please circulate, nsm ********************* Proposed Panel for the Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association Detroit, Michigan 11-14 October 2000 Call for Papers: Performing Propriety and Policing Behavior on Television Talk Shows This panel will examine the tension between propriety and excess on television talk shows. A genre often charged with obscene, tasteless excess, talk shows, ironically, chastise unseemly guests who exceed the boundaries of good taste, staging scenes that normalize decorous public behavior; curtail physical, sartorial, sexual, or recreational immoderation; reject liminality; and impose publically suitable racial, sexual, and class boundaries. Papers might address tactics that induce gender-appropriate behavior in women and girls (makeovers, confessions, pageants, boot camp); the spectacle of transexual, transgendered, or intersexual guests; "indecent" sexualities or fantasies; gay, lesbian, and/or bisexual love triangles; generic conventions that impose or hamper decorum (expert opinions, staged apologies, humiliating surprise guests, body guards); studio and viewing audience participation; morally questionable or morally superior hosts; racialization and inappropriate language(s); unruly animals; "freaks"; inappropriate social and class mobility; broadcasting practices and censorship. Papers on talk show offshoots (_Forgive and Forget_, _Love Connection_, _Change of Heart_, etc.) are welcome. Discussions may consider network, cable, cable-access, or local public television in Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, or US. Multimedia and online formats encouraged. Submissions are invited from all disciplines. Please send a 500-word abstract and 1-2 page cv to Nancy San Martin at [log in to unmask] by January 10, 2000. To facilitate submission of the panel proposal, please indicate audio-visual needs. No attachments please. Electronic submissions only. Please note that all participants must register for the annual meeting of the American Studies Association and be members of the ASA or one of its international or regional US affiliates. Nancy San Martin History of Consciousness University of California, Santa Cruz [log in to unmask] http://www2.ucsc.edu/woc/ASAnsm.html ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite