Organized in partnership with: University of Brighton / The Glasgow School of Art / The OA Zine / Festival International de Vidéo Danse de Bourgogne

This international online conference will focus on both seasons of Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij’s acclaimed television series The OA that went missing 4 years ago. Released on Netflix between 2016 and 2019, The OA has been described as one of the best streaming series of the 2010s, but has yet to benefit from an international conference that is interdisciplinary in scope. We are enthusiastic about the conference’s accessible online format and its potential to engage with international colleagues in diverse fields of research.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

  • the multiverse
  • fairy tales
  • movements and dance
  • identity(ies)
  • the relationship betweenThe OA and Marling/Batmanglij/Mike Cahill’s filmography
  • angels
  • Homer’s Iliad
  • visual impairment & blindness on screen
  • LGBTQ + representation
  • the family
  • near death experiences
  • ontology
  • magic
  • virtual reality
  • trauma
  • sacred springs

We welcome papers from the fields of television and film studies, art history, literature, sociology, psychology, disability studies, gender studies, dance and screendance studies, religious studies and other diverse fields of inquiry from the arts, humanities, and sciences.

Panels will be organized during the conference weekend, 23-24 March 2024.

Abstracts of 300-500 words, accompanied by a C.V. will be accepted until 1 October 2023 at: theoaconference@gmail.com

Notification of the conference program will be sent by January 15, 2024.

Conferences will be limited to 25-minute presentations.

Conference organisers:
Franck Boulègue (Associated Scholar – University of Liège & author, Twin Peaks: Unwrapping the Plastic) ; Marisa C. Hayes (University of Brighton, School of Art & Media & editor, Art in Motion: Current Research in Screendance) ; Robert Sinnerbrink (Macquarie University & author, New Philosophies of Film) ; David Sweeney (Glasgow School of Art & author, The OA).