creat-jp-screen-symposium@univ-lorraine.fr
The Research Center on Expertises, Arts and Transitions (CREAT) and the University of Lorraine, with the support of the Université de Genève, the Lyon Institute of East Asian Studies (IAO) and the Laboratory for Aesthetics, Science and Technologies of Cinema and TV (ESTCA), will hold an international symposium in Metz on 4–5 March 2027 in Japanese Studies, Film Studies and Humanities entitled “Film, Screens and Media in Japan: Negotiating Legitimacies and Legacies”.
The symposium invites contributions around four main themes :
I – Genre, Formats, and Filmic objects
Here, we invite contributors to discuss the boundaries of what constitutes a research object when studying film, be it from a material or aesthetic standpoint, especially in Japan. To what extent do Japanese filmic forms challenge classifications and methods ?
- Relationship between film and other media
- Dominant and alternative formats
- Seriality, franchises and multiple instances
- Adaptations, re-use and (self)-remakes
- Formation and historical evolution of genres and industrial categories
- Historical evolution and transformations of categories or formats
- Definition criteria of film in industrial fields, heritage practice and aesthetic practice
- Platforms, video and new industry actors
- Characters, actors, idols, stars
- Amateur and commercial works
II – Cultural practice, consumption practice and film practice
Practices of film production and consumption in Japan seem to be more readily determined by industrial dynamics and consumption practices. To what extent do these practices, be it of production or of consumption, determine the legitimation of filmic objects in Japan as a whole ?
- Professional trajectories across artistic practices and media
- Media industries, the studio system and production structures
- Interaction and influences within and across media (film, literature, music…)
- Industrial groups and their action on shaping the industry
- Mainstream and alternative practices of consuming and producing media
- Constitution and evolution of audiences
- (Self) definition of audiences: age, gender, class, geography, interests
- Popular culture, consumer culture, transmedia culture
- Transformative cultures and fandoms
- Transnational flows and exchanges
- Objects and mechanisms of consumption : narrativity, seriality, database, character vs. world
III – Discourses, Institutions, Policies
Here, contributors are invited to discuss the contexts, structures, and terminologies of critical, institutional and political discourses legitimating filmic objects in Japan. What groups, what interests, and what strategies are employed in these discourses, whether central or peripheral ?
- National and international festivals
- Discourses around “Japan” and “Japanese cinema”
- Contexts and practices of commercial and non-commercial film criticism
- Translation, adaptation, localization
- Terminology, technical lexicon and their evolution
- Legitimation through cultural institutions, inside and outside Japan
- Transnational approaches, cultural collaboration, and soft-power
- Definition, objectives and motivations of film policy
- Education and propaganda through films and other media
- Auteur and auteurism
- Authorship, copyright and their understanding
- Heritage policies
IV – Methods, Theories, Sources
In this section, we welcome discussions on methodological issues (including those related to fieldwork) and multidisciplinary approaches. To what extent does the context of films in Japan invite questions about existing approaches and theories of film and media ?
- Academically ‘legitimate’ practices and their strategies of legitimation
- Established approaches and innovative approaches
- Soft power, national culture and (self-)orientalism
- Positionality and research ethics
- Area studies, language and social barriers
- Access to fieldwork, documents and archives, public or private
- Research programs, cultural institutions, state incentives
- Archives, intermediate objects, selecting objects of study
- Non institutional documentation : oral history, community resources
- Constituting and aggregating sources : film credits, databases, etc.
- Historiography and periodization
- Transmission, exhibition and trade in of objects of knowledge
- Loss, destruction, alteration or rediscovery of sources and objects
- Digital Humanities and online resources
- Genre analysis as method: categorising criteria and their limits
———— CfP-Long-Version for a deeper framing
Organizing Board:
- Sonia CUTULI, PhD Student, University of Geneva
- Niels DASQUE, PhD Student, ESTCA, University of Paris 8
- Emmanuel DAYRE, PhD Student, ENS Lyon
- Mathieu MALLARD, PhD Student, CREAT, University of Lorraine
- Lucie RYDZEK, PhD Student, , CREAT, University of Lorraine
- Matteo WATZKY, PhD Student, CREAT, University of Lorraine
Advisory Board:
- Julien BOUVARD, Associate Pr., Institut d’Etudes Transtextuelles (IETT), University of Lyon 3
- Mathieu CAPEL, Pr., Department of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, University of Tokyo
- Rayna DENISON, Pr., Department of Film and Television, University of Bristol
- Elise DOMENACH, Pr., Institut Asie Orientale (IAO), ENS Louis Lumière
- Hideaki FUJIKI, Pr., Center for Transregional Culture and Society, Nagoya University
- Iris HAUKAMP, Associate Professor, Center for Integrated Japanese Studies (CIJS), Tōhoku University
- Fabrice MONTEBELLO, Pr., Centre de Recherches Expertises, Arts, Transitions (CREAT), University of Lorraine
- Marie PRUVOST-DELASPRE, Associate Pr., Esthétique, Sciences et Technologies du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel (ESTCA), University of Paris 8
- Takuya TSUNODA, Associate Pr., Department of East Asian Language and Culture, University of Columbia
- Raphaëlle YOKOTA, PhD., Institut Français de Recherche sur l’Asie de l’Est (IFRAE) and IAO
Submission guidelines:
Individual paper proposals in English are to be sent to creat-jp-screen-symposium@univ-lorraine.fr. They must comprise:
- Family name, first name, affiliation if applicable (submissions are also open to independent researchers), email address
- Title
- Abstract (up to 3000 characters including spaces)
- Bio-bibliography (up to 500 characters including spaces)
Presenters will have 20 minutes to present their paper in English, followed by 10 minutes of questions.
The symposium will be hosted by the Research Center on Expertises, Arts and Transitions (CREAT) at the University of Lorraine in Metz. A limited number of online presentations may be possible for presenters travelling from outside Europe. The symposium may lead to the publication of an edited volume.
We will cover hotel accommodation for all in-person presenters. We have a limited budget for travel support, prioritised for PhD students and early-career researchers without institutional travel funding, followed by presenters travelling within Europe with limited institutional support. Travel from outside Europe cannot be covered, but we are happy to provide formal invitation letters to support funding applications at presenters’ home institutions. Please indicate in your application if you wish to be considered for travel support, with a brief note on your funding situation.
Calendar:
- Submission deadline: 30 September 2026 (23:59, UTC+1)
- Notification of acceptance: by the end of November 2026
- Symposium dates: 4 & 5 March 2027*
