THE WORLD'S LARGEST ORGANIZATION DEVOTED
TO
THE SCHOLARLY STUDY OF FILM AND MEDIA
|
|
All conference presenters must be current SCMS members.
|
|
|
December 2015 - In This Issue:
|
|
|
|
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S NOTE
|
Happy Holidays to each of you from all of us at the SCMS home office!
As 2015 comes to a close, the days grow shorter and our collective "to do" lists always seem to grow a bit longer. Now is a fitting time to recognize and thank those of you who have given generously of your time and talents by serving SCMS with your participation on our 2015-2016 Program Committee Reading Pairs, our Awards Committees, and the Atlanta Host Committee. All three involve a great deal of dedication and hard work. We very much appreciate your efforts.
On behalf of the SCMS Board, I would also like to thank the many of you for taking the time to complete our recent survey on conference timing and hotels. We recognize the substantive concerns that you raised as well as the constructive suggestions you made. While it is going to take some time to sort through and prioritize the many ideas generated, I assure you that we have heard you and will be considering the feasibility of incorporating some of most commonly voiced recommendations in the future.
Good news was recently handed down by the Librarian of Congress impacting faculty, students, and others in higher education. In late 2014, Professor Peter Decherney and the team of lawyers from Washington DC's Glushko-Samuelson IP Law Clinic contacted SCMS requesting input for a planned 2015 petition for new exceptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Thanks to their sterling efforts as well of those of the AAUP, the Library Copyright Alliance, and the briefs provided by the SCMS Public Policy Committee and its Co-Chair Bill Kirkpatrick, this year's exceptions were granted. The new ruling expands the lawful uses of DVDs, streaming video delivery, and Blu-ray for educational use. A list of new exceptions can be found within this issue of News Brief. The process of obtaining DMCA exceptions is extremely arduous. We are gratified that this year's collaborative effort was successful and commend the hard work and dedication of all involved.
Finally, we are pleased to shine a spotlight this month on the SCMS-U, our Society's undergraduate conference now in its fourth year. In a recent editorial piece for Film Matters, SCMS members Victoria Sturtevant and Man-Fung Yip of the University of Oklahoma discussed the success of the young conference, and their experiences hosting the event in 2014. Planning is in progress for next year's SCMS-U, which will take place April 14-17, 2016 at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Warmest wishes to you for a restful holiday break. We look forward to seeing you in 2016!
Jill Simpson
Executive Director
|
 |
DECEMBER 21 (5 PM CT)
Deadline: Travel grant and waiver applications
DECEMBER 23-JANUARY 1
SCMS Office closed for Winter Break
EARLY JANUARY
Conference Program draft posted on the SCMS website
MID-JANUARY
Deadline: program corrections, confirmation of SIG/Caucus sponsorships
JANUARY 22
Deadline: early bird hotel registration*
*Everyone who registers at the Hilton Atlanta before the early bird deadline will be entered in a drawing to win the cost of their entire stay at the conference (up to 5 nights) plus a $100 gift certificate to Trader Vic's restaurant (for up to 2 people), located inside the Hilton Atlanta.
MARCH 30 - APRIL 3
Atlanta 2016 Conference
|
All accept and decline notifications for the 2016 Conference have been sent. If you have not received your notification, please contact the SCMS Office,
[email protected].
Bruce Brasell, our conference scheduler, is currently hard at work creating the 2016 Conference Program. A draft of the Conference Program will be posted to the SCMS website in early January.
|
Executive Director
Administrative Coordinator
Account and Budget Representative
Program Assistant
Conference Manager
|
OFFICERS
Steven Cohan, President 15-17
Pamela Wojcik, President-Elect 15-17
Victoria Johnson, Secretary 15-18
Amanda Ann Klein, Treasurer 14-17
BOARD MEMBERS
Kara Keeling,
13-16
Neepa Majumdar, 13-16
Mary Beltran,
14-17
Mary Desjardins,
14-17
Linda Mizejewski,
15-18
Nick Davis, 15-18
Juan Llamas-Rodriguez, 15-17
NON-VOTING MEMBERS
Barbara Klinger, Past-President 15-17
Will Brooker, Cinema Journal Editor 12-16
Aviva Dove-Viebahn, Web Content Mgr.
Caetlin Benson-Allott, Rep. of Home Office
Lindsey Pendleton, Admin.Coordinator
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Jill Simpson
|
|
|
|
Your year-end tax-deductible contribution helps SCMS continue its mission. Please consider making a contribution to support our ongoing efforts to promote a broad understanding of film, television, and related media through research and teaching grounded in the contemporary humanities tradition.
|
ATLANTA 2016
SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
|
|
|
|
Photo Credit: Michael Kackman
|
It is through the generous contributions of sponsors and partners that SCMS is able to enhance its annual national meeting and offer exciting social/mixer/networking opportunities. Allow us to help you increase exposure and heighten
awareness of your organization/institution with our audience of highly motivated undergraduate and graduate students, precollege teachers, postdocs and professionals in film and media studies.
For more information about sponsorship opportunities, please click
here.
|
|
|
|
SCMS is currently accepting exhibitors and advertisers for our 2016 Conference. If you have a publisher you would like to see attend or know of an Atlanta business that would be engaging to our membership, please pass along this information. Additionally, if your university or department would like an audience of media scholars, please pass along the advertising link.
Join us for the 2016 conference in Atlanta, where your organization has the opportunity to capture the attention of an estimated
2200+ scholars from 38 countries around the world.
For information and deadlines, please visit our website.
|
ANNOUNCING CINEMA JOURNAL 55.1
|
|
CINEMA JOURNAL
55, No. 1, Fall 2015
Table of Contents
Screen-Struck: The Invention of the Movie Girl Fan
Diana Anselmo-Sequeira
The Spectral Return of Cinema: Globalization and Cinephilia in Contemporary Chinese Film
Yomi Braester
Variation within Stability: Digital 3D and Film Style
Nick Jones
The Eradication of Memory: Film Adaptations and Algorithms of the Digital
Anna Westerståhl Stenport and Garrett Traylor
Yours Sincerely, Lois Weber: Hypocrites and the Allegorical Mode of the Transitional Feature Film
Paul Young
In Focus: Gender Identity and the Superhero
edited by Ellen Kirkpatrick and Suzanne Scott
Book Review:
Gender Identity, Representation, and the Superhero
edited by Louisa Stein
|
|
In this
Fieldnotes
recording, Richard Dyer is interviewed by SCMS Past-President, Barbara Klinger. Watch it
here
.
|
|
|
Fieldnotes: Richard Dyer interviewed by Barbara Klinger
|
Fieldnotes
i
s an SCMS project to conduct, circulate and archive interviews with pioneers of film and media studies. In addition to recognizing the contributions of key scholars, the project also aims to foster knowledge of and interest in the diverse and dynamic developments that have shaped -- and continue to shape -- our expanding field.
Fieldnotes is currently led by Haidee Wasson, with the help of a committee comprised of Patrice Petro and Barbara Klinger. It is sponsored by both SCMS and ARTHEMIS, a Concordia University-based research team investigating the history and epistemology of moving image studies.
For more information on
Fieldnotes
, and to listen to past interviews, please visit their website.
|
|
|
If you're contacted by someone who wants to help you book your travel to SCMS, it's not us. Please exercise caution and contact us if you have any questions at [email protected] .
Please only use OFFICIAL RESERVATION PROCEDURES to make your reservation at the Hilton Atlanta:
SCMS has very favorable room rates of $159 US per night. For room reservations, please call 1-800-HILTONS (1-800-445-8667) or call the hotel directly at 404-659-2000 and specify that you are a part of the Society for Cinema & Media Studies Annual Conference to receive the group rate and to receive complimentary high speed internet access in your guest room. You can also use three-letter group code "SCM" in case there is a challenge finding the room block by name by the call center. You can also make reservations by visiting:
The cut-off date is
Monday, March 8, 2016
but please make your reservation as soon as possible.
|
|
SCMS BOARD OF DIRECTORS UPDATE
|
|
|
|
|
SCMS Policy for Media Requests and Media Statements
The Board of Directors recently approved a policy regarding such procedure, which appears below:
Occasionally SCMS initiates media releases; at other times, SCMS is contacted by the press or other media to provide information. Only authorized SCMS spokespersons may give information to the media, and all media releases must be approved by the SCMS Board in advance of the release.
In the event the media or press directly contact any SCMS Executive Committee member, SCMS member or SCMS employee and request a statement or release on behalf of SCMS, the following guidelines apply. The contacted SCMS member ("Individual") should request the name of the caller, the telephone number where the person can be reached, the name of the media represented and the reason for the call. The Individual should inform the caller that an SCMS spokesperson will return the call. The Individual shall immediately advise Executive Director, Jill Simpson, of the media related call.
This policy applies only to inquiries and statements of SCMS' official positions and is not intended to restrict speech or prohibit a Board member, Committee member, regular member or employee from expressing their individual views and opinions.
Please remember that if, as an SCMS member, you are asked to speak on behalf of the organization to send all such requests to the Executive Director, Jill Simpson.
|
|
OVERVIEW OF
2015 DMCA TRIENNIAL RULEMAKING
On Wednesday, October 28, 2015, the Librarian of Congress issued the latest set of exceptions allowing for lawful use of copyrighted works previously off limits due to technological protection measures. Without these exceptions, copying from protected media would be unlawful, even for educational purposes that are usually protected against copyright complaints. The new rules will allow for a wide range of teaching and learning uses.
Among the many exceptions granted in late October were a series of exceptions for educational use of motion pictures (a legal category that includes television shows, commercials, and almost any other work involving moving pictures, as well as feature films). These exceptions are mostly incremental updates to existing rules, except for the allowance for Massive Open Online Courses, which is completely new.
The Society for Cinema and Media Studies joined the AAUP, Library Copyright Alliance, Professor Peter Decherney and others, along with representation by student attorneys Mark Patrick and Sarah O'Connor of the Glushko-Samuelson IP Law Clinic at American University Washington College of Law (ipclinic.org) (under supervision of Practitioner-in-Residence Brandon Butler), to advocate for the rights of faculty, students, and others in higher education to make lawful uses of these materials. SCMS's Public Policy Committee and the Chair, Bill Kirkpatrick, played an instrumental role in the process by providing amicus briefs in consultation with the SCMS Board. It was a long and arduous process, and required extraordinary effort and collaboration from all involved to win the latest exceptions.
The new rules allow faculty and, in some cases, students to copy short portions of protected works for use in criticism or commentary where close analysis of the clip is necessary, for the following formats: DVD, streaming video delivery, and (in some cases) Blu-ray. While the prior rules had allowed use of DVD and streaming for these purposes, access to Blu-ray is new this cycle.
The new rules allow educational uses of these formats in several different contexts, with some differences in the rules depending on where the use is taking place. The categories of educational use are:
- Colleges and universities, for faculty and students
- Massive Open Online Courses, for faculty only, and must comply with certain provisions of the TEACH Act
- K-12 education, for teachers (excluding Blu-ray) and students (only using "screen capture" software, not direct copying, aka "ripping")
- Courses taught in libraries, museums, and other nonprofit entities with educational missions, for teachers only, and only using "screen capture" software, not direct copying.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FILM MATTERS HIGHLIGHTS
FUTURE FILM SCHOLARS
In issue 6.1,
Film Matters
highlights work presented at SCMS-U 2014, hosted by the Film Media Studies Program at the University of Oklahoma. According to conference organizers Man-Fung Yip and Victoria Sturtevant (both of the University of Oklahoma):
Participation in SCMS-U is highly competitive. Our call for papers elicited more than 100 proposals from undergraduates all over the United States as well as some international institutions...We were impressed with the extraordinary range and creativity of the undergraduate research being developed, and wished we could have included even more of the excellent work that was proposed.
...When we were offered the chance to curate some of this wonderful work through a special issue of
Film Matters, we were delighted to agree. Although we would have liked to publish each of the papers that was presented, we tried to select eight that capture the variety and quality of student work being done.
The special SCMS-U issue of
Film Matters
is available now. To read more, visit the
Film Matter
's website.
Preparations are already underway for the 2016 SCMS-U Conference, which will be held April 14-17 at the University of Colorado Boulder. To learn how to get involved, please visit the SCMS-U website.
|
|
|
|
EPISODE 26: A CHILL IN THE AIR
Drama! Tension! Melodrama! Horror! This episode will put you through the emotional wringer, it will give you the feels, it will help you understand both cannibals and Cubs fans. No preview can do it justice: you'll just have to listen. With Vicky Johnson, Lisa Schmidt, and "Very Special Guest Star" Elana Levine.
|
|
|
|
HARRY RANSOM CENTER
2016-2017 RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS IN THE HUMANITIES
The Harry Ransom Center will award approximately 70 fellowships for 2016-2017 for projects that require substantial on-site use of its collections. The fellowships support research in all areas of the humanities, including literature, photography, film, art, the performing arts, music, and cultural history.
AVAILABLE FELLOWSHIPS INCLUDE:
ONE TO THREE MONTH FELLOWSHIPS * $3,000 PER MONTH
One- to three-month fellowships are available for post-doctoral or independent scholars whose projects require extensive work with the Ransom Center's collections.
TRAVEL STIPENDS * $1,200 (Domestic) * $1,700 (International)
Travel stipends are available for post-doctoral or independent scholars whose projects require less than one month's work with the Center's collections. Travel stipends may not be combined with other Ransom Center fellowships.
DISSERTATION FELLOWSHIPS * $1,500
Dissertation fellowships, generously supported by the Creekmore and Adele Fath Charitable Foundation and The University of Texas at Austin Office of Graduate Studies, are available for graduate students whose doctoral dissertations require use of the Center's collections.
APPLICATION DEADLINE: JANUARY 15, 2016, 5 P.M. CST
More information can be found
here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
