The Third International Symposium on Interart/Intermedial Studies 

Interart/Intermedial Studies in Hard Times

Hangzhou, China      12-14 November 2021

    The outbreak and fast spreading of Covid-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented and life-altering event, and will remain etched in the memories of all who are fortunate to survive. As pandemic is one of many disasters that human beings are facing and have coped with, it is significant to reflect on arts and media in hard times both in the present and historically, and to look at what writers and artists have produced in response to the crisis and extreme difficulties, and what lessons and hopes we can draw from their experiences. By reliving those hard times, horrid as they may appear, awareness may grow of what is needed to sustain ourselves as human. Only with empathy, mutual understanding and united efforts can we overcome the current global crisis.    As a fast-growing academic discipline, Interart/Intermedial Studies is at a critical juncture in its own development in the pandemic mediatised society where people feel “together but isolated”. Media are ubiquitously related to each other, but we might not view media in the same way. As British scholar William Baker noted, “Sometimes, the way things are done in another culture can cast interesting light on things one has been accustomed to taking for granted.” To rejuvenate itself, Interart/Intermedial Studies urgently needs to incorporate comparative approaches and embrace cross-cultural perspectives. Therefore, this online and onsite conference aims at fostering an interdisciplinary and intercultural conversation on intermedia between researchers from all domains. 

    The symposium also serves as a workshop and consists of lectures, a colloquium and seminars. We are seeking papers that address the following topics (but not limited to) for the colloquium:

1. Intermedial Studies and the Pandemic

2. Intermedial Studies and China

3. Methodology of Interart/Intermedial Studies

4. Interart/Intermedial Case Studies

5. Interart/Intermedial Studies in Transcultural Perspective

6. Ethics and Intermedial Studies

7. Interartistic Poetics in World Literature

8. Digital Humanities

Proposals for papers or pre-constituted panels can be submitted by emailing the submission form (see below) as an attachment to intermedia@hznu.edu.cn with the subject line “Inter2021”. Deadline for submissions is 30 September 2021, and feedback will be given as soon as possible after the submission. The working language of the conference is English/Chinese.

The conference registration fee (meals included) is 1,000RMB (600RMB for postgraduate students), which is waived for invited speakers. Payment options are to be announced.