CfP: International Culture & Media Research Conference

First Call for Papers: International Culture & Media Research Conference

Deadlines

Abstracts: May 1st, 2009

Full Papers: September 1, 2009

Emotions, Media and Crime

September 29 - October 1, 2010

Aarhus University

It is our pleasure to invite all interested scholars to take part in this
interdisciplinary conference on /Emotions, Media and Crime /in Aarhus. The aim of the
conference is to highlight the relationship between emotion, media and crime in
contemporary culture.

Crime is the central point of an extensive production of fiction in books, films, TV
series, and games. Crime is also a popular subject of journalism, mediated in newspapers
and electronic media, not least the internet. Import and export flourish, developing
intercultural exchange in a variety of fiction genres as well as forms of journalism. In
short, national and transnational mediation ­ and mediatization - of crime has been a
crucial factor in determining how crime is perceived and discussed within the public
sphere. Popular crime fiction, TV series and crime scenes have even become concepts in
tourism and destination branding.

Lately, scholars have called attention to the role of emotions in crime fictions. The
melodramatic element has been enhanced, and sentimentality and mediated crime have been
combined. This point of view has emerged in a search for another history of crime
fiction, highlighting the role of supernatural, gothic and hardboiled sentimental
genres. The emotional appeal also seems to be important for real as well as mediated
crime scenes, just as crime audiences seem to appreciate this kind of appeal. In crime
journalism, sensations have an important impact.

The exploration of these and related features invites to applying different methods and
approaches (media sociology, textual analysis, combined cultural and criminological
orientations, aesthetic analysis, etc.).

Consequently, we invite researchers from a wide range of disciplines: film and media
studies, literature, tourism, branding and management, sociology, criminology and
communication studies.

The conference organizers invite contributors to further investigate the relationship
between emotion, media and crime in contemporary culture.

We invite papers to investigate the following areas:

*a) Traditional history / another history*:

- Historical development of media genres

- New perspectives on genre history

- Crime journalism in a historical view

- Crime fiction formats and genres in a historical view

- The interplay between actual, factual crime and crime fiction

*b) Crime as a popular media product*:

- The aesthetics of the crime scene

- Mediated crime and gender

- Bestsellers and blockbusters

- Imports and exports

- Cross-national co-production of TV series and other media products

- The crime scene as location and tourist destination

*c) Converging media, production and affective culture*:

- Emotions in journalism

- Emotions in fiction

- Sentimental crime audiences

- Cross-media production

- Interactivity, mobility and affect

- Fiction, media tourism and place branding

The conference will include plenary sessions with keynote speakers as well as parallel
sessions with paper presentations in smaller groups.

Panel proposals (for at least 4 papers) are likewise very welcome.

Ph D students are invited to submit papers for presentation.

The abstracts (300 words) and the panel proposals must be submitted online:
www.imv.au.dk/emcconference <http://www.imv.au.dk/emcconference> no later than May 1^st
, 2010

Deadlines:

Submit abstract: May 1^st

Feedback regarding your abstract: June 1^st

Early bird register, no later than: July 1^st

Register, final date: September 1^st

Submit full papers (non-compulsory): September 1^st

Conference fee:

Early bird 200,- Euro (register before July 1^st)

Ordinary fee: 300,- Euro (register after July 1^st )

Ph D/students fee, Early bird: 100,- Euro (register before July 1^st)

Ordinary Ph D/students fee 150,- Euro (register after July 1^st )

Participants are kindly asked to individually provide for their own journey and hotel
accommodation.

Conference homepage: www.imv.au.dk/emcconference <http://www.imv.au.dk/emcconference>

Conference program will be updated online. You can also find suggestions for
accommodation and travel routes, as well as you can register online and send you
abstract online.

*The confirmed invited keynote speakers* are:

- Leonard Casutto, Professor, Fordham University, NY, US: "Sympathy and Serial Killers."

- Maurizio Ascari, Senior Lecturer, University of Bologna: "From Enigmas to Emotions:
the Twentieth Century Canonization of Crime Fiction."

- Torben Grodal, Professor, University of Copenhagen: “High on Crime: the Psychology of
Crime Fiction Consumption.”

- Gunhild Agger, Professor, University of Aalborg: “Emotions, Gender and Investigation.”

We have also organized a panel on *Crime Scene* with invited speakers:

- Elke Weissmann, Edge Hill University University, UK: /Crime scene as Quality TV/.

- Stijn Reijnders, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands: /Guilty landscapes and
the detective tours/.

The conference is organized by the research project /Crime Fiction and Crime Journalism
in Scandinavia/: www.krimiforsk.aau.dk <http://www.krimiforsk.aau.dk/>

It is supported by FMKJ, The Danish National Research School for Media, Communication,
and Journalism.

Contact persons:

*Gunhild Agger,* professor, D Phil

Dep. of Culture and Language,

Aalborg University. Email: gunhild AT hum.aau.dk

* *

*Anne Marit Waade*, associate professor, Ph D

Dep. of Information and Media Studies,

Aarhus University. Email: amwaade AT imv.au.dk

Conference secretary:

*Ulla Rasmussen*, Faculty of Humanities, Aarhus University: kultur AT hum.au.dk

--
Gunhild Agger
Professor, dr. phil.
Institut for Sprog og Kultur
(Dep. of Language and Culture)
Aalborg Universitet
Kroghstræde 3
DK-9220 Aalborg Øst
Tlf. 9940 9029
www.krimiforsk.aau.dk
www.kultur.aau.dk