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CLCWeb Call for Papers: Cineture: Cultural Negotiation between Iran and the US through Intermediality and Transmediality
Get PDFAmid the current global pandemic, literature and film continue to serve as influential socio-cultural mediums connecting nations and their cultures. This special issue aims to foster cultural exchange between Iran and the United States, highlighting their enduring sociocultural affinity rather than politically driven narratives. As such the focus is on emphasizing the lasting cultural ties between the two nations, rather than narratives that are predominantly shaped by political agenda. It underscores the importance of understanding the depth of sociocultural relationships and the enduring cultural connections between Iran and the US beyond the immediate political context. Despite existing research on Iranian-American relations, limited attention has been given to what Hamid Dabashi terms the “circulation of ideas” within Iranian and American society and culture. This issue’s focus centers on the examination of cultural products, specifically literature and film, through the lenses of intermediality and transmediality. It explores how cineture, a term coined to denote the fusion of cinema and literature, serves as a vehicle for cross-cultural dialogue. Cineture encompasses the mobility of cultures through the blending of literary and cinematic works, elucidating the connections between diverse cultures and various media forms. As a transmedial genre, cineture illuminates the intricate relationships between circulation, context, and meaning in the domains of film and literature, achieved through a process referred to as “film-text-transmediation.” In essence, this concept underscores the complex dynamics of transformative circulation between films and literature and its profound impact on the interpretation and reception of texts and films across different cultural contexts. Additionally, it can also address moments of contradiction, unevenness, or inequity presented in films and texts in different cultures. It covers, on the one hand, filmmakers’ use of literary techniques such as irony, interior monologue or aside, metaphor, and metafiction. On the other hand, it demonstrates how authors use cinematic techniques like cut-scenes, flash-back and flash-forward, and cinematic dialogue form as well as different filmic references to describe their characters’ philosophy, state of mind, and experiences.
The aim of this special issue is to address how the gap in both Iranian-American studies and approaches to cultural globalization can be filled by studying “the processes that circulate people, objects and information at various spatial ranges and speeds,” through cineture as a transmedial genre. Transmediality is a term initiated by Henry Jenkins (2007), and it refers to the fabrication of narratives in relation to or interwoven with multiple media forms. While traditional narratives are based on one medium, transmedial narratives move from one medium to another through the act of extension (Jenkins 2011) and expansion (Marie-Laure Ryan 2013). This feature provides this opportunity to combine genres and mediums in order to study inter-transnational cultural interactions and mobility. While cultural mobility studies have primarily centered on direct interactions between countries, cineture uniquely emphasizes the dynamic and evolving indirect cultural mobility between nations through their literary and film productions. Hence, cineture centers on dialectical interactions, negotiations, and counteractions between cultures and nations by conducting comparative analyses of the intermediality within literary and filmic works. As a result, in the intricate dynamic of cineture as a new genre, cultural dialectics are negotiatory in which “the relationship between the individual, the producer, and the cultural world, the product, is and remains a dialectical one.” This approach, as Arshin Adib-Moghaddam argues, fosters a form of interaction (in our case, between Iran and the United States) wherein cultural products (namely literature and film), cultural actors (such as authors and artists), and cultural institutions, from disparate regions in the world engage in a meaningful dialogue. In the evolving realm of cineture, a fusion of cinema and literature, cultural dialectics serve as the negotiation points where diverse cultural perspectives intersect and interact. This dynamic interaction within cineture allows for the exploration, critique, and reconciliation of diverse cultural perspectives, fostering a nuanced understanding of cultural interactions within the complex framework of cineture as an emerging genre. The editors are interested in papers that study how Iranian and American literature and cinema act against or for, propagate or negate either nation’s role in cultural negotiation (/circulation) through “the spreading of culture-defining stories across media.”
Potential topics for contributions to the call for papers may include, but are not limited to, the following: Comparative analysis of Iranian and American literary and cinematic works. The nuance (intersection) of literary and cinematic techniques in (Iranian and American) cultural productions. The fusion of literature and film in cineture in creating a cross-cultural dialogue between Iran and the US. Intermediality and transmediality at the service of conveying sociopolitical interactions and narratives. The reception and interpretation of Iranian and American in the context of cultural globalization. Interact, counteract, and influence of Iranian and American cultural products within their respective country of origin. The circulation of Iranian and American cultural products through various media platforms, and its implications for cultural diplomacy and soft power. How cineture challenges or reinforces stereotypes and representations of Iran and the US in global media and popular culture. The reception and impact of Iranian-American cineture on diasporic communities and transnational audiences, and its role in fostering cross-cultural understanding and solidarity.
Please submit your abstract (300 words) together with a short bio (100 words) including your full name and institutional affiliation until April 30, 2024, to the guests\u27 editor:
Naghmeh Esmaeilpour: [email protected]
Behnam M. Fomeshi: [email protected]
Prospective authors will be notified about proposals until May 30, 2024.
The submission deadline for full articles (6000-9000 including abstract, works cited, endnote, and the bio of the author) is August 30, 2024
Development of a Safety Advisory System to Aid Senior Citizens in Gap Selection
Get PDFOlder drivers tend to suffer more from aging related issues concerning hearing and vision, the reaction time, and cognitive functions. This research aims to help older drivers select proper gaps by using connected vehicles technologies and an in-vehicle advisory system. A study was conducted on 79 old drivers (60 or older), among them 75.9% were male and 24.1% were females. The study was conducted at two unsignalized intersections in the Stow and Tallmadge in Ohio, and it included both a simulation and a field test. The field data showed that a safe gap of 7.4 seconds at the Stow location can be used without causing speed impedance to the oncoming vehicles, compared with 6.5 seconds recommended by HCM. The in-vehicle safety advisory system provides warning through red flashing, beeping, and text messages on an LCD, if the upcoming gap is determined unsafe to use. When the system does not issue any warning message, it is the driver’s responsibility to decide if or not to take the available gap. The test involves two scenarios, one is when all vehicles are connected and the other is in a mixed traffic situation with both ordinary vehicles and connected vehicles. Different hardware designs and field test procedures were used to separate the two cases. The simulation runs used the field data to define modeling parameters. The measures of effectiveness (MOEs), such as average delay, queue length, and average waiting time, were obtained to assess the impact of running the advisory system. The field test results showed that 96% of the participants accept the system and agree that it can improve safety. Most of the participants claimed that they prefer a combination of beeping and red flashing rather than a single type of warning
Development of Latitude/Longitude (and Route/Milepost) Model for Positioning Traffic Management Cameras
Get PDFTraffic Incident Management (TIM) is a FHWA Every Day Counts initiative with the objective of reducing secondary crashes, improving travel reliability, and ensuring the safety of responders. Agency roadside cameras play a critical role in TIM by helping dispatchers quickly identify the precise location of incidents when receiving reports from motorists with varying levels of spatial accuracy. Reconciling position reports that are often mile-marker based with cameras that operate in a Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) coordinate system relies on dispatchers having detailed knowledge of hundreds of cameras and perhaps some presets. During real-time incident dispatching, reducing the time it takes to identify the most relevant cameras and view the incident improves incident management dispatch times. This research developed a camera-to-mile marker mapping technique that automatically sets the camera view to a specified mile marker within the field-of-view of the camera. A new performance metric on verification time (TEYE) that captures the time it takes for TMC operators to have the first visual on roadside cameras is proposed for integration into the FHWA TIM event sequence. Performance metrics that summarize spatial camera coverage and image quality for use in both dispatch and long-term statewide planning for camera deployments were also developed. Using mobile mapping and LiDAR geospatial data to automate the mapping of mile markers to camera PTZ settings, and the integration of connected vehicle trajectory data to detect incidents and set the nearest camera view on the incident are both discussed for future studies
Assessing Sustainable Tourism: Insights from Four Regions in Quebec
Get PDFThis communication proposes to share the outcomes of a comprehensive sustainable tourism diagnosis conducted in four distinct regions of Quebec, namely Monteregie, Mauricie, Lanaudiere, and the Magdalen Islands. The study encompasses a diverse range of 45 tourism enterprises operating across various sectors within the industry. This project represents the results of my postdoctoral internship
Juggling expectations and certification standards: Journey of a Norwegian destination towards acquiring the sustainable destination label
Get PDFJuggling expectations and certification standards: Journey of a Norwegian destination towards acquiring the sustainable destination label.
Authors: Ajay Kumar & Per Strömberg, University of South-Eastern Norway
Short abstract: External third-party audits are crucial for ensuring the quality of sustainability in tourism, utilizing tools like certifications and accreditations. Certification is widely employed as a means of assessing quality in sustainable tourism practices, enhancing credibility and overall quality standards. In 2018, Innovation Norway\u27s Sustainable Destination Standard achieved the esteemed status of being recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). This standard, consisting of 45 criteria and 108 indicators, undergoes thorough assessment, recording, and monitoring. It covers a comprehensive range of aspects including nature, culture, environment, social values, community engagement, and economic viability. The complexity of sustainability, particularly within highly fragmented tourism destinations, necessitates collective and coordinated efforts. These efforts aim to implement measures that contribute to more sustainable tourism development. In this context, the local Destination Management Organization (DMO) plays a central role as a steering organization. Rjukan in Vestfold and Telemark County of Norway earned the Sustainable Destination label from Innovation Norway in 2021. This paper discusses about the challenges and opportunities that sustainable destination labels present for a destination from a management perspective. Stakeholder theory and institutional theory are used to provide a conceptual background for the decisions made by the manager of the DMO. DMO Visit Rjukan is used as a case to describe the managerial perspective of acquiring the sustainable destination label in Norway. The insights from this paper will contribute to the literature of role of DMOs in ensuring sustainability of tourist destinations in a country
An Integrative Literature Review of COVID-19-Driven Sustainability-Based Strategies for Tourism: 2020-2023
Get PDFThe unprecedented impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic exposed severe vulnerabilities within existing business models. Global supply chains, educational services, health care systems, and specific industries such as the travel and tourism sectors have been profoundly disrupted. The adverse effects on businesses and socio-economic systems suggest the need to reevaluate and reshape existing management strategies to increase business preparedness and responsiveness to future global disruptions. This integrative literature review presents a critical analysis and synthesis of the literature during the height of the pandemic from 2020 to 2023, exploring how the latter generated momentum for adopting new sustainable business models within the hard-hit tourism industry. Despite varying perceptions concerning the depth of the transformation required, this study revealed a shared understanding of the necessity to leverage sustainable tourism practices to address challenges arising from the pandemic. Specifically, the literature refers to (a) the need to stimulate the industry recovery through sustainable practices, (b) the opportunity to rethink and rebuild tourism practices, products, and services more sustainably, (c) the opportunity to increase the risk-prevalent tourism industry’s resilience and its ability to face future crises, (d) the need to adopt a collaborative approach among the industry’s stakeholders and engage with local communities. The gaps identified suggest that further studies could focus on identifying relevant governance mechanisms to implement and manage resilient and sustainability-based strategies within the tourism industry. Additionally, future research may prioritize empirical research and evidence-based sustainable solutions for the tourism industry and assess their replicability in other risk-prevalent sectors
Incorporating Time-Dependent Data for Proactive Safety Management
Get PDFThis study proposed a risk-based safety management framework to supplement the current crash-based safety management system. The proposed tool considers time-dependent factors (e.g., hourly traffic, speed features, weather conditions, signal controls) to help justify operational measures for safety improvements (e.g., variable message signs, variable speed limits, warnings). These selected temporal factors subsequently were included in the developed sequential logit models; and those models, applied hour by hour, were then used to estimate the crash probability and severity level. Two typical roadway elements, rural freeway segments and signalized intersections, were also included in the analysis. The obtained crash risk profiles can be used to predict the expected number of crashes in periods when the operational safety countermeasures are expected to be active based on certain triggering conditions (e.g., traffic, weather, nighttime). These results, together with crash modification factors, may be used in the benefit and cost analysis process to justify the application of specific countermeasures
Where to Test a Nuclear Bomb
Get PDFThe United States detonated three underground nuclear bombs on a far-off Alaskan island called Amchitka in the 1960s and 70s. The goal is to understand what the motive of the United States in selecting Amchitka over the endless potential sites to test at were. What makes a place worthy in being tested on, or unworthy in being left alone. How does the United States deal with resistance from locals and other organizations, fighting to prevent their tests
Beyond Accommodations: Imagination, Decolonization, and the Cripping of Writing Center Work
Get PDFThis article examines connections among disability, colonization, university policies, and writing center work in North America. By positing that university policies have long mimicked medical and scientific processes for creating—and then discriminating against—perceived categories of disability, this article makes interventions into traditional writing center practices and pedagogies without dismissing the spirit with which these aspects of our field came to be. The article has several central claims: Disability has been constructed by nondisabled entities (including doctors, scientists, and institutions). Disability’s “drift” and myriad forms act as both specter and insidious insurance against progress or inclusive design. Writing center scholarship has consistently made claims toward equity yet still must reframe its points of engagement. Disability itself provides opportunities to reconstruct not only our relationships to one another but to our field and world.
While these claims do situate writing centers (under the auspice of the institution itself ) as agents of colonization and control through their ableism and expectations for bodies, bodyminds, and identities, they also leave ample opportunity to imagine and build upon the values that shape our praxis. What can we imagine for one another, beyond accommodations and retrofits? What does a decolonized, disabled body have to offer? How can we find out
