SCMS Panel Proposal: The Complexities and Complications of Representing Blackness A colleague and I are looking to put together a panel for SCMS. What is representational blackness in media? Is it represented by blackness situated in a media text like NBC's failed show Undercovers or is it located in a text like Everybody Hates Chris or is it someplace else? Race scholars are becoming increasingly more aware of the complexity in which race becomes represented, appropriated, mitigated, and utilized in media, particularly within the context of a postracial rhetoric. Whether it is globalization or the increasing awareness of racial mixture, it can no longer be assumed that audiences continue to subscribe to a "one-drop" rule based construction of blackness. Furthermore, intersectionality and the implications of identity politics further complicate readings of blackness. Factors such as gender and sexuality influence a reading of blackness in a significant way. Therefore as scholars of race, looking at blackness as singular or essential is not only closed-minded, limited, and exclusionary, but it is just plain incorrect. Such an approach does not account for the complexity of negotiation involved in an audience's racialized reading. As a response to this, this panel seeks to interrogate the complications and complexities of blackness in several media contexts. Some examples of topics can include: * The intersectionality of race, gender and sexuality in media texts * Case studies of particular texts and their relation to black representational strategies * Notions of in/visibility of class, gender and sexuality in representations of blackness * Complicating notions of "authentic" blackness in media Please send a 250-500-word abstract along with five references and a brief bio to Keara Goin ([log in to unmask]) and Alfred Martin ([log in to unmask]) no later than August 15, 2011. Selected panelists will be notified by August 20, 2011. Keara Goin and Alfred Martin PhD Students, The University of Texas at Austin [log in to unmask] ________________ Alfred L. Martin, Jr. PhD Student The University of Texas at Austin Department of Radio, Television and Film Co-Managing Editor, Flow Media Journal <http://www.flowtv.org/> FlowTV.org [log in to unmask] ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.ScreenSite.org