[Commlist] CFP "Virtuous Viewing"

Virtuous viewing (deadline for proposals *November 1*)

Over the past few months, numerous streaming services, media 
conglomerates, film critics and journals, as well as academic 
departments, have published lists of anti-racist films and television 
shows to watch, or promoted Black Lives Matter watchlists and viewing 
queues. This phenomenon has altered what it means to watch, particularly 
in a time of quarantine when cinematic spectatorship in the US largely a 
small group and private affair. Likewise, by connecting spectatorship to 
a political position, these lists present watching as an explicitly 
politically-aware act. The publication of watch lists is certainly not 
new and watching films and television shows has always been political. 
But because many of these lists also make educative claims (to watch 
these films is to become informed), such lists assume viewers are 
well-intentioned but ignorant. While the curation of moving images 
presents genuine opportunities for awareness, consciousness raising, and 
political change, these practices may also be cynical attempts to 
capitalize on a specific moment of work from home quarantine and 
political uprisings on the streets. Moreover, viewers themselves may 
attempt to signal their political awareness through social media posts 
and various other public markers in order to claim moral excellence.

This special issue of /Film Criticism/ seeks submissions on contemporary 
viewing practices and issues of spectatorship specifically related to 
the notion of virtue. Virtue has long been associated with moral 
excellence, including chastity, industry, honesty, and courage, as well 
as strength and power. The practice of virtuous viewing, then, is tied 
to demonstration of moral character and moral superiority. Open to a 
variety of methods and theoretical positions, this issue is looking for 
work that interrogates the creation of these lists and subsequent 
viewing practices. What are the implications of virtuous viewing for 
film and media studies? What historical contingencies have coalesced to 
make these practices possible? What are the potential effects of these 
practices? What kinds of spectatorship are available now, in a time 
marked by quarantine, political uprising, and internet-based digital 
media technologies?


Topics may include, but certainly are not limited to:

Virtue as branding and marketing strategy
Virtuous curation
Virtue signaling through viewing practices
Woke watching
History months and themes
Media literacy and curation
Public libraries as virtuous and educative curators
“Cancel culture” (as virtuous viewing’s negative form)
Slacktivism
Religious spectatorship
Ethnographic and or personal accounts of participating in virtuous 
viewing and or list-making
Histories of issue-oriented viewing lists
Video sharing platform playlistsThe woke algorithm


Please send 500-word proposals with short bio to Stephen Groening 
(groening /at/ uw.edu) <mailto:(groening /at/ uw.edu)> <mailto:(groening /at/ uw.edu) 
<mailto:(groening /at/ uw.edu)>> by *November 1, 2020*. Full-length article 
drafts will be due in Spring 2021.

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