Images of Justice:
Cinema, Law and the State in Comparative Perspective

The University of Iowa Obermann Center for Advanced Studies Announces
Obermann Stipends for the Summer 2004 Research Seminar

Up to ten fellows to be selected, $2500 stipends, plus up to $500 (or
$1,000 for overseas travel) to help defray travel/housing expenses of
visiting scholars.

Popular representations of the law in cinema and the legal decisions and
institutions that regulate such representations off-screen are crucial
to how the public understands and experiences the legal system. In this
interdisciplinary seminar, scholars are invited to explore and write
about the intersections of cinema, law and the state through a
comparative perspective, with particular attention to Asia, where both
cinema and law have changed dramatically in recent decades. How, we will
ask together, do the state and law impact film and popular culture in
national, diasporic, and global contexts? How do legal fictions function
as metaphors for larger historical, ethical, national, or international
matters? How do citizenship and spectatorship intersect in specific film
industries and on movie screens?

Some themes to be addressed-within and especially across national
boundaries-may include: the fictional representation of legal systems
and trials, and the dramatic characterization of lawyers, judges, and
criminals in popular films; historical and ongoing state regulation and
censorship of cinema, and the increased space for negotiation between
filmmakers and their regulators; adaptations of law and regulation away
from religious and colonial models toward secular and national concerns;
film financing and distribution; and historical and persistent patterns
of tension between creativity and control, innovation and tradition, or
resistance and regulation that mark specific national cinemas as well as
films with international circulation and audiences. These issues are all
at work in Asia and in Asian communities around the world, and we will
have a particular interest in those contexts.

The seminar invites applications from scholars in as wide an array of
fields as possible, including but not limited to film and media studies,
law and legal studies, Asian studies, women's studies, political theory,
economics, religious studies, communications, journalism, sociology and
other fields.

Successful applicants will be expected to develop a first draft of an
essay by the start of the seminar. Participants will read and discuss
each of the draft essays along with common readings and will attend
special presentations by notable speakers. Participants will revise
their essays during and  immediately following the seminar for inclusion
in an edited volume.

Directors:

Corey K. Creekmur, Associate Professor of English and Cinema &
Comparative Literature and Director, Institute for Cinema and Culture,
The University of Iowa

Mark Sidel, Associate Professor of Law, The University of Iowa

Application Deadline: February 2, 2004

Seminar Dates: June 2-15, 2004

Services:  Offices, personal computers, Internet access, library
service, technical support, copying, meeting rooms.

Funded by the C. Esco and Avalon L. Obermann Fund and by the Office of
the Vice President for Research at 
The University of Iowa

----------------

Images of Justice:
Cinema, Law and the State in Comparative Perspective

Obermann Center for Advanced Studies Summer 2004 Research Seminar

Deadline for Applications: Monday, February 2, 2004

Qualifications

* Applicants must hold a Ph.D., J.D. or other terminal degree.
* Participants should be ready to produce original, previously
unpublished work for publication in a volume that will emerge from the
seminar and to participate in sessions devoted to readings, individual
papers, invited lectures, and special events. Successful applicants will
be asked to submit a first draft of their essay before the seminar
begins.
* Participants will be chosen in part to provide sufficient range for a
published collection of essays. Some stipends are reserved for
competitively-selected University of Iowa scholars.

Application

Those interested in participating in the seminar should apply by
February 2, 2004, by sending the following materials:

* A cover sheet that includes - title of your prospectus or draft essay
- name, rank, department, institution, office address, telephone number,
and e-mail address - signatures of department executive officer and dean
(University of Iowa applications only)
* Letter indicating your interest in the seminar, what you can
contribute, and what you hope to gain (maximum two pages)
* A prospectus of the essay that you plan to write for the seminar (or a
draft if you already have begun work on an essay that might be
appropriate)
* Curriculum vitae or resume (maximum three pages)
* One writing sample, preferably from a published work

Application materials should be sent to:

Jay Semel, Director
Obermann Center for Advanced Studies
N134 Oakdale Hall
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242

Please direct any questions to Jay Semel, Director, Obermann Center for
Advanced Studies, The University of Iowa
(319) 335-4034 or [log in to unmask]

For further information please see
http://www.uiowa.edu/~obermann/summer/index.html, which includes the
downloadable version of this announcement and the application
guidelines.

----
For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives:
http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html