Call for Papers

Television for Women: An International Conference

Where: University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
When: 15th-17th May 2013
Keynote Speakers: Charlotte Brunsdon, Christine Geraghty, Kathleen Karlyn and Lynn Spigel

At the culmination of the AHRC-funded project, A History of Television for Women in Britain, 1947-89, the project team (Dr. Mary Irwin, Dr. Rachel Moseley and Dr. Helen Wheatley (Warwick), and Hazel Collie and Dr. Helen Wood (De Montfort)) are organising a three day conference which seeks to open up and internationalise debate about the past, present and future of television programming for women. Whilst television has traditionally been identified as a 'feminised' medium, because it is apparently 'domestic, passive and generally oriented to consumption, rather than production' (D'Acci, 2004), there are still significant gaps in our knowledge of the relationship between television and women. We are therefore interested in hearing from scholars about television programming made for and watched by women viewers throughout the history of broadcasting and in the contemporary period, and would welcome both other researchers writing about the UK and those offering comparative work overseas. Whilst our project has worked to fill in some of the some of the gaps in the history of women’s television, outlining significant moments in our research period, specific programme types, genres and scheduling slots which have become significantly marked as feminine, we know that there are many more gaps to fill, and hope that this conference will be a further step towards this.

Potential topics:

• Rethinking broadcasting histories: where have women’s programmes and viewing practices been left out?
• National histories of programming for women. Is ‘TV for Women’ a global phenomenon?
• Female audiences: speaking to them, mapping their tastes and interests.
• Institutional/production perspectives on addressing the female viewer: how have broadcasters envisaged ‘what women want’?
• Questions of gender and genre.
• Representation of women and women’s concerns and cultural competences on television (as addressed to the female viewer).
• Feminist (and post-feminist) address and representation on television.
• Significant programme makers/teams/production companies in the production of television for women: is TV for women TV by women?
• Channels for women in the multichannel age: Lifestyle, Living, etc.
• Archiving issues that relate to women’s TV culture.
• Analyses of magazines and TV ephemera (listings guides, women’s magazines, promotional materials, etc.) and their address to the female viewer.
• Other media, other screens: histories of women’s radio, the female viewer and social media, women viewers on multimedia viewing platforms, which consider their connection to television etc.
• Understanding female TV fandom.
• The question of generation: how do women remember and relate to television differently at different life stages.

Abstracts of c.250 should be sent toHelen.Wheatley@warwick.ac.uk  by 12th October 2012. Pre-constituted panels of three speakers may also be submitted, and should include a brief panel rationale statement, as well as individual abstracts.