The 2010 Film & History conference will look at how love—as psychology,as dramatic principle, as historical agent, as cultural stage, as ethical standard—has been represented in film and television. How has the depiction oflove defined a society or a period? Which people—or institutions or ideas oranimals—have been promoted as subjects (or objects) of love, and which oneshave not? In what ways do we love or not love because of film and television? Howhas the screen represented the love of country, the love of one's neighbor, thelove of God, or the love of family? How has it represented the repudiation orreformulation of love, and what are the historical ramifications?

Questions about the nature of love define not just couples or parents and their children but whole communities and nations, shaping their religions, their economic policies, their media programming,their social values, their most powerful fears and ambitions. Love in each era definesthe struggles worth enduring and the stories worth telling, from Gone With the Wind and Casablanca to Hamlet and Cleopatra, fromThe Jazz Singer and The Sound of Music to The Graduate and Boogie Nights, from Mr. SmithGoes to Washington and The TenCommandments to Easy Rider and The Right Stuff, from The 400 Blows and Life Is Beautiful to Amelie andMuriel's Wedding. This conference will examine the aesthetic representations of love on screen and will assess their historical, cultural, and philosophical implications.

The Center for the Study of Film and History invites proposals from prospective chairpersons of topic areas (under which multiple panels will be organized). Chairs are encouraged either to propose their own areas or to propose versions of the areas suggested below.(Each area should be related directly to film and/or television.)

• Across the Tracks: Love and Class
• Addictions, Compulsions, Obsessions
• Affairs of Race
• Agape: Faith, God, Mission
• Animals of the Wild
• Beasts of Burden…and Breakfasts
• Broadway Motifs in Cinema
• Cartoons and Pornography
• Censorship and the Code
• Charismatic Leaders
• Citizen Love: Flag Wavers, Flag Burners
• Classic and Classical: The Romance Genre
• Cowboy and Cowgirl Love
• Families and Society
• Fetish and Function: The Love of Things
• Flings and Fantasies
• Fraternity and Sorority
• Freudian Readings and Approaches
• Hetero, Homo, Sapiens: Theories of Sexuality
• Jane Austen on Screen
• Laboratory Love: Documentary-StyleTreatments
• Love American Style
• Love and Community
• Love and Violence
• Love Gone Awry
• Lovers on the Side: Rogues and Tramps
• Lust in Space: Science Fiction and Romance
• Leitmotivs of Love: Music, Song, and Film
• Mon Amour: French Kisses and French Misses
• Office Romance
• Pets and Companion Animals
• Reality-TV Love: Bachelors and Bachelorettes
• Responsible Love: Marriage and Parenthood
• Romantic Comedies on Television
• Romantic Dramas on Television
• Separation, Divorce, Reconciliation
• Sex and Love in Asian Contexts
• Sex and Morality
• Soul and Self: Love and Identity
• Stereotypes: Old, Young, and Mid-LifeCrises
• Suicidal Lovers
• Teachers and Students
• Team Ethos: Buddy Films and Chick Flicks
• The First Romantics: Italy onScreen
• The Secret Agent: James Bond…or the Women
• The Weight of History: Body Image and Love
• Uniform Love: Military and Romance
• Vampire Love
• Women and Children First: Gender and Ethics

Send your proposals (200-400 words) to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by June 1, 2009 for early consideration. Proposals will continue to be accepted,but early entries will receive priority.