Proposals are now being accepted for a conference on Screen Representations of Nurses in Mass Media, to be held at UCLA on May 12, 2011. Proposals are sought that explore and interrogate the representations of nurses in film, television and digital media. While literature, film and televisual studies have examined representations of medicine more broadly, academic and popular literature has frequently eschewed critical analyses of nurses specifically within the hierarchies of institutional power and the politics of representation. Nurses as educated, skilled problem solvers and autonomous health professionals remain contested categories in media. For this panel, we are seeking papers that address the concerns of popular portrayals of nurses that conform to, break with, or subvert normative or stereotypical representations. We are seeking papers examining the intersection of the representation of nurses in film and television; popular mythology about nurses; as well as the business, social, or political motives that influence media images of nurses in contemporary societies. Topics may also include but are not limited to: gender and sexuality in nursing; status and power hierarchies within hospitals and health care institutions; local and global effects of media images generated in the US related to nursing as a profession; and myths of nurses such as the "Angel of Mercy," the "Naughty Nurse," and the "Doctor's Handmaiden."

Abstracts of 250-300 words should be sent via email to collette17@ucla.edu; Please include "Nurses in Mass Media" in the subject line. Deadline for submissions is Dec 15, 2010. Please include full contact information--including affiliation, and a brief 50 word biography with your abstract submission.