5C Film & Media Studies Undergraduate Conference

The 5C Film and Media Studies Undergraduate Conference is an annual event designed to build community among students studying film and media on each of the campuses within the Five Colleges. The conference provides our most engaged students with an opportunity to hone their presentation skills, and to share insights from their work with a wider audience. Participants each give a brief (10-15 minute) presentation as part of a panel with 2-3 fellow students working on related themes (the conference organizers assemble these panels). Each panel includes time for questions and discussion. This is a standard format for academic conferences in the humanities and social sciences, so the experience offers an additional benefit for participants who are considering graduate school. Although the conference uses a formal structure, it is focused on providing a friendly, supportive atmosphere for sharing ideas and meeting colleagues across the Five Colleges.

Participants present scholarly work they have done in and around Film and Media Studies over the course of their undergraduate career. This material might come from a final paper in a class, an independent study, or a senior thesis. Submissions may be on any form of media (film, television, radio, video games, podcasts, Internet media, etc.) and may utilize variety of critical approaches (textual analysis, historical studies, explorations of archiving and curating, critical interventions presented in a creative format such as a videographic essay or digital platform, etc.).

Please note, however, that this is not a venue for showing student films and other forms of media production (consider submitting to the 5C Student Film and Video Festival instead).

 

Patriarchal Authoritarianism in Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto
Greis Kasofo, UMass, Linguistics ‘23

The Female Face of Crisis: Seductive Women and Endangered Masculinity in Weimar Germany
Carol Song (she/her), Mount Holyoke College ‘21, Film Studies

Hitchcock (Re)considered: 11-11:45am
Musical Plot Development in Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960)
Hayley Fleming, Amherst College ’21, Music/Political Science

Vertigo as (Unintentional) Feminist Film
Aoife McGuire (she/her), Amherst College ‘24

Lunch break: 12-1pm (Zoom room will be left open for socializing)

Questions in 21^st century media: 1-2pm
These Faces Do Not Exist
Shira Zaid (she/they), Smith College ‘23, Film & Media Studies/Art History

The Art of Looking
Diego Duckenfield-Lopez (he/him), Amherst College ‘24, Black Studies/Film & Media Studies

Archie​ Eats ​Twin Peaks ​(1990): Quality Television’s Gender Paradigm, Genre Theory, and Intertextual Relevance in ​Riverdale​ (2017-)
Clare O’Gara (she/her), Smith College ‘22, Film & Media Studies

Feminist Interventions: 2-2:45pm
Four Women: Looking through U.S. Black female subjectivity in film and media
Cate Boram (she/her), Smith College, AC, Film & Media Studies

Nostalgia for a Place That Doesn’t Exist: Archival Imagination in Lesbian Film
Erin Walsh (she/her), Smith College, ‘22J. American Studies

Challenges to Convention in horror/slasher film and video games: 2:45-3:30pm
‘This Is Not A Man’: Masculine Identity and Male Anxiety in the Slasher Film
Jordan Foley (they/them), Hampshire College, ‘21

Filmic and Ludic Conventions and the Purpose of the Film-Based Horror Game
Margaret Welsh (she/her), Smith College ’21, Film & Media Studies/Psychology

Wrap up: concluding at 4pm