SPORTIVE PERFORMANCE: THE BODY AND TECHNOLOGY Area
2008 Film & History Conference
"Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond"
October 30-November 2, 2008
Chicago, Illinois
www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory
Second-Round Deadline: May 1, 2008
AREA: Sportive Performance: The Body and Technology
Cinema has, at times, provided a window into moral questions about the extent to which bodies are over-trained and pushed too hard in sport ¬ and related areas of physical activity ¬ to the point where humanness risks being lost in the obsession with measurable performance, victory, and perfect scores. This area welcomes papers on films or filmic themes broadly related to sportive performance, especially to how sporting bodies and technologies, or their development, compete in the struggle between humanity and science. While technology is often treated in film as a sign of necessary progress and its inventors and applicators are lauded, humanity ¬ perceived either individually or collectively ¬ often seems neglected in the quest for technological enhancement and faster, better performance.
A range of themes is pertinent to this area, including drugs in sport, body sculpting, sports training, cyborgs, ultra-violence, sports equipment and design, the tension between science and nature in sportive performance, sport and dystopia, gender shaping. The area is also open to papers discussing films from a range of genres, including drama, action, biopics, science fiction, horror, documentary, and comedy. Presenters might consider films like Personal Best, The Program, Blood Sport, Pumping Iron, Hell on Wheels, The Natural, Like Mike, Rollerball, Varsity Blues, and Gattaca. Papers focusing on television series (from Bionic Man/Woman to Baywatch to Dark Angel) or specific programs within a series are also welcome.
Please send your 200-word proposal by May 1, 2008 to
John Hughson, Chair of Sportive Performance Area
2008 Film & History Conference
School of Physical Education
University of Otago
PO Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
Phone: ++64(0)3479-8378
Email: [log in to unmask]
Panel proposals for up to four presenters are also welcome, but each presenter must submit his or her own paper proposal. Deadline for second-round proposals: May 1, 2008.
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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THE ATOMIC AGE Area
2008 Film & History Conference
"Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond"
October 30-November 2, 2008
Chicago, Illinois
www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory
Second-Round Deadline: May 1, 2008
AREA: The Atomic Age
After the creation of the atom bomb and its use against Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, nuclear arms, energy, and science were the subject of countless films across a wide range of genres, from Godzilla and Dr. Strangelove to The China Syndrome, The Day After and 24. How did the movies respond to the atomic age? How did they represent nuclear science and scientists? Did Atomic Age films exaggerate or dismiss the dangers of nuclear weapons and energy? How did social or political events concerning atomic energy make their way into film? And, in turn, how did such films affect national policy or civic character? These are just a few questions to be addressed in this area, which investigates the impact of the nuclear age (1945 to the present) on society as portrayed through film and television. Presentations can, for example, feature analyses of individual films and/or TV programs from historical perspectives, surveys of documents related to the production of films, or !
investigations of nuclear history and culture as explored through film.
Genres could include films attempting to define atomic history, Hollywood blockbusters, TV programs or mini-series, science-fiction, propaganda, instructional films, documentaries, docudramas, newsreels and broadcast media, war films, westerns, national cinemas, music videos, avant-garde films, actualities, and direct cinema.
Paper topics might include atomic war, national security and secrecy, atomic espionage, ethics and morals, reel representations of atomic science and scientists, peaceful applications of nuclear power, atomic fantasies, nuclear dystopia, atomic themes in westerns, civil defense, myths, nuclear terrorism, government and institutions, the anti-nuclear movement, nuclear accidents and near-disasters, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in memory and post-memory, health, safety, environment, gender, ethnicity, race, class, etc.
Please send your 200-word proposal by May 1, 2008 to:
Christoph Laucht, Chair of the Atomic Age Area
School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies
University of Liverpool
Chatham Street
Liverpool
L69 7ZR
United Kingdom
Phone: ++44(0)151-794-2404
Email: [log in to unmask]
Panel proposals for up to four presenters are also welcome, but each presenter must submit his or her own paper proposal. Deadline for second-round proposals: May 1, 2008.
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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THE FUTURE OF GENOCIDE AND REPRESSION Area
2008 Film & History Conference
"Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond"
October 30-November 2, 2008
Chicago, Illinois
www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory
Second-Round Deadline: May 1, 2008
AREA: The Future of Genocide and Repression
The atrocities and injustices of communism, imperialism, Nazism, and religious fanaticism have become models for how film and television portray the future of totalitarian regimes ¬their economic exploitation, genetic engineering, indoctrination, oppression, genocide. References to current or historical repressive policies appear in the dialogue, images, plots, and soundtracks of films like Alien Nation, Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange, Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaiden's Tale, The Island, 1984, Ultraviolet, V for Vendetta, and X-Men.
This area examines how cinema and television connect human rights abuses in future societies with past or present crimes against humanity. Panel presentations can interpret how individual films, programs, or series draw these parallels and advocate forms resistance to such policies. Papers also could compare and contrast how several films, programs, or series have handled the same topic. Another approach might analyze the influence of genre (i.e. action adventure, comedy, drama, horror, science fiction, etc) on the portrayal of these themes.
Paper topics might include ecological decimation, encounters between indigenous and alien societies, eugenic attempts to create inferior and superior classes, euthanasia, genocide, medical experimentation, robotics, technological surveillance, terrorism, and war.
Please send your 200 word proposal by May 1, 2008 to
Lawrence Baron, Chair, "Future of Genocide and Repression" Area
Department of History, San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182 USA
Phone: 619-594-5338
Email: [log in to unmask]
Panel proposals for up to four presenters are also welcome, but each presenter must submit his or her own paper proposal. Deadline for second-round proposals: May 1, 2008.
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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