Military Science, the Science of War Area

United States Military Academy at West Point       

Department of English

Bldg 607 Cullum Road

ATTN: MADN-ENL

West Point, NY 10996

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This area, comprising multiple panels, is a part of the 2008 biennial Film & History Conference, sponsored by The Center for the Study of Film and History. Speakers will include founder John O'Connor and editor Peter C. Rollins (in a ceremony to celebrate the transfer to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh); Wheeler Winston Dixon, author of Visions of the Apocalypse, Disaster and Memory, and Lost in the Fifties: Recovering Phantom Hollywood; Sidney Perkowitz, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Physics at Emory University and author of Hollywood Science: Movies, Science, & the End of the World; and special-effects legend Stan Winston, our Keynote Speaker.  For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History website (www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory).      

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Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu