Deadlines
Abstracts: May 1st, 2010
Full Papers: September 1, 2010
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.
Deadlines:
Submit abstract: May 1st
Feedback regarding your abstract: June 1st
Early bird register, no later than: July 1st
Register, final date: September 1st
Submit full papers (non-compulsory): September 1st
Conference fee:
Early bird 200,- Euro (register before July 1st)
Ordinary fee: 300,- Euro (register after July 1st)
Ph D/students fee, Early bird: 100,- Euro (register before July 1st)
Ordinary Ph D/students fee 150,- Euro (register after July 1st)
Participants are kindly asked to individually provide for their own journey and hotel accommodation.
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 Cassuto, 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 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,
Anne Marit Waade, associate professor, Ph D
Dep. of Information and Media Studies,
Conference secretary:
