SCHOOL POSTGRADUATE JOURNALISM COURSE BENEFITS FROM PRESTIGIOUS BURSARIES FROM THE SCOTT TRUST

It’s just been announced that students on the Graduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism will be eligible to apply for bursaries offered by the The Scott Trust (owners of the Guardian Media Group). The graduate diploma is the only course in Scotland from which the Scott Trust will consider applications. Full details here

Practice Based Research

A summary of the School’s practice based resarch outputs is now availble on the school website. Here’s a list of what we did in 2008.

Clifford, A. (2008) Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) Glasgow, Alt-W exhibition: Group Show [exhibition]

Clifford, A. (2008) FILE Symposium RIO 2008 – Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2007 FILE Electronic Language International Festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil: “The Sweet Old Etcetera” selected work [exhibition]

Crawford, E. (2008, Oct 27) Forget Iceland: Unionists are misguided in using the economic crisis to argue against Scottish Independence, The Guardian [journalism]

Crawford, E. (2008, August 28) Are We Ready to Stop Playing the Blame Game Scotland On Sunday [journalism]

Crawford, E. (2008, August 17) Putting the boot in is no way to win over the voters Scotland On Sunday [journalism]

Crawford, E. (2008, May 7) Bluff or Blunder? Scottish Labour’s Call for a Vote on Indeendent is the Biggest Miscalculation in Recent British Politics The Guardian [journalism]

Grace, T. (2008) Finding the Seam a feature documentary focusing the cultural heritage of Coal Mining in South West Scotland through the poetry of Rab Wilson, former miner and Winner of the Mc cash Prize for Scots Poetry [film]

Grace, T. (2008) BSA DVD –“ World of Sociology” Selected as an exemplar of good practice in Knowledge Transfer, featured as a case study in the ESRC/AcSS project on Knowledge Transfer and Public Engagement – report published as “Developing Dialogue” Learned Societies in the Social Sciences: Developing Knowledge Transfer and Public Engagement. BSA designate DVD as key marketing tool for Sociology across the UK distribute the DVD to 1600 schools across the UK with 6th forms [film]

Jeffery, G. (2008) The Cave, commissioned by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra [music]

Miah, A (2008, Aug 3) Enhanced Athletes? It’s Only Natural, The Washington Post [S1] [journalism]

Pratt, K. (2008, Nov 24) A Long Journey To Independence The Guardian [journalism]

Pratt, K. (2008, June 28) Child Killers Of The Congo The Guardian [journalism]

Pratt, K. (2008, Jan 24) Class War In Clydebank The Big Issue. [journalism]

Interdisciplinarity in the Arts and Humanities (2009, 20 March)

Interdisciplinarity in the Arts and Humanities: Research, Policy, Publishing

A one-day conference

Date: Friday 20th March 2009

Registration: 9:30 am

Conference begins: 10:00 am

Venue: The Swedenborg Society in Bloomsbury, London
(http://www.swedenborg.org.uk/about-swedenborg-society)

Fee: There will be no conference fee for attendees, but please RSVP to
Sharon Sinclair (sinclas@wmin.ac.uk).

Contributors:

Professor GEORGINA BORN, Sociology, Anthropology, and Music, University
of Cambridge

Dr DAVID CUNNINGHAM, Literature and Aesthetics, University of
Westminster, Editor of ‘Radical Philosophy’

Professor THOMAS DOCHERTY, English and Comparative Literature, Warwick
University

Dr JEREMY GILBERT, Cultural Studies, UEL, Editor of ‘New Formations’

Professor SUSAN MELROSE, Performance Arts, Middlesex University

Dr JOANNE MORRA, Art History and Theory, University of the Arts London,
Principal Editor of ‘Journal of Visual Culture’

Professor PETER OSBORNE, Director, Centre for Research in Modern
European Philosophy, Middlesex University, Editor of ‘Radical Philosophy’

Professor ADRIAN RIFKIN, Art Writing, Goldsmiths College, former Editor
of ‘Art History’

Dr MARQUARD SMITH, Visual Culture Studies, University of Westminster,
Editor-in-Chief of ‘Journal of Visual Culture’

Professor SHEARER WEST, Director of Research, AHRC

Dr JOANNA ZYLINSKA, Media and Communications, Goldsmiths College, Editor
of ‘Culture Machine’

Interdisciplinarity in the Arts & Humanities: Research, Policy, Publishing

This conference sets out to consider the emergence of interdisciplinary
research within the Arts and Humanities during the last 40 years.
Emerging out of the political, social and cultural ambitions of a
changing western world from the 1960s onwards, as well as the academic
corollaries of these endeavours, interdisciplinarity within the academy
became a means of developing a new and complex understanding of what it
means to situate oneself: to act, teach, and undertake research in a
world that no longer broke down according to existing disciplinary
boundaries.

The shifting terrain for these scholarly, institutional, and personal
politics became manifest in, for instance, the emergence of cultural
studies, media studies or, more recently, visual culture studies; the
importation of ‘theory’ within the academy; the political investment
captured in the institutionalization of postcolonial theory, queer
theory, and feminism within the University; as well as the emergence of
new trans-disciplinary problematics such as globalization. Some of this
genealogy has been written. And yet, more work needs to be done. Our
interest in this genealogy is to consider it in light of the histories
of interdisciplinarity within an expanded field: to think of the social,
political and academic field of interdisciplinarity, and its relation to
publishing, governmental policy and funding bodies.

Within this expanded context, it is possible to propose that as a result
of these necessary incursions within the social and academic field, a
forum was required for the public interrogation and dissemination of our
past and present cultures. Thus, the interdisciplinary journal, in
particular, emerged in both the UK and US as a ready and willing space
within which to debate the complexity and intertwined nature of these
cultures. Having very specific political and epistemological agendas,
these journals created an arena for dialogue, provided us with new,
interdisciplinary knowledge, while shaping our understanding of the
world. This genealogy has not been written, and is one of the main
streams/points of interrogation of our conference.

Interdisciplinary journals are, in many respects, the primary means of
(print and electronic) dissemination, and continue to be the
contemporary ‘gold star’ of research achievement. Yet journal publishing
is rarely discussed on its own terms. Equally, with the catchword -
‘interdisciplinarity’ – in the air, government funding bodies and policy
makers have caught on to it, and today it has become an overarching term
for a type of research evacuated of its earlier political, social and
cultural commitments. Or did it? The third stream of this conference
will consider the history and political ramifications for
interdisciplinary research as a result of institutional and governmental
seizure. As such, this conference is the first to bring together the
relationship between journal publishing, policy-making and research
itself, so as to discuss the future of interdisciplinary work in the
Arts and Humanities of the twenty first century.

Organized by: Dr DAVID CUNNINGHAM (University of Westminster and Editor
of ‘Radical Philosophy’), Dr JOANNE MORRA (Central Saint Martins College
of Art and Design and Principal Editor of ‘Journal of Visual Culture),
Dr MARQUARD SMITH (University of Westminster and Editor-in-Chief of
‘Journal of Visual Culture’), and Dr JOANNA ZYLINSKA (Goldsmiths College
and Editor of ‘Culture Machine’)

This conference is the first in a series of projects and events
organized by the Network for Editors of Interdisciplinary Journals (NEIJ)

Dr Marquard Smith

Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Visual Culture

Principal Lecturer in Visual Culture Studies School of Social Sciences,
Humanities, and Languages University of Westminster

32-38 Wells Street

London W1T 3UW

JOURNALISM IN CRISIS (2009, 19-20 May, Westminster)

CALL FOR PAPERS
JOURNALISM IN CRISIS

A conference organised by the Department of Journalism and Mass
Communication, University of Westminster in association with the British
Journalism Review

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Professor James Curran Goldsmiths College    Professor Todd Gitlin  Columbia
University
London     May 19-20 2009
News journalism is in deep crisis. Newspaper readership is falling, the audience
for television news shrinking, and young people in particular seem to be less
interested in traditional forms of news consumption.  24-hour news channels
on shoestring budgets fight over tiny audiences while even well established
and committed news organisations like the BBC and New York Times are
cutting budgets and laying off journalists.
Those that remain complain of increased workloads, lack of resources,
insecurity of employment, greater dependence on news agencies and PR
handouts, and lack of training opportunities. There are accusations that
serious journalism, with in-depth coverage of important issues that can hold
the powerful to account, has given way to a toxic mix of infotainment,
sensationalism and trivia.
Some, particularly the young, see online as the way forward.
Internet penetration is high in most developed countries and growing rapidly in
the developing world.  The web offers a multimedia environment for new
developments like citizen journalism and blogging, different kinds of news
reporting and new approaches to current affairs.
But it also threatens the business model of newspapers as classified
advertising moves online, while television suffers from fragmented audiences
and the growth of time-shifted viewing. Many question whether user-
generated content can ever be a substitute for well-resourced newsgathering
carried out within trusted institutions according to established professional
values.
This conference will review the current threats to the practice of
journalism and examine some of the developing alternatives.

Papers are invited that address any of these issues.  We welcome
contributions on:
•    The audiences for news
•    The development of new media outlets
•    Current practices in journalism
•    The impact on journalism of changing economics and ownership
•    New approaches to journalism, and
•    The future of journalism as a paid occupation.
Many of the problems identified are specific to the advanced countries. The
organisers welcome papers that address the different situation in developing
areas, like India, China and Africa, where audiences for traditional media
continue to grow and where online news has quite different implications.

Charles Wheeler Award and Memorial Lecture
The conference will close with the inaugural Charles Wheeler Award for
outstanding contribution to broadcast journalism, sponsored by the British
Journalism Review. This will be followed by an inaugural memorial lecture, given
by:
Mark Thompson
Director General of the BBC

If you wish to present a paper at the conference, send a 250 word abstract
to:
Ms Helen Cohen journalism@wmin.ac.uk, who is also the contact for all
enquiries.
Deadline 1 February 2009.

NOTES:
1. The Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of
Westminster is home to the UK’s oldest undergraduate degree involving
journalism training, the BA in Media studies, which recruited its first students in
1975.  Today, the Department has a wide range of courses in journalism and
media production at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level
(http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/page-97).
2. The Department is also home to the Communication and Media Research
Institute, rated by the 2008 national Research Assessment Exercise as the
UK’s leading media research centre (http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/page-561).
3. The British Journalism Review was established in 1989 by journalists
and scholars concerned about issues of ethics, standards and quality within
the journalism profession. Now published by Sage, it continues as a quarterly
journal for serious reflection on the practice and theory of journalism, and the
evening event and award is part of its 20th anniversary celebrations
(http://www.bjr.org.uk).

The University of Westminster is a charity and a company limited by
guarantee. Registration number: 977818 England. Registered Office: 309
Regent Street, London W1B 2UW.

Porn Cultures (2009, 15-16 June, Leeds)

Porn Cultures: Regulation, Political Economy, and Technology
Monday 15th and Tuesday 16th of June in Leeds.

The pornography industry is an under-researched culture industry. Its links to mainstream media and to the sex industry are intensifying. The mainstreaming of certain aspects of the industry in global popular culture raises questions about the adequacy, efficiency or appropriateness of existing policy. Other aspects of the industry, such as its labour conditions, its geographies of production and consumption practices associated with it have largely fallen under the radar of scholarly analysis, while much more attention has been paid to the potential for emancipatory uses of aspects of sexually explicit cultural expression. Meanwhile, technological aspects of the industry’s operation are challenging our assumptions about ‘choice’ ‘privacy’ and ‘freedom’. With the proliferation of the pornographic product embedded in everyday life now more than ever before existing and new questions require our urgent attention about human rights, migrants, workers and communication rights, media literacy, media ecology and the public sphere, global production and consumption cultures as well as underlying politics of gender, class and ‘race’.
This conference aims to bring together scholars, policymakers and activists to discuss the global pornography complex. It is the second of two conferences organised within the British Academy funded project Socialisation of the global sexually explicit imagery: challenges to regulation and research. The project has given birth to an international Porn Cultures and Policy Network, which involves scholars from a number of countries, engaged in comparative studies with an emphasis on policy. We are inviting colleagues to take part in this debate and colleagues who would be interested in working with the existing network to join us. Information on this and our first conference can be found on http://sgsei.wordpress.com <http://sgsei.wordpress.com/> .
Please send your 200 word abstract, along with a 50-word bio and contact details to Steven McDermott (cssem@leeds.ac.uk <mailto:cssem@leeds.ac.uk?subject=Porn%20Cultures> ) by March 15th or earlier.
There will be a small fee to cover catering and room facilities. Please let us know if you require an earlier decision regarding your paper. If you would like to discuss a panel/round-table proposal and /or your paper please contact Katharine Sarikakis (K.Sarikakis@leeds.ac.uk <mailto:K.Sarikakis@leeds.ac.uk?subject=Porn%20Cultures> ).
Speakers include
Prof Alison Beale <http://www.cmns.sfu.ca/people/faculty/beale_a/>
Co-Director, Centre for Policy Studies on Culture and Communities,
Simon Fraser University Vancouver

Dr Karen Boyle <http://www.gla.ac.uk/news/media/expertsdirectory/arts/name_33028_en.html>
Glasgow University

Dr Marcus Breen <http://www.commstudies.neu.edu/faculty_and_staff/faculty_profiles/marcus_breen/>
Northeastern University Boston

Prof Gail Dines <http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=264656765>
Professor of American Studies, Wheelock College Boston

Dr Valentina Marinescu
University of Bucharest Romania

Prof Clare McGlynn <http://www.dur.ac.uk/law/staff/stafflist/?username=dla0cmm>
Deputy Head of Law School, Durham Law School, Durham University

Murray Perkins
Senior Examiner (18 and R18 Categories) British Board of Film Classification <http://www.bbfc.co.uk/>

Prof Karen Ross <http://www.liv.ac.uk/polcomm/staff_pages/K_Ross.htm>
Liverpool University

Dr Rebecca Sullivan <http://www.ucalgary.ca/comcul/sullivan>
University of Calgary

Dr Liza Tsaliki <http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/authors.php?author=2039>
University of Athens

Prof Ian Walden <http://www.ccls.edu/staff/walden.html>
Acting Chair of Internet Watch Foundation, Institute of Computer and Communications Law Centre for Commercial Law Studies Queen Mary, University of London

Dr Rebecca Whisnant <http://artssciences.udayton.edu/Departments___Programs/Philosophy/Faculty___Staff/-_Detail/?contentId=15440>
University of Dayton

Again -
Please send your 200 word abstract, along with a 50-word bio and contact details to Steven McDermott (cssem@leeds.ac.uk <mailto:cssem@leeds.ac.uk?subject=Porn%20Cultures> ) by March 15th or earlier.

Animation Studies

CALL FOR PAPERS – Animation Studies

Society for Animation Studies members are invited to submit conference papers from SAS or other conferences, past and present in the growing subject area of animation studies.   Non-members are welcome to submit papers, but must join the society before an accepted paper can be published.  (Membership details available at http://animationstudies.org ).

All papers are subject to peer review; acceptance of a
paper at a conference is not a guarantee of publication. If a paper is
accepted for a conference but not presented it can still be considered;
subject to agreement by the editorial board.

Papers will be blind refereed where possible and comments collated and
returned to the author by the editor.

The journal editions run on an annual basis with papers accepted
throughout the year but the volume closed on calendar year end. In order
to simplify the refereeing and submission, papers will be accepted at
deadlines throughout the year. We invite authors to submit papers in spring
and late summer/early autumn.

We strongly encourage the submission of past papers in order to
establish a useful archive of work which members can access. We also
encourage the submission of links to other publications or bibliographic
citations where conference papers have been published elsewhere.

Papers are not limited to word length, though it is expected that the
paper will not exceed that of the presentation, or a reasonable
approximation of it. Author may edit their conference presentations, but
the text must provide a reasonable representation of the material
presented at the conference.

Images are welcomed but authors must seek permissions to reproduce them
in the journal. Rights owners must be identified in the caption, in the
manner specified by the rights owner in a release form signed by that
individual. Articles are published under Creative Commons regulations,
which allows the author to retain copyright but allows free distribution
of the work for educational purposes. Creative Commons is in line with
progressive online publishing practices.

The Harvard Referencing system will be used. All papers should be
submitted in Microsoft Word document files (.doc) or Rich Text Format
(.rtf). Please submit images in low resolution, web-ready formats.
Deadline for papers is Monday 9th March. Submit all proposals to Dr Nichola Dobson, Editor at journal@animationstudies.org or nichola_dobson@yahoo.co.uk

Email your essay, including a cover page stating your name, your
institutional affiliation (now and at the time of the paper
presentation), the name of the paper, the conference at which it was
published, the date of presentation (or conference dates), and any
significant information related to the editing of the paper. Please
provide contact information suitable for publication with the paper.
http://animationstudies.org <http://animationstudies.org/>
http://journal.animationstudies.org <http://journal.animationstudies.org/>

Screen Research

New resource site now available from the British Library

http://screenresearch.ning.com/

The Ends of Television (2009, 29 Jun-1 July, Amsterdam)

Call for Papers:

The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) and the Department of Media Studies of the Universiteit van Amsterdam invite papers for a 3-day conference on

The Ends of Television
Logics/Perspectives/Entanglements

Monday June 29 – Wednesday July 1 2009 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Keynote speakers:
Joke Hermes (InHolland, Universiteit van Amsterdam)
Toby Miller (University of California Riverside)
Anna McCarthy (NYU)

Conference theme:
Is TV as we know it dead? Does TV Studies have any relevance in a world of media convergence? Are we at risk of becoming gravediggers of an obsolete medium rather than innovators in a cross-medial regime? The conference will address some of the central frames through which TV has been analyzed to test their relevance in an age where digitalization and convergence is redrawing the boundaries of media and of disciplines. Rather than accept the narrative of obsolescence or the nostalgia of seclusion, the conference aims at seriously analyzing both the contemporary specificity of TV and the challenges thrown up by new developments in technology and theory. For example: What is the specificity of the TV image in an environment suffused with moving images? Has the spectator of TV changed in a media world that begs “interaction”? How does the relevance of ideology-critique and propaganda fare in the age of surveillance? Is the educational role of TV obsolete with the triumph of market logics?

Depending on how these and other questions are answered, TV Studies must rethink its own status as a discipline, beginning with its own position vis-à-vis Film Studies and New Media Studies. Do such separations still hold analytical purchase? What old concepts need reformulation, and what areas of study (e.g. cultural studies, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, political science, art history) can we both borrow from and enrich?

Contributions are invited which take a stand on the relevance of TV, and TV Studies, through substantial and close analyses of specific dimensions of television:

(Medium) Specificity
If we are witnessing the end of TV as we know it, what is it being replaced with? What form will TV take in the future, and what are its aesthetic qualities? What is the ontology of the televisual image and sound once it has been digitized?  How does the aural experience of contemporary television sets enhance or affect television watching? If “flow” and “liveness” was what distinguished TV from film in the 20th century, how does this hold true in the 21st? What effects does the change from flow and liveness to the archive have for our understanding of the medium? How do TV, film and new media relate to each other in the new constellation?

(Functional) Logics
How does TV function? Questions of broad and narrow-casting, the blurring of genres and media (cross media), the fluidity of audiences, the multiple settings of TV reception, etc – all these dimensions point to an acceleration of change in the logics of TV’s mode of functioning. What broad changes can be identified in the logics of TV, and how do they relate to larger shifts in contemporary societies, technologies, and communication patterns? More specifically, what is the impact of these changes when we consider the purposeful use of TV? What will become of advertising when television goes digital? What is the relationship between branding and television’s functional logics? What becomes of propaganda in a multi-channel environment? In what sense has TV’s governmental logic changed during the last decade? How does media literacy function in knowledge societies?

(Conceptual) Changes
If the logics of TV are shifting, how might they be studied in the contemporary context? What new, or different perspectives can be brought to bear in intellectually engaging with the medium? Do the established (analytical) distinctions of production, reception, textual analysis, suffice? Do more dimensions need to be added, or do the existing distinctions need to be broadened, sharpened or reviewed, keeping in mind the changing logics of television? – e.g. in the context of convergence, and multimedia interaction, such as UGC, how do terms like “production” and “reception” change their meaning?

(Transdisciplinary) Entanglements
Given that the logics of television’s mode of functioning, and the perspectives of TV Studies need analysis and change, in what way do these changes suggest an entangled and cross-fertilized re-definition of the field itself, its ends (goals), and its future development? On the one hand, how might a reviewing of television and its modes of analysis enrich other disciplines (for example Visual Culture, a re-defined Art History, Film History, Media Archaeology)? On the other, what might TV Studies gain from strategically borrowing and re-working theories and concepts from other fields (Sociology, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Law, Cultural Analysis)? What contributions can more recent paradigms like cognitivism or network theory make? Can TV studies borrow terms from chaos theory like emergence, non-linearity, or attractors, and what do they contribute to the already existing theoretical vocabulary?

Proposal deadline: proposals for papers and/or panels should be sent to asca-fgw@uva.nl before February 26 2009.

Organising committee: Sudeep Dasgupta, Marijke de Valck, Jaap Kooijman, Jan Teurlings

Archives and Auteurs (2009, 2-4 Sept, Stirling)

Archives and Auteurs – Filmmakers and their archives
University of Stirling, 2nd – 4th September 2009

2nd Call for papers

A reminder that the deadline for submission of abstracts for conference papers
is Friday 20th February 2009.

Abstracts should be no more than 300 words in length and should be sent in a
MS Word file to Professor John Izod (k.j.izod@stir.ac.uk).

This conference will bring archivists, academics, curators and researchers
together to discuss the ways in which the study of the archives of filmmakers
and the film industry can provide new perspectives and insights into the
history of cinema. Proposals for papers of 20 minutes in length are welcomed in
the following areas:

- archives, authorship and the directorial impulse
- the transition from page to screen: evidence in the archives for artistic
challenges and compromised visions
- new perspectives on classic films
- practical issues relating to the management and preservation of the archives
of filmmakers
- personal experiences of working with the archives of filmmakers
- current issues, projects and initiatives in the field of cinema history

Papers on other related topics are welcome; and in addition proposals for
panels will be considered (please provide full details of subject and speakers).
We shall also be glad to review proposals for contributions to a poster session
which will be held on Thursday 3rd September. Abstracts will be reviewed
externally and contributors will be informed of the outcome by Friday 13th
March 2009.

More details about the conference can be found at:
http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/libraries/collections/anderson/Conference.php

Full conference registration details will follow shortly.

Karl Magee
University Archivist
University of Stirling
FK9 4LA

Re-thinking Screenwriting

Re-thinking Screenwriting ˆ second call for papers

A conference organized by the University of Art and Design Helsinki (TaiK), School of
Motion Picture, Television and Production Design, Aristotle in Change Project
in collaboration with
The Louis Le Prince Centre for Cinema, Photography and Television, at the Institute of
Communication Studies, University of Leeds, UK

Following the first conference on screenwriting research organized at the University of
Leeds in September 2008 we are pleased to announce the call for papers for the second
arena for discussion and project presentation. The call is aimed at researchers who are
actively reflecting on screenwriting, whether through traditional or practice-based
research.

The conference will be arranged at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Media
Centre Lume, Finland, on September 10-12, 2009.

Aims
The purpose of the Helsinki conference is to continue to discuss different aspects of
screenwriting research.
Screenwriting is the common term for much of the conceptual part of the creative
process of moving image production, an area which until recently has been neglected in
academic circles.  The Leeds conference showed there is healthy and increasing interest
in researching screenwriting, both via practice and traditional research, and this Call is to
invite colleagues to contribute further to the development of the field.  We wish to
encourage a critical approach to practices, processes and values of screenwriting, and to
seek new insights into the creative practice of screenwriting as part of film production
culture.

Questions include, for example, what are the elements, phases and purpose of the
documents intended to describe the development process from a screen idea to a
screenplay, shooting script and produced film? How should these actions, documents,
intentions and visions be approached, interpreted and developed theoretically and
practically?   Moreover, practices and technologies are changing and inspiring new ways
of thinking about moving image narrative, so what might the future of screenwriting be in
such circumstances?
ŒRe-thinking screenwriting‚ includes consideration of the practice as a whole. Linking this
to the theoretical is important for the academic study of the topic, and we are expecting a
strong set of presentations from both practical and reflective approaches.

Topics
We welcome proposals and areas of investigation in any aspect of screenwriting studies.
We particularly encourage papers discussing the following topics:
1. Defining authorship
- different roles of screenwriter
- autonomous and individual practices
- collaborative authorship

2. Practice and methods of screenwriting
- consideration of radical or alternative methods
- discussion of industry‚s conventions

3. Methodology of research in screenwriting
- how to approach actions, documents, intentions and visions of screenwriting
- how to interpret and develop them theoretically
- methodology of practice-based research

4. Poetics of screenplay
- new interpretations of Aristotelian dramaturgy
- new and alternative approach to screenwriting theory
- genre-oriented considerations of screenwriting or screenplay

5. History of screenwriting
- re-evaluations of history of screenwriting
- national heritage of screenwriting practices

Keynote speakers
Professor Torben Grodal from the University of Copenhagen will discuss screenwriting as
part of the conceptual framework for a film.
Dr Ian Macdonald from the University of Leeds talks about screenwriting research and the
development of the field.
Professor David Howard from the University of Southern California. The title of his lecture
is „Beginning, Middle and End ˆ Not Necessarily in that Order‰.

Call for papers
The conference has two types of sessions: 1) research or scholarly papers, 2) discussion
forum which addresses controversial issues or presents early stage or preliminary
research questions and results. Presenter will offer an outline of what will be discussed
and be prepared to chair the forum.

Time allotted to both type of presentation is 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes for
discussion. Please send your proposal to
rethinking@taik.fi
by February 28, 2009. You will be contacted by the conference committee by the end of
March. The conference fee is 75 euros including two lunches, coffee and one reception.
For doctoral students the conference is free of charge.

Please check the conference website
taik.fi/rethinking
for updates.
The conference is supported financially by the Academy of Finland.
Contacts
Jukka Vieno, professor of screenwriting, University of Art and Design Helsinki,
jukka.vieno@taik.fi
Kirsi Rinne, coordinator, University of Art and Design, kirsi.rinne@taik.fi