CFP: Console-ing Passions Conference

Panel: Teen TV Comes of Age: Industry and Representation in Young Adult Television

Console-ing Passions: International Conference on Television, Audio, New Media, and Feminism
Date: June 16-17, 2016
Location: University of Notre Dame
Web link: http://www.console-ingpassions.org/conf-nd/

In recent years, there has been a rise in popular, critically acclaimed teen-oriented dramas on specialized cable and broadcast networks that address important social issues like sexual orientation, gender identity, and ethnic affiliation. However, there has been a recent dearth of scholarship on emerging teen television, perhaps because the genre is deemed too ephemeral or consumer-driven to create real social change. This panel aims to interrogate teen programming through case studies in order to expand the scholarship of teen TV to include emerging television discourses like industry studies, questions of representation network branding, and reception studies.

This panel on Teen TV is looking to include two additional panelists. The panel is broadly conceived and encourages submissions relating to any aspects of young adult television. When proposing topics, consider the breadth of intersections between modes of representation, genre, industrial practices including branding strategies and audience reception.

The following is a list of topics to consider, though other topics are more than welcome:

CW, ABC Family, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney, and other producers of teen television
Branding strategies and ancillary markets for youth consumption
Alternate viewing/consumption platforms
Issues of accessibility
Media convergence
Broadcast TV vs. cable/pay TV networks
Issues of race, class, gender and sexuality in young adult television
Coming-of-Age narratives and the transition to adulthood
Family-oriented television
The aesthetic elements of teen television
Teen TV's reception and place among other genres of television

Please submit a 300-word proposal and a brief author biography to Katherine Lehman (kalehman@albright.edu) and Robert Sevenich (sevenich@usc.edu) by January 5th, 2016. Decisions will be communicated by January 15th, 2016.