fbpx

Hawai‘i International Conference on Film, Literature & Culture

Call for proposals

Proposal Submissions

University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa • Department of Languages & Literatures of Europe & the Americas • School of Cinematic Arts

CONFERENCE DATES

April 15-17, 2025

THEME

(Dis) Connections: The Heroic via Word, Image & Practice

Submission deadline

January 22, 2025

  1. Narrating and Portraying the Hero
    • Storytelling as a tool for heroic memory in film, literature, and cultural practices
    • Film biographies and personal memories
    • Classical heroes in modern narratives: journeys across space and time
    • The anti-hero’s journey: globalization in peripheral cinemas
    • National heroes: considerations of gender, ethnicity, and age
  2. Interpreting and Adapting the Heroic
    • Translating heroic speech: dialogues, personality, and construction of heroic characters
    • Literary, cinematic, and cultural translations as a form of retelling
    • Adaptations: culture and history in the interpretation of heroic stories
    • Interdisciplinary perspectives on heroism: sociology and psychology of heroic behavior
    • Philosophy of heroism in cinema
  3. The Audiovisual Production of the Heroic
    • Genres, heroic narratives, and the market
    • Co-productions: complementary and antagonistic practices
    • Integrating Indigenous practices and voices
    • Music and sound
    • Cinematography

      The conference will be held in a hybrid format, with both in-person and online participation. You may submit as a panel or an individual participant. Individual presentations will be limited to 20 minutes. The deadline for submitting proposal abstracts is January 22, 2025. Submit here. Notification of acceptance will be given starting January 30, 2025.

CONFERENCE FORMAT

Hybrid, in-person and online
Individual paper (20 minutes) Panel (75 minutes)

Contributions
In addition to the presentation at the Conference, participants may participate in the call for papers for the 18th issue (December 2025) of Humanidades, a peer-reviewed journal of the University of Montevideo. The monograph will be dedicated to Antiheroes. New narratives for postheroic times. The deadline for article submissions will be May 15, 2025. Submissions should be sent to revistahumanidades@um.edu.uy

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

January 22, 2025

NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE

Starting January 30, 2025

REGISTRATION FEES 
In-person
$200 early bird (by March 1, 2025)
$250 standard (after March 1, 2025)

*Registration includes dinner, two lunches, and coffee service during the conference.

Online
$100 early bird (by March 1, 2025)
$125 standard (after March 1, 2025)

CONFERENCE CHAIRS

Lucía Aranda (Spanish & Translation Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)
Joy Logan (Spanish & Latin American Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)
Ruth Gutiérrez Delgado (Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, UHM – Universidad de Navarra)
Christine Acham (Chair, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)

CONFERENCE BOARD

Benito Quintana (Spanish & Latin American Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)
Anastasia Kostetskaya (Russian Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)
Louis Bousquet (French Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)
Gemma Cubero del Barrio (Documentarian – UHM)
Juan Carlos Carrillo Cal y Mayor (Film Studies, Universidad Panamericana)
Isabella Leibrandt (German Studies, Universidad de Navarra)
Marta Frago (Adaptation Studies, Universidad de Navarra)
Jerónimo León Rivera Betancur (Film and Production Studies, Universidad de la Sabana)
Pablo Úrbez (History and Film Studies, Universidad Villanueva)
Pablo Quiñonero (Music & Film Studies, Universidad de Los Andes)
Gema Pérez (History and Film Studies, Ed. Fila 7, Universidad de Valladolid)
Ginés Marco (Philosophy and Film Studies, Universidad Católica de Valencia)
Pablo Alzola (Philosophy and Film Studies, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos)

The 1st edition of the Film, Literature & Culture Conference aims to foster dialogue between the disciplines of Film Studies, Literary Studies and Cultural Studies. The conference seeks to encourage conversations that enrich the debate on the representation of the heroic in contemporary society from a multidisciplinary perspective.

A number of scholars have begun to define the dismantling of heroism under the term “the post-heroic.” As sociologist Ulrich Bröckling theorizes: every period and society create their own heroes and heroines and devise distinct strategies to challenge, dismiss, or reinterpret their significance.  Others, such as experimental psychologist Philip Zimbardo and his team have created the Heroic Imagination Project (HIP), which studies the normalization of heroism in everyday life; i.e., that heroism is neither exclusive to exceptional or “charismatic” individuals, and can even be seen as something negative. Film, literature, traditional practices, as well as history, offer examples of both perspectives: showing how historical figures travel and heroic narratives are represented and change. In this sense, the 21st century has seen a proliferation of audiovisual productions depicting a broad spectrum of historical figures, from politics to music, and even science (e.g., Elvis & Nixon, Malcolm X, Napoleon, Oppenheimer).

Besides the long-standing adaptation of biographies, prestigious literary works, or remakes of novels, comics, and video games (e.g., The Count of Monte Cristo, Anne with an E, Borderland), there has been a turn towards revisiting recent historical events (e.g., Chernobyl, Homeland, The Improbable Assassin), trauma history (e.g., All Quiet on the Western Front, The Zone of Interest, Quo Vadis, Aida?, American Sniper, Green Zone), accidents, catastrophes, and real-life figures (e.g., Society of the Snow, The Impossible, Crash). 

These productions (films and fictional series) reveal the need to present new perspectives and approaches to express the heroic and the emergence of new cultural heroes. Similarly, new interpretations of the heroic mindset have promoted subversive readings of existing stereotypes. This involves the emergence of a neo-heroism, ranging from the figure of the antihero (e.g., Jimmy McNulty in The Wire or Walter White in Breaking Bad) to the psychopathic and/or sociopathic hero in crime fiction and fantasy genres (e.g., Dexter Morgan in Dexter, Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal, Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, or Sylar in Heroes). Within this spectrum, the traditional figures of superheroes remain relevant, even as they undergo transformations.