This conference focuses on all aspects of the relationship between labour and screen media, historically and today, from representations of labour on screen to the varied ways that labour — viewed as work, craft, skill, creativity, or exploitation — underpins screen media and screen industries. Issues related to labour are increasingly recognised as of central importance to film, television and screen studies. Almost all films and television represent worlds in which various forms of work are necessary, and while they present most obviously the dramatic labour of their actors, and are understood as the artistic works of directors or writers, all productions are dependent on many and various workers, whose labour has until recently often gone uncredited. And as recent strikes in the United States by SAG-AFTRA remind us, questions of labour, politics, and workforce precarity are live issues that demand our attention, particularly in the age of AI and digital content provision.

We are seeking abstracts for individual papers and pre-convened panels that expand our understanding of labour across film, practice-based research, television, and other screen media.  We also invite each BAFTSS SIG to submit one official SIG Panel Proposal. All attendees must be BAFTSS Members at the time of the conference. You can join here

Abstracts should be 250 words. Please also provide a short biography, including institutional affiliation (university, college, archive, independent researcher) of 50 words.

This information should be sent by completing this form: forms.gle/59Sf49BPPjYoCwc88

Deadline: December 15 2023

You will be notified whether your proposal has been accepted by the end of January 2024.

Some potential topics:

  • Representations of labour in film, television and screen media
  • Labour practices in film, television and screen media industries
  • Above-the-line and below-the-line labour in film, television and screen media
  • Labour and class in film, television and screen media
  • Labour and film and television archives.
  • Labour and race in film, television and screen media
  • Labour and gender in film, television and screen media
  • Labour and sexuality in film, television and screen media
  • Labour and disability in film, television and screen media
  • Labour organization in film, television and screen media
  • Labour and digital technology in film, television and screen media
  • Labour and globalization in film, television and screen media
  • Labour and children in film, television and screen media
  • Labour and non-human animals in film, television and screen media
  • Labour and professionalisation in film, television and screen media
  • Amateur and/or non-professional labour in film, television and screen media
  • Precarity and unemployment in film, television and screen media
  • Spaces of creative labour: studios, locations, offices, labs, universities, the home
  • Theorizations of different categories of labour: affective labour, creative labour, cognitive labour, emotional labour, immaterial labour, reproductive labour, forced labour

Please send any enquiries to baftss2024@gmail.com

BAFTSS Inclusivity Statement: BAFTSS is committed to helping our communities to develop strong, positive action around issues of equality, diversity and inclusivity.  These values are displayed in the Inclusivity Statement. displayed on the BAFTSS Homepage  and are embedded in all that we do. Members of BAFTSS are encouraged to be mindful of issues of race, gender, LGBTQI+ status and disability when planning their events, putting panels together, considering access issues and inviting participants.