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Journal of e-Media Studies: The Relevance of the USIA/S Archives to the Field of Film and Media Studies

Due Date: 07-14-2019

The Journal of e-Media Studies invites papers concerning the motion picture activities of the United States Information Agency (USIA). In response to the increased availability of USIA materials in multiple archives in the United States and the emergence of pertinent international scholarship, this call for papers invites new work that broadly addresses the relevance of the USIA archives to the field of film and media studies.

Given the massive size, variety, and dispersiveness of the USIA and USIS materials, the archive warrants creative engagement from the digital humanities. Questions of access, organization, and annotation prove particularly salient when considering the USIA motion picture at scale. We intend for this special issue to help advocate for new collective efforts to aid in the recovery, discovery, collation, and analysis of USIA and USIS materials and promote further opportunities for inquiry among scholars who previously did not have access to the archives.

We suggest the following list of topics and welcome other approaches:

  • The infrastructure for establishing television and film labs in postcolonial nations
  • The influence of USIA initiatives and its satellite (contracted) institutions in the formation of national cinemas in postcolonial nations
  • The sponsorship and development of mobile screening and rural television production
  • The promotion of audiovisual literacy and screen culture among postcolonial nations
  • Narratives and theories of labor in USIA/S media production
  • The development of workshops for documentary filmmaking and newsreel production
  • Media governance, nation-building, and USIS operations
  • Production, distribution, and exhibition histories of USIA/S moving image divisions
  • Genre, form, and aesthetics of the USIA/S film output

A variety of submission types will be accepted. These include double-blind peer reviewed essays, works in progress that seek feedback (working papers), reviews of books and conferences, and works that reflect upon previously published case study manuscripts.

Please send abstract submissions (up to 300 words plus 3–5 bibliographic sources) to e-media.journal@dartmouth.edu between 16 June and 14 July 2019. Completed manuscripts (8,000–12,000 words) of accepted proposals will be due by 30 September 2019.