Call for Papers:
LFA 2023: ECOLOGIES OF/AND ADAPTATION
LITERATURE / FILM ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE
UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA, MISSOULA, MONTANA
SEPTEMBER 21-23, 2023
With each passing year, the pressures of climate change make it clear that the natural world and human endeavor are irrevocably intertwined. As we head to Western Montana in 2023, we invite scholars to explore how the concept of “adaptation” can serve to further questions of ecology: the relationships between living organisms and their environments. Adaptations, after all, are always already about networked relationships, exploring not only the connections between texts – including the written word, film, and media – but also the relationships between images and music, performers and performance, human and nonhuman, and bodies and physical spaces. Where do film, literature, and media fit within the larger web of global ecologies, and how can ecological thinking enrich our understanding of the interactions between nature, culture, and adaptation? Inspired by recent work in the environmental humanities and ecocriticism, we invite proposals that bridge the study of the environment (broadly conceived) and the study of textual adaptation.
While we welcome papers on any aspect of film and media studies, we are especially interested in papers exploring one or more of the following topics concerning ecology and adaptation:
- The environment as text
- Landscapes and adaptations
- Adaptation and the anthropocene
- Parasitic and symbiotic adaptations
- Apocalypse or post-apocalypse and adaptation
- Multiverses and alternate realities and adaptations
- Relationships between past, present, and future
- Worldbuilding and transmedia storyworlds as narrative ecologies
- Narratives of survival
- The relationship between biological adaptation and textual adaptation
- Ecocritical re-imaginings of well-known stories
- Fandoms as evolving ecosystems
- How adaptations operate within media ecosystems
We also have significant interest in general studies of American and international cinema, film and technology, television, new media, and other cultural or political issues connected to the moving image. In addition to academic papers and pre-constituted panels, presentation proposals about pedagogy or from creative writers, artists, video essayists, and filmmakers are also welcome.
Please submit your proposal, which will consist of a title, 250-word abstract, and keywords, via this Google Form by April 7, 2023. You will receive a confirmation email within 48 hours. If you have any questions or concerns, contact Amanda Konkle at litfilmconference@gmail.com. Accepted presenters will be notified by April 24, and the conference program will be available by June 1 to enable travel planning.
The conference registration fee is $200 ($150 for students and retirees) before September 1, 2023 and $225 ($175 for students and retirees) thereafter. All conference attendees must also be current members of the Literature/Film Association. Annual dues are $20.
Presenters will be invited to submit their work to the Literature/Film Quarterly for potential publication. For details on the journal’s submission requirements, visit their website here.