CFP: Screenwriting Research Network Conference (UW-Madison, Aug 2013)

From: Eric Hoyt [[email protected]]

CALL FOR PAPERS

Screenwriting in a Global and Digital World

6th Screenwriting Research Network International Conference

August 20 – 22, 2013

University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

http://srnconference2013.commarts.wisc.edu/

This is a call for papers for the annual international conference on
screenwriting research, this year organized by the Department of
Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. The
Screenwriting Research Network is a research group that commenced in
2006 within the Louis Le Prince Research Centre, at the Institute of
Communication Studies (ICS), University of Leeds. The Screenwriting
Research Network now consists of academics as well as practitioners
interested in research centered on screenwriting studies. The network
has achieved a critical mass in recent years with conferences taking
place in Leeds (2008), Helsinki (2009), Copenhagen (2010), Brussels
(2011), and Sydney, Australia (2012). The sixth conference widens the
geographic spread of the network to North America, taking place in
Madison, Wisconsin, USA (2013).

The Screenwriting Research Network is comprised of scholars, writers,
and practice-based researchers devoted to rethinking the screenplay in
relation to its histories, theories, values and creative practices.
The aim of the conference is to continue, and expand, discussions
around the screenplay and to strengthen a rapidly emerging, and
global, research network. The Journal of Screenwriting, first
published in 2009, stands as testament to the vitality of the
screenwriting network across traditional and practice-based research.
This is in addition to growth in the publication of screenwriting
monographs by scholars in the network, including books on
screenwriting by Steven Price, Steven Maras, J.J. Murphy, and Jill
Nelmes, among others. The new Palgrave Studies in Screenwriting series
grew out of this organization. The SRN is also building an online
forum for scholars and practitioners interested in this subject.

The key theme of this next conference is “Screenwriting in a Digital
and Global World.” This speaks to the complex and changing nature of
screenwriting as a result of both digital technology and
globalization. The conference hopes to raise questions about past,
current, and future creative practices in scripting in various forms
of media, both old and new.

Keynote speakers will be confirmed early in 2013.

The conference is interested in all types of research related to
screenwriting in its many forms. We would like to invite abstracts for
research presentations on (but not limited to) the following topics:
- Cross-cultural collaboration in screenwriting
- Screenwriting traditions in different national contexts
- Screenwriting and transnationalism
- Screenwriting and the pressures of globalization
- Industry changes in the digital age and what it means for writers of
film and television
- Transmedia storytelling — “world building” and constructing
narratives that reach across
multiple platforms
- Writing for online video as a new genre and profession
- The history of screenwriting around the globe, including Hollywood
- Questions of authorship in highly collaborative digital media projects
- Database narratives and interactive, non-linear storytelling
- Writing for games (including video games and ARGs)
- Theorizing and analyzing screenwriting software
- Screenwriting archival research
- Theorizing screenwriting and the screenplay
- Reflections on narrative theory and dramaturgy
- Practice-based research
- Case studies on individual writers or texts
- Genre-orientated considerations of screenwriting and the screenplay
- Adaptation in moving image screen works
- The role of writing in non-fiction film, television, and other forms of media
- Screenwriting for animation
- Writing for episodic television
- Screenwriting in independent cinema
- Alternative forms of scripting

Call for Papers

Time allotted to each paper is 20 minutes plus discussion. Abstracts
(250-300 words) may be submitted until January 1, 2013. Earlier
submissions are welcome. Please remember to state your name,
affiliation and contact information. Include a brief statement (100
words) detailing your publications and/or screenwriting practice.

Please send your abstract as a WORD document, with the email subject
heading “SRN Conference Abstract” to: [email protected].

More information on the program as well as cost, traveling and
accommodation details will be available on this website as it becomes
available.

The conference is supported by a grant from the Anonymous Fund of the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is being organized with
assistance from the Department of Communication Arts at UW-Madison and
the Screenwriting Research Network.

Conference Co-Directors:
Professor Kelley Conway and Professor J. J. Murphy, Department of
Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

--
Eric Hoyt
Assistant Professor of Communication Arts
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Vilas Communication Hall 6052
821 University Ave
Madison, WI 53706-1497
(608) 262-1637
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>

Co-Director, Media History Digital Library
http://mediahistoryproject.org/