CONSIDERING VIETNAM: Call for Papers

CONSIDERING VIETNAM: Call for Papers
17th-18th February 2012
Imperial War Museum, London

The Vietnam War is evolving from contemporary memory into history. Fifty years on, it still serves as a benchmark in the history of war reporting and in the representation of conflict in popular culture and historical memory. This conference seeks to explore the legacy of the US involvement in South East Asia and the resonances it still has for the coverage of contemporary warfare. In particular, the conference will reassess the role of the media in covering the war and the implications this has had for the coverage of subsequent conflicts, the impact of the war on popular culture, the ways that wars and their aftermaths are experienced on the ‘home front,’ and issues around memorialisation and memory, particularly in museum culture. The conference will bring together practitioners, academics and curators in an interdisciplinary engagement with this complex but important issue.

With Don McCullin, Phillip Knightly, Michael Nicholson and other guest speakers.

This conference is organised by the Imperial War Museum and the University of the Arts Photography and the Archive Research Centre (PARC) in support of IWM's major exhibition SHAPED BY WAR: PHOTOGRAPHS BY DON McCULLIN.

We welcome proposals for 20 minute papers discussing the representation of the Vietnam War across the following areas:

Photography
Film & television
Written journalism
‘Mythologizing’ the Vietnam War in cultural memory

Please send a 250 word abstract and one-page c.v. to Dr. Jennifer Pollard at considering.vietnam@arts.ac.uk by 23 October 2011.

A special issue of the journal Photography and Culture is planned in response to the conference, including selected papers from the event.

Dr. Jennifer Pollard
Senior Lecturer, History & Theory of Photojournalism & Documentary Photography
London College of Communication, University of the Arts London

Brigitte Lardinois
Deputy Director
Photography & the Archive Research Centre
London College of Communication, University of the Arts London