CALL FOR PAPERS -- please circulate widely

 On, Archives!  Celebrating 50 Years of the Wisconsin Center for Film and
Theater Research – a conference on media, theater and history

 July 6-9, 2010

Madison, Wisconsin

www.wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu/conferenc<http://www.wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu/conference>
e

     In 2010 the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research celebrates
its 50th anniversary.  Formed in 1960 as a joint project of the Wisconsin
Historical Society and what was then the Department of Speech at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, the WCFTR was one of the earliest
institutions in the United States to perceive the value in preserving and
collecting archival materials in American film, radio, television and
theater.  Conjointly with the WHS’s extensive Mass Communication
collections, the WCFTR has continued to build a resource used by scholars,
researchers, students, and the general public alike to keep the history of
media and the dramatic arts alive and to aid in our understanding of cinema,
radio, television, drama, and popular culture as globally vital phenomena.

            In this its 50th year, the Center will celebrate by hosting a
conference focused on film, radio, television and theater history, and on
the challenges of archiving in these areas.  We invite a broad range of
scholarship touching on the concerns of the collections here at Madison, and
particularly invite those whose work has brought them here to consult our
papers, films, recordings, and graphic materials in the course of their
work.  Equally important are considerations of archiving popular, aural, and
visual culture.  We invite presentations of historical work – and
contemporary work with roots in the historical – in the fields of film,
theater, and broadcasting, and in archival issues and debates, for a
four-day celebration of the study of media and performance culture in
America and around the world, July 6-9, 2010, in Madison.

            We invite you to submit papers in any of the following areas, or
on related subjects.  We are particularly interested in work that makes use
of the Center’s or the Society’s collections, or that of other archival
venues.

n  the history of film production, exhibition, and distribution in the US
and abroad

n  the history of broadcasting in the United States, and in other places and
contexts

n  the history of American theater production and performance, and
international counterparts

n  issues and challenges of media archiving, including the digital future

n  the role of history in the study of media and popular culture

n  historiographical methods and theory

n  creative authorship in film, broadcasting, and theater

n  the future of media and theater history

A separate Symposium on Broadcasting in the 1930s: New Media in a Time of
Crisis will run concurrently with the On, Archives conference – see
www.wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu/conference/symposium for more details.
Participants
are invited to attend all sessions for both events.

Send paper, panel, or workshop proposals of no more than 300 words to
Michele Hilmes at [log in to unmask]  Deadline:  January 30, 2010.  Details
of the proposal process can be found on the conference website at
www.wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu/conference.



See our website at http://wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu for information on the
Center and its collections, and links to the Wisconsin Historical Society.



Conference co-sponsored by the Department of Communication Arts, the
Wisconsin Historical Society, the Department of Theatre and Drama, the UW
Cinematheque, and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.





Conference Organizer:



Professor Michele Hilmes

Department of Communication Arts

Director, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

University of Wisconsin-Madison

[log in to unmask]

608-262-2547



For further information, contact:



Benjamin Brewster

Assistant Director

Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

[log in to unmask]

608-262-9706

-- 
Michele Hilmes
Professor of Media and Cultural Studies
Director, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
Department of Communication Arts
University of Wisconsin-Madison



-- 
Michele Hilmes
Professor of Media and Cultural Studies
Director, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
Department of Communication Arts
University of Wisconsin-Madison



-- 
Michele Hilmes
Professor of Media and Cultural Studies
Director, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
Department of Communication Arts
University of Wisconsin-Madison

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