Sydney Screen Studies Network Presents: Dial S for Screen Studies 2020

Sydney Screen Studies Network is currently seeking proposals for our 2020 conference, Dial S for Screen Studies, held 18th to 19th November 2020 online via Zoom. This year, our conference will adopt a new online-friendly format: papers (and associated media) will be distributed digitally prior to the conference, and conference panel sessions will be moderated discussions of the relevant papers.

We invite scholars working across film, television, video and internet media to present their research on screen studies and screen culture from a variety of perspectives. In particular, we welcome research pertaining to the stream detailed below:

Revisioning the Screen

2020 has brought unprecedented challenges on a global scale. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an immediate and substantial impact upon the way we work and socialise. In the midst of such a crisis, the renewal of the Black Lives Matter movement in the USA and its subsequent global expansion has further brought to the fore conversations around human rights, freedoms, and the call for increased diversity. These events have already had noticeable impact upon both screen industries and screen studies in multi-faceted ways. Notably, they have renewed discussions around both the value and precarity of the arts in times of crisis.

We invite scholars to submit proposals that consider the impact of these various global crises of 2020 on the film, television and media industries and screen studies. Some suggested perspectives for this stream include:

  • Representation of race, racial diversity and racial violence.
  • Disrupted and reimagined film and TV production/distribution/exhibition (in response to COVID-19).
  • Precarity of the film and TV industries.
  • Precarity of Screen Studies as a humanities discipline.
  • The value of the screen arts in responding to crisis.

While we encourage participants to consider the stream on contemporary events suggested above, we will also welcome submissions on topics such as the following:

  • Early cinemas, classic cinemas and/or contemporary cinemas
  • Television, traditional and new
  • Screen history
  • Spectatorship
  • Mass media and social media
  • Screen theory/screen philosophy
  • Intersections of academic research and screen practice
  • New media forms
  • Gender, sexuality, race and class in screen media
  • History/theory of performance on screen

Please send your proposals including a title, an abstract (200 words), and a short biography to dialsforscreenstudies@gmail.com by Friday 25th of September 2020.

We encourage collaborative works, pre-constituted panels, as well as postgraduate and early career researchers to apply to present at Dial S for Screen Studies.

** Please note, this conference will be held online, but in the Australian Eastern Standard Time GMT +10 **