[Commlist] CFP Action Heroines in the Twenty-First Century: Sisters in Arms

Call for Papers
Bournemouth University in collaboration with Wolverhampton University 
presents:

Action Heroines in the Twenty-First Century: Sisters in Arms
Thursday June 9th - Friday June 10th 2022 at Talbot Campus, Bournemouth 
University

Hosted by the  Narrative, Culture and Community Research Centre

Keynotes: Professor Yvonne Tasker, Leeds University, and Professor Chris 
Holmlund, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

It is 30 years since Thelma and Louise hit our screens, grossing a cool 
$45mil at the US box office and carving out a special place in movie 
history.  A deliberately feminist project for screenwriter Callie 
Khouri, it was hailed and derided in more or less equal measure by 
critics for its portrayal of two ordinary Arkansas women turned 
gun-toting outlaws.  The film busted the Hollywood myth that a 
female-led action movie could not be a critical and commercial success. 
It also broke the mould by presenting us with not one but two action 
heroines, this being perhaps the most revolutionary thing about it. As a 
result, many anticipated an upsurge in female action heroines, but this 
was not to be. The genre continued to be almost exclusively dominated by 
men, and where a female action hero did appear (Geena Davis being one 
significant action star, Angelina Jolie of course another), they were 
almost always positioned as a single woman surrounded by a cast of men, 
as though to reinforce their exceptionality and their distance from 
ordinary women and from socially acceptable constructions of femininity. 
In the new millennium, however, we have seen an increasing number of 
women star in and lead action films emanating from Hollywood and beyond. 
And perhaps more interestingly we have seen the emergence of films that 
feature more than one female action figure, effectively removing that 
stultifying burden of representation otherwise shouldered by the lone 
‘woman’.
We invite submissions addressing action films featuring multiple women, 
including buddy films, ensemble films, films featuring female 
protagonists and antagonists, female mentors and mentees and any other 
variations on the theme of ‘sisters in arms’. We encourage proposals 
that address films from all national and international cinema traditions 
and from a range of action-led genres from Westerns to heist movies, and 
from martial arts to science fiction. Papers that address action 
heroines on TV will also be welcome.

Please send a 300-word abstract along with a 100-word bio by December 
1st 2021 to: Christa van Raalte, Bournemouth University 
(cvanraalte /at/ bournemouth.ac.uk) and Fran Pheasant-Kelly, University of 
Wolverhampton at (f.e.pheasant-kelly /at/ wlv.ac.uk). A final listing of 
accepted presentations will be released on January 15th 2022. Please 
note that Edinburgh University Press have already expressed an interest 
in publishing an edited collection arising from the conference and will 
be in attendance.
Delegate fees are £50 (£30 for students/concessions) to include lunch, 
refreshments, and evening wine reception. We are planning to hold the 
conference dinner on Thursday 9th June and will send out details of this 
later.

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