Panel CFP: Ecomedia and Scale (FSAC Conference)

Call for Abstracts: “Ecomedia and Scale” Pre-Constituted Panel

FSAC Annual Conference, June 2-4, 2015, University of Ottawa

 As the sub-field of ecocinema studies continues to expand and wrestle with evolving issues of representation, industrial production and consumption, and ecophilosophy, in this panel we wish to consider how issues of scale come into play. While scholars continue to debate the appropriateness of the term ‘anthropocene’ in defining humanity’s impact on our planet’s ecosystems in our current epoch, we propose a need to think as well about temporal and spatial scales exceeding the human. Timothy Morton’s notion of hyberobjects—things so massively distributed in time and space that humanity is dwarfed in comparison—is one such way that we can begin conceptualizing scale and its impacts on human politics and ecology. At the same time, scholars like Ursula Heise have attempted to negotiate spatial scales of the global and the local within ecocriticism, to draw attention to how both global circulation and the particularities of local or regional environments shape ecomedia. These are suggested entry points into the topic and we encourage a wide range of perspectives.

This panel is therefore seeking abstracts dedicated to issues of scale (temporal, spatial, etc.) in the study of ecomedia (films, games, web-based media, television, etc.). We welcome papers addressing questions of representation within ecomedia, as well as the production, reception, circulation, and preservation or disposal of media. Critical engagements with how scale is interrogated in ecocriticism and the environmental humanities, posthuman theory, ecofeminism, and related theoretical frameworks will also be considered.

Submissions to our pre-constituted panel are due on November 20th, 2014. Please send an abstract (max 300 words), a title, and brief bio to rachel.jekanowski@concordia.caor stephanielam@fas.harvard.edu. We will be in touch by the 25th to let you know if your paper has been accepted. Submissions are welcome in either French or English.

Please direct questions about the panel and abstracts to either of the email addresses above.