Multiple CFPs for the Film & History Conference on “Film and Myth”
Darryl Wiggers <[email protected]>
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From: Cynthia Miller <[email protected]> Subject: CFP: Science-Fiction Myths (6/1/12; 9/26-30/12) CALL FOR PAPERS “Science-Fiction Myths: Travels through Time and Space” An area of multiple panels for the Film & History Conference on “Film and Myth” September 26-30, 2012 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA www.filmandhistory.org Deadline: June 1, 2012 Films that depict travel through time and space captivate us with tales of the past, the future, the distant, and the alien. These stories are shaped, however, not just by scientific principles, but by complex mythologies that reflect our collective anxieties. How fragile is “our” history? A seemingly trivial change to the past -- a dropped book in Back to the Future, an act of kindness in The Butterfly Effect -- can sweep away the present and replace it with something far worse (or far better). How do the alien forms of distant worlds beckon us (with a new Earth in Titan A.E.) or disappoint us (with pale imitations of Earth in Firefly) or terrify us (with the upside- down society of Planet of the Apes)? How do space- and time-travel myths give shape to our fears—of loving the wrong person, of leaving home forever, of being forgotten, of entering a foreign world? How do these myths give shape to our hopes—that the future is ours to shape, that the universe is full of wonders, that human experience might transcend time and space? This area, comprising multiple panels, will treat all aspects of the mythological underpinnings of space and time travel in science-fiction films and television programs. Papers that explore how such myths are played out in science fiction from outside the US and UK are especially welcome. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following: Nomads: Cold Sleep, Relativity, and the Loneliness of Space Travel Generation Spaceships and the Ship-as-World (e.g., Alien, Pandorum) Time Travel and "Fixing History" (e.g., Quantum Leap, 12 Monkeys) Love, Sex, and the Time Traveler (e.g., Back to the Future, Somewhere in Time) Who Are You?: Myth and Identity in Space and Time Travel Paradoxes in Time Travel: Killing Grandpa, and Other Bad Ideas Just Like California: “Alien” Worlds and Space Travel as Tourism Galactic Empires: Rome with Spaceships? The Human(oid) Void: Myths of First Contact (e.g., Star Trek, Babylon 5) Homeward Bound: Myths of the Lost Earth (e.g., Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Wall-E,) Wormhole Diplomacy: Bridging Cultural Spaces Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2012: A. Bowdoin Van Riper, Chair 2012 Film & History Conference Area: “Science-Fiction Myths” Southern Polytechnic State University Email: [email protected] ------- From: Cynthia Miller <[email protected]> Subject: CFP: Mythos: Screening Classical Mythology (6/1/12; 9/26-30/12) CALL FOR PAPERS “MYTHOS: Screening Classical Mythology on Film and Television” An area of multiple panels for the Film & History Conference on “Film and Myth” September 26-30, 2012 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA www.filmandhistory.org Deadline: June 1, 2012 From the earliest beginning of cinema, and throughout the history of screen entertainment, filmmakers and television producers have returned to the narratives and images of classical mythology for subject matter and motivation. Numerous films and television series have been based on ancient Greek and Roman mythological and heroic archetypes (The Matrix; The Lion King), while others take classical literary plots and motifs from the great epics and tragedies and adapt them to the screen (A Dream of Passion; O Brother, Where Art Thou?). Some films and television series even set themselves in an imagined “ancient mythological world” full of gods, heroes, monsters and femmes fatales (Xena: Warrior Princess; Hercules: The Legendary Journeys). Why do the classical mythological narratives and images remain such a powerful source of ideas and inspiration for modern filmmakers and television producers? This area, comprising multiple panels, will treat all aspects of classical mythology in films and television programs. Papers may explore recreations of ancient myths in “real time” (Clash of the Titans; Xena; Hercules) or adaptations of classical myths and narratives in modern settings (Moulin Rouge; Unforgiven). Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following: The Hero’s Journey Features and Creatures of the Underworld The Katabasis Myth of Descent and Return Greek Tragic Myths on Screen The Odyssey and the Nostos-Myth on Film Pandora and the Myth of the Manufactured Woman Homer’s Iliad and the American Western Myths of Transformation and Metamorphoses Amazons on Screen The Dionysian Nature of the Cinema The Orpheus Myth Olympian Gods in Modern Settings Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2012: Monica S. Cyrino, Area Chair, 2012 Film & History Conference “MYTHOS: Screening Classical Mythology on Film and Television” University of New Mexico Email: [email protected] ------- From: Cynthia Miller <[email protected]> Subject: CFP: Chicks with Brains: Representing Women's Intellect in Film (6/1/12; 9/26-30/12) CALL FOR PAPERS Chicks with Brains: Representing Women’s Intellect in Film An area of multiple panels for the Film & History Conference on "Film and Myth" September 26-30, 2012 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA www.filmandhistory.org Deadline: June 1, 2012 Since the Second Wave Feminist Movement during the 1970s, Hollywood has slowly begun to give prominent and leading roles to women. However, the intellectual representations of women are out of line with reality, in many cases failing to reflect the successes and struggles that women have faced in a resistant social and political environment. This area considers the portrayals of traditional myths about “chicks with brains” across film history, as well as new myths and/or myth-busters that may have arisen since the Second Wave. In what ways does Hollywood control expectations about the brains of women by foiling their intellect with their own bodies? Beautiful and naïve Elle Woods becomes a successful lawyer based on her knowledge of hair care products in Legally Blond; Natalie Portman is an astrophysicist whose sarcastic charm wins over Thor, heir to the God’s Realm of Asgard in superhero blockbuster Thor; and Easy A reminds us that smart teens—even ones as stunningly gorgeous as Emma Stone—aren’t accepted in the brutal high school hierarchies of popularity. How are smart women cast as threats to the social order, as in Julia Roberts' portrayal of 1950s Wellesley College co-ed Katherine Ann Watson in Mona Lisa Smile? What do we make of cinematic strategies that cast women as the counter-intellectual to men of superior intellect, such as Bella Swan in the Twilight saga, and Cameron Diaz in Bad Teacher, or don't allow them to display any characteristics of the intellectual at all? This area seeks to critique the myths of women’s intellect in film across multiple genres and historic time periods, and across cultures and national borders (films do not need to have been produced in the U.S.). Papers might consider film history as well as cultural, social, or political history when formulating their analysis, in order to examine the twin complexities of subjugation by the film industry as well as the broader oppression of women in society. Questions for consideration may include, but are not limited to: • In what ways are women in film imprisoned by their intelligence? • In what way are women ostracized for it? • Are their cases in which women in film are set free, or live better, as a result of intellectual growth? • How do female roles in film reinforce standards of beauty, submissiveness, and silence, over intellect, problem solving, or leadership? • In what ways are smart women infantilized, or commodified, by their intelligence in film (i.e.: chicks, babes, and honeys who are, despite their appearance or place in society, intelligent)? • How does an actress’s personal standards of intellect in her real life affect the way she is given roles, or seen on screen? • Are there successes (i.e. females in film who are intelligent without also being objectified or villified)? Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. Please e-mail 250-500 word proposal by June 1, 2012: Laura Mattoon D’Amore, Area Chair, 2012 Film & History Conference "Chicks with Brains: Representing Women's Intellect in Film Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies Roger Williams University One Old Ferry Road Bristol, RI 02188l [email protected] ------- From: Cynthia Miller <[email protected]> Subject: CFP: Storytelling 101: History as Myth on the Big Screen (6/1/12; 9/26-30/12) CALL FOR PAPERS “'Storytelling 101 - History as Myth on the Big Screen” An area of multiple panels for the Film & History Conference on “Film and Myth” September 26-30, 2012 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA www.filmandhistory.org Deadline: June 1, 2012 Cinematic history raises many important questions about the relationship between fact and fiction: When does history become myth, and when does myth become legend? Does a romanticized view of history distort the reality it is trying to convey, or in capturing the “spirit” of history, does it teach history in ways that mere fact cannot? What is the impact of motion pictures on our understandings of history, and on historical memory? And what of the lives of the individuals it portrays? Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, Marie Antoinette, and Cleopatra are just a few of the historical figures who have attained mythic status through their romanticization on the big screen. Does cinematic history promote a tendency toward mythologizing historical figures? This area will explore questions around whether, and in what ways, the storytelling method used by filmmakers may serve to distance audiences from their own history by making it simply a story. In the ongoing debate among historians as to whether history on film is a viable source of learning, film is often criticized for not being historically accurate and for creating what Marnie Hughes-Warrington has called a “Nostalgic Utopia.” Possible topics might include, but are not limited to: -Royalty as myth, Marie Antoinette, (Coppola, 2006), The Other Boleyn Girl (Chadwick, 2008), Elizabeth (Kapur, 1998) -The debate over history and film; does film have a tendency to create ‘nostalgic utopias’ instead of portraying true events? Life is Beautiful, (Benigni, 1997) -How do we understand history on film? Does it promote new interests in History by mythologizing figures and events? Pearl Harbor (Bay,2001), Titanic (Cameron, 1997) -The myth of Robin Hood. Robin Hood (Scott, 2010), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Reynolds,1991), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (Brooks, 1993), Robin Hood (Reitherman, 1973) -Is it better to learn of historical figures through film or through literature? Why? Public Enemies (Mann, 2009), Ned Kelly (Jordan, 2003), Donnie Brasco (Newell, 1997) -Can major historical events be portrayed in a simple storytelling fashion? Saving Private Ryan (Spielburg,1998) Life is Beautiful (Benigni, 1997) , Pearl Harbor (Bay, 2001), Titanic (Cameron, 1997) Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2012: Kathryn Morey, Area Chair, 2012 Film & History Conference “'Storytelling 101 - History as Myth on the Big Screen.” Lancaster University Email: [email protected] ------- From: Cynthia Miller <[email protected]> Subject: CFP: Mythic Mother Nature (6/1/12; 9/26-30/12) CALL FOR PAPERS Mythic Mother Nature:Storytelling and Myth-Building Through Moving Image Representations of Nature and the Environment An area of multiple panels for the Film & History Conference on "Film and Myth" September 26-30, 2012 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA www.filmandhistory.org Deadline: June 1, 2012 Myth has been used for centuries to explain nature, and the face of nature has been used to create national and personal myths. Cinematic, televisual, and cybervisual representations of nature and the environment affect cultural assumptions about peoples and places, affecting how we interact with nature and each other. In some cases Mother Nature directs the action; in others she has the starring role. • What does Kung Fu Panda teach us about nature and culture? • Are there mythic lessons embedded in the lives of the “extreme fishermen” of The Deadliest Catch? • Do new media like YouTube videos reinforce traditional natural myths or create new mythologies? • How do genre conventions shape nature? How does nature affect genre? Westerns? Sci Fi? Noir? Screwball Comedy? • How have film auteurs used or shaped nature? Hitchcock? Altman? Fellini? This area, comprising multiple panels, welcomes papers and panel proposals that examine all forms and genres featuring nature and the environment as represented in film, television, and other moving image arts. Possibilities include, but are not limited to, the following topics: • Nature as creator and/or Nature as destroyer in film narratives • Nature myth as nation-builder and cultural marker • Nature and the environment as the locus for scientific and political debate • Nature as mythic muse for filmmakers and the characters they create • Natural disaster as media event • Nature, Promotion, and Vacation Video on YouTube Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2012: Deborah Carmichael, Area Chair, 2012 Film & History Conference Mythic Mother Nature: Storytelling and Myth-Building Through Moving Image Representations of Nature and the Environment Michigan State University Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures 235 Bessey Hall East Lansing MI 48824 [email protected] ------- From: Cynthia Miller <[email protected]> Subject: CFP: Mythical Movie Jews (6/1/12; 9/26-30/12) Call for Papers “Mythical Movie Jews: Anti- and Philo-Semitic Stereotypes on the Silver Screen.” An Area of Multiple Panels for the Film and History Conference on “Film and Myth: September 26-30, 2012 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory Deadline: June 1, 2012 Feature films usually have projected stereotypical motivations and traits onto characters belonging to ethnic, racial, and religious minorities. Thus, the individual antagonist or protagonist typifies his or her group. The cinematic image of Jews, in particular, has been shaped by the legacy of Christianity’s views of Jews and Judaism, the economic and professional roles Jews have been associated with, and the conspiratorial or constructive goals Jews pursue to subvert or strengthen modern nation states and their economic and political systems. These stereotypes have changed dramatically over the course of the 20th century as the status of Jews has been transformed by the attainment of de jure civic equality in liberal and socialist societies, the Holocaust, the establishment of the state of Israel, and the rise of multiculturalism. The panels in this area will explore the traditional and modern stereotypes of Jews that have informed cinematic depictions of Jews as threatening others, fellow citizens or loyal allies. It will also examine how Jews personify various gender orientations. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following: * The Jew in Christian Theology (King of Kings, The Passion, Jesus Christ Superstar) * Contemporary Stereotypes and Biblical Jews (The Ten Commandments, Solomon and Sheba) * The Jews as Usurer (The Merchant of Venice, The Pawnbroker, The House of Rothschild) * The Jewish American Princess (Marjorie Morningstar, Goodbye Columbus, Private Benjamin) * The Orthodox Jewish Man (The Chosen, A Stranger Among Us, Kadosh, Crossing Delancey) * Smart Jews (Independence Day, Bee Season, Barton Fink, Insignificance, Quiz Show) * Jewish Radicals (Street Scene, Daniel, Norma Mae, Running on Empty, The Way We Were) * The Neurotic Jew (Annie Hall, Miami Rhapsody, The Hebrew Hammer, Curb Your Enthusiasm) * Jewish Parvenus (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Chariots of Fire, Disraeli) * Passive Jews (The Diary of Anne Frank, Fiddler on the Roof * Tough Jews (Exodus, Inglourious Defiance, Basterds, Munich, Bugsy, The Young Lions) * My Son the Doctor (Symphony of Six Million, The Last Angry Man, Northern Exposure) * The Independent Jewish Woman (The Way We Were, Meet the Fokkers, House) * Images of Israelis (Exodus, The Little Drummer Girl, Walk on Water, Waltz with Bashir) * The Gay Jew (Boys in the Band, Torch Song Trilogy, Kissing Jessica Stein, The Bird Cage) Proposals for complete panels (related presentations) are welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. Please e-mail your 200-word paper proposal or panel proposals by June 1, 2012 to: Lawrence Baron, Area Chair, 2012 Film and History Conference “Jewish Monotheism in the Movies: From Abstraction to Personification” San Diego State University [email protected] ------- From: Cynthia Miller <[email protected]> Subject: CFP: Adventure! Danger! Romance!: Myths of Exploration (6/1/12; 9/26-30/12) CALL FOR PAPERS “Adventure! Danger! Romance!: Myths of Exploration” An area of multiple panels for the Film & History conference on “Film and Myth” September 26-30, 2012 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA www.filmandhistory.org Deadline: June 1, 2012 Exploration is central to notions of heroism, nationalism, progress, and adventure, and throughout history, the individuals who have ventured into the unknown have earned a special place in our collective lore. Whether scouting trade routes, sailing uncharted waters, or making “one small step for man” on the moon, explorers have embodied the hopes and aspirations of individuals and nations. What are the strategies used to portray these individuals and their exploits on film and television? Who becomes part of these narratives, and who is left out? In what ways do explorers and their pursuits become larger-than-life representations of values, ideologies, and political groups, and in what ways to they resist those categories and burdens? How are the crises of exploration: death and the struggles for survival; the conquest and domination of cultural groups; the appropriation and degradation of land, flora and fauna; the destruction or theft of treasures, monuments, and other resources; addressed in narratives of glory? This area, comprising multiple panels, will treat all aspects of exploration and explorers in films and television programs. Papers that explore how such myths are played out in depictions of adventure and exploration from outside the US and UK, and throughout various historical eras are especially welcome. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following: * Explorations of the North American Frontier (portrayals of Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Wild Bill Hickok) * Journeys to the Polar Regions (The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition, Forbidden Quest, Glory and Honor) * African Safaris (Simba, Congorilla, Borneo, Rivers of Fire and Ice) * Australia/Pacific Islands (Among the Cannibal Isles of the South Pacific, Captain James Cook, Against the Wind) * Explorers in Space (Destination Moon, The Right Stuff, From the Earth to the Moon, Solaris, The Astronaut Farmer) * The Age of Discovery (portrayals of Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, Vasco da Gama, Francis Drake, Ferdinand Magellan, Sir Walter Raleigh) * Scientist-explorers (Contact, Ten Who Dared, Darwin’s Darkest Hour) * Missionaries (The Mission, The Mosquito Coast, Stanley and Livingstone, African Queen) * Treasure Hunters (Indiana Jones, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The Librarian) * Undersea Expeditions (The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, Sea Hunt, SeaQuest DSV) * Women and Exploration (The Journey of Sacajawea, The Far Horizons, The Dream is Alive, Beyond the Stars) Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2012, to the area chair: Cynthia J. Miller Area Chair, 2012 Film & History Conference Adventure! Danger! Romance!: Myths of Exploration Emerson College [email protected] ------- From: Cynthia Miller <[email protected]> Subject: CFP: The Color of Myth: Aesthetics, Affect, and Apprehension (6/1/12; 9/26-30/12) SECOND ROUND CALL FOR PAPERS “The Color of Myth: Aesthetics, Affect, and Apprehension” An area of multiple panels for the Film & History Conference on “Film and Myth” September 26-30, 2012 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA www.filmandhistory.org Deadline: June 1, 2012 Over the last decade color has returned as a subject of research in film, media studies and visual culture, spurred in part by new visual aesthetics enabled by digital color in films like O Brother Where Art Thou, Pleasantville and A Waking Life. Developments in affect studies and phenomenology ask us to consider the sensorial and perceptual dimensions of color in media, while cognitive, psychological or neurological approaches offer different interpretations of the relationship between the brain, color aesthetics, and meaning. How have different historical color processes, technologies or aesthetics shaped myth from applied color in A Trip to the Moon, to Technicolor in The Wizard of Oz or Agfacolor in Baron Münchhausen? What role does color play in connecting bodies, feelings, perceptions and/or ideas? How does color complicate or resist semiotic or structuralist understandings of myth? What is the relationship between structures of color and specific mythic structures like race? Can we talk about myth as “collective pattern” with color? What might Godard’s famous dictum about color’s materiality as dye in Pierrot le Fou (“not blood, red”) suggest in terms of myth? This area will treat all aspects of myth and color. Possible topics include, but are not limited to the following: Color, myth and affect, e.g. The Tree of Life Philosophical approaches to color; color theory; mythic epistemologies Digital Color and new media, digitality, the pixel and myth, e.g. Pleasantville, Skycaptain and the World of Tomorrow, Sin City Synaesthesia and myth; sensorial cross-modalities and myth Color, myth and race: Pinky, Imitation of Life, Legally Blonde Epic color: e.g. Spartacus, Alexander the Great, Henry V, Saving Private Ryan. Color, myth and spectacle, e.g. American Beauty, The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life and Death, Saludos Amigos Color, myth and the avant garde, e.g. work of Oskar Fischinger, Jules Engel, Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Ulrike Ottinger Color realism/fantasy and myth: 300, Red Desert, Wings of Desire, Alexander the Great Color’s materiality and myth Oneiric Color: e.g. What Dreams may Come, Inception Color, ethics and myth Color theory: e.g. indexicality/realism/stylization & artificiality. E.g La Chinoise, Une Femme est une Femme, Red Desert Color, myth and genre, e,g, Moulin Rouge, The Godfather, Bridesmaids Chromophilia/chromophobia and myth Color, myth and the star system, e.g. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Color processes such as Technicolor, Eastmancolor, Dufaycolor, Kinemacolor and myth; color technologies and myth, e.g. La Cucaracha, Becky Sharpe, Toll of the Sea Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract, brief biographical details and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2012: Dr. Kirsten Thompson, Area Chair, 2012 Film & History Conference “The Color of Myth: Aesthetics, Affect, and Apprehension” Wayne State University Department of English, [email protected] ------- From: Cynthia Miller <[email protected]> Subject: CFP: Mythic Structures (6/1/12; 9/26-30/12) SECOND ROUND CALL FOR PAPERS “Mythic Structures: Sacred Architecture and Ornamentation in Film” An area of multiple panels for the Film & History Conference on “Film and Myth” September 26-30, 2012 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA www.filmandhistory.org Deadline: June 1, 2012 Medieval sanctuaries, Orthodox domes, Gothic stained glass, Romanesque portals -- all suggest cinematic settings full of hidden meanings, secret histories, and visions of the sacred. Their aesthetic perfection endows them with an aura of mystery as they silently narrate myths of faith, devotion, and the Divine. Similarly, sacred ornamentation brings aesthetic beauty or symbolic significance to utility: Birds and trees connect heaven and Earth, the lotus represents purity, and the thorny-barbed acanthus guards the living from the dead. Each of these, whether adorning columns, doorways, ceilings, or altars, brings depth and intensity to cinematic settings and scenes. This area, comprising multiple panels, seeks papers that explore the communication of myth through sacred buildings and architectural ornamentation in films across genres. Papers that explore how such myths are played out in films from outside the US and UK are especially welcome. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following: Monasteries and austere architecture (as in Name of the Rose) Ornamentation in sacred spaces (as in End of Days or The Wicker Man) Architectural visions of the Divine (as in The DaVinci Code) Windows of faith (as in The Blues Brothers or The Pillars of the Earth) Sacred spectacle (as in The Secret of Sacred Architecture) Altars of the gods (as in Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Hellfire Club) Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2012: Hee Sook Lee-Niinioja, Area Chair, 2012 Film & History Conference “Mythic Structures: Sacred Architecture and Ornaments in Film” Email: [email protected] ------- From: Cynthia Miller <[email protected]> Subject: CFP: Ancient Egypt in Myth, History and Religion (6/1/12; 9/26-30/12) SECOND ROUND CALL FOR PAPERS “Ancient Egypt in myth, history and religion as shown on film and television” An area of multiple panels for the Film & History Conference on “Film and Myth” September 26-30, 2012 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA www.filmandhistory.org Deadline: June 1, 2012 The history and myths of ancient Egypt have fascinated artists, scholars and the general public for thousands of years. The motion picture and television industries have experienced several waves of Egyptian stories, from horror films, to Biblical narratives, to historical dramas and comedies. This panel will explore all the variations of ancient Egypt on screen, from the epic (The Egyptian, The Ten Commandments, Cleopatra) to the parodic (Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy, Carry on Cleo). Modern updates of Egyptian stories are certainly welcome, for example Stargate or the Afrocentric Cleopatra Jones. Even music videos have been designed around ancient Egypt (e.g., “Remember the Time” and “Walk Like an Egyptian”). Possible topics include but are not limited to the following: Mummies and the horror narrative Tales of the Pharoahs Afrocentric Egypt Biblical epics, e.g., the Joseph story, the young Moses, the Exodus from Egypt The Archeology of Egypt in fiction and documentary Cleopatra dramas, from Shakespeare to Shaw Cleopatra film and TV, from DeMille to Mankiewicz to Sam Raimi Egypt, orientalism and popular culture Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract, brief biographical details and contact information, including an email address, for each presenter. Please email your 200 word proposal by June 1, 2012 Peter Lev, Area Chair, 2012 Film and History Conference “Ancient Egypt in myth, history and religion as shown on film and television” Dept. of Electronic Media and Film Towson University [email protected] ------- From: Cynthia Miller <[email protected]> Subject: CFP: Queer Mythologies (6/1/12; 9/26-30/12) SECOND ROUND CALL FOR PAPERS “Queer Mythologies: Untangling Sex and Gender Myths” An area of multiple panels for the Film & History Conference on “Film and Myth” September 26-30, 2012 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA www.filmandhistory.org Deadline: June 1, 2012 Movies and television are one important way that many of us learn about gender and sexuality. The stories we see played out on the large or small screen tell us – explicitly or implicitly – what it means to be male or female, what it means to be in love, what the narrative possibilities are for constructing a life and forming relationships with other people. Too often in film history, gay and lesbian lives have been mythologized – in films from Cruising to Boys Don’t Cry to Brokeback Mountain – as lonely, desperate, and destined for a bad end, a trajectory famously catalogued by Vito Russo in The Celluloid Closet. Queer lives are often positioned as opposite “normal,” heterosexual lives. Yet other – queer – mythologies are possible: from Hedwig’s re-imagining of the origin of love myth in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, to Omar and Johnny happily splashing each other at the end of My Beautiful Laundrette—certain films find ways to re-construct dominant mythologies and perhaps define new ones. How do films, TV, and online media perpetuate, subvert, or otherwise engage with these and other myths concerning sexuality and gender? This area, comprising multiple panels, will treat all aspects of myths concerning sexuality, gender, and queerness in film, television, and on-line media. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following: Coming Out Stories Romantic Mythologies Classical Mythology Queered Politics and Sex: From Myth to Public Policy The “Gay Gene”: Science and Gender “It Gets Better”: On-line Mythologizing Mythologies of the Closet Either/Or: The Myth of Gay or Straight Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2012: Pamela Demory, Area Chair, 2012 Film & History Conference “Queer Mythologies: Untangling Sex and Gender Myths” University of California, Davis Email: [email protected] ------- From: Cynthia Miller <[email protected]> Subject: CFP: Superheroes and Sports Heroes (6/1/12; 9/26-30/12) SECOND ROUND CALL FOR PAPERS “America’s Pantheon: Superheroes and Sports Heroes in Film and Television” An area of multiple panels for the Film & History Conference on “Film and Myth” September 26-30, 2012 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA www.filmandhistory.org Deadline: June 1, 2012 Sports films and superhero films have been two of the most durable film genres in the 21st century. Part of their success has been due to their reliance on myth, tapping on myths both ancient and inherently American, while establishing new heroes for American culture. When Roy Hobbs hit the towering home run to win the pennant in The Natural (1984), it was not accidental that the film referenced myths, from King Arthur to The Odyssey. America’s pantheon of mythic heroes also includes the superhero universes. Indeed, the Marvel and DC universes of characters are the closest thing America has to the Greco-Roman deities. Any papers related to film and television texts that deal with sports and superheroes are welcome. This area, comprising multiple panels, welcomes papers exploring film and television texts of sports heroes and superheroes, as well as their conflations, intertextualities, and interrelationships. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following: Superheroes: *”Original” superheroes in film (The Incredibles, Unbreakable, Darkman, Meteor Man) *Superheroines in film and TV (Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Birds of Prey) *African-American superheroes (Steel, Spawn, the Blade series) *Superheroes on the small screen (Batman, Lois & Clark, Smallville) *Children’s animated television series (Captain Planet and the Planeteers, X-Men) *Motion comics and transmedia hybridity *Superhero parody (Mystery Men, Superhero Movie, Hancock) *Auteurs and the superhero film (Tim Burton, Christopher Nolan) *Pre-1950 superhero serials (Adventures of Captain Marvel, The Phantom) *Postmodern challenges to the superhero myth (Watchmen, Heroes, Kick-Ass) Sports heroes: *Biographical sports documentaries (Unforgivable Blackness, Tyson) *Sports films and myth (The Natural, Rocky, Rudy) *Sports documentaries and the “American Dream” (Hoop Dreams) *Sports documentaries and American identity (Ken Burns’s Baseball) *Sports on the margins (Dodgeball, Balls of Fury, The Wrestler) *Sports biopics (The Pride of the Yankees, The Stratton Story) *Sports heroes and ethnic pride (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg) *Boxing biopics (Gentleman Jim, Raging Bull, The Hurricane, The Fighter, Ali, Cinderella Man) *Racial reconciliation in sports films (Remember the Titans, Invictus, The Blind Side) *Disney’s construction of sports myth (The Rookie, Invincible) *Women’s sports on film (A League of Their Own, Bend It Like Beckham) Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2012 to: Zachary Ingle Area Chair, 2012 Film & History Conference “America’s Pantheon: Sports Heroes and Superheroes in Film and Television” University of Kansas Email: [email protected]