[ecrea] CfP Masculinity and the Metropolis

Call for Papers

Masculinity and the Metropolis

An Interdisciplinary Conference on Art History, Film, and Literature

University of Kent, 22nd – 23rd April 2016

Deadline for submissions: 20 December 2015.

This interdisciplinary conference, hosted by the University of Kent, 
takes as its starting
 point the range of complex and contradictory engagements between 
masculinity and
 the developing metropolis since the beginning of the twentieth 
century. Throughout this
 period the metropolis maintained a paradoxical status as a place of 
liberation and
 possibility, but simultaneously as one of alienation, sin, and 
oppression. What do
 responses to the modern city in visual art, film, and literature tell 
us about masculinity as
 it both asserts itself and registers its own anxieties, and subsequent 
representations of
 the city? In what ways do these contrasting positive and negative 
conditions, which
 encouraged complex responses, fit within the framework of masculinity?

  In the wake of industrialization artistic reactions to modern 
urbanity were spurred on by
 the rapid growth of cities and the transition from rural to 
metropolitan living. This caused
 socio-cultural changes and a diverse range of masculinities to develop 
within the
 metropolis in terms of race, class, and sexualities. How has 
masculinity been visualized
 with the construction of this modern cityscape and ideas of the urban? 
And later in the
 20th Century, how did artists registering with ideas of 
deindustrialization or feminist and
 queer art forms affect or approach theories of masculinity and the 
urban? Can we
 construct an overarching lineage on this relationship? As one starting 
point, the so-called
“crisis of masculinity”, and the way it is represented in various media, 
can be
 connected in interesting ways to the rise of the metropolis. This 
conference will bring
 together scholars from varying fields in order to begin a dialogue 
regarding the way
 theories of masculinity and the metropolis have developed in tandem, 
charting their
 evolution from the beginning of the 20th Century to the present day. 
Scholars with
 diverse interests and approaches to this broad subject are welcome 
with papers
 concerning various media within the 20th and 21st centuries.

 Examples of subjects invited for submission include, but are in no way 
limited to:

• Representations of the male and masculinity in metropolitan society
 within literature, film, and fine art. Contributions from theatre, and 
music
 are also welcome.
• Male as artist or witness to the evolving physical cityscape
• Modern and contemporary responses to 19th Century representations of
 industrialisation and the urban / de-industrialization and the changing
 nature of the urban and the masculine
• The metropolis as a milieu of capitalist oppression, and how this can be
 related to masculinity
• Urban photography and the metropolitan male identity
• Masculine national identities within the cityscape
• Masculinity and the nocturnal city
• The modern or contemporary flâneur
• Cityscape planning and the organization of male spaces
• Destruction of the city and the crisis of masculinity
• The male Superhero
• Masculinities and sexualities within the metropolis
• Depictions of the urban male and race
• The relationship of masculinity to musical sub-cultures / the protest song
 and music as social commentary
• Feminist, gay, and / or trans artistic reactions to masculinity and the
 urban
• Masculinity and dramatic performance within the metropolis

 Keynote Speakers
 Dr. Deborah Longworth, University of Birmingham
 Dr. Hamilton Carroll, University of Leeds
 Dr. Gabriel Koureas, Birkbeck, University of London

Submission process

  We invite submissions of short abstracts (300 words) accompanied by a 
brief biography
 (100 words). The time slot for presentations is 20 minutes with a 10 
minute session for
 questions at the end of each panel.
Please send your abstract as an attachment (.pdf or .doc) to: 
(masculinemetropolis /at/ gmail.com)
 The subject of the email should contain the words: “Masculinity and 
the Metropolis
 submission”
The body of the email should include author(s) name, affiliation, 
abstract title and the
 email address you would like us to use to communicate with you.
 Deadline for submissions: 20 December 2015.
 Notification of acceptance/non-acceptance: 26 January 2016.

More information: https://masculinemetropolis.wordpress.com

 Contact: (masculinemetropolis /at/ gmail.com)

 Organizers
 James Finch, History of Art
 Hannah Huxley, American Studies
 Sara Janssen, Film Studies
 Margaret Schmitz, History of Art

 With a special thanks to our sponsors: The University of Kent’s 
History of Art and Visual
 Cultures Research Centre, Aesthetics Research Centre and the Centre 
for Film and
 Media Research.



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