Call for Papers: THE VELVET LIGHT TRAP A CRITICAL JOURNAL OF FILM AND TELEVISION STUDIES Defining the Americas: Media Within/Across Borders The history of the American continents has long been one of establishing and crossing borders. From pre-colonial times to the present, people and cultures define and redefine themselves and their borders, especially in response to perceived conquest opportunities or threats. As cultural discourse, media interrogates the construction of identity within and beyond national or other boundaries. Issue #55 of the Velvet Light Trap will explore media as it relates to and is a product of citizenship in the Americas. In contemporary discourse, "American" film and the "American" experience are often conceptually limited to Hollywood and the United States. While the editors are open to this conceptualization of the Americas for inclusion in this issue, we are particularly interested in articles that highlight film and television throughout the far northern, central and southern regions of the Americas. The editors are also seeking submissions that address the impact of post-crisis nationalism on the cultural industry's film and video production. Submissions from a variety of analytical approaches are strongly encouraged, including reception, political economy, textual analysis, discourse theory, historiography, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, psychoanalysis and any other methods in cultural studies. Possible topics for this issue include, but are not limited to: * Impacts and representations of nationalism or provincialism in film and television * NAFTA/FTAA and other globalization efforts impact on identity formation/representation and production * Crisis and national identity formation/representation in film and television * Regional cinema or television * Minority and women's involvement in all levels of production * Identity within or across regional/national borders * Analysis of mainstream and independent depictions of culture * Reactionary or propagandist film/TV * The "local" or the "other" as subject matter and/or target audience * Media and its relationship to the State * Regional generic conventions * Innovation, experimentation, and imitation in form and narrative * American cultural practices as they intersect with each other, including African American, Asian American, Jewish diaspora, Latino/a, American Indian and other Indigenous cultural practices ("American" referring to the continents) * The works and issues involved in the Caribbean and other islands of the American Hemisphere * Hybridization or notions of racial purity * Redefinitions of social institutions * Dominant, counter-cultural or subcultural social movements in film/TV * National/international media law * New media and culture, including the Digital Divide To be considered for publication papers should include a 100-200 word abstract, be between 15 and 25 pages, double-spaced, in MLA style, with the author's name and contact information included only on the title page. Queries regarding potential submissions also are welcome. Authors are responsible for acquiring related visual images and the associated copyrights. For more information or to submit a query, please contact Afsheen Nomai at [log in to unmask] All submissions are due January 16, 2004. Submit five copies of the paper to: The Velvet Light Trap C/o The Department of Radio-Television-Film University of Texas at Austin CMA 6.118, Mail Code A0800 Austin, TX, 78712 The Velvet Light Trap is an academic, refereed journal of film and television studies published semi-annually by University of Texas Press. Issues are coordinated alternately by graduate students at the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After a prescreening, articles are anonymously refereed by specialist readers of the journal's Editorial Advisory Board, which includes such notable scholars as Donald Crafton, Michael Curtin, Alexander Doty, Cynthia Fuchs, Herman Gray, Heather Hendershot, Barbara Klinger, Walter Metz, Charles Musser, Chon Noriega, Lynn Spigel, and Chris Straayer. ----------------------------------------------------------- I'm a looker. No, not good lookin' Just good at lookin'. --www.supermegacorporation.com ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]