Another Call for Papers: 6th International Symposium on Literature and Environment in East Asia

Deadline: February 26, 2018
Contact: Rachel Wang, Secretary General of ASLE-Taiwan
Email: asle.taiwan@gmail.com

6th International Symposium on Literature and Environment in East Asia

War and Peace: Militarism, Biopolitics and the Environment in East Asia

October 20-21, 2018
National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment in Taiwan (ASLE-Taiwan), in conjunction with the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University, invites proposals for the 6th International Symposium on Literature and Environment in East Asia (ISLE-EA) to be held during October 20-21, 2018 at National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. The major theme of the 2018 symposium concerns the entanglement of militarism, biopolitics and the environment in East Asia. As 2018 marks the 70th anniversary of the divided Korea, it reminds us of the Pacific War, the Cold War, the war on terror, etc. that have assaulted East Asia. In The Birth of Biopolitics (2008; lectures given 1978-1979), Michel Foucault relates biopolitics to war: He states, “the principle underlying the technics of battle—that one has to become capable of killing in order to go on living—has become the principle that defines the state” (qtd. in Dillon and Neal, 2008, 10). This is a principle that weds eating/living to killing, peace to war. In the globalized war state, while we yearn for peace, we also live in the huge shadow of war, an everlasting presence. After World War II, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, after the Korean War, after the shelling of Kinmen and Matsu, East Asia is now again a flash point that threatens to trigger a nuclear holocaust. We would like to ask, do war and peace define each other? Are they indeed twins? What are the environmental consequences, psychological as well as material, in East Asia, the region of our focus? In this context, we would like to invite proposals that explore the question of war and peace and the environment in East Asia, and beyond. Topics may include but are not limited to the following—

–Militarization and the environment in East Asia
–Militarized Islands in East Asia
–Military tourism in East Asia
–Nuclear bombing in East Asia
–Nature parks in East Asia
–Cold War ecocriticism
–Cold War landscapes and seascapes
–Cold War eco cinema
–Eco-tourism in DMZ
–Environmental politics
–War and nature
–Others

Proposals of 300 words should be sent using the ISLE-EA Submission Form to asle.taiwan@gmail.com by February 26, 2018. The membership in ASLE-Japan, ASLE-Korea, ASLE-Taiwan, or another ASLE affiliation is required to present a paper at the symposium. A US$100 registration fee is also required for presentation. The notification of acceptance will be sent by April 30, 2018.

For further inquiries, please contact—
Ms. Rachel Wang, Secretary General of ASLE-Taiwan
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
National Taiwan University
#1 Roosevelt Road Section 4
Taipei, Taiwan 10610
Email: asle.taiwan@gmail.com
Tel: 886-980-060-737 (Mobile)

Clockwork Green Call for Papers: Submissions Due on December 1

CFP: A Clockwork Green: Ecomedia in the Anthropocene

Posted on July 12, 2017

A Nearly Carbon Neutral Virtual SymposiumSponsored by the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment and the University of California, Santa Barbara

June 14-30, 2018

A troubling paradox lies at the heart of ecomedia studies: those of us who study and teach about the intersection of ecological issues and non-print media also recognize that the production, consumption, and circulation of media texts take a massive toll on the Earth’s environment, an issue well documented by media scholars. In other words, as ecomedia scholars and environmental filmmakers, we must admit that our own media production, consumption, and research practices — which are felt disproportionately across communities and cultures — make us complicit in the ever-escalating global environmental crisis. Yet if we are to better understand the vital role that film and media play in reflecting, responding to, and shaping public attitudes about the relationships between the human and non-human worlds, as well as different human communities, we must embrace this paradox. In this first-ever ASLE online symposium, we will collectively situate and define ecomedia studies and its relationship to environmental humanities, film and media studies, and cultural studies through a series of virtual presentations and conversations. While ecomedia will be our buzzword for the event, proposals on all aspects of environmental criticism are welcome.

In a May 2014 interview, deep-green activist Dan Bloom — arguably the first to use the term cli-fi for climate fiction and film — asserts, “I believe that cli fi novels and movies can serve to wake up readers and viewers to the reality of the Climapocalypse that awaits humankind if we do nothing to stop it” (Vemuri). Bloom’s claims echo those of Rahman Badalov, who declares of the Lumiere Brothers’ Oil Wells of Baku, “Blazing oil gushers make marvelous cinematographic material…. Only cinema can capture the thick oil bursting forth like a fiery monster.” But Badalov not only views these oil gushers as monstrous nature; he also notes the dual message of the view: to both condemn environmental degradation and entertain with spectacle (Murray/Heumann). Perhaps acknowledging this dual message is a way of “dwelling in the dissolve” or “performing exposure,” as Stacy Alaimo puts it. Alaimo asserts “performing exposure as an ethical and political act means to reckon with — rather than disavow — such horrific events and to grapple with the particular entanglements of vulnerability and complicity that radiate from disasters and their terribly disjunctive connection to everyday life in the industrialized world.” Environmental justice issues of gender, race, ability, class, and ethnicity are invariably exposed as part and parcel of the material networks of media. In the provocative essay “Ecocriticism and Ideology: Do Ecocritics Dream of a Clockwork Green?”, Andrew Hageman calls for “a practice of dialectical critique to read films for what they reveal to us about the contradictions within the culture, society, and ourselves that we readily recognize in such films.” We invite you to answer that call by examining any text or context broadly related to our symposium and join us for what we hope to be a unique, timely, and thoroughly enjoyable digital event.

Hageman asks, “What can film, given its ideological constraints, do to advance ecological knowledge, attitudes, and behavior?” In your presentations, we invite you to consider this and other questions, such as the following:

• How is ecomedia deployed by communities at the margins of traditional media practice and at the frontlines of environmental disaster?
• How are mainstream econarratives of gender, sexuality, race, etc. resisted and re-inscribed?
• How does the material impact of ecomedia (film, television, gaming, etc.) undermine or emphasize its message?
• How can ecomedia be useful in persuading resistant audiences?
• What strategies have worked (or not worked) in teaching ecomedia?
• What impact have comics, gaming, habitat dioramas, and other forms of ecomedia had on the field?
• What broad definitions of ecomedia can account for the wide range of forms it entails (more than just cinematic)?
• What broad definitions of ecomedia can account for a wide range of ecological alternatives, ideologies, or perspectives?
• How does ecohorror inform our understanding of ecomedia in this era of climapocalypse?
• How can re-reading historical ecomedia inform our understanding of past and/or current cultural climate?
• What cinematic strategies and practices best reflect various ecological ideologies?
• Can or should the focus be shifted away from the human in ecomedia?

Though the focus of the conference is ecomedia, ASLE and ASLE affiliate members will be welcome to present on a range of topics. We also encourage U.S. and international filmmakers and scholars to participate and encourage participants to meet together through local viewing/discussion groups on their home campuses.

Beyond a drastically lower carbon footprint, the nearly carbon neutral conference approach also is more inclusive of international scholars who may have funding or travel issues for a U.S.-based conference, is more inclusive of differently abled scholars who may have difficulty with physical accessibility and who may need closed captioning and/or audio screen readers, is open access after the conference window, can be used in classrooms, and has been proven to elicit more discussion than a traditional conference format. The conference is formatted as follows:

• Speakers record their own talks. This is typically A) a video of them speaking, generally filmed with a webcam or smartphone, B) a screen recording of a presentation, such as a PowerPoint, or C) a hybrid of the two, with speaker and presentation alternately or simultaneously onscreen.
• Talks are uploaded to the conference website where they can be viewed at any time during the conference timeframe. Talks are organized into panels (i.e. individual web pages) that generally have three speakers each and a shared Q&A session.
• Participants and panelists contribute to online Q&A sessions, which are similar to online forums, by posing and responding to written questions and comments.

We eagerly welcome international submissions, but please keep in mind the presentations should be in English or subtitled in English, and the Q&A will be in English. Also, please note that all talks will become part of a permanent conference archive open to the public.

Please submit abstracts of 300 words by December 1 to Christy Tidwell (christy.tidwell@gmail.com). Contact Christy Tidwell with questions about submissions and Bridgitte Barclay (bbarclay@aurora.edu) and/or Shannon Davies Mancus (shannonmancus@gmail.com) with questions about the conference more broadly.

St. Louis Media and Disabilities Discussion

My October was so busy, I now have a little wanderlust and took one fun and one required trip to St. Louis. The fun trip started off well, with a lovely lunch and visit with one of the biggest advocates for disability rights in the US and around the world. She received the honor of a Ford Foundation award for this year and is not only sharing her expertise with audiences around the world, but also writing a multimedia "white paper" about media accessibility. Here is where our conversation got interesting, since some of our research explores how a sustainable city must be an accessible city, according to most definitions.

The fun ended when one of the friends I was traveling with tripped over a grate on the accessible van we were riding in and badly cut her leg. She had to get several stitches at an urgent care facility, so we then needed to get her home as soon as possible. Overall, though, the trip was enlightening and engaging, and the friend is healing well, too.

Sita Sings the Blues and The Brain Eaters: The last EVFF Films

Sita Sings the Blues is Champaign Urbana comic strip artist and animator Nina Paley’s inspired animated vision of the Ramayana—the ancient Indian epic of Hindu mythology—intercut with a modern-day story about the director's own failed relationship with a man who goes to work in India. The film thrillingly blends numerous visual styles, influenced by Indonesian shadow puppets, commercial Hindu iconography, and classic Hollywood animation from the likes of Max Fleischer and the UPA Studios. Jerry Beck of Cartoon brew calls it "Visually beautiful, extremely entertaining, it has so much going for it I really can't think of anything I'd change about it. Imagine Betty Boop in a Bollywood musical!” 

Directed by Chicago native Bruno Vesota, The Brain Eaters shows us strange things happening in Riverdale, Illinois. A huge, seemingly alien structure has been found jutting out of the earth. Sent to investigate the origin of the mysterious object, Senator Walter Powers discovers that parasites from the center of the earth have infiltrated the town, taking control of the authorities and workers, making communication with the outside world impossible, and leaving the responsibility of stopping the invasion up to Powers and a small group of free individuals. 

The Brain Eaters draws on 1950s Cold War hysteria, but it also had some interesting back story. Producer Ed Nelson, who also stars in the film, created the parasites himself using little wind-up toys covered with fur from an old coat and pipe cleaners for antennae. The producers of the movie were sued by Robert A. Heinlein, who claimed the plot stole several elements of his novel, The Puppet Masters. The suit was settled out of court.

These films showcase Illinois directors and demonstrate the breadth of the horror and thriller genres. 

Embarras Valley Film Festival Student Film Contest Selections

2017 EVFF Student Film Selections

Directions: Vote for your top 3. Circle the three films you liked the most and, if you’d like, number them 1-3, with 1 being first place, 2 begin second, and 3 being third place.

Shower Time by Bridget Johnson [HS] 3:00_____________

Unspoken by Blake Sepe [Student EHS] 1:14___________     

VARILove by Blake Sepe [Student EHS] 2:27___________     

Rain by Blake Sepe [Student EHS] 1:11_________________      

The Breakdown by Blake Sepe [Student EHS] 4:21_______________  

Through the Train Window by August Busch 2:02 (Chicago)______________           

I Feel Fine by Emily Hay [HS] 10:51______________     

Don't Touch That Dial by james Gregg [HS] 3:15___________________ 

Executing Emma by james Gregg [HS] 4:23            _______________

Broken Solitude by Robert Herbolich [HS] 4:43_______________        

Change by Abigail Karl [HS] 1:36____________

Voicemail by Abigail Karl [HS] 1:39_____________      

Mitchell Robert's House by Dakota Pruemer 31 (EIU)_____________

Michael by Jane Simonetti [HS] 3:26_______________  

The Curse Of The Sad Mummy by Natalia Nikkhoo [MS] 4:18________________         

City'Scape by Brendan Hickey [HS] 5:18______________         

The Bird Painter by David Benjamin [HS] 2:36__________________     

Solitude by Julia Bhansali [HS] 7:37____________________        

Drawn Onward by Dan O'Reilly-Rowe [HS] 3:55  

Clay by Dan O'Reilly-Rowe [HS] 4:07