The Rod Serling Conference
November 8-9, 2013, Los Angeles
Hosted by Ithaca College
Proposals Due: April 5, 2013
Call For Papers and Presentations
“The Rod Serling
Conference,” an interdisciplinary conference dedicated to the lasting
works of Rod Serling, is set for November, 2013, in Los Angeles, CA. In
contrast to previous conferences held on the Ithaca
College campus, where Serling taught from 1967 through 1975, the 2013
Conference will be able to take advantage of the industry home where
Serling created so many of his masterpieces for television and film.
IthacaCollege's Los Angeles Program will help to
facilitate this year's conference.
This will be the fifth
Rod Serling Conference, and as in the past, it will offer research and
anecdotes about Rod Serling and an opportunity to view some of the
classics of early television. Additionally, this
year’s presentation will include industry leaders who count Serling
among their primary influences and actors and other professionals who
worked directly with Serling.
Come and explore that
unique “dimension of imagination” that was the creative work, teaching,
and public conscience of Rod Serling. Multi-media presentations,
panels, guided discussion groups, and other unique
conference proposals for the 2013 conference are welcomed.
Submission Information:
Submissions should include:
• Abstract (not to exceed 250 words)
• A/V needs
• Short biography of presenter(s) with daytime phone number, preferred mailing address,
and e-mail address
Submit to the Rod Serling Conference Committee at mail to:
serling@ithaca.edu, no later than
April 5, 2013.
For additional background and information, visit
http://www.ithaca.edu/rhp/
Suggested Themes:
General
• Radio days in Cincinnati
• WKRC and “The Storm”
• Cayuga Productions
• Serling and CBS
• Kraft Television Theatre
• Suspense
• Studio One
• Teaching at Ithaca College
• Influence of New York State, especially his hometown of Binghamton, in his life and work
• Antioch College experience
• Serling style
• Censorship and television in the ’50s
• Serling and World War II
• The Mike Wallace Interview
• Characters in the Zone
• Modern morality play
• Serling as narrator, actor
• Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
• Charles Beaumont
• Richard Matheson
• George Clayton Johnson
• Reginald Rose
• “I Sing the Body Electric,” Ray Bradbury episode of The Twilight Zone
• “The Season to Be Wary”
Serling Work for Television
• Patterns
• The Comedian
• Requiem for a Heavyweight
• The Loner
• Assault on a Queen
• Planet of the Apes
• Seven Days in May
• The Man
• A Storm in Summer
• The Arena
• The Strike
• Certain Honorable Men
• The New People (developer)
• Rod Serling’s Night Gallery (1970 – 1973)
• The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
Serling Screenplays
• Assault on a Queen
• Planet of the Apes
• Seven Days in May
• The Man
• The Salamander
• The New People
Sample Topics Covered in Previous Conferences
• Serling’s Earliest Work in Cincinnati, Ohio
• Table read of “Noon on Doomsday,” an un-produced version based on “The Murder of Emmitt Till”
• The Twilight Zone as Philosophical Concept
• The impact of war on Serling’s work
• Parenting and gender in the Twilight Zone
• Graphic novelizations of the Twilight Zone
• Serling’s work throughout pop culture
For a list of presentation topics from the 2011 conference,
http://www.ithaca.edu/rhp/
For the proceedings from the 2006, 2008 and 2009 conference, http://www.ithaca.edu/rhp/
