MAY 02-04
Evil, Women and the Feminine (Lisbon, Portugal)
From Lady Macbeth to Maleficent, forceful women have often been portrayed as agents of evil. What are the roots of this archetype? What does its pervasiveness tell us about male fears? This interdisciplinary conference will address those questions by examining such icons as Medusa and Jezebel, mothers who give birth to monsters (think Rosemary’s Baby), and evil women in fantasy, folklore, and literature. Paging Nurse Ratched!
How faithful should the movie be to the original theatrical production? How do you make it cinematic without destroying its essence?
MAY 14-16
Restaging the Song: Adapting Broadway for the Silver Screen and Physical Culture (Sheffield, England)
I dreamed a dream that movie versions of musicals were as satisfying as the Broadway productions. But as the recent adaptation of Les Misérables proved yet again, stage-to-screen is troubled and tricky. How faithful should the movie be to the original theatrical production? How do you make it cinematic without destroying its essence? Participants may not come up with definitive answers, but wouldn’t it be loverly if they did?
MAY 21-23
Persuasive 2014 (Padua, Italy)
Video games aren’t just entertainment: Properly designed, they can be vehicles of persuasion, altering players’ attitudes and behaviors in both benevolent and problematic ways. This conference will explore new ideas for creating “persuasive products”—games that motivate people to take real-world action. It should be an excellent prelude to the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI: Wear Your Seat Belt.
This post originally appeared in the May/June 2014 issue ofPacific Standardas “Conference Call.” For more, subscribe to our print magazine.
