Screenwriting Research Network: Call for Conferences
The Screenwriting Research Network is looking for proposals to host its International Conferences in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
The Screenwriting Research Network (www.screenwritingresearch.com) is an international research network of scholars, reflective practitioners and practice-based researchers, interested in the conceptualisation of film, TV and other media narratives; or Screenwriting Studies, as it has become known. Membership is currently drawn from 48 countries worldwide and still growing, with strong representation from the USA, Europe and Australasia, and recent members from several other countries, including Latin America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa.
The SRN began as a study group at the University of Leeds, UK, in 2006, and started its programme of international conferences in 2008, also at Leeds. Since then annual conferences have been held in Helsinki (2009), Copenhagen (2010), Brussels (2011), Sydney (2012), Madison-Wisconsin (2013), Potsdam-Babelsberg (2014), London (2015), Leeds (2016), Otago-Dunedin in New Zealand (2017) and Milan (2018). A special international conference was also held in Santiago, Chile in May 2015. In 2019 we will meet at the Catholic University of Portugal in Porto, whereas the 2020 conference will be held in Oxford.
Over the years, the programme has attracted eminent scholars and Oscar-winning screenwriters amongst the keynote speakers, and includes: David Bordwell, Janet Staiger, Kristin Thompson, Torben Grodal, Adrian Martin, Brian Winston, Jonathan Powell, Milcho Manchevski, Larry Gross, Jean-Claude Carrière, Ronald Harwood, Hossein Amini and Neil Landau among many others. Key papers are often published in the Journal of Screenwriting (Intellect).
The SRN conferences usually take place in September/October each year. Recent conferences have attracted 150-175 participants and around 100 papers and presentations. We expect further growth. Our conferences are usually hosted by university departments or film schools, often as a partnership between such institutions; for example, our 2015 London conference was a collaboration between Royal Holloway University of London, University of Greenwich, University of East London and Bangor University, and the 2020 Oxford conference will be co-hosted by Oxford Brookes University and Canterbury Christchurch University. Collaborations with archives or festivals,
writers’ associations or guilds, and other public bodies are welcomed.
Each conference is financially self-supporting with actual costs borne or raised by the host institutions. Sources range from public bodies and institutions to sponsorship of some events, to conference fees from participants. The SRN supports each conference with advice and contacts, but not finance. This is not a profit-making enterprise, and commercial proposals are not accepted.
If you are interested in organizing an SRN annual international conference, please contact the SRN Chairman, Prof. Carmen Sofia Brenes (Universidad de los Andes, Santiago, Chile) at the address below, for further information or for an informal chat. Formal proposals should be received by 30thApril 2019, via email. The proposal should be no longer than four pages, outlining the location and institution, facilities, ease of travel and communication, appropriate organising staff, and an indication of how institutional and financial commitment will be forthcoming. A simple budget should be appended.
For further information or an informal chat (preferably via Skype), contact Prof. Brenes at csbrenes@miuandes.cl.
The SRN Executive Council will consider all proposals through Spring/Summer 2019, and may require further information, before making decisions. We hope to complete the process by the end of June 2019 and announce the next Conference in Porto.
The SRN exists to encourage networking among screenwriting scholars and will support and disseminate information about appropriate events. Besides our annual conferences, therefore, there is also the possibility of regional conferences, one-day workshops and other forms of smaller events. If you are planning to organize such an event and want the help and support of the network, please contact us, and the SRN Executive Council will consider how we might help.