May 25-27, 2020

Maynooth University, Dublin

Deadline for proposals: November 15, 2019

Letters of acceptance/rejection, 8 January 2020

The HoMER Network invites submissions for 20-minute papers, as well as designated roundtables, panels, and workshops to be presented at the 2020 conference, which will take place at Maynooth University on 25-27 May 2020.

At HoMER 2019 in Nassau, the conference explored ways of developing a more theoretical and methodological grounding for New Cinema History research. Since emerging as a vibrant field of research in the early 2000s, New Cinema History has sought to distinguish itself from Film History by ‘shift[ing] its focus away from the content of films’, in order to examine cinema as a ‘site of social and cultural exchange’ (Maltby 2011: 3). However, in recent years there have been calls to reconsider the significance of the film itself within New Cinema History research. For the Homer 2020 conference INTEGRATING TRADITIONS, we would like to continue answering that call: as cinema historians, we have traditionally drawn on frameworks and methodologies found in fields such as Social Geography, Economics, and Psychology, but how do we integrate these approaches with those of Film History and Film Studies more broadly? Furthermore, in order to become ‘methodologically more mature’ as a discipline, we must also reflect on how we approach comparative research as an essential part of our studies (Biltereyst and Meers 2016: 25). Several empirical research projects have already used these methods within New Cinema History, comparing the cinema-going experience across cultural and geographical contexts; however, still lacking is the integration of productive methodologies from Film Studies.

The aim of HoMER 2020 is to investigate how the traditional approaches of Film Studies – as well as those disciplines that have shaped NCH to date – can be productively integrated.

Possible topics and questions to explore might include (but are certainly not limited to):

• Film as text. What is the film’s appeal to audiences? When we investigate cinema’s popularity, how do we relate the film’s content to its performance at the box-office? The relationship between cinema memories, film text and social and geographical spaces.
• Genre and stardom and their relationship with programming and audiences. How can genre theory enhance our understanding of film reception and programming practices in specific cinemas?
• The changing role of gender, however defined, in distribution, exhibition and reception.
• Underexplored interdisciplinary possibilities or new historiographical paths. Are there potential connections with leisure or urban studies, for example? Can we use film as a source for investigating a historical period? Can we further engage approaches to the history of everyday life in our research?
• The novelty in New Cinema History. In what does its (continuing) novelty Iie? What are its methodologies and conceptual frameworks?
• Presentations are welcome to critically explore the conference theme of INTEGRATING TRADITIONS through the interdisciplinary lens of academic Film and Cinema Studies.

Since it was first established in 2004, the HoMER network has been instrumental in bringing together researchers working in the New Cinema History tradition and providing opportunities to share knowledge and exchange ideas. In keeping with this, the 2019 HoMER conference featured a series of discussion sessions on specific topics. In light of the positive feedback on these sessions, HoMER 2020 will also feature discussion sessions on each day of the conference. During these sessions, participants will be able to debate research questions and methodologies, with the aim of sharing practices of their research, as well as advancing and developing new ideas in NCH approaches. Last year the three themes were: The geography of cinema; Cinema memories and the archives; Defining contemporary cinema.

Suggestions for new themes to discuss in HoMER 2020 are welcome.

The format will follow the successful one used last year: presentations of key areas (10 min) to the HoMER participants, followed by small group discussion (1 hour) on the key areas, and a final plenary discussion (20 min). Possible key areas to explore might include (but are certainly not limited to): Cinema and Memory; the Economics and Business of Film; Programming and Film Popularity; Paratextual Analysis; the Digital Challenge; Distribution of Films; Impact of Research to Non-academic Audiences; Publishing New Cinema History Research: Traditional Approaches and the Alternatives.

Abstracts of 250 to 300 words, plus 3 or 4 bibliographic entries, and a 50-word academic biography can be submitted via the HoMER 2020 Abstract Submission Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScDmHvICIqmjlAB6gCoBfJ_yWJpgfOApAqFq-IW2RXUTAriKw/viewform?usp=sf_link

For any queries regarding submission, please contact conference co-ordinators, Clara Pafort-Overduin (c.pafort-overduin@uu.nl) and Daniela Treveri Gennari (dtreveri-gennari@brookes.ac.uk).

Programming Committee:

• Clara Pafort Overduin
• Daniela Treveri Gennari
• Sarah Culhane
• Denis Condon
• Maya Nedyalkova
• Åsa Jernudd
• Karina Aveyard
• Sam Manning
• Kata Szita
• Silvia Dibeltulo