Call for Papers: Current Trends in Greek Cinema

International Graduate-Organized Conference
Current Trends in Greek Cinema

Date and venue: 29 May 2010, Room 2, Taylor Institution, St Giles, Oxford, U.K.
Duration: 1 day
Organiser: Erato Basea, D. Phil. Candidate, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, St Cross College, University of Oxford
Aims and Scope:
Current Trends in Greek Cinema is a one-day conference to be held on May 29, 2010, sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages and the Sub-faculty of Modern Greek, at the University of Oxford.

The conference invites submissions from early stage researchers (i.e. PhD candidates, post-doctoral researchers) and young scholars whose work engages with any aspect or period of Greek cinema.

The conference intends to look at a broad spectrum of Greek cinema and to investigate it from different theoretical and methodological perspectives. We aim to bring together participants from diverse fields, ranging from Film and Media Studies, Cultural and Arts Management, to History and Sociology.

The topics to be covered in the conference include, but are not limited to:

Production, distribution, exhibition
Audience and reception studies, Cinephilia
The cinema/ literature interference (adaptation, authors as scriptwriters of films, collaboration among authors and filmmakers)
Authorship in film
Animation and digital media
Documentary
Early and silent cinema
State policies and state organizations (Thessaloniki Film Festival, Greek Film Center, Greek Film Archive)
Censorship
Film archiving and digitalization of film archives
Gender identities
National identity/ ethnic belonging
Diasporic identities on screen

The conference appreciates Greek cinema as a category interrelated to that of cinema in Greece, and thus will equally focus on diasporic directors, co-productions or the popularity of foreign films in Greece. Last but not least, a significant aim of the conference is to raise new questions regarding Greek cinema in a global context. For example, are there any similarities and/or differences between cinema of/in Greece and of/in other peripheral countries? Can the study of Greek cinema offer us a means to better analyse the place of peripheral cinemas in the international arena? Can cinemas of other countries shed light on how the Greek film industry works?
Among the key purposes of the conference is to advance the study of Greek cinema and facilitate the exchange of knowledge, ideas and experience among early stage researchers and young scholars, with further prospects for collaborative work.

There will be no registration fee. However, participants will have to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses.

Submission guidelines:

Papers should be in English, and must not exceed 20 minutes.
Abstracts of approximately 350 words should be submitted no later than February 28, 2010.
Abstracts should be accompanied by a curriculum vitae, the applicant's contact details (name, e-mail address, affiliation) and a brief note on technical requirements (e.g., Powerpoint, DVD-player), and sent to erato.basea@stx.ox.ac.uk.
Receipt of all submissions will be acknowledged, and applicants will be notified by April, 1 2010.
There are plans for the publication of some or all papers presented in the conference.
Enquiries about the conference can be made by email to erato.basea@stx.ox.ac.uk.