HoMER@NECS Conference 2016, Potsdam, Germany, 26–30 July 2016
Hosted by ZeM – Brandenburgisches Zentrum für Medienwissenschaften (Brandenburg Center for Media Studies), Potsdam, Germany
Deadline for proposals: 31 January 2016
Following two consecutive joint conferences in Prague (2013) and Milan (2014), HoMER is teaming up with NECS again to offer a strand of panels at the 2016 NECS conference in Potsdam, Germany. Similar to previous such events this will include a pre-conference day with HoMER keynote speakers and workshops (details tbc). NECS (Network for European Cinema Studies) is a dynamic forum supporting researchers working on film and media theory, practice and history. Bringing together cinema historians from all over the world, HoMER (History of Movie-Going, Exhibition and Reception) is an international network interested in understanding the phenomena of cinema and cinema-going from a multidisciplinary perspective. One of HoMER’s main purposes is to facilitate connections between acclaimed and aspiring researchers and the multitude of academic disciplines they represent.
After last year’s conference in Glasgow mapped out the territory for cinema historians by asking ‘What is Cinema History?’ this year’s Call for Papers focuses on connectivity. Cinema as a social and cultural institution has enabled connectivity between people, social groups, industries, media, etc. in many different ways in the past and we welcome papers and panels that accentuate this aspect of cinema history. We seek submissions of individual papers or pre-constituted panel proposals from existing HoMER members and anyone interested in collaborative and comparative research into historical and contemporary film exhibition, distribution and experience.
Possible topics for paper proposals are:
- Comparative perspectives: connecting national, regional and local research and databases on exhibition and cinema-going
- Theoretical perspectives: film exhibition, cinema-going and film experience in relation to theories of actor-networks, imperialism, post-colonialism, diaspora, cinema and modernity, etc.
- Contrasting perspectives: tensions between commercial and ideological film exhibition, urban and rural cinemas, film distribution and exhibition in provinces and regions, the global nature of the film industry and the local experience of cinema-going, etc.
- Institutional perspectives: geographical location and programming trends, the “top down” forces of industry, commerce and ideology vs. “bottom up” forces of experience, the practices of distribution networks, cinema chains and film exhibition circuits, etc.
- Social and spatial perspectives: comparative audience experiences in urban and rural contexts, contesting concepts of public and private space in media experience, cinema’s metropolitan modernity vs. cinema’s ability to connect communities in less urbanized and rural areas
- Diachronic perspectives: the rise of cinemas in rural and urban environments, the boom of cinema-going, the decay and subsequent closure of provincial and neighbourhood cinemas, the rise of multiplexes, etc.
Please submit abstracts for individual papers of no more than 300 words with a biographical note of no more than 100 words to coord@homernetwork.org before 31 January 2016. For pre-constituted panels and workshops, please send abstracts together with a 200-word note on the title and topic of the panel or workshop.
You will be notified of the acceptance or decline of your proposal by the beginning of April 2016. Pease note, if you are accepted and would like to register for the conference, you will be asked to become a member of NECS and pay the membership fee of 30 Euro by the end of April 2016.
HoMER@NECS Coordinating Team 2016: Julia Bohlmann, Annemone Ligensa, Lies Van de Vijver, Maria Velez-Serna – with the kind support of the HoMER conference committee.
