The Genre Matters Conference and proposals

There have been some inquiries regarding what I'm looking for in the papers/proposals. First of all, let's extend the deadline for submission of your proposal to Sunday evening. That gives you the weekend to talk to me further about your specific ideas.

Now, here's what you need to think about: You need to have some keen idea or observation as the theme of your presentation. It should be genre-related. It can deal with historical or contemporary subject matter. It can concern anything in the field of the arts or pop culture -- film, TV, lit, comics, sports, music, etc. It has to be anchored with some theoretical foundation, like Wright, or Warshow if you were doing something on westerns for example.

Here's some examples of topics from past years:

1). P.T. Anderson's films as musicals
2). Charlie Chaplin's Immigration comedies
3). The influence of Luche Libre on American Wrestling
4). Audience Reception theories and The Golden Girls
5). The relationship of sound and image in the genre films of Stanley Kubrick
6). A structural analysis of the "teen" film.
7). A critique of white director's use of Pam Grier
8). Cyborg theory in Anime
9). The visual excess of Warhol's Dracula.
10). The "other": Race in 1970s horror films.

What I expect from you are close to graduate school level conference papers/presentations. To get a sense of what a conference panel entails, check out prior Society of Cinema and Media Studies conferences here. This may give you some ideas.

Here's a clue: Pick a subject you like. If you like Disney movies for example, let's start there. Then pick an area of academic interest: gender, race, class, spectatorship, the body, sexuality, economics, other film theory, authorship, etc. Let's say gender. You could look at the villains, the missing mothers, or the Disney princesses. Let's go with princesses. I'm going to go do a little google research now ... okay, I'm back. There's a new black princess coming. About time, since we've already covered Chinese, Native American, Iraqi, etc. Well, apparently "princesses" has become the major Disney product/merchandising franchise -- there are now nine "princesses." Okay, from this point the paper practically writes itself. Just an example.

Hope to see you guys tonight!