CFP: HoMER Conference 2019

CALL FOR PAPERS

HoMER 2019 Conference 
Anchoring New Cinema History  

The University of the Bahamas
Nassau, The Bahamas
26–28 June 2019

Deadline for proposals, 15 November 2018
Letters of acceptance/rejection, 1 December 2018


The HoMER Network (History of Moviegoing, Exhibition and Reception) invites submissions for general paper entries, as well as a designated roundtable, panels, and workshops to be presented at the 2019 conference.

New Cinema History, as an approach focusing “on the circulation and consumption of film” and examining “cinema as a site of social and cultural exchange" (Richard Maltby, 2011) has turned out to be very productive. It brought together both young and veteran scholars who believed that it was more fruitful writing film history with an eye for the social, economic and geographical aspects of cinema cultures, than merely an art history of the moving image or a critical reading of films. At the last HoMER@NECS conference in Amsterdam, members of the panel ‘New Cinema History: What’s Next?’ called  for more theoretical and methodological grounding of our research. In the Homer 2019 conference Anchoring New Cinema History we would like to start answering that call. Presentations are welcome to critically explore the conference theme of Anchoring New Cinema History through the interdisciplinary lens of academic Film and Cinema Studies, Social Geography, Memory Studies and Economic History, etc.

Since its beginning the HoMER network has been instrumental in bringing together researchers working in the New Cinema History tradition, not just as a platform to present their work but also as place to meet colleagues to collaborate with. In the upcoming HoMER conference we propose to stress the network function of HoMER, both in welcoming young scholars as in creating interdisciplinary opportunities for collaborative work. The 2019 HoMER conference aims to exploit the established strong connections of people, and places the HoMER network can offer, in order to invite new and old members to engage in new collaborative research. This will be articulated in two main streams:

The SPACES and PLACES stream of the conference (either pre-constituted panels or individual papers) will aim to investigate the geography of cinema. This can be expressed both through the exploration of familiar and new spaces of cinemas, such as cinema theatres but also pop-up cinemas,  community cinemas, and virtual cinemas. It will also include both well researched geographical areas and new territories and locations, such as South and Central America, Africa, Central Asia and South-East Asia. These new uncharted territories will be of great value on their own to reconnoitre the position of different countries in relation to cinema practices. They will also provide connections and comparisons with existing body of work on Europe, America, Canada and Australia.

By looking at this extended geography of cinema, possible topics and questions to explore might include (but are certainly not limited to):

  • Environment, space, and place
  • Cinemas and urban transformations, transition and change
  • Cinema practices, policies and external bodies (local authorities, communities, self regulating associations)
  • Memories and topographical references


The THEORIES AND METHODOLOGIES stream of the HoMER conference (special discussion sessions and presentations) will provide an opportunity to reflect on and discuss some key areas of research within the HoMER network, with the aim of suggesting new directions in the field and developing new theoretical and methodological approaches, or reintroducing and adapting existing approaches that proved to be useful. These key areas can be suggested by members when submitting a paper proposal (or just by emailing the HoMER Co-ordinators). A dedicated session of this stream will include:

Small group discussion (1 hour) on the key areas, followed by presentations (10 min) to the HoMER participants and a further discussion (20 min). Possible key areas to explore might include (but are certainly not limited to): Cinema and Memory; the Economics and business of film; Programming and film popularity; Paratextual analysis; the Digital challenge; Distribution and spreading of films; Impact of research to non-academic audiences.

Moreover, in a speed dating session, junior researchers will be given the opportunity to team up with experts to discuss their individual methodological and theoretical concerns. If you are interested in this (both juniors and experts), please email the Co-ordinators.

Send abstracts of 250 to 300 words, plus 3 or 4 bibliographic entries, and a 50-word academic biography to conference co-ordinators, Clara Pafort-Overduin (c.pafort-overduin@uu.nl) and Daniela Treveri Gennari (dtreveri-gennari@brookes.ac.uk).

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