CFP Anxiety of Arrival: Travel, Displacement, and Disillusionment in A24 Cinema (Panel) (Virtual) (9/30/2025; NeMLA)

The Anxiety of Arrival: Travel, Displacement, and Disillusionment in A24 Cinema (Panel)

Submit proposals to https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21793

Primary Area / Secondary Area
Cultural Studies and Media Studies

Modality
Virtual Only: All presentations will be delivered via Zoom regardless of whether the presenters are in-person.

Chair(s)
Erica Dymond (East Stroudsburg University)

Abstract

In A24’s diverse filmography, travel is rarely about leisure. Whether it’s a pilgrimage to a Swedish commune, a spring break turned descent into nihilism, or a desperate cross-country hustle for survival, movement across space often signals a deeper unraveling of self. This panel invites papers that examine the recurring theme of travel and destination in A24 films — both literal and psychological — and how journeys function as catalysts for crisis, transformation, or dissolution.

We welcome submissions that explore topics including (but not limited to):

• The tourist as interloper: ethnographic violence in Midsommar, The Farewell, or A Prayer Before Dawn
• Bodies out of place: the discomfort of gender, race, class, or cultural identity in transit (Zola, American Honey, The Green Knight)
• Internal journeys via external landscapes: psychic displacement in Beau Is Afraid, The Lighthouse, Enemy
• Travel as performance: aspirational identity and American mythos in Lady Bird, Spring Breakers, or The Bling Ring
• Liminal space horror: encountering the uncanny “elsewhere” (Men, Under the Skin, The Hole in the Ground)

A24’s travel narratives reveal an undercurrent of anxiety about crossing borders — geographic, personal, or moral. This panel seeks to unpack the aesthetic, thematic, and philosophical stakes of these journeys. How do these films reflect contemporary anxieties around mobility, belonging, and spectacle? Where do we go when we leave home — and can we ever come back?

Description
This panel explores how travel and destination in A24 films—whether across physical landscapes or inner terrain—serve as catalysts for crisis, transformation, and identity unraveling, revealing deep anxieties around movement, belonging, and the boundaries of the self.


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Sponsored Sessions on Animation (and More) for NeMLA 2025

Cross-posted from the Mass Mediævalisms blog:

We are organizing the following sessions for the 56th Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association to be held in Philadelphia, 6-9 March. The full schedule is available online and registration is required to attend. 

Thursday, Mar 6 - Track 4 (02:15-04:15 PM)

4.12 Saving the Day for Medieval Studies: Using Comics for Teaching the Middle Ages (Roundtable)
Chair: Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College
Chair: Karen Casebier, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
Location: 402 (Media Equipped)
Pedagogy & Professional & Cultural Studies and Media Studies

"The Medieval Comics Project: Ongoing Efforts to Expand the Field of Medieval Comics Scholarship" Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College

"From Borders to Panels: Integrating Comic Books into Medieval Studies Pedagogy" Rachael Warmington, Seton Hall University

"Reshaping Literary Canon: Graphic Novels as the Future of Classics" Derek Castle, University of New Hampshire

"Marvel 1602 and its Connection to the Scientific Enlightenment" Madison Cothern, University of Memphis

Sunday, Mar 9 - Track 22 (08:15-10:15 AM)

22.20 (Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media (Seminar)
Chair: Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College
Chair: Karen Casebier, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
Location: 410 (Media Equipped)
Cultural Studies and Media Studies & Interdisciplinary Humanities

"Animating Marie de France : Emile Mercier’s Bisclavret (2011)" Karen Casebier, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga

"Possibilities and Pitfalls in Arthurian Animation: An Exploration of the Darkstalkers Series (1995)" Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College

"The Black Knight: Women “Passing” as Knights in Children’s Entertainment" Megan Arnott, Lakehead University

"Cartoon Saloon's Wild Women: Monstrous Genders in Irish Animated Medievalism" Colin Wheeler, Kennesaw State University

"A Modern Look at Late Medieval Religion and Literacy in Obsidian Entertainment’s Pentiment" Olivia Mathers, Lehigh University

"Heresy and Crusades: How Modern Fascists Appropriated the Medieval Aesthetics of Warhammer 40k" William Weiss, Independent Scholar

CFP Early Modern England on Film: Appropriation, Adaptation, and Translation (9/30/2023; NeMLA 2024)

Early Modern England on Film: Appropriation, Adaptation, and Translation

deadline for submissions:
September 30, 2023

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/07/31/early-modern-england-on-film-appropriation-adaptation-and-translation.

full name / name of organization:
Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

contact email:
jennifer.topale@du.edu



In the field of Shakespearean studies, attempts to make Shakespeare more accessible to new audiences often include the work of appropriation, adaptation, and translation. In her essay “Beyond Shakespeare: Early Modern Adaptation Studies and Its Potential” Jennifer Clement reminds us that “[s]cholars looking to study Shakespeare on film can not only count a lifetime supply of material, but associate themselves with Shakespeare’s canonical credibility and film’s mass market appeal.” While there have been countless examples of Shakespeare’s plays being adapted on film for a contemporary audience across different cinema genres (musicals, children’s animation, sci-fi, and Indian cinema), not all of these films have received the same level of research interest by literary scholars. Additionally, many other early modern figures and texts have also been appropriated, adapted, or translated for film and television, but conversation is often limited to the world of cinema studies. Lastly, many early modern figures and texts that have not been appropriated, adapted, or translated should be considered for future productions, and scholarly interest and research on this topic can further encourage the creation and development of these possible film representations.

This panel seeks to further examine appropriation, adaptation, and translations on film of early modern figures and texts, including non-traditional adaptations that do not maintain persistent fidelity to the original. Of particular interest are: (1) Shakespearean representations in Indian or other non-Hollywood cinema and/or non-traditional fidelity to his plays; (2) under-represented historical figures, including early modern women beyond Anne Boleyn; and (3) non-Shakespearean texts, including the works of Shakespeare’s contemporaries, as well as later early modern authors, such as John Milton and Margaret Cavendish. Abstracts should consider this year’s convention keyword “SURPLUS,” as well as differences in the terms: appropriation, adaptation, and translation. Additionally, while concepts and theories in film-studies may influence some of your analysis, proposals that primarily situate research from within a literary perspective, as opposed to a film-studies frame of reference, are highly encouraged.

Abstracts are due by 30 September 2023. To submit an abstract, please log into the NeMLA Online Submission System at: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/Login

Abstracts must include:

• Title (80 characters or less)
• Abstract (200 to 300 words)
• Brief Bio
• Media Needs (project/screen/laptop)

Please direct all questions to Jennifer Topale at Jennifer.topale@du.edu.

Further details and information about this particular session can be found at the official CFP page for the session: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/20549.



Last updated August 4, 2023