Critical Arts is placing on temporary free access on a rolling basis all the Under Fire articles that have been published to date. These are short essays that uncompromisingly address pressing issues facing academia, our students and our societies, but which are rarely discussed in the formal academic literature. This first batch is available on free access until 29 February.
The Journal of African Media Studies (JAMS) is seeking expressions of interest from media and communication research professionals to join our Editorial Board. The opportunity will allow you to keep up-to-date with research in our field and to improve the quality of submissions for JAMS. The opportunity allows you to position yourself as one of the leaders in the evolving and most exciting field of African Media and Communication Studies. JAMS is an interdisciplinary journal that provides a forum for debate on the historical and contemporary aspects of media and communication in Africa. All articles are double-blind peer-reviewed in order to maintain the highest standards of scholastic integrity. It welcomes research articles, film and theatre reviews, Blog and book reviews as well as commentaries reflective of African media and communication.
Appointments to the Editorial Board are for a 2-year period and may be renewable. Membership on the Editorial Board requires ability to perform allocated tasks and to work with a team.
The Editorial Board members activities include:
· working closely with Editors to develop the journal’s vision, policy and practices
· providing expertise and assessment assistance to the editors
· helping to approve topics for special issues,
· participating in monthly board meetings,
· reviewing 8 to 10 manuscripts yearly, and
· helping recruit reviewers
· Promoting the journal to authors and readers
The following are criteria for selection of board members:
· A PhD degree and relevant expertise
· Prior experience with publishing in and reviewing for peer-review publications
· Access to and capacity for completing reviews in the online publication system
Applications should be submitted by 10 February 2020 to the Principal Editor, Dr Winston Mano by email: manow@westminster.ac.uk
Application materials should include:
· Curriculum Vitae
· Short statement of interest
· List of journals for which you have reviewed manuscripts
For more information about the JAMS, Submission Guidelines and recent issues, please go to the Website: https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-african-media-studi
The article below has just been published and is on free access until 20 February. Prof. Keyan Tomaselli has requested this free access status from the publisher as it speaks directly to many of the issues that we academic authors have to consider when publishing, in navigating university research reward systems, NRF rating applications, and performance management contracts. In short, university policies are often formulated without sufficient consideration of the issues analysed in this study
Abstract A comparative analysis examines the relevance of journal measurement indices for the Humanities and the Sciences. It explains how different measurements work, what they measure and their impact on the integrity of research, paradigm change and citation levels. The increasing use by university auditors of impact factors as performance management and research output indicators is critically examined with regard to implications for the Humanities. The effect of this neoliberal approach on African-based academic developments is examined, as are the intellectually re-colonising effects of such systems. The article can be accessed here or https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/BDRWMQVUR8CZC3SW2H5I/full?target=10.1080/02560046.2019.1690534 |
CALL FOR PAPERS
Perspectives on Africa Media and Communication
Durban, South Africa
June 10-12, 2020
Hosted by the Durban University of Technology and supported by the University of Kwazulu-Natal, Mangosuthu University of Technology, and University of Zululand, the Global Communication Association invites you to submit your abstracts for the 16th annual convention to be held in Durban, South Africa from June 10 – 12, 2020.
The GCA invites research papers exploring any aspect of issues related to the theme of the conference, including the following broad topics:
CONFERENCE LOCATION (HOTEL AND FACILITIES):
The conference will take place on the campus of the Durban University of Technology (DUT).
Special Conference rates will be offered by several hotels in Durban, within a 5km radius of the conference venue.
Details of these rates and the hotel links will be provided shortly. Delegates are requested to register as early as possible, as Durban is a popular tourist destination during this time.
Accommodation Link: https://www.dut.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Accommodation-Durban-KwaZulu-Natal-South-Africa-2020.pdf
Conference Registration Fees:
AIR TRANSPORT: There are daily flights from major cities around the world to South Africa. Some international airlines fly directly to Durban, while others fly to Cape Town or Johannesburg, domestic airlines can be used to fly to Durban. Emirates and British Airways, Qatar Turkish Airlines fly directly to Durban. For details visit https://kingshakainternational.co.za/airport/durban-airport/
GROUND TRANSPORT: Delegates will be met on arrival at King Shaka International Airport in Durban and transported to their hotels or to the conference venue, depending on the date of arrival. Shuttles will be provided from the hotels to the conference and event venues.
After the conference, shuttles will be provided from the hotels to the airport. Links to approved tour agents will be provided if delegates wish to tour after or before the conference. Meter taxis and Uber are also available and distance from King Shaka International Airport to Durban City is 30 km.
OPTIONAL TOURS: After the conference, interested participants may take advantage of an optional tour such as visiting a safari.
Questions:
Please direct any questions to Dr. Yahya R. Kamalipour at yrkamal@gmail.com.
Important Dates:
| Abstract Submission Deadline | February 29, 2020 |
| Acceptance Notification | March 15, 2020 |
| Last Date for Early Bird Registration | April 15, 2020 |
| Last Date for Registration | May 15, 2020 |
| Full Length Paper Submission | May 30, 2020 |
| Conference Dates | June 10-12, 2020 |
| Optional Tours | June 13, 2020 |
The 2020 CILECT Congress at Westerdals Institute for Film and Media, Kristiania University College,
Oslo, Norway (4-9 October 2020) will incorporate a conference under the title
AUDIOVISUAL EDUCATION: IMPACT AND RELEVANCE
The global streaming platforms are disrupting traditional film and television linear storytelling and distribution models. The competition to make an impact is stronger than ever. But impact has both positive and negative connotations. Images could produce new ideas, but could also reinforce cultural stereotypes. Stories could reveal areas of human co-existence, but could also reproduce dominant ideologies.
Relevance in this context relate audio-visual education to societal change.
In putting the focus on impact and relevance in this conference, the aim is to emphasise the multiple spheres of influence that images and stories have. Access to technologies and the changes in audiences’ adoption and adaption to the new platforms requires a re-examination of education.
We encourage submissions that would address questions such as:
What shapes the audio-visual curriculum in the time of transformation of the technological means and the distribution platforms?
What are the new storytelling models in the age of serial and multilinear drama?
How can we bridge?
We expect:
Theoretical Presentations & Case Studies (up to 30 mins.)
Workshops (up to 60 mins.)
Exhibitions & Screenings All proposals must include:
An abstract (up to 200 words) that describes the content and form of the presentation or activity
A short bio of the proposer up to 100 words
A photograph of the proposer that is at least 1 MB and no more than 5 MB in size
Please send all submissions by email to executive.director@cilect.org
NOT LATER THAN 15 MARCH 2020
Editorial
Journal of African Cinemas: Special Edition on contemporary South African cinema
pp. 3-9(7)
Authors: Rijsdijk, Ian-Malcolm; Lawrence, Andrew
Articles
Outsiders, fairy tales and rainbowism in South African comedies: Soweto Green: This is a ‘Tree’ Story (Lister, 1995) and Fanie Fourie’s Lobola (Pretorius, 2013)
pp. 11-29
Author: Mdege, Norita
Unsettling the ‘New’? Apartheid Did Not Die (Lowery, 1998)
pp. 31-46
Author: Modisane, Litheko
Resistance documentaries in post-apartheid South Africa: Dear Mandela (Kell and Nizza, 2012) and Miners Shot Down (Desai, 2014)
pp. 47-67
Author: Moyer-Duncan, Cara
Unravelling Pretville (Korsten, 2012) and encountering Marikana: The superfluous cheer of the Afrikaner volksiel
pp. 69-82
Author: Steenekamp, Emelia
Reviews
Reviews
pp. 83-88
Authors: Dovey, Lindiwe; Frassinelli, Pier Paolo
Film Review
Film Review
pp. 89-94(6)
Author: Macintyre, Sandy
Bottom of Form
The Journal of African Cinemas will explore the interactions of visual and verbal narratives in African film. It recognizes the shifting paradigms that have defined and continue to define African cinemas. Identity and perception are interrogated in relation to their positions within diverse African film languages. The editors are seeking papers that expound on the identity or identities of Africa and its peoples represented in film.
Publisher: Intellect
ISSN 1754-9221 (Print); ISSN 1754-923X (Online)
Journal website: https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-african-cinemas
Editors: Keyan Tomaselli and Martin Mhando
Contact: David Nothling – jac@uj.ac.za
The SACOMM community was met with the sad news of Prof. Sonja Verwey’s passing last week. Prof. Verwey was the first female president of our Association, a formidable academic, an esteemed colleague, a mentor and a friend to many of us. We will remember Prof. Verwey as a gentle, cheerful and insightful presence in, and at SACOMM. Her contributions to the field and to our community cannot be overstated.
We would like to offer our deepest condolences to her bereaved family, friends, colleagues and students. A memorial service for Prof Verwey will take place at the Weltevreden Dutch Reformed Church, 1140 Cornelius Street, Weltevredenpark on Wednesday 4 December 2019 at 11:00.
SACOMM is deeply sorrowed and much poorer for the loss of this wonderful woman.
2-4 April 2020
The South African film industry has a long history, albeit racially fractured, uneven and inconsistent. Since the introduction of Edison’s kinetoscope in 1895, the film industry and a film culture has become deeply entrenched in South African cultural, political and social life. The historical development of the South African film industry, and in particular pre- and post-1994 state intervention by means of funding mechanisms, offers a rich site of exploration of South African racial and cultural politics, as well as ideological, aspirational and idealised self-representations in film. Cinema as both a text and a set of practices and activities which are constantly intervening in society, makes cinema an actor in the ‘maintenance, mutation and subversion of systems of power’. Within this framing, film is read and analysed in history and as source of history; in shaping and reflecting the context of production and reception, in short, as ‘agent, product and source of history’, according to Marc Ferro.
History is increasingly consumed on film. Indeed, Marc Ferro goes further than many scholars in emphasising the ubiquitous influence of visual representations of the past. He says, ‘television (and one can include film here) has become a kind of parallel school’, in other words, film as history. Paula Amad (2010) on the other hand, in arguing for film as counter-archive, positions film as a medium that poses a challenge to the positivist historical methodology and archive with its emphasis on order, scientific objectivity and neutrality as elaborated by Leopold von Ranke.
The conference seeks to engage with film in South Africa in the four domains discussed above; film in history, film as source of history, film as history and film as counter-archive. The conference aims to bring together South African and international scholars working broadly in the domain of film and history in and about South Africa. The conference is open to all scholars whose research interest is film and visual studies from a historical perspective, including research interests in the historical development of cinema (in the South African national, comparative and/or global contexts), cinema culture, audiences, festivals and reception, technologies and the business of filmmaking as well as historians working with film as history, film in history and film as [counter]archive.
Select conference papers will be considered for publication in an edited volume.
Abstracts for presentations are invited in the following broad thematic areas:
Film Screenings
The conference will include film screenings of select films from the South African National Film, Video and Sound Archives and short films produced by University of Pretoria History students. Filmmakers are also invited to submit their own productions for consideration.
Publication
A select number of original research papers will be considered for publication in an edited volume of essays.
Timelines
Abstract deadline: 20 January 2020
Abstracts can be submitted to history@up.ac.za
Acceptance responses: 7 February 2020
Publication-ready papers to be submitted by 17 April 2020
Inquiries can be directed to:
Ian Macqueen: ian.macqueen@up.ac.za
Glen Ncube: glen.ncube@up.ac.za
Nisa Paleker: nisa.paleker@up.ac.za
Dr G Paleker
Senior Lecturer
Department of Historical and Heritage Studies
Tel: 012 420 2264
Email: nisa.paleker@up.ac.za
The Journal of African Cinemas (JAC) is working with arts editor Charl Blignaut at The Conversation to increase exposure of African films in its pages. The aim is to recruit short journalistic articles for The Conversation, which can in due course be repurposed into longer reviews of films and even articles for JAC – or anywhere.
Also, current and recently published academic articles in JAC, Critical Arts, or any journal, could be revised in short form for submission to The Conversation (TC), and linked to the published article. This mechanism has been shown to massively increase readers and citations of the original article first published in the academic journal. TC’s aim, of course, is to popularize academic work for the wider public and thereby to demonstrate its social relevance.
Anyone interest to please contact Charl direct, or submit a pitch on The Conversation website. Please cc me so we can track the impact of this call. Charl Blignaut charl.blignaut@theconversation.com
Journal of African Cinemas: https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-african-cinemas
Critical Arts: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcrc20
The Conversation: https://www.google.com/search?q=theconversation+south+africa&rlz=1C1GGRV_enZA813ZA813&oq=thecconversation&aqs=chrome.4.69i57j0l5.7542j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
This notice is endorsed by the SACOMM Screen Studies interest group.
Beschara Karam (University of South Africa); Mark Kirby-Hirst (Open Window) and Rory du Plessis (University of Pretoria)
In light of the hugely successful, and critically acclaimed, film release of the film Black Panther (Coogler 2018); as well as the debates surrounding the film, this Call for Chapters is dedicating a book to this very pertinent film. The film focuses on the themes Afrofuturism; of identity; dehumanisation; feminism; alienation; and reclamation. It also allows for the exploration of other themes integral to the experience of Africa and the Diaspora, including (but not limited to) slavery; apartheid; othering; marginalisation; history; colonisation; post-colonisation; memory; trauma; and, decolonisation (see Karam and Kirby-Hirst 2019).
We are therefore looking for original contributions from researchers working on any aspect of Black Panther; including the comic books and graphic novels upon which the film is based. Please send an extended abstract (of between 300 – 500 words maximum, excluding sources) outlining your chapter to reach us no later than 17th December 2019: bpafricadiaspora@gmail.com For more information, please contact: Professor Beschara Karam 012 429 6323 karambs@unisa.ac.za / beschara karam@gmail.com
