Letter from the President Dear Colleagues, Welcome to Seattle and the Seattle Sheraton Hotel for the 54th annual SCMS Conference. On behalf of the SCMS Board of Directors, the Home Office, the Sheraton Hotel, the Seattle Host Committee, and the consultants and volunteers who have helped to create this conference, let me say that we are delighted that you are here. We hope that the conference and city will lead to discoveries that are intellectually stimulating and socially rewarding and that will satisfy your inner urban explorer. The Host Committee, co-chaired by Jennifer Bean and Kaveh Askari, have worked hard to provide an imaginative and engaging experience for conference goers who are coming to Seattle for the first time as well as for those who might be seasoned veterans. Thank you Jennifer and Kaveh! In addition to the conference’s offerings of panels and workshops, there are a number of other events during the confer- ence that we hope you will be able to attend. The Awards Ceremony is one of the most significant means SCMS has of formally recognizing the accomplishments of our colleagues in research, teaching, and service in the field each year. This year, the ceremony will be held on Friday, March 21st from 4:15 – 5:30 PM. All members are welcome—please plan to be there to join in the celebration. While I cannot mention all of the award winners here, I am happy to announce that Richard Abel has won the Distinguished Career Achievement Award. Given his pioneering research and teaching in film history and on the early and silent cinemas of France and the US, it would be hard to overestimate the impact his impeccable work has had on the field. It is a privilege to present this prestigious award to him as a means of recognizing his career-long contribu- tion to the study of film history and historiography and to previously uncharted terrains of cinema’s earliest moments as an industry, an art, and a cultural phenomenon. It is also my pleasure to report that Timothy Corrigan will be honored with the Pedagogy Award for outstanding achievement in this area. This award recognizes the contributions he has made to pedagogy through his research, his status as an important teacher and mentor, and the books he has published that have influentially introduced students to multiple areas of film and media studies. In addition, in recognition of her extraordinary service to the field, nationally and internationally, I am delighted to announce that Patrice Petro has won this year’s Service Award. Among other achievements, she has demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to SCMS, serving as Treasurer, President-elect, President, and Past President from 2002–2013. During her tenure, she guided the organization in sig- nificant, innovative directions that remain in place as testimony to her legacy. Sincere congratulations to all eleven of our award winners this year. We look forward to celebrating your work at the ceremony. Thanks also to those who chaired and participated on the Awards committees—your professional acumen and the time you invested in making your determina- tions are greatly appreciated. The Conference Reception will be held immediately after the Awards Ceremony, from 5:30 – 7:30 PM. All SCMS members are welcome. Here, as the festivities continue over food and drink, you can meet old friends and colleagues while making new acquaintances. This year the membership elected a Treasurer and two new members of the Executive Board who will begin their tenure on July 1, 2014. Although election results were not yet known at press time for the conference program, I want to extend the Board’s thanks to the candidates who ran. The Society would come to a standstill without the willingness of our members to run for office. You have our deep appreciation for your enthusiasm about becoming more involved. As each new election 2 heralds, there are also Board members whose terms are ending. Heartfelt thanks to outgoing Treasurer Jim Castonguay who has done a magnificent job of shedding new light on the organization’s finances and making strategic decisions about our enterprises going forward. The Board won’t be the same without you. I also wish to thank outgoing Board mem- bers Pam Wojcik and Angelo Restivo for their avid participation in the organization, including their work as Board liaisons to various SCMS groups. Among other accomplishments, Pam was instrumental in getting our now annual undergradu- ate conference off the ground at Notre Dame years ago (the 2014 SCMS Undergraduate Conference will be held at the University of Oklahoma). A special shout-out to Angelo for serving as Program Chair for the SCMS Conference this year, a major position of leadership that he has occupied with grace and commitment. We will miss Jim, Pam, and Angelo on the Board and wish them all the best. We look forward to seeing them at future SCMS conferences. After serving for two years as President-elect, this is my first year as President. My experience on the Executive Board has shown me how extensively SCMS relies on the expertise and good will of a collective of hard-working people, from members who volunteer to be on standing and other committees to the Board and the staff. My gratitude goes to everyone who has actively served SCMS and its membership these past few years. On the current SCMS Board, special thanks goes to, along with colleagues mentioned above, Will Brooker (Cinema Journal editor), Steve Cohan (President-elect), Corey Creekmur (Secretary), Lindsay Giggey (Graduate Student Representative), Chris Holmlund (Past President), Sean Griffin, Kara Keeling, Neepa Majumdar, Vicki Sturtevant, and Haidee Wasson. I must add that there would be an SCMS apocalypse without the staff that serves on the Board and/or in the Home Office. Administrative Coordinator Jane Dye is a model of consummate professionalism, dedication, and collegiality. She is joined by others who likewise contribute enormously to SCMS’s well-being: Debbie Rush, Account and Budget Representative; Leslie LeMond, Conference Manager; Aviva Dove- Viebahn, Web Content Manager; Ron Evans, Program Assistant; and Bruce Brasell, Conference Program Coordinator. It’s my privilege to collaborate with these individuals. I invite all interested members to become more involved in the Society. Being involved provides a new perspective on our national organization, allowing a level of engagement that is professionally and personally enriching, while fostering opportunities for community building. Please contact us about volunteering for annual and standing committees. Also, please feel free to get in touch if you simply have questions about SCMS. We are happy to talk with you. In closing, I want to extend personal thanks to Chris Holmlund, now Past President, for her many accomplishments as President. She has left SCMS in such good working order that I have been able to assume the Presidency seamlessly. It’s great to be able to continue to work with you, Chris, over the next two years. To all attendees, enjoy the conference and the many panels, workshops, and events coming your way here in Seattle! Sincerely, Barbara Klinger President, SCMS 3 Letter from the Program Chair Dear Colleagues, On behalf of the Conference Program Committee, I would like to welcome you all to Seattle! Once again this year, we received record numbers of proposals in all categories (preconstituted panels, workshops, and open call papers), fully reflecting the vibrancy and breadth of scholarship in cinema and media studies today. Needless to say, the task of read- ing and evaluating this record number of proposals was daunting, and I want to thank all the members of the Program Committee—Steven Cohan, Kara Keeling, Sean Griffin, Haidee Wasson, Pamela Wojcik, Mark Shiel, Neepa Majumdar, Celestino Deleyto, Anu Koivunen, Nitin Govil, James Tweedie, Nick Davis, Victoria Sturtevant, John David Rhodes, Agustin Zarzosa, Cynthia Lucia, Eric Freedman, Gary Needham, Elana Levine, Tamar Jeffers McDonald, Michela Ardizzoni, and Yannis Tzioumakis—for the many hours of work they devoted helping to produce the exciting program this year. Among the most striking trends discernable in this year’s program is the increasing internationalization of our membership; scholars from nearly every region of the world are represented in the program. Another trend of note is—if I may borrow a phrase from last year’s Program Chair Barbara Klinger—more papers focused on the “M” in SCMS. Sound studies seems a particularly active subfield this year, but we see increased activity in scholarship on videogames, new media, and digital culture as well. When organizing open call papers into panels, the Program Committee sought when possible to bring together related work on different media, in order to spark conversations that cut across the sometimes artificial bound- aries erected around medium specificity. Similarly, when programming open call papers dealing with issues in national cinemas/medias, we tried to strike a balance between panels which explore similar issues across different national/regional contexts and panels which stay within a single national context. The Host Committee, working with various Scholarly Interest Groups, has put together two screenings with strong ties to the Pacific Northwest. On Thursday, on the University of Washington campus, the Burke Museum will host a screening and discussion of Edward Curtis’s silent feature film, In the Land of the Headhunters. On Saturday, the Northwest Film Forum will host a screening of the work of experimental filmmaker Harry Smith (supported by the CinemArts, Experimental Film and Media, and Animated Media SIGs). In addition, the Host Committee has secured free admission (with conference badge) to the Henry Art Gallery and the Living Computer Museum for the duration of the conference. Finally, on Thursday at 12:30 PM, the doors to the historic Paramount Theatre will open exclusively for SCMS attendees.