International Coference (Hybrid)  in collabortion with South Asian Studies Research Group, London Metropolitan University and Emerald India as Academic Partner

This conference proposes to explore microhistory and cinema studies, situating both at the intersection of history, culture, and memory. Microhistory, developed by historians such as Carlo Ginzburg (1978; 1981; 1990) and Giovanni Levi (1985), emphasizes intensive studies of “small” units such as an individual, a community, or an event to reveal larger historical structures. While traditional historiography privileges teleological-based "grand narratives", microhistory foregrounds the intimate scale: the lived reality of individuals, communities, or specific events that illuminate larger structures of society. Cinema, likewise, presents an alternative narrative and dwells on fragments of everyday life, overlooked subjectivities, and marginal voices, making it an ideal medium for microhistorical inquiry.

At the same time, the conference aims to open a dialogue between cinema and wider disciplines — history, economics, political science, and public policy — to examine how microhistories on screen shed light on social change, governance, welfare, migration, and cultural memory in diverse contexts. Through close readings of films, analysis of regional and “small” cinemas, and reflections on audience reception and production histories, the conference will address broader questions of power, memory, identity, and representation. 

From Italian neo-realism to Indian parallel cinema, from Partition films to regional cinemas, films have acted as microhistorical archives, preserving voices and experiences absent in official histories. At the same time, the microhistorical method offers new approaches to film analysis— investigating broader cultural and political dynamics. This conference invites scholars to reflect on the use of microhistory as a method in film scholarship and how cinema can both enact and preserve microhistories.

Themes (suggestive, not exhaustive):

• Cinema as an archive of everyday life

• Microhistory and film historiography

• Marginal voices and subaltern histories in cinema

• Partition, migration, and displacement through micro-narratives

• Regional and “small” cinemas as cultural microhistories

• Audience reception and local histories of cinema halls

• Close readings of films through a microhistorical lens

• Representation of state policies and their impact in films

• Cinema and urban planning: housing, development, and the city as archive

• Health, education, and welfare policies through cinematic microhistories

• Cinema as a site of resistance to policy and state control

  Important Dates

  * Abstract Submission: 15 July 2026
  * Acceptance Notification: 25 July 2026
  * Registration Deadline: 15 August 2026
  * Full Paper Submission: 31 August 2026
  * Conference Dates: 16–17 September 2026

  Submission Email: microhistoriesonscreen@gmail.com