Logo for Yale's Exhibition conference

Call for Papers

(You can also download a PDF version of this CFP.)

Conference Keynote Speaker: Rick Altman, Professor of Cinema and Comparative Literature, University of Iowa

As cinema has re-invented itself in myriad forms, ranging from vaudeville variety programs to television, from the drive-in to portable ipod touch screens, "film exhibition" has re-asserted its importance in the field.

Volatile in the 19th century, integral in the 'silent' era, and highly refined in contemporary commercial cinema, exhibition practices remain central to understanding where cinema has been and where it is heading. Implicitly or explicitly, film & media scholars have focused on exhibition to understand cinema's historical place within a culture. We mind how films self-consciously reflect on exhibition as a means to understand the nature of the art, framing the image from the perspective of the thousands gathered in a picture palace to the headphoned sardine at thirty thousand feet. None may be more conscious of exhibition than the makers, who look through a viewfinder but must imagine what the viewer's eye will see.

This conference invites proposals on any domain of screen practice, from any discipline. Our goals are to examine the relationship of the image onscreen to the range of social, political, and aesthetic discourses on its borders, and to explore the experience of spectatorship as it continues to evolve.

Submissions may take inspiration from, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Presentations may not exceed 20 minutes.

Please submit abstracts of 250 words or less by October 15, 2009. Please include paper title, name, institution, department, email & phone. Open to graduate students only.