CFP: Cold War and Entertainment Television

*From: *"Reagin, Prof. Nancy R." <[email protected]>

We are inviting abstracts for papers to be presented at a conference on the
Cold War and Entertainment Television, to be held at the University of
Paris 8, on June 5-7, 2014.

An essential dimension of the Cold War took place in the realm of ideas and
culture. A great deal of work, for example, has been done on cinema,
especially with regard to the United States although other nations, both
East and West, have received increasing attention.  But with certain
noteworthy exceptions (primarily in the areas of science fiction and
espionage series) relatively little has been done on this subject in
relation to television. Yet, television was a technology and popular
cultural form that emerged during the Cold War.


This project hopes to rectify that absence by providing a forum for
examining the impact of the Cold War on entertainment television. We intend
to underline the comparative aspect by studying programs from both blocs –
without forgetting, of course, the outsize impact of American television

We would welcome submissions that treat a variety of regions and genres,
including (but not limited to) the following topics:

·         Analyses of the reflection of the Cold War in particular genres

·         A close reading of particular episodes or series

·         The presentation of the “other side,” both its elites and the
lives of ordinary citizens

·         Depictions of social class and ideologies in Cold War
entertainment television

·         The uses of race and gender in depictions of the “other side” or
in celebrations of one’s own side

·         Exporting television series to other cultures

·         How audiences received and used a variety of Cold War television
series

·         The space race, the military industrial complex, the national
security state, and nuclear weapons in Cold War television

·         Cold War discourses in children’s television

·         The impact of censorship, whether official or self-imposed

·         Commercials, public service announcements, documentaries, and
Cold War subtexts

·         Changes in Cold War discourses in entertainment television
through 1991



The languages of the conference will be English and French, and we
anticipate that the conference proceedings will be published in English.

Please email a 250-word proposal, a one-page c.v., and contact information
to Prof. Lori Maguire at [email protected] by Sept. 15, 2013.
Notification of accepted proposals will be made by Oct. 15, 2013.

Email inquiries are preferred, especially over the summer, to
[email protected]

Organizing committee: Prof. Lori MAGUIRE (Département d’Etudes des Pays
Anglophones, Université de Paris 8, St. Denis, France); Dr. Janice LIEDL
(Dept. of History, Laurentian University, Canada); Dr. Joseph DAROWSKI
(Dept. of English, Brigham Young University Idaho); Dr. Nancy REAGIN (Dept.
of Women’s and Gender Studies, Pace University, New York); Dr; André FILLER
(Département d’Etudes Slaves, Université de Paris 8, St Denis, France) ;
Prof. Cécile VAISSIÉ (Département de Russe, Université de Rennes II, France)

The CFP and other details can also be found in English and French here:


http://www.ea-anglais.univ-paris8.fr/spip.php?article1231

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