[ecrea] CFP: Doing Women's Film and Television History III

*Call for Papers*

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*Doing Women’s Film and Television History III: Structures of Feeling*

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*18-20 May 2016*

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*Phoenix Cinema and Arts Centre, Leicester, UK*

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*Confirmed Speakers:*

*Miranda J Banks*

*Melanie Bell*

*Shelley Cobb*

*Linda Ruth Williams*

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As organizers of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council funded
project, ‘A History of Women in the British Film and Television
Industries,’ we are proud to host the third International /Doing Women’s
Film and Television History/ conference, in association with the Women's
Film & Television History Network: UK/Ireland.


The central theme of this edition, 'Structures of Feeling,' is derived
from the work of Raymond Williams on social change, and commemorates the
40th anniversary of the 1975 publication of /Patterns of Discrimination
Against Women in the Film and Television Industries/ by the Association
of Cinematograph, Television and allied Technicians (ACTT) union’s
Committee of Equality. This watershed report was the first to quantify
and evaluate the gendered hierarchies of grades and pay that effectively
saw women working in ‘sexual ghettoes’ within the British film and
television industries, providing indispensable support for women union
members in pursuit of collective bargaining rights for women. Forty
years on from its original purpose, this report is now an important
historical document, affording feminist researchers insight into the
elusive ‘structures of feeling’ - those values and experiences within
which a community of women worked and campaigned for change - that are
only fully accessible to those living in that time and place and
therefore require particular kinds of research.


Such reports are invaluable because they identify the ways in which
women’s work in ‘below-the-line’ roles have been undervalued as 
well as
highlighting the policies, practices and assumptions of the industries
that keep gendered hierarchies in play.  Crucially they also make
visible the largely ‘invisible labour’ of cinema and television that is
carried out by women. In effect, such documents contribute to the field
of women’s film and TV history by allowing researchers to counter the
‘selective traditions’ of historical analysis that have privileged
/his/tories over /her/stories. As the collection of essays from the
first ‘Doing Women’s Film History’ conference (forthcoming October 
2015)
shows, the different sources, methods and conceptualisations on which
scholars of women’s film and TV history draw challenge//not only
established histories but also the historiographic/assumptions/ and
/practices/ that underpin them.


While these 'jumping-off' points explore women working in UK production
contexts, /Doing Women's Film & TV History /III, like its predecessors,
is /international/ in scope and the conference organisers seek
comparative illumination by inviting proposals that explore the
‘structures of feeling’ of women working in any national system of film
and television production, within any historical period. The organisers
are also interested in proposals that address the critical and
historiographic tools that can be utilised to bring women’s ‘structures
of feeling’ in film and television history to view.


Specific topics for papers and panels that address gaps in women’s film
and television history include:

·       Women’s contributions to film and television production

·       The impact of production cultures on women workers

·       The impact of social, economic and industrial conditions
(including industry regulation) on women’s roles and creative practices

·       The relationship between women’s work and media trade
unions/professional guilds/campaign groups

·       The connection between women’s access to production and screen
representations of women or textual femininities

·       The relationship between film and television genres, their
gendered affiliations and women’s involvement in their production

·       Women practitioners' negotiations of femininity and feminism in
their working lives

·       Women practitioners negotiations of identity politics (e.g.
class, race, age, sexuality) in their working lives

·       Cross-national connections and comparisons

·       Women’s career moves from film to television (or vice versa) and
from/to other creative industries

·       Issues of archiving, preservation and exhibition

·       Impact of digitisation on women’s film/TV production and future
histories

·       Sources and methodologies for gender-orientated film and
television research

·       Critical canons and teaching women’s film and television history

Proposals for twenty-minute presentations must include the title of the
presentation, a 250 word abstract and a brief autobiographical statement
by the author(s). Pre-constituted panels of three speakers may also be
submitted, and should include a brief panel rationale statement, as well
as individual abstracts. Proposals from both established scholars and
early career researchers including postgraduate students are welcomed.
Proposals should be submitted to (vicky.ball /at/ dmu.ac.uk) before the 4
December 2015. Participants will receive a response from the selection
committee by early January 2016.

‘A History of Women in the British Film and Television Industries’ is an
AHRC funded research project led by the University of Newcastle and De
Montfort University. The project team leaders are: Dr Melanie Bell
(Newcastle); Dr Vicky Ball (De Montfort); Sue Bradley (Research
Associate, Newcastle) and Frances Galt (PhD candidate, De Montfort).

Further details of the project can be found at:
https://research.ncl.ac.uk/womensworkftvi/



Dr Vicky Ball
Senior Lecturer, Cinema and Television Histories
De Montfort University
Clephan Building
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH
(vicky.ball /at/ dmu.ac.uk)
Women's Work project: http://research.ncl.ac.uk/womensworkftvi/
WFTHN:http://womensfilmandtelevisionhistory.wordpress.com/

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