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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.

We invite applicants who are interested in presenting scholarly work they have done in and around Film and Media Studies. 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. We encourage submissions about any form of media (film, television, radio, video games, podcasts, Internet media, etc.) and welcome many approaches (textual analysis, historical studies, explorations of archiving and curating, critical interventions presented in a creative format such as a video essay or digital platform, etc.). Please note, however, that this is not a venue for showing student films (consider submitting to the 5C Student Film Festival instead).

To Submit an Application:

By Friday, January 5, please . The form will ask you to provide:

• 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 jmalkows@smith.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 Saturday, January 13. Email Jen Malkowski (jmalkows@smith.edu) or Hannah Goodwin (hgoodwin@mtholyoke.edu) with questions.