ethos 2012 - 1st Global Conference: 'Skins' and Contemporary Culture

1st Global Conference
'Skins' and Contemporary Culture
Tuesday 25th September 2012 ? Thursday 27th
September 2012
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers:
Now in its sixth series on E4 in the UK and first
series on MTV in the US, the brainchild of
father-son writing team Bryan Elsley and Jamie
Brittain has gained popularity and critical
acclaim for the honesty, authenticity and humour
of its no-holds-barred depiction of the teenage
experience. In a reflexive turn, Skins has become
a cultural phenomenon whose influence is
registered through its status as essential teen
viewing, the Skins party craze and the tendency
among fans to perceive their own identities and
experiences in relation to characters and
situations from the show. The richness of Skins as
a televisual text supports wide-ranging
explorations of the show’s aesthetic, thematic,
ideological, social and technological implications.
We therefore invite papers and preconstituted
panels that address any aspect of Skins, such as:
* Representations of teenage life and teen culture
* Identities: gender, class, race, sexualities
(hetero-, homo-, bi-, fluid, queer, etc.)
* Death and the concept of mortality
* Mental illness/psychology/psychoanalysis
* Fandom
* Transnational reception
* Analysis of fanvids, fanfics, fanart
* Assessments of the meaning/cultural
significance of specific storylines (c.f. the
Naomily phenomenon)
* Plotline controversies and moral panics
* Adapting Skins for the American market
* Narrative and storytelling
* Creator/showrunner as author
* Genre analysis
* Modes of comedy
* Defining the ‘Skins aesthetic’
* Uses of inter-textuality/pop culture allusions
* Fashion
* Music
* Space and place: Bristol on screen
* Skins novels
* Acting and performance
* Cameos and guest stars
* Fame and celebrity
* Production process studies
* Technologies of production, distribution and
reception in the post-broadcast era
* Skins and Channel 4/E4/MTV
* Comparative analyses of Skins and other
television shows
For 2012, the Skins and Contemporary Culture
project will meet alongside our project on Gender
and Love It is our intention to create cross-over
sessions between the two groups ? and we welcome
proposals which deal with the relationship between
gender and love and Skins and contemporary
culture. Papers will also be considered on any
related theme. 300 word abstracts should be
submitted by Friday 16th March 2012. If an
abstract is accepted for the conference, a full
draft paper of no more than 3000 words should be
submitted by Friday 22nd June 2012. Abstracts
should be submitted simultaneously to both
Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word,
WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following
information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d)
title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to
10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: SKINS Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain
from using footnotes and any special formatting,
characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or
underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts
is planned for the end of the year. All accepted
abstracts will be included in this publication. We
acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper
proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply
from us in a week you should assume we did not
receive your proposal; it might be lost in
cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an
alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Ann-Marie Cook
Visiting Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for
Creative Industries and Innovation,
Queensland University of Technology,
Australia
E-mail: annmariecook75-AT-gmail.com
Dr Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road,
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
Email: skins-AT-inter-disciplinary.net
The conference is part of the Critical Issues
series of research projects. The aim of the
conference is to bring together people from
different areas and interests to share ideas and
explore various discussions which are innovative
and exciting. All papers accepted for and
presented at this conference are eligible for
publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may
be invited to go forward for development into a
themed ISBN hard copy volume.
For further details of the project, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/...
For further details of the conference, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/...
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a
not-for-profit network and we are not in a
position to be able to assist with conference
travel or subsistence.