Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Call for Papers for a Virtual Conference: A Clockwork Green: Ecomedia in the Anthropocene



Deadline: December 1, 2017
Contact: Bridgitte Barclay
Email: bbarclay@aurora.edu
A Clockwork Green: Ecomedia in the Anthropocene
A Nearly Carbon Neutral Virtual Symposium
Sponsored by the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
and the University of California, Santa Barbara
June 14-30, 2018
The ASLE Ecomedia Special Interest Group is pleased to announce the following plenary speakers for A Clockwork Green:
Dallas Goldtooth (Mdewakanton Dakota and Dine) is a Keep it in the Ground Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network.  He is a Dakota cultural/language teacher and a co-founder of the Indigenous comedy group, The 1491s. He is also a poet, traditional artist, powwow emcee, and comedian. In his Los Angeles Timesarticle on Goldtooth, William Yardley lauds him as someone who blends “humor, people skills and protest” and has a way of connecting with others through “intimate, persuasive engagement.”
Alexa Weik von Mossner is Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Klagenfurt in Austria. She worked for several years in the German film and television industry as production manager, assistant producer, and later scriptwriter before earning her PhD in Literature at the University of California, San Diego in 2008. Her current research explores the theoretical intersections of cognitive cultural studies and ecocriticism with a special focus on affect and emotion. She is the author of Cosmopolitan Minds: Literature, Emotion, and the Transnational Imagination(U of Texas P, 2014), the editor of Moving Environments: Affect, Emotion, Ecology, and Film (Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2014), and the co-editor of The Anticipation of Catastrophe: Environmental Risk in North American Literature and Culture(with Sylvia Mayer, Winter 2014). Her most recent book, Affective Ecologies: Empathy, Emotion, and Environmental Narrative, was published by the Ohio State University Press in 2017.
Sean Cubitt is Professor of Film and Television at Goldsmiths, University of London and Honorary Professorial Fellow of the University of Melbourne. His publications include Timeshift: On Video Culture (Routledge, 1991), Videography: Video Media as Art and Culture (Palgrave, 1993), Digital Aesthetics (Sage, 1998), Simulation and Social Theory (SAGE, 2001), The Cinema Effect (MIT Press, 2004), EcoMedia (Rodopi, 2005), The Practice of Light: A Genealogy of Visual Technology from Prints to Pixels (MIT Press, 2014) and Finite Media: Environmental Implications of Digital Technologies (Duke University Press, 2017). Series editor for Leonardo Books at MIT Press, his research focuses on the history and philosophy of media, political aesthetics, media art history and ecocriticism.

CALL FOR PAPERS:

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. 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.

Monday, November 20, 2017

Two St. Louis Trips in Less Than a Week




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.



Trip to St. Louis for NWP



My second trip to St. Louis was a work trip for the advanced institute our Eastern Illinois Writing Project is hosting this year. During the trip, we reviewed our assessment data and made a few changes to our calendar, and, after my co-director left, wrote our mid-year report.





Here's the agenda:

2017 C3WP


Advanced Institute Mid-Year Meeting




AGENDA

St. Louis, MO Friday, November 17, 2017



7:30-8:30


8:30-8:45


8:45-9:30
Breakfast


Welcome, Overview, Goals of the MeetinWriting into the Meeting
Writing Prompt: Take a few minutes to revisit the C3WP Design Principles. What
MajesticMajesticAMajesticAB

have you noticed about how this program impacts teachers teaching practices?
How might you describe that impact to an outside audience? What about C3Wmakes it so important that all teachers in your area should have access to it?


9:30-10:15

Formative Assessment in C3WP: Mining the Using Sources Tool Data

Majestic AB

10:15-10:30

BREAK (and move)



Breakouts: Planning Responsive Professional Development



Based on your baseline UST data, morning discussions about the work, and youknowledge of the needs of your AI participants, select the breakout sessions thayou think will support you in the next PD steps for your Advanced Institute.


10:30-12:00

Breakout Sessions: Round One


Breakout #1:
Strategies for Teaching the Harris Moves
Rachel Bear,
National Writing Project
Majestic F
Breakout #2:
Experience a C3WP InstructionalResourceSelf-SelectedResearch
Finding a Topic and Researching thConversation
Sarah WoodardDenver Writing Project
Majestic G
Breakout #3:
Leveraging C3WP Resources to Foster SiteSustainability
Carla TruttmanNorthernCalifornia Writing Project
Majestic H
Breakout #4:
Timing and Sequencing C3WP InstructionalResourcesAdapting with Integrity
Cecilia Pattee,Boise StateWritinProject
Majestic AB

12:00-1:00           Lunch                                                                                                                                                                                   Majestic D


1:00-2:15              Breakout Sessions: Round Two


Breakout #1:
Experience a C3WP Instructional ResourceRanking Evidence
Rachel Bear,
National Writing Project
Majestic F
Breakout #2:
Experience a C3WP Instructional ResourceSelf-Selected Research
Finding a Topic and Researching theConversation
Sarah WoodardDenver Writing Project
Majestic G
Breakout #3:
Leveraging C3WP Resources to Foster SiteSustainability
Carla TruttmanNorthernCalifornia Writing Project
Majestic H
Breakout #4:
Revision Resources
Cecilia Pattee,Boise StateWritinProject
Majestic AB

2:15-2:30              Break (and move)


2:30-3:45              Discussions with Thinking Partners                                                                                                            Majestic AB


Writing Prompt for MidYear Interim 
Narrative Report:
Write a story about one or more Advanced Institute participants who are emerginas leaders in their understanding of C3WP. Discuss why you would identify them as leaders, including how you know they have an understandinof the C3WP progradesign principles and instructional resources design principles. Finally, describyour plan for utilizing these leaders in C3WP professional development moving forward.

Breakout #1:
Rachel Bear, National Writing Project
Majestic F
Breakout #2:
Sarah Woodard, Denver Writing Project
Majestic G
Breakout #3:
Carla Truttman, Northern California Writing Project
Majestic H
Breakout #4:
Cecilia Pattee, Boise Writing Project
Majestic AB


4:00-4:30              Closure, Calendar, Next Steps, Exit Ticket                                                                                              Majestic AB