Call for Papers for Proposed Panel: Society for Cinema & Media Studies Conference - March 19-23, 2014 Panel Title: Action TV: Representation, Aesthetics, and Technologies of/in Domestic Space Even as the cinematic action genre dominates both domestic and international movie screens, television is increasingly the site for complex narratives, alternative action characters, and shifting technological contexts within the framework of action-adventure on the small screen. What do changes in the cultural, economic, and industrial modes of genre production and reception mean for the rapidly fragmented television market where a small (but loyal) fan base contrasts with the broader demographic strategies that characterized the network era? How does this medium re-write the action text—powerfully identified with traditional masculinity, violence, and blockbuster special effects in its cinema incarnation—to accommodate the scale of television, a format transmitted to a private screenspace framed by domestic(ated) technologies? This panel welcomes a diversity of perspectives that expands upon earlier action genre scholarship focused on cinema to now account for the specificity of the television medium. It is the goal of this panel to contribute to an understanding of the way we watch television now (live tweeting, digital streaming, or TV on DVD, for example) and how this is shaped by or reflective of the hybridity and serialization of action-oriented TV content and programming. Mobile, personal, and domestic technologies are the twenty-first century conduits for televisual action texts and we should ask how this might enable alternatives to traditional (cinematic) representations of action heroism, to gendered technologies, and to onscreen aesthetics. It is also the goal of this panel to constitute the foundation of an anthology on Action Television, a project for which a university press has already expressed interest. Individual papers on this panel might explore (but are certainly not limited to) the following inter-related categories: -Crime procedurals, spy-fi, and mysteries fronted by female action protagonists (Law & Order: SVU, Covert Affairs, Alias, Dark Angel, Body of Proof, Veronica Mars, Fringe, Homeland, Rizzoli & Isles, The Killing, Haven) -The aesthetics & narrative POV of surveillance (24, Person of Interest) -Hybrid action texts (sci-fi action such as Battlestar Galactica, Continuum, Falling Skies, Defiance, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and the upcoming Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; action horror dramas like The Walking Dead, Dexter, Hannibal; action history/fantasy: Game of Thrones, Spartacus: War of the Damned, Rome, Copper) -Reality in Action: The Greatest Catch, The Amazing Race, The Hero -The Urban and/or The Rural: Justified, Sons of Anarchy, Supernatural, Breaking Bad, Jericho, Longmire / Burn Notice, Southland, The Shield, The Wire, Arrow, Alphas, Vegas, Hawaii Five-O, NCIS: Los Angeles) -Comparative analyses between classic and contemporary action series -Reception trends (social media fandom of particular series, marathon viewing/timeshifting via DVR or TV on DVD as an alternative to live broadcast): do the long-form narratives and mythologies of series like Lost, Heroes, Fringe, Galactica, The X-Files, Buffy/Angel, etc. alter how action is conceptualized by producers and consumers, distinguishing the small screen from feature film texts? -The role of digital technologies in the production (budget-friendly FX) and consumption (live streaming to home and personal devices or transmedia TV/videogame crossover, as in the Defiance series) of action TV Please submit a 250-300 word abstract, proposed bibliography and brief bio to Lorrie Palmer ([log in to unmask]) by August 6, 2013. Panel selection will be made by August 15. ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu