Final Call for Papers

TIME: September 9th-11th 2010
VENUE: University of Copenhagen

This is the final call for papers for the annual international conference on screenwriting research, this year organized by the Department of Media, Cognition and Communication at the University of Copenhagen.

As the first two conferences on screenwriting – at the University of Leeds in 2008 and at the University of Arts and Design in Helsinki in 2009 – have shown, there is an increasing interest in researching screenwriting from a number of different perspectives.

Confirmed Keynotes (for bios, please see below):

Dr. Mette Hjort is Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Visual Studies at the Liberal Arts University of Hong Kong, Lingnan University, and Affiliate Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Dr. Steven Maras is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Media and Communications Department at the University of Sydney.

Dr. Janet Staiger is the William P. Hobby Centennial Professor in Communication, teaching courses in Radio-Television-Film and Women’s and Gender Studies, at the University of Texas at Austin.

Aims:
The purpose of the conference is to continue the discussion of the many aspects of screenwriting research and to further theoretical and methodological reflections in this developing field. The conference also aims at strengthening the international network among scholars within both theoretical and practice-based research. We wish to encourage a critical approach to the practices, documents and values of screenwriting, and to seek new insights into screenwriting as part of film production culture. As the recent publication of the first issue of the Journal of Screenwriting has shown, screenwriting is a vast and vivid field, encompassing many different methodological approaches from a wide variety of academic disciplines.

In particular, we encourage papers discussing the following topics:

1.    Creativity, collaborations and constraints
-    screenwriting as a creative/artistic process or a craft
-    individual as well as collaborative practices
-    self-chosen or imposed constraints in screenwriting processes
-    discussions of authorship and intentionality

2.    The nature of the screenplay
-    reflections on narrative theory and dramaturgy
-    the relationship between word and image
-    new forms, new technologies, new media
-    issues of intermediality and adaptation
-    genre-oriented considerations of screenwriting and the screenplay

3.    Methodology of screenwriting research
-    how to approach documents, actions, intentions and visions of screenwriting
-    how to interpret and develop them theoretically
-    how to do practice-based research
-    how to teach screenwriting theory and practice within an academic or practice based context

4.    Practice and method of screenwriting
-    screenwriting as a practice within the cultural/creative industries
-    the different roles of the screenwriter
-    considerations of radical or alternative methods in relation to industry conventions
-    discussions of labor aspects as well as organizational frameworks

5.    History and theory of screenwriting
-    new research and re-evaluations on the history of screenwriting
-    national heritage of screenwriting practices
-    new approaches to screenwriting theory

Call for papers:
Time allotted to each paper is 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes for discussion.

Abstracts (300 words maximum) may be submitted until March 15 2010. Kindly remember to state your name, affiliation and contact information.

Please send your abstract to Eva Novrup Redvall: eva@hum.ku.dk.

We will let you know whether your paper has been accepted no later than April 15 2010.

The conference fee is 60 Euros including two lunches and coffee. The conference is free for PhD students.

More information on the program as well as on travelling and accommodation can be found on the conference website: http://screenwriting.mef.ku.dk

The conference is supported by the Faculty of Humanities at The University of Copenhagen and is organized with assistance from the Screenwriting Research Network.

For further information, please contact Eva Novrup Redvall, eva@hum.ku.dk or Mette Mortensen, metmort@hum.ku.dk at the Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, The University of Copenhagen.

Organizing Committee:

Eva Novrup Redvall, MA, PhD student, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, The University of Copenhagen.

Mette Mortensen, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, The University of Copenhagen.

Keynotes:

Dr. Mette Hjort is Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Visual Studies at the Liberal Arts University of Hong Kong, Lingnan University, and Affiliate Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is the author of Lone Scherifg’s Italian for Beginners (forthcoming), Stanley Kwan´s Center Stage (2006), Small Nation, Global Cinema (2005), and The Strategy of Letters (1993). She is also the editor or co-editor of eight books, including, most recently, Instituting Cultural Studies (forthcoming), Film and Risk (forthcoming) and The Cinema of Small Nations (2007).

Dr. Steven Maras is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Media and Communications Department at the University of Sydney. He is author of Screenwriting: History, Theory, Practice (Wallflower Press, 2009). He has published over forty articles and essays in numerous journals in Australia and internationally on a wide ranging set of topics, and is on the the editorial advisory board of Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies and the Journal of Screenwriting.

Dr. Janet Staiger is the William P. Hobby Centennial Professor in Communication, teaching courses in Radio-Television-Film and Women’s and Gender Studies, at the University of Texas at Austin.  Author and editor of eleven books and 50-plus essays, her book publications include Media Reception Studies (2005), Perverse Spectators (2000); Blockbuster TV (2000); Bad Women (1995); Interpreting Films (1992); and The Classical Hollywood Cinema, co-authored with David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson (1985).  She has also co-edited with David Gerstner, Authorship and Film (2003).