April 29-30, 2020

McGill University, Montreal

Deadline: January 10, 2020

Organized by

• Jhessica Reia, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University
• Will Straw, James McGill Professor of Urban Media Studies, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University

Over the last decade, the study of the night has emerged as an international, interdisciplinary field of scholarly research. Historians, archaeologists, geographers, urbanists, economists and scholars of culture and literature have analyzed the night time of communities large and small, across a wide range of historical periods. The study of the night has expanded in tandem with new attention to the night on the part of city administrations, organizers of cultural events (like nuits blanches and museum nights) and activists fighting gentrification, systems of control and practices of harassment and exclusion which limit the “right to the night” of various populations.

In this context of this new attention to the night, we invite proposals for an international conference, in English and French, on relationships between media and the night. We are open to papers focussing on old and new media, from any disciplinary perspective, and dealing with any historical period or geographical area. Possible topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:

- The place of media consumption and circulation within the 24-hour cycle;

- Formal and stylistic features of media treatments of the night;

- Media constructions of the transgressive, marginal or identitarian night;

- Specialized media directed at (or produced by) communities of the night;

- The role of media forms (or platforms) in tracing itineraries of night-time activity;

- Media tools to enhance the safety and accessibility of the night;

- “Intermedial” dimensions of media’s relationship to the night (e.g., electric lighting and photography; late-night television and classic cinema, etc.);

- The challenge of imagining “night” genres for 24-hour streaming services;

- Archiving the night;

- Pre-digital or digital practices of mapping the night;

- Night, social media and data visualization;

- Games, apps and night modes;

- Night media and energy infrastructures.

Proposals (with title) should be approximately 350 words, in French or English, and submitted by email to jhessica.reia@mcgill.ca by January 10, 2020. Please note that, while the organizers are unable to cover the travel and accommodation costs of participants, we will and will not charge a registration fee.

https://theurbannight.com/