[Commlist] CFP: Doing Women's Screen and Media Histories 2027

*CALL FOR PAPERS*

Doing Women’s Screen and Media Histories 8

#DWSMH8

(formerly ‘Doing Women’s Film and Television History’ DWFTH)

*Archiving and Curating Women’s Media Histories: *

*Feminist Challenges, Approaches, Practices, Possibilities*

Wednesday 16^th June – Friday 18^th June, 2027

University of Exeter, UK

https://womensscreenwork.exeter.ac.uk/events/conference/ 
<https://womensscreenwork.exeter.ac.uk/events/conference/>

Deadline for paper proposals:

Monday 2^nd November, 2026, 17.00 GMT

We are pleased to announce that the 8^th iteration of the Women’s Film 
and Television History Network UK and Ireland 
<https://wfthn.com/>conference will take place on 16^th -18^th June, 
2027 at the University of Exeter, UK.

A key theme of the conference will be ‘*Archiving and Curating Women’s 
Media Histories: Feminist Challenges, Approaches, Practices, 
Possibilities’*. The theme will foreground the importance of archivists 
and curators in the dynamic processes of doing women’s media histories. 
The archival turn in women’s media histories has produced a rich 
tradition of new work and has enabled innovative methodologies. This 
conference seeks to foster further dialogue between researchers and 
professional archivists and curators in media heritage collections to 
more fully understand the ways that the discovery and recovery central 
to feminist film historiography is always intertwined with labour, 
practices and processes. The conference aims to explore feminist 
approaches to archival and curatorial practice, and to acknowledge the 
importance of archivists and curators in the shared project of Doing 
Women’s Screen and Media Histories.

As is the custom with this conference, papers on feminist media 
histories outside of the key theme will also be welcomed. Our definition 
of women is inclusive.

Building on the success of the 7^th conference at the University of 
Lincoln in 2025, this three-day event will again be in person and will 
welcome international scholars, archivists, curators, and practitioners 
to create conversations and collaborations within and outside the panels.

The conference is the key event for our Arts and Humanities Research 
Council-funded project entitled 'Women's Screen Work in the Archive Made 
Visible’ and is a collaboration in association with the Women’s Film and 
Television History Network - UK/Ireland 
(https://womensfilmandtelevisionhistory.wordpress.com/ 
<https://womensfilmandtelevisionhistory.wordpress.com/>), which sponsors 
the conference every two years.  It is hosted by the project team and is 
organised by Helen M Hanson, Shelley Cobb, Lisa Smithstead and Felicity 
Ward.

*Confirmed Keynote:*Professor Melanie Williams (University of East 
Anglia). Further confirmed keynote speakers will be announced in due course.

We are calling for papers *on all aspects of feminist media histories*,  
but especially those that respond to the theme, on topics such as, but 
not limited to:

  * Feminist archival ethics, care, and affective labour in media
    heritage work
  * Community-led, activist, and grassroots feminist archiving practices
  * Questions of preservation, access, and sustainability for archiving
    born-digital women’s screen work
  * Curatorial storytelling, exhibition design, and feminist modes of
    interpretation
  * Power, absence, and silence: confronting gaps and exclusions in
    women’s screen work archives
  * Collaboration between scholars, archivists, and cultural
    institutions as feminist praxis
  * Teaching women’s screen work histories through archives,
    collections, and/or curatorial projects

*SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS:*

We welcome proposals in the following three formats:

 1. *Individual **15-minute presentations,*
    including the following information:
      * title
      * 250-word abstract
      * brief biography of the author(s).

 2. *pre-constituted panels with a maximum of 4 speakers (panel length
    will be 90 minutes and should include at least 15 minutes for
    discussion).*
    Pre-constituted panel proposals should include:
      * short (250-word) rationale statement, explaining the
        constitution of the panel and types of contributions it will
        include.
      * individual abstracts (250 word)
      * brief biography of all contributors.

Panels can also be constituted as roundtables, workshops or other 
non-standard forms. Please contact the organising team to discuss ideas.

 3. *Practice-led contributions which address women’s histories in film,
    television and audio/visual media are encouraged.*
    Please submit:
      * a 250-word description
      * running time
      * display requirements
      * links to an excerpt and/or full work
      * brief biography of creator(s).

Please submit proposals via this form 
<https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/YqDpmwP4JC>

Please send any enquiries to: (WomensScreenWork /at/ exeter.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(WomensScreenWork /at/ exeter.ac.uk)>
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