The Centre for Communication, Politics and Culture at RMIT University, with the support of ASPERA (the Australian Screen Production Education & Research Association), is pleased to announce the second Sightlines festival to be held on 28 & 29 November 2016. This event is part film festival and part conference.  It has two main purposes: to showcase the full range of filmmaking that occurs in the university sector; and to contribute to the development of screen production as an academic research discipline. These two intentions inform how the event is structured, with the focus on screenings and conversations with academic/practitioners.

The inaugural Sightlines in 2014 demonstrated the clear need for an event that highlighted the quality and diversity of creative screen-based works produced in the higher education sector.  In
2014, the focus was on showcasing work suitable for cinema exhibition and included documentaries, dramas, essay and experimental films, both short and feature length.  In 2016 we would like to expand this scope to also include work by those exploring other screen-based practices, such as online, interactive and non-linear productions.  People doing research in screenwriting are also welcome to submit proposals.

Lightlines 2014 started many conversations.  One of these was around the peer-review and publication of screen works and we have followed that up through the establishment of the online, peer-reviewed Sightlines Journal <http://aspera.org.au/research/sightlines-2/journal/> for moving image works.  We will be seeking moving image works for peer-reviewed publication in this journal following the 2016 festival.

This event is designed to showcase films, screenplays and other creative screen-based works made in the context of academic research and explore their significance, through screenings, panels, presentations, roundtable discussions and keynote addresses.

Possible topics include: 

• How is film and filmmaking in the academy evolving?
• What new forms of screen production are emerging and in what ways is creative practice research engaging with them?
• How can screen production be developed as an academic research discipline?
• On what basis should the peer review of screen production research be conducted?
• How can creative practice research in screen production be funded or otherwise supported?
• How should the relationship between screen production in the academy and the broader screen production industries be understood and how can it be usefully developed?

We are calling for papers, panels and presentations that respond to these and other relevant questions.  Most importantly, we are calling for films and other screen works.  Any production made since 2013 as postgraduate research or by an academic staff member is eligible.

Submission guidelines:
Films: Please submit a preview copy via online link with a 300 word research statement that covers research background, contribution and significance.
Papers: Please submit a 300 word abstract outlining your proposed paper, panel or presentation, including name, title and affiliation of each author.
Email: leo.berkeley@rmit.edu.au

Deadline: Abstracts and previews of films to be submitted by April 30, 2016.

Call for Papers for the 1st International Conference on Contemporary and Historical Approaches to Emotions, to be held in Sydney, at the University of Wollongong (UOW) CBD Campus, Circular Quay, on December 5-6, 2016.

https://www.uowblogs.com/cern/2016/03/02/call-for-papers-1st-international-conference-on-contemporary-and-historical-approaches-to-emotions/

This event is co-sponsored by the UOW Contemporary Emotions Research Network (CERN), the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (CHE), and The Australian Sociological Association Sociology of Emotions and Affect Thematic Group (TASA SEA). Please note that 500-word panel proposals and/or 200 word abstracts for individual papers should be submitted to cern-uow@uow.edu.au by Friday 1 July 2016.

The 21^st Symposium of Australian Gastronomy will be celebrated in Melbourne, Australia, from Friday 2 to Tuesday 6 December 2016.  At this coming-of-age gathering of gastronomic scholars, writers and practitioners, we are looking with hope towards bright food futures with our guiding theme of ‘Utopian Appetites’.
The year 2016 also marks five centuries since the publication of Thomas More’s Utopia (1516). With its founding principles of desire, order, justice and hope, utopia represents a framework to think about gastronomy as both an imaginary ideal and a realisable goal for the future. The utopian theme encourages us to envisage the gastronomic project of eating well, bridging disciplinary boundaries, encompassing different spaces, practices, cultures and times.
Confirmed participants include:

• Darra Goldstein—founding editor of Gastronomica
• Robert Appelbaum—Uppsala University, Sweden
• Barbara Santich—food writer and emeritus professor, University of Adelaide
• David Szanto—Eco-Gastronomy Project at University of Gastronomic Sciences
• Stephanie Alexander—cook, food writer, and founder of the Kitchen Garden Foundation
• Josh Evans—Lead Researcher, Nordic Food Lab
• Annie Smithers—food writer and chef
• Jane Levi—Kings College London and Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery

We welcome submissions for original papers that explore real and ideal contexts of eating well – considered from historical, cultural, aesthetic, political, ideological, social, nutritional, environmental, religious, agricultural, philosophical, or any other perspectives. Australian gastronomy will be a feature of the programme but papers with an international focus are equally welcomed.
Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Gastronomy and the politics of hope
• Ecological utopias of past, present and future
• Utopian culinary histories
• Cockaigne, Lubberland, and realms of plenty
• Utopian desires and dreaming
• Food and farming in utopian and dystopian literature
• Terroir and utopia in wine production and consumption
• Utopian nature-cultures
• Food gardens, pleasures and paradise
• Governance, democracy and utopia
• Food sovereignty, social experimentation and revolutionary hopes for change
• Posthuman or postcolonial food imaginaries
• Intentional food communities and new modes for living well
• City and country connections and interdependency
• Outrageous, improbable and impossible food futures

We invite proposals from academics and independent scholars, artists and activists, cooks and chefs, journalists and writers, food producers and artisans in the form of panel discussions, presentations, literary reflections, manifestos, performances and interactive experiments relating to utopia and gastronomy. Please send enquiries and proposals 350 words or less along with a 100-word biography of the presenter/s before 15 May 2016 to the symposium committee:

Kelly Donati (William Angliss Institute) – kellyd@angliss.edu.au
Jacqueline Dutton (University of Melbourne) – jld@unimelb.edu.au

Notification of paper acceptance will be sent on or before 30 June 2016.
The Symposium will take place at William Angliss Institute and the University of Melbourne with a daytrip by bus to Central Victoria. The cost is $575 per person ($400 for students). This covers all food, wine and excursion costs. Travel to Melbourne and accommodation is not included.  The conference will run from Friday evening to Monday evening which will conclude with the banquet dinner. Tuesday morning will be dedicated to discussing the theme and location for the next Symposium.
In keeping with the tradition of the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, please come with a spirit of participation, indulgence and hope.
To stay up to date on new information and Frequently Asked Questions about the Symposium, please see the website: www.gastronomers.net and join our Facebook group Symposium of Australian Gastronomy https://www.facebook.com/groups/1653092668277952/