Authenticity and Adaptation: Association of Adaptation Studies 2023

Keynote speaker

We are please to announce that Kristen Warner, Associate Professor in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University will be delivering the conference keynote speech:

'Plastic, Plastic Everywhere: Locating Cultural Specificity in the Time of Plastic Representation' 

Programme

You can view a provisional conference programme here. Please note this programme is subject to change!

Registration is now closed for this conference

Travel to the conference

The conference will be based in our Alan Walters Building, R29 on our university campus map.

Directions to Birmingham and to our Edgbaston campus are available on the Getting here page.  

Accommodation

Please see here for options at our Edgbaston Park Hotel on campus. Please note we do not have rooms reserved for the conference at the hotel, bookings are made by delegates on an individual basis.

Please visit our Accommodation page for advice on how to research other accommodation options. 

Food and Drink

Lunches and refreshments will be provided for conference delegates. There will be a drinks reception for all at the end of the first day. And there is the option to register and pay for the conference dinner as part of our registration process, which includes a three course meal and drinks.

As part of your registration process, please let us know of any specific dietary requirements we need to be aware of.

For more information on food and drink options on and off campus visit our Food and Drink page.  

Conference themes

In the last few years, there has been a number of discussions around authenticity in our cultural narratives: who can play what role? Who can write a particular story? These have come from both audiences and the larger film and literature industry, underpinned by the idea of authenticity. Some audiences seek out stories that are authentic, either through their writing or how they are represented. This question of authenticity has implications for the thinking in adaptation studies, which this conference will address.  

Here are some suggested areas for potential abstracts. Please note, the call for papers for this conference has now closed.

• What makes an adaptation authentic?
• Reframing/reclaiming a story through adaptation
• Adapting to different bodies – the importance of the actor in adaptation
• The value of authenticity in culture 
• Authenticity vs fidelity
• Authentic authorship in adaptation
• Cultural authenticity and the use of adaptation
• The politics of authenticity
• Divisions between authenticity and originality