Call for papers

[Michael Craig]

Dear Eija,

A while back you mentioned that there is a 60-euro registration fee for
the Imaignary Japan conference.  Is it possible to pay this fee online
(there doesn't seem to be an option on the website, unless I'm missing
something obvious)?

Please let me know what I need to do to register.  Thank you very much.

-Michael Craig


> CALL FOR PAPERS
> Imaginary Japan:
> Japanese Fantasy in Contemporary Popular Culture
> Thursday 18, September – Saturday 20, September 2008
> At the University of Helsinki, Finland
>
> Gothic Lolitas, anime and J-pop mixes with Western mainstream popular
> culture, as Japanese horror films are remade in Hollywood, Finnish
> kiosks sell manga, and Japanese pop music attracts unforeseen
> audiences. Cuteness and monsters, stories and humours, sexuality and
> violence in Japanese fantasy appeal widely in Western cultures.
> Mutually, the Western styles fascinate in Japan. Styles and imageries
> circulate between "Japan" and "West", appearing to each other as both
> familiar and fascinatingly strange at the same time.
>
> The Finnish Society for Cinema Studies (SETS) invites presentations
> which explore the popular images of Japan in intercultural and
> multidisciplinary context, concentrating on the theme of intercultural
> encounters. The conference will bring together Japanese and Western
> views on contemporary Japanese audiovisual and popular culture. The
> conference will offer a multidisciplinary platform for scholars of a
> wide range of relevant fields of studies in popular culture, film and
> media, and is open to presentations from the entire spectrum of
> popular culture: film, television, music, new media; photography and
> other visual arts; sound, games, fashion and design.
>
> Confirmed Keynote Speakers
>
> Machiko Kusahara, Waseda University / University of California
> Alezander Zahlten, Universität Mainz / Nippon Connection Film Festival
>
> We invite papers on intercultural encounters in all areas of popular
> culture covering cultural, economical, political and social issues.
> The themes of the seminar are:
> ∑ Globalization of Japanese popular culture
> ∑ Cultural interchange between Japan and West
> ∑ Fascination and seduction, otherness and cultural anxieties of
> Japanese popular culture
> ∑ Different genres, styles and concepts in Japanese popular culture
> (such as anime, manga, kawaii, pinku eiga, j-horror, otaku)
> ∑ Western and Finnish Fan experience
> ∑ Japanese cinema and media culture
> ∑ Aspects of production, artists and filmmakers
> ∑ Marketing processes of contemporary Japanese media culture
> ∑ Contemporary society, gender and ethnicity in Japanese popular
> culture.
>
> Proposals including an abstract (max. 250 words) and a short CV should
> be submitted to Conference Secretary Varpu Rantala by email:
> varpu.rantala at helsinki.fi by April 30, 2008 at latest. Notification of
> acceptance will be sent by May 23, 2008. The conference fee is 60
> Euros (30 Euros concessions). The refereed seminar proceedings will be
> published in IIPC Publication Series.
>
> Organizers: Finnish Society for Film Studies in co-operation with
> Helsinki International Film festival, National Audiovisual Archive
> (Finland), International Institute for Popular Culture (IIPC) and
> several Finnish University departments: Cinema and Television Studies
> (University of Helsinki), Asia-Pacific Studies (University of
> Helsinki), Media Studies (University of Turku), Centre for East-Asian
> Studies (University of Turku), Department of Journalism and Mass
> Communication (University of Tampere) and Elomedia (University of Art
> and Design).
> Conference pages at http://sets.wordpress.com/
>