[ecrea] CFP: Mad Men:The Conference. 26th-28th May 2016, Middle Tennessee State University

Call for Papers

Mad Men: The Conference

Location: Middle Tenneesee State University, near Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Date: May 26-28, 2016

Convened by the College of Media and Entertainment and the College of 
Liberal Arts at Middle Tennessee State University, USA, and The School 
of Arts and Media at the University of Salford, UK.

Proposals are invited for a three-day international conference on the US 
television drama series Mad Men. Responding to the series’ conclusion 
in 2015, this timely event takes the opportunity to explore Mad Men in 
its entirety via a range of academic approaches. It aims to assess 
the series’ significant storytelling achievements, including its 
complex characters, innovative narrative structures, intricate 
mise-en-scène and its inventive deployment of popular music. It intends 
to explore the production conditions that gave rise to this creativity, 
analyzing the series’ links to the growth of the US basic cable sector 
as a major site of ‘quality’ TV drama and other key recent 
industrial shifts. It will look to ascertain the much-discussed Mad 
Men’s cultural impact, exploring the critical discourses and fan 
practices that have developed around the series. It furthermore seeks to 
consider the perspectives that the 1960s-set series brings to a 
transformative era of US social history, as well as trace its 
connections to contemporary cultural debates around such topics as race 
and gender. Through examining this culturally significant series from a 
number of perspectives, the conference will not only assess Mad Men’s 
key creative accomplishments but also use the series as a means to 
consider wider aspects of contemporary television culture, as well as 
broader societal issues.

Proposals (for single papers and panels of three papers) are invited on 
(but not limited to) the following topics:

•	Mad Men and the 1960s
•	Mad Men and intertextuality across media (e.g. film, literature, poetry)
•	Mad Men and the representation of race, gender and sexuality
•	Mad Men and contemporary television industries
•	Mad Men and television authorship
•	Mad Men and season/series finales
•	Narrative structure in Mad Men
•	Set design and visual style in Mad Men
•	Character construction in Mad Men
•	Performance in Mad Men
•	Music in Mad Men
•	Symbolism in Mad Men’s mise en scène
•	Mad Men’s fandom
•	Mad Men and critical discourses
•	Mad Men’s promotional surround
•	Mad Men and media convergence (e.g. social media, digital paratexts, 
streamed distribution)

For a more extensive list of potential paper topics, see the following link:
http://davidlavery.net/Mad_Men/Mad_Men_Topics.pdf

Deadline for submissions: December 31, 2015.

Keynote Speakers to include Matt Zoller Seitz, author of The Mad Men 
Carousel and Professor Mimi White.
A book collecting the best papers from the conference is planned.

As the centre of the country music industry, Nashville is one of 
America’s most culturally vibrant cities, featuring an exciting night 
life that draws upon the city’s musical heritage. Both out of state 
and international participants may wish to come early and stay late.

Proposals and queries should be directed to: 
(madmentheconference /at/ gmail.com) | To learn more and follow the development 
of the conference, visit the website: madmentheconference.com

Conference co-conveners: David Lavery & Jane Marcellus (MTSU), Kirsty 
Fairclough-Isaacs, & Michael Goddard (University of Salford).

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