5C Film & Media Studies Undergraduate Conference

The 5C Film and Media Studies Undergraduate Conference is designed to build community among students studying film and media on each of the five campuses, to give our most engaged students an opportunity to hone their presentation skills, and to allow them to share insights from their work with a wider audience. Participants will each give a 15-minute presentation as part of a panel with 2-3 fellow students working on related themes (the organizers will assemble these panels). Each panel will include time for questions and discussion. This is a standard format for academic conferences in the humanities and social sciences, so the experience will offer an additional benefit for participants who are considering graduate school. Although we are using a formal structure, the conference will be 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—even one that will still be in progress at the time of the conference. Submissions may be on any form of media (film, television, radio, video games, podcasts, Internet media, etc.) and may utilize a variety of 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).

2023 Event Details

Conference
  • A one-day in-person conference to be held on Saturday February 18, 2023 at UMass-Amherst (Integrative Learning Center 350)
  • Organized by Eva Rueschmann (Cultural and Film Studies, Hampshire) and Barry Spence (Film Studies and Comparative Literature, UMass) for the Five College Film Council
To Submit an Application

By Thursday, January 5, please email a PDF or .docx file of the following to Eva Rueschmann at erueschmann@hampshire.edu with the subject line “5C Conference Submission”:

  • Your name, school, year, major, and email address
  • An abstract of 250-300 words
    • Your abstract should deliver a succinct, well-written, and self-contained preview of the work you’ll be presenting. Strong abstracts describe what text(s) the presentation will be about, but spend more time on the presenter’s analysis of the text(s) and feature a clear argument. Be sure to include a descriptive title at the top. Email erueschmann@hampshire.edu if you’d like to see a sample abstract.
  • A brief bio of 100-150 words
    • This is a professional, rather than personal, bio. In it you may describe your interest in Film and Media Studies, topics in the discipline that you find most compelling, anything notable you’ve worked on, and/or your career ambitions after graduation.

Applicants will be notified of acceptance decisions by Tuesday, January 17. Email Eva Rueschmann (erueschmann@hampshire.edu) or Barry Spence (bspence@umass.edu) with questions.

 
Sample Program (2021)

Welcome: 10-10:15am

Crises in Patriarchy: 10:15-11:00am
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 21st 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