Hello everyone, The organizing committee is excited to share the call for papers for the 2021 First Forum Graduate Student Conference, hosted by the Division of Cinema and Media Studies in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. This year's theme is Post(ing)! __ CFP TEXT: FIRST FORUM GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE 2021 OCTOBER 21, 22, 28, & 29 DIVISION OF CINEMA AND MEDIA STUDIES SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA POST(ING) CALL FOR PROPOSALS We’re posting through it. All of it. ❏ posting on social media ❏ trolling and shit-posting ❏ post-theoretical paradigms and movements ❏ digital labor, content moderation and algorithms ❏ the postal service and infrastructure ❏ fans and celebrities ❏ posters and physical media ❏ going postal ❏ doomscrolling and attention economies ❏ the post-network TV era ❏ post-Covid-19 ❏ bots and computation ❏ publics and publicity ❏ signposting and speech acts ❏ Postmates and gig economies ❏ outposts, fence posts, and borders ❏ post-production ❏ posting through it ❏ job posts and impostor syndrome Our Call for Posts — The organizing committee of the 2021 First Forum Graduate Student Conference invites our fellow graduate student scholars to submit abstracts that explore the wide range of meanings suggested by the word “posting” as it relates to the fields of cinema and media studies, communication, gender and sexuality studies, ethnic studies, and science and technology studies. While posting might immediately refer to the work of participating in digital networks and the increasingly visible labor, affect, and resources that participation demands, we invite submissions that touch upon a range of mediums, methodologies, and approaches, from post-production to the postal service. “Post-“ might suggest the numerous post-intellectual moments scholars speculate we have been entering and exiting since the 1970s. Yet, even the formation of these post-modern, feminist, racial, historical moments themselves have been called into question, leading some to ask if we are now in the post-post-modern, the post-post-feminist era or if there was anything “new” about these moments in the first place. Meanwhile, many of us try to imagine a post-Covid era as old and new social arrangements struggle to emerge. The tireless Twitter troll and commenter on the human condition @Dril asks us to consider “posting ethically, within reason,” a position the organizing committee asks applicants to take seriously as they reflect on the multivalent meanings of “posting.” Clearly, the novel social, historical, and political arrangements that make posting and the “post-” meaningful are being reevaluated by people across a wide range of contexts that invite scholarly attention and interrogation. In order to encourage attendance, reduce burnout, and ensure the health and safety of participants, students, and the broader Los Angeles community, First Forum 2021 will be a virtual conference, with panels and events held over two weeks on October 21, 22, 28, and 29. Submissions should include an abstract (-300 words) and a short biography (-150 words). Conference presentations will be 15-20 minutes. Applicants must submit their materials by June 9, 2021 to firstforumconference@gmail.com. Please include “Name + First Forum 2021 Submission” in the subject line. We warmly welcome non-traditional projects, including but not limited to, video essays and art exhibitions alongside traditional academic papers. -- Dan Lark PhD Student | Annenberg Fellow Division of Cinema & Media Studies, School of Cinematic Arts University of Southern California