Since the early 2000s, a wide range of ‘survival’ media has been created, watched, played and explored. Alongside the rise in the production of survival media, this popularity is also evidenced by the prevalence of survival narratives in more traditionally established genres such as horror, disaster and thrillers. From reality TV shows like ‘Survivor’ to video games such as The Long Dark, from advertising to films such as ‘Trapped’ and ‘127 Hours’, this symposium explores what can be learnt from examining these narratives which foreground human survival. What does the popularity of survival narratives in contemporary media tell us about the realities and concerns of individual and collective survival across the world? Positioning survival media as a 21st century global phenomenon, how can we understand the challenges of our survival in the contemporary world such as climate change by exploring the landscapes and terrains imagined by survival media?

This symposium aims to engage with these questions and bring together all who are who working on survival media across the disciplines. Inviting works on survival films, reality and fictional television, literature, video games, advertising, all work will be shared in a day-long event on April 30th 2019 hosted by the Department of Film Studies, University of St Andrews. We invite conference-style papers of 20 minutes, more informal 5 minute interventions and debates, and other more experimental presentations of both academic and practice-based work. There will also be a survival media-themed activity followed by a plenary Q&A. The symposium is designed to facilitate discussion on this engaging topic, aid inter-disciplinary PG networking and provoke new questions on the notion of ‘survival’. ​

We invite papers (short and long) and other presentations of work on the following topics, and others:

Spaces of survival and world creation​

Narratives of survival​

Transnational media and survival​

Survival as an inter-disciplinary topic​

Aesthetics of survival​

Transmedial survival​

Politics and ideology of survival​

The ‘surviving’ body​

Gender and identity in survival​

Proposals of no more than 250 words and a 50 word bio should be sent no later than February 15th 2019 to: ​

Cassice Last- cl225@st-andrews.ac.uk​

Shruti Narayanswamy- sn52@st-andrews.ac.uk ​

There are a few travel bursaries available for PG students and ECRs which will be assigned by a lottery system. 

This symposium is brought to you with financial support from the St Leonard’s Doctoral and Postgraduate College Community Fund, the University of St Andrews CAPOD GRADskills Innovation Grant / PG Conference Fund and the BAFTSS Event Grant Scheme.​