[Commlist] CFP: Decentering Film & Media Histories and Practices

*CFP: IAMHIST, June/July 2025 | Decentering Film & Media Histories and 
Practices*

The International Association of Media & History (IAMHIST) invites 
proposals for participation in its next conference, “Decentering Film & 
Media Histories and Practices”, to be held from 30 June-2 July 2025 at 
the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

IAMHIST is an international organisation of scholars, filmmakers, 
broadcasters and archivists dedicated to historical inquiry into film, 
radio, TV and other media.

The study of film and media histories has long been dominated by 
western, often Eurocentric perspectives, in terms of content, theory and 
methodology. In previously colonised countries, colonial archiving 
projects have silenced historical accounts and profoundly altered 
postcolonial mediascapes. In some countries, cultures of censorship and 
neglect have resulted in lopsided, disintegrating or inaccessible public 
records. In recent years, there have been calls for an epistemological 
re-examination of sources, methods, and practices – to de-colonise and 
reimagine scholarship to include indigenous media histories as well as 
radical and reparative approaches to the past. In response, the 2025 
IAMHIST conference seeks to shift, disrupt, and question existing 
scholarship by including previously excluded perspectives, histories, 
media, archives, practitioners and lenses. We invite proposals for 
papers, artists’ presentations and panel discussions on any of the 
following topics:

  * Re-examining colonial film and media histories
  * (Decomposing) colonial media representations
  * Colonial archiving practices
  * Archival migration and repatriation in the colonies
  * Archival ownership, financing and access
  * Decolonial perspectives on film and media history
  * Indigenous media practices, past and present
  * The history of media cultures in the Global South
  * The communication practices of liberation movements
  * Reparative media/the media and reparations
  * Decolonising media archives
  * Post-colonial media and film
  * The restitution of audiovisual/immaterial archives and heritage media
  * The archiving of indigenous communities, liberation movements and
    post-colonial practices (as colonial archives often only represent
    the perspective of the coloniser it is important to build/value/find
    archives that represent indigenous perspectives)
  * The politics of archival financing
  * Diasporic communication histories
  * Digital engagements with archives (adaptation, manipulation,
    restoration)
  * Contemporary reuse of archives
Individual paper proposals should consist of a title, an abstract of 
200–300 words and a short biography (100 words). We especially welcome 
proposals from early-career researchers, archivists and practitioners. 
Panel proposals (of 3–4 papers) are also welcome; they need to be 
submitted by one individual panellist, who must include the title of the 
panel and the abstracts and short bios of the other panellists. We also 
appreciate proposals for archival, artistic or multimedia/practice-based 
projects or workshops.

You are welcome to discuss their suitability with the conference 
organisers in advance of the deadline. You can send enquiries to 
(IAMHIST2025 /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(IAMHIST2025 /at/ gmail.com)>.

Conference attendees are expected to be members of IAMHIST. Information 
about IAMHIST membership can be found here: 
http://iamhist.net/membership/ <http://iamhist.net/membership/>. There 
will also be an opportunity to join at the time of registration.

The conference is co-organised by IAMHIST and the Centre for Film & 
Media Studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

The _deadline for submissions is 20 December_. Please submit your 
proposals here: https://forms.gle/J5Hntu2gftoQHong6 
<https://forms.gle/J5Hntu2gftoQHong6>


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