2018 Film & History Conference: Citizenship and Sociopathy in Film, Television, and New Media
November 7-11
Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club
Madison, WI (USA)
deadline for submissions: June 1, 2018
The screen can tell us how people fit or do not fit with each other–with their families and neighbors, their schools and sanctuaries, their nations and natural environments. And those depictions, whether in film, television, or new media, frequently compete. Why might the good citizen of one crime drama become the sociopath of another? Social standards are pliable, but how far can visual media reshape them, and how long can they persist? Could the portrayal of buddies in a comedy from the 1930s offer a viable model of friendship in a modern comedy? In what ways have the models of civic discourse, from Europe and Asia to Africa and the Americas, evolved in reality television, in news programs, in online video? The “good” citizen might seem easy to define, but when do some portrayals of citizenship succeed, inspiring audiences, while others backfire? Visions of citizenship, from the historical dramas to the futuristic adventures, reveal deep assumptions about ethical behavior, which, of course, the sociopathic vision can challenge—sometimes dangerously, but often helpfully. When might citizenship itself be dangerous?
Film & History invites paper submissions for the November conference. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2018. We welcome proposals for papers and full panels from a broad range of academic fields, topics, and theoretical perspectives, including:
Building Better Citizens: Education on Screen
Women’s Studies
Westerns: Frontier Citizenship
Citizen Soldiers: The Armed Forces on Screen
Classical Antiquity
Documenting Immigrants, Migrants, and Refugees
Hollywood’s Golden Age and American Culture
Marriage and the State
The Horror: Psychopaths, Sociopaths, Slashers, and Other Monsters
Queer Studies
Paranoid Politics in the Long 1950s
Television Heroes: Saviors or Sociopaths
Nation and Family
Race and Ethnicity in Film, Television, and New Media
Render unto Caesar: Dilemmas of Church and State
Teaching Film
Declarations of Independence: Independent Film
Destroyer of Worlds: Citizenship and Sociopathy in Science Fiction
Subjugated Masculinities: “Cowboys,” Gangsters, and Drag Kings
Transnational Film
The Good Citizen: Dystopian Narratives
We are honored to feature philosopher Robert B. Pippin as this year’s keynote speaker. Dr. Pippin is the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Distinguished Service Professor of Social Thought, Philosophy, and in the College at the University of Chicago. Dr. Pippin has published numerous articles and essays on the intersection of film, philosophy, and ethics across genres, including articles on The Thin Red Line, Out of the Past, The Searchers, Talk to Her, and In a Lonely Place.
Please send your 200-word abstract submission to area chair manager Cindy Miller at cynthia_miller@emerson.edu for consideration.