CALL FOR PAPERS
On, Archives! Celebrating 50 Years of the Wisconsin
Center for Film and Theater Research a conference on media, theater and
history
July 6-9, 2010Madison, Wisconsin
www.wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu/conference
In
2010 the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research celebrates its 50th
anniversary. Formed in 1960 as a
joint project of the Wisconsin Historical
Society and what was then the Department
of Speech at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the WCFTR was one of the
earliest institutions in the United States to perceive the value in preserving
and collecting archival materials in American film, radio, television and
theater. Conjointly with the WHS?s
extensive Mass Communication collections, the WCFTR has continued to build a
resource used by scholars, researchers, students, and the general public alike
to keep the history of media and the dramatic arts alive and to aid in our
understanding of cinema, radio, television, drama, and popular culture as
globally vital phenomena.
In
this its 50th year, the Center will celebrate by hosting a
conference focused on film, radio, television and theater history, and on the
challenges of archiving in these areas.
We invite a broad range of scholarship touching on the concerns of the
collections here at Madison, and particularly invite those whose work has
brought them here to consult our papers, films, recordings, and graphic
materials in the course of their work.
Equally important are considerations of archiving popular, aural, and
visual culture. We invite
presentations of historical work and contemporary work with roots in the
historical in the fields of film, theater, and broadcasting, and in archival
issues and debates, for a four-day celebration of the study of media and
performance culture in America and around the world, July 6-9, 2010, in
Madison.
We
invite you to submit papers in any of the following areas, or on related
subjects. We are particularly
interested in work that makes use of the
Center?s or the Society?s collections,
or that of other archival venues.
the history of film production, exhibition, and
distribution in the US and abroadthe history of broadcasting in the United
States, and in other places and contextthe
history of American theater production and
performance, and international counterpartissues
and challenges of media archiving,
including the digital futurethe role of history in the study of media and
popular culturehistoriographical methods and
theorycreative authorship in film, broadcasting, and
theaterthe future of media and theater history
A separate
Symposium on Broadcasting in the 1930s: New Media in a Time of Crisis will run
concurrently with the On, Archives conference
see www.wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu/conference/symposium
for more details. Participants are
invited to attend all sessions for both events.
Send paper, panel, or workshop proposals of no more than 300
words to Michele Hilmes at (wcftr50 /at/ gmail.com). Deadline: January 30, 2010.
Details of the proposal process can be found on the conference website
at www.wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu/conference.
See our website at http://wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu
for information on the Center and its collections, and links to the Wisconsin
Historical Society.
Conference co-sponsored by the Department of Communication
Arts, the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Department of Theatre and Drama,
the UW Cinematheque, and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.
Conference Organizer:
Professor Michele Hilmes
Department of Communication Arts
Director, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
University of Wisconsin-Madison
(mhilmes /at/ wisc.edu)
608-262-2547
For further information, contact:
Benjamin Brewster
Assistant Director
Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
(brbrewst /at/ wisc.edu)
608-262-9706
