CFP: It’s a Man’s World: Masculinity in Film, TV, and Media (6/1/15; 11/5-8/15)

CALL FOR PAPERS 

It’s a Man’s World: Masculinity in Film, TV, and Media

An area of multiple panels for the 2015 Film & History Conference:

Journeys, Detours, Breakdowns

November 5-8, 2015

The Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club

Madison, WI (USA)
 

DEADLINE for abstracts:  June 1, 2015

AREA: It’s a Man’s World: Masculinity in Film, TV, and Media

In his social history of manhood in the U.S., Michael Kimmel acknowledges that men have authored more historical accounts than women, however, “American men have no history of themselves as men.” Kimmel’s call for an examination of manhood as a distinct experience and facet of national history sheds an interesting light on the myriad films, television series, and social movements that explore masculinity today.

As television’s patriarchs die off, does this also signal the end of patriarchy in our culture?  Can one actually “dismantle patriarchy while centering on the lives and stories of men?” How does this captivation with flawed masculinity magnify the absence of powerful women in narratives as well as within the television, film, and media industries?

This area invites 20-minute papers that investigate masculinity in film, television, and media through the conference theme of “Journeys, Detours, and Breakdowns.” 

Possible paper topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Masculinity and national identity
• From boyhood to manhood: coming of age journeys
• Allegorical storytelling in biopics and period pieces
• The mythology of male auteurs (Ford, Scorsese, Eastwood, etc.)
• Morally ambiguous male protagonists of television’s “Third Golden Age”
• Behind every good man . . . : The role of women in popular male-dominated film and television
• Representations of masculinity in the wake of trauma (police brutality, financial crises, war, etc.)

Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History website (www.filmandhistory.org).
 

Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2015, to the area chair:

Molly McCourt
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
mmm72@uwm.edu