On February 26-28, the Department of Film & Media at the University of California Berkeley will host the Third International Berkeley Conference on Film and Media: Serialities 1915/2015.

Building on the success of the two previous silent-film conferences held at Berkeley in2011 and 2013, the Department of Film & Media has decided to widen the scope of our biennial conference to include comparative historical inquiry.

The conference will reflect on the emergence of serial cultures from various angles: then and now, nationally and transnationally, across old and new media platforms. Why does seriality flourish at particular moments? What are its causes and consequences, economic foundations and stylistic forms? What does it afford? The dates, 1915 and 2015, are not meant as strict boundaries, but simply to signal two important “moments” when multiple forms of seriality have seemed to mark an era-one before film lengths were standardized, the other after television serials have challenged that very standard. We welcome papers that compare these eras or that explore serial production and consumption in its broadest sense in any applicable time period. Types of seriality could be non-narrative, as in the case of panoramas and serial motion studies, or narrative as in the case of the industrialization of literature in the roman-feuilletons, the adaptation of these feuilletons into film serials of the teens and twenties, radio serials, television serials, and new streaming platforms, videogames and online media. We encourage participation from a variety of disciplines, including philosophy, music, architecture, literature, art history, theater, dance and performance studies, as well as perspectives that are international and comparative.

Proposals should include a title, an abstract of no more than 300 words, a short 100 word bio and any A/V needs submitted no later than October 31, 2014. Notification will follow within a month. Send to [email protected].

> via filmmedia.berkeley.edu