[Commlist] CFP: Research Methods in Film Studies: Challenges and Opportunities

*CFP: **Research Methods in Film Studies: Challenges and Opportunities*

18-19 October 2019, Ghent, Belgium

Keynote speakers:

Catherine Grant (Birkbeck, University of London)

Barbara Flueckiger (Zurich University)

The academic study of film has involved looking at generic conventions, 
authorial features, and the use and function of different aspects of 
film language, including mise-en-scène, narrative, editing and sound. 
Film Studies has also examined the relationship between film and 
society, by contemplating issues such as race and gender, the on- and 
off-screen construction of stardom, the association between cinema, 
ideology and propaganda, and the way in which films mirror and shape 
national and transnational identities. The industrial features of film, 
film policy and legislation, as well as matters of film reception, 
distribution and exhibition, venues and audiences (cf. the New Cinema 
History Movement) have also been extensively considered by scholars, 
within and beyond the discipline.

Research questions and methodologies from the humanities and social 
sciences have often been used in conjunction in the analysis of this 
multitude of topics. The history of Film Studies is thus one of 
transdisciplinarity. As the discipline moves forward, and its future is 
called into question – both in relation to debates about the 
post-cinematic era (Denson and Leyda 2016) and the changing academic 
context (Fairfax 2017) – methodological considerations have been given 
greater attention in academic discussions. This is at least partly 
connected to the rise of the Digital Humanities, which has afforded the 
study of film with a variety of new digital sources, tools and methods, 
as well as a growing interest in quantitative data, which allows for new 
forms of analysis of film texts, industries, audiences and cultures. At 
the same time, more traditional methods, such as the multiple approaches 
to textual analysis, the use of interviews and surveys, as well as 
archival research, retain their important place within Film Studies. The 
wide variety of methodologies adopted by researchers of film across the 
globe have meant the discipline is now faced with a series of challenges 
and opportunities.

Aiming to explore a wide range of approaches, this conference invites 
contributions that engage with current methodological challenges and 
opportunities in Film Studies. We welcome theoretical contributions on 
methodological issues in Film Studies, papers or workshop sessions on 
specific methods, as well as research papers paying considerable 
attention to the methodological framework at stake.

Abstracts are invited on topics related to research methods in Film 
Studies, including but not limited to:

*Statistical methods for textual analysis

*Film Studies and big data

*Text mining in Film Studies

*CAQDAS and Film Studies

*Cinema and social network analysis

*Audience research

* Methods in New Cinema History

*Production analysis and film policy research

*Film and video as methodological tools

*Narrative analysis

*Archival research

*Methodological issues in specific schools of film analysis (e.g. 
feminism, phenomenology, neoformalism, auteurism, post-structuralism, 
critical theory, cultural studies, political economy …)

*Neurocinematics and neuroscience of film

The conference will also host a special panel organized by the ECREA 
Television Studies section. The section invites paper proposals devoted 
to new methodologies in the research of television fiction and 
non-fiction content. The section welcomes submissions that explore 
comparisons, international approaches and examples of concrete and 
innovative case studies, in order to shed light on the future of TV 
Studies in the new digital context.

Please submit your abstract (max 300 words) along with key references, 
institutional affiliation and a short bio (max 150 words) or a panel 
proposal, including a panel presentation (max 300 words) along with 
minimum 3, maximum 4 individual abstracts.

Submission deadline: 12 May 2019.

Proposal acceptance notification: 21 June  2019.

Please send your abstract/panel proposals to the conference email 
address: (filmstudiesecrea /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(filmstudiesecrea /at/ gmail.com)>

ECREA membership is not required to participate in the conference. The 
conference fee will not exceed 70 EUR and will include coffee breaks, 
lunches and receptions.

The conference takes place in Ghent and is hosted by Ghent University 
and the University of Antwerp. The conference is organised by the ECREA 
Film Studies Section in co-operation with DICIS (Digital Cinema Studies 
network), the Research Center for Visual Poetics at the University of 
Antwerp, the Centre for Cinema and Media Studies at Ghent University, 
the Visual and Digital Cultures Research Center at the University of 
Antwerp, and the Popular Communication division of NeFCA.

Conference organisers: Gertjan Willems (University of Antwerp/Ghent 
University), Sergio Villanueva Baselga (Universitat de Barcelona), 
Mariana Liz (University of Lisbon)

Conference website: https://ecreafilmstudies2019.wordpress.com/


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