CFP: Transamerican Cinema Aesthetics

Call for Papers

Transamerican Cinema Aesthetics

We invite submissions for a workshop or conference on Transamerican Cinema Aesthetics. This event aims to foster a vibrant interdisciplinary dialogue encompassing philosophy, film and media studies, cultural and decolonial studies, Latin American and Caribbean studies, and aesthetics. We seek to examine cinematic practices and theoretical perspectives that traverse, challenge, and reimagine the cultural and political landscapes of the Americas.

Theme

Film across the Americas always exists at the crossroads—national and transnational, colonial and decolonial, local and global. Transamerican Cinema Aesthetics underscores the aesthetic innovations and philosophical configurations that emerge when cinematic forms circulate across hemispheric, cultural, and ideological boundaries. We especially encourage submissions that meld film analysis with philosophical or cultural theory, situating aesthetic experience as a terrain of critical negotiation.

Possible topics (not exhaustive):

• Aesthetics, philosophy, and ideology in Latin American, Caribbean, and Indigenous cinemas
• Cinematic representations of migration, diaspora, borders, and belonging
• Hemispheric networks: co-productions, film festivals, and distribution strategies in the Americas
• Experimental, activist, and decolonial aesthetic practices in Transamerican cinema
• The interplay of race, gender, sexuality, and politics in Transamerican film aesthetics
• North–South and South–North dialogues in cinematic form and theory
• Conceptualizing “Transamerican” as a distinct framework or aesthetic sensibility

Format & Audience

Proposals are welcome from scholars in philosophy, film/media studies, cultural studies, and related fields. Presentations should run 25–30 minutes, followed by discussion. We encourage interdisciplinary approaches that integrate theory, history, and film analysis.

Submission Guidelines

• Abstract: 300–500 words, blind-reviewed
• Contact infnormation: Dr. Frédéric Lefrançois, Université des Antilles - Email: [email protected]
• Deadline: October 15, 2025
• Notification: October 20, 2026

Venue & Dates

Online. A Zoom link will be provided.

Organizers

Dr. Frédéric Lefrançois, Université des Antilles 

Pr. Gerry L'Etang, Université des Antilles

Gérald Désert, Université des Antilles

For inquiries and submissions, contact: [email protected]

Selected Bibliography 

An indicative list of foundational and recent cinema-centered works, spanning decolonial theory, experimental film, hemispheric history, and aesthetic analysis:

1. Bazin, André. What Is Cinema? Vols. 1–2. Translated by Hugh Gray, University of California Press, 2005.
2. Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. Routledge, 1994.
3. Carréra, Guilherme. Brazilian Cinema and the Aesthetics of Ruins. Bloomsbury Academic, 2024. (bloomsbury.com)
4. Ekotto, Frieda, and Adeline Koh, editors. Rethinking Third Cinema: The Role of Anti-Colonial Media and Aesthetics in Postmodernity. Lit, 2009. (catalog.libraries.psu.edu, WorldCat)
5. Elena, Alberto, and Marina Díaz López, editors. The Cinema of Latin America. Wallflower Press, Columbia University Press, 2003. (Columbia University Press)
6. Luciano, Paula. “Essay on Decolonial Aesthetics in Latin America.” RELACult: Revista Latino-Americana de Estudos em Cultura e Sociedade, vol. 5, 2019. (bibliographies.bib.umontreal.ca)
7. Martínez-San Miguel, Yolanda, and Ben Sifuentes-Jáuregui, editors. Transamericanity: Subaltern Modernities, Global Coloniality, and the Cultures of Greater Mexico. Duke University Press, 2012.
8. Metz, Christian. Language and Cinema; The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema. University of California Press, multiple editions. (Wikipédia)
9. Pick, Zuzana. Constructing the Image of the Mexican Revolution: Cinema and the Archive. University of Texas Press, 2010.
10. Ricci, Daniela, and Melissa Thackway. African Diasporic Cinema Aesthetics of Reconstruction. African Humanities and the Arts Series, 2020. (Bibliothèque UGent)
11. Schroeder Rodríguez, Paul A. Latin American Cinema. University of California Press, 2016. (University of California Press)
12. Shohat, Ella, and Robert Stam. Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2014.
13. Stam, Robert. Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema and Culture. Duke University Press, 1997.
14. Tompkins, Cynthia. Experimental Latin American Cinema: History and Aesthetics. University of Texas Press, 2013. (UBC Press, Project MUSE)
15. Ruiz, Raúl. Poetics of Cinema, Vols. 1–3. Translated editions, 1995–2013. (Wikipédia)
16. Beshara, Robert K. Transmodern Cinema and Decolonial Film Theory: A Study of Youssef Chahine’s al-Masir. Bloomsbury Academic, 2024. (bloomsbury.com)