Postgraduate Paper Competition for Symposium on 'New Directions in Russian and Soviet Cinema Studies'

[S. K. Larsen]

UCL SSEES and the University of Cambridge are jointly organising a major
international film symposium, 'New Directions in Russian and Soviet
Cinema', to honour Professor Julian Graffy's contribution to the field of
Russian and Soviet cinema studies on the occasion of his retirement after
thirty-seven years at SSEES.  The symposium will be held in Cambridge over
the 18th, 19th and 20th of September and is funded by CEELBAS, UCL SSEES,
Cambridge Slavonic Studies and Trinity College, Cambridge. The event will
feature screenings, presentations by invited speakers from the UK, Russia,
Europe and the United States, and many opportunities for discussion.  The
programme has not yet been finalised, but confirmed speakers at the time of
writing include Petr Bagrov, Nikolai Izvolov, Naum Kleiman, Evgenii
Margolit, Evgenii Tsymbal, Nancy Condee, Lilya Kaganovsky, Joan Neuberger,
Masha Salazkina, Nariman Skakov, Birgit Beumers, Ian Christie, Seth Graham,
Jeremy Hicks, Stephen Hutchings, Stephen Lovell, Vlad Strukov, Richard
Taylor and (tentatively) Evgeniia Zvonkine. Once the programme is finalised
we will circulate it widely to this and other lists.



CFP from Phd students: One panel at this event will be devoted to
postgraduate presentations, which will be selected on the basis of
submitted abstracts (see guidelines in next paragraph).  Professor Graffy
will be the discussant for this panel. Postgraduate presenters will receive
funding to cover the conference fee, accommodation and travel costs (within
the UK).  Postgraduate presenters  will also be invited to submit revised
and expanded versions of their presentations for possible inclusion in a
peer-reviewed publication of selected papers from the symposium.



GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS: Papers should focus on the analysis of a single
film clip, discussion of which will illuminate the current direction of the
presenter’s research. Presentations (including the film clip) may not
exceed 13 minutes. These presentations are intended to be short ‘snapshots’
of presenters’ research and to provide a springboard for extended
discussion. We welcome submissions from postgraduates at any stage in their
doctoral research, including those who will only embark on their PhD course
in 2014/2015. Submissions should include your name, affiliation and an
abstract of no more than 200 words that specifies the film from which your
abstract will be drawn. Please include three or four keywords below the
body of the abstract. Abstracts should be submitted by 16 June 2014 to
rachel.morley at ucl.ac.uk with the subject field ‘Paper abstract – [your
name]’.



The selection committee consists of the conference organizers: Susan
Larsen, Anna Toropova and Emma Widdis (Cambridge); Phil Cavendish and
Rachel Morley (UCL).



Please feel free to circulate this call as widely as possible, and please
encourage your postgraduate students who are working on film-related topics
to submit an abstract.



**************************************************************

A brief note about our honoree, for those of you who are unfamiliar with
the field of Russian cinema studies:



Julian Graffy, Emeritus Professor of Russian Literature and Cinema, was
appointed in 1976 to a lectureship in the School of Slavonic Studies,
University of London,where he taught until his retirement in December 2013.
He has published over 200 articles and reviews on Russian literature,
culture and film. His books include monographs on Gogol’s ‘Overcoat’, Abram
Room’s *Bed and Sofa* and the Vasil’ev Brothers’ C*hapaev*.  He was
recently the recipient of a Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust
for his current book project, *Through a Russian Prism: Representing
Foreigners in a Century of Russian Film*.

The extensive film library within SSEES  was recently named the Julian
Graffy Film Collection in honour of Julian's role in creating and
developing it over many years into one of the world's  largest collections
of films from and about Russia and Central and Eastern
Europe.  Contemporary Russian cinema has often been at the centre of his
research and teaching interests:  he has written memorably about Muratova,
Sokurov, Popogrebskii, Khlebnikov, Zviagintsev, Sigarev and  many other
contemporary filmmakers.  Julian helped raise the profile of Russian film
in Britain with the many articles he published between 1991 and 2009 in *Sight
and Sound*; he currently serves as Deputy Editor of *Kinokultura* and  *Studies
in Russsian and Soviet Cinema. *Julian is also a founding member and
principal convenor of the Russian Cinema Research Group, a forum that has
hosted 70 speakers, from the UK, Russia, the USA, Kazakhstan, France,
Germany, Spain and Australia since its first meeting in the fall
of  2002.  In 2008-2009 the Russian Cinema Research Group marked the
centenary of Russian feature film production by looking back over the first
100 years of Russian and Soviet cinema.

Julian Graffy's work on Russian cinema embraces both the cutting edge of
contemporary cinema and the ambitious retrospective glance. It seems
entirely appropriate, therefore, that Julian's friends and colleagues will
mark his retirement from teaching with a conference on the state of the art
of the field that he has done so much to establish and advance with his
dedicated teaching, consummate scholarship and intellectual generosity to
students and colleagues.



The members of the organising committee hope that those of you with an
interest in Russian film will try  to join us in Cambridge next September
for what we expect to be a warm and lively tribute to Julian, as well as a
stimulating exploration of the state of Russian cinema studies today.



Posted by Susan Larsen, for the organising committee

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