2012 - Genres in Transit: Re-thinking Genre in Contemporary Cinemas

Submissions are invited for the Genres in Transit: Re-thinking Genre in Contemporary Cinemas conference, to be held on the 20th and 21st April 2012 at the Arts Technology Research Laboratory in Trinity College Dublin.
Genre filmmaking has been and continues to be a defining feature of cinema worldwide. Film critics and historians have produced a wealth of scholarly work on classical Hollywood and World Cinema genres. Recently, scholars have addressed issues of contemporary genre filmmaking; such research has tended to avoid a comparative approach to Hollywood and national cinemas, treating them largely as distinct systems of production. However, the increasingly globalized and transnational nature of contemporary filmmaking has opened up a space for the development of new approaches to and discourses surrounding film genre theory.
The aim of this conference is to explore contemporary genre filmmaking with a particular emphasis on the intersection between conventional modes of production and new transnational practices.
Papers are welcomed on topics including (but not limited to):
? The relationship between classical Hollywood and contemporary Hollywood genres
? The relationship between traditional and contemporary generic filmmaking practices in European and World Cinemas
? Iterations of classical Hollywood genres within national cinemas
? Independent film and its relationship to genre
? Genre cinema and its interactions with digital media and culture
? Genre theory and history
? Association of specific genres with gender, race and/or ethnicity
? Issues of production, distribution, exhibition, censorship and reception of genre films
? Performance and star persona in genre cinema

Confirmed keynote speakers are Dr. Barry Langford of the Royal Holloway, University of London and Dr. Wendy Everett of the University of Bath.
It is our intention to publish an edited volume with articles included in the conference. More information will be made available closer to the conference date.

Conference organizers:
Silvia Dibeltulo (email: dibeltus-AT-tcd.ie) and Ciara Barrett (email: barretcm-AT-tcd.ie)
Film Studies Department,
School of Drama, Film and Music
Texts, Contexts, Cultures Programme
Trinity College Dublin

Abstracts of 300 words, and a brief biography, should be sent to genresintransit-AT-gmail.com by 9 January, 2012, following this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body
of abstract, f) biography.
Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by 6 February, 2012.