Call for Papers: Kinema Club XXI: A Workshopping Workshop for Emerging Scholars

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

August 2, 2023

  • Workshop date: November 4, 2023
  • Location: Yale University, New Haven, CT
  • Proposal deadline: August 15, 2023
  • Organizers: Aaron Gerow & Markus Nornes

Kinema Club XXI, with the support of the Council on East Asian Studies, will take place at Yale University on November 4, 2023. The Kinema Club conferences on Japanese film and media have distinguished themselves over the years for their variety and inventiveness, ranging from workshops to full-fledged conferences, from themed symposia to sidebars of film festivals. This edition will be also be a new endeavor: a workshop focusing on workshopping articles or dissertation chapters by up-and-coming scholars of Japanese film and media.

This will be the first Kinema Club since KCXIX, which took place at the University of Michigan in November 2019. A KCXX was supposed to take place in Frankfurt’s Nippon Connection in June 2020, but unfortunately that had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. We decided not to use that number and so the upcoming Kinema Club will be number 21.

The basic format will approximate those of previous Kinema Club workshops:

  • Papers will be due at least two weeks before the workshop and will be read by all participants beforehand.
  • Those who authored the paper will not read it out loud, but rather identify desired areas of discussion in no more than 5 minutes, leaving the majority of the time for discussion.
  • There will be 6-8 papers presented during the day.

What differs from previous workshops is that presenters will be restricted to advanced doctoral students (ABD) and those within 3 years after finishing their PhD. In addition, 2-3 senior scholars will participate in the workshop and will offer written comments on all the papers presented.

KC XXI is being supported by the Council on East Asian Studies, so those selected to present will receive support for travel and accommodations (hopefully full travel and two-nights at a hotel, but it will depend on the total cost). Meals will be provided on the day. Those not presenting will are welcome to join the workshop if they are willing to read the papers. The number of seats might be limited, however.

The DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS is August 15, 2023

  • Submit a 250-word proposal summarizing the submission and describing its circumstances (is it a dissertation chapter, an article, a manuscript chapter, etc.?). Topics are restricted to Japanese film and media, broadly defined.
  • Include your name, current status, and contact information.
  • Those whose proposals are selected will be notified by September 1.
  • So as not to overburden other workshop participants, final submissions by those selected should be kept within 30 pages double-spaced. That means those wanting to workshop dissertation or manuscript chapters should select chapters within that length or certain sections of a chapter.

Please submit proposals by e-mail to:  

Aaron Gerow
Yale University
aaron.gerow@yale.edu