Small Screens, Big Stories: Storytelling, Seriality and Mobile Screen Culture

Evolution of Story IV

Deadline for chapter-track abstracts: 1 June 2026
Online symposium-only track open until March 2027

We invite proposals for Small Screens, Big Stories: Storytelling, Seriality and Mobile Screen Culture, the working title for Evolution of Story IV. The project includes an online symposium and a proposed edited academic collection exploring micro-drama as an emerging mobile-first narrative form.

Micro-drama, also known in Chinese contexts as duanju, has become one of the most visible new forms of mobile screen storytelling. Built around short episodes, vertical viewing, serial hooks, emotional escalation and platform circulation, micro-drama raises important questions for screen studies, television studies, digital media, platform studies, Chinese media studies, popular culture, creative practice research and transnational media research.

This call is interested in how micro-drama is reshaping storytelling, seriality, genre, audience experience and screen production. We welcome proposals from scholars, practitioners, creative researchers, postgraduate researchers and industry professionals.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

micro-drama and duanju; mobile-first storytelling; vertical video; short-form serial drama; screen storytelling and mobile screen culture; seriality and episode structure; romance, melodrama and emotional escalation; CEO dramas and genre repetition; platform circulation and algorithmic visibility; data-informed narrative development; AI storytelling and AI-assisted production; localisation, translation and cultural adaptation; transnational circulation; Chinese media and global screen culture; audience behaviour and mobile viewing; creator economies and platform production; experimental forms and future directions for screen storytelling.

There are two contribution routes.

The chapter track is for contributors who wish their work to be considered for inclusion in a proposed edited academic collection. Chapter-track abstracts are due by 1 June 2026. Following the selection of abstracts, the edited collection will be proposed to an international academic publisher.

The symposium-only track is for contributors who wish to present at the online symposium without entering the edited collection development process. This track remains open until March 2027.

Submissions should include:

300-word abstract
100-word biography
five keywords
names, affiliations and contact details for all authors
indication of preferred route: chapter track, symposium-only track, or either route

Full call and further details:
https://evolutionofstory.info/cfp-small-screens-big-stories/

Please send submissions and enquiries to:
roy.hanney@nottingham.edu.cn