The sixth International Women and Film History Conference is to take place in Bologna, Italy 24-26 June 2010, immediately preceding the Il Cinema Ritrovato Film Festival. A call for papers has been issued, and here are the details, culled from the festival site:

The VI International Women and Film History Conference (Bologna, 24-26 June 2010) will pay tribute to the women’s involvement in the silent film industry and culture across the globe. The event will provide an insight into women’s contribution to the silent screen through a series of scholarly panels, keynote addresses and archival screenings. In the dynamic spirit that caracterized each of the previous Conferences held in Utrecht (1999), Santa Cruz (2001), Montréal (2004), Guadalajara (2006), and Stockholm (2008), presentations will consider a wide range of themes related to the spheres of the motion picture economy, history, criticism, narrative forms, transnational film culture, the social contexts of film production and much more, all seen through the lens of feminist theory and historiography. It will be an opportunity for scholars and young researchers to expose and discuss the new issues and ideas that are spreading at the cutting edge of Film and Women’s Studies, exploring the future directions to be possibly pursued.

Proposals are welcomed concerning not only the female directors, screenwriters, producers and actors of the era, but also the larger role of women in modern mass culture. If you are proposing a paper please fill in the on-line submission form. We will only accept proposals in English that use this form, and the deadline for submission is January 10, 2010, but earlier submission are welcomed. This form will allow you to view and change your proposal and to keep in touch with the peer-review editors up to one month before the deadline. Ideally you will be given an answer by the middle of February.

Please notice that the Conference will occur in Bologna in the week immediately preceding Il Cinema Ritrovato Film Festival (running June 26 through July 3, 2010), sponsored by Alma Mater Università di Bologna (Dipartimento di Musica e Spettacolo – La Soffitta), Women and Film History International, Regione Emilia-Romagna, Cineteca di Bologna, and the Biblioteca Italiana delle Donne. We are particularly happy to announce that the festival will host a special section on women in silent cinema, curated by Mariann Lewinsky in cooperation with WSS VI. All the participants in WSS VI will directly be registered at no fees at the festival, and will be eligible to reserve rooms at special price at hotels located in the city centre, within walking distance to the conference site.

We invite papers and panels not only on the directors, screenwriters, producers, and actors of the era, but also on the role of women in modern mass culture, broadly considered. Continuing the dynamic spirit that characterized previous conferences in Utrecht (1999), Santa Cruz (2001), Montréal (2004), Guadalajara (2006), and Stockholm (2008) the conference will provide an open and friendly atmosphere for the exchange of research and insight into women’s involvement in the first four decades of film history.

Papers and panels might consider:

* Words, wordlessness, and bodily expression
* Divas and antidivas
* Audiences, moviegoers, and fans
* Theorists, critics, and writers
* Body genres
* Serial screen narratives
* Motion picture economies and gendered divisions of labor
* Global and local exhibition practices
* The social realities of World War I
* Feminist historiography and the transnational
* The modern as period and problematic
* Synchronized sound: transition, continuity, and the question of change
* The archives: theory, practice, politics
* Feminist theory and the silent screen

Submission Deadline: January 10, 2010

Further details are available on the festival site, including details of the submission process for papers.