Conference - The Wire as Social Science Fiction?
26-27 November 2009, Leeds Town Hall
Programme
Thursday 26 November 2009
Thursday 26 November - 10.00-11.30
Welcome & Plenary Session 1
Albert Room
Moderator: Roger Burrows (University of York)
‘It ain't about right, it's about money’
Peter Moskos (John Jay College of Criminal Justice/City University of New York)
Thursday 26 November - 11.30-11.45
Tea/Coffee Break- served in the breakout area
Thursday 26 November - 11.45-12.45
Session 101 - Other Voices from Maryland
Albert Room
Moderator: Roger Burrows (University of York)
Papers:
- 101-a: “It's Nice Here, Huh?”: Affective Labor and Dispossession in West Baltimore, Robert Thomas Choflet (University of Maryland)
- 101-b: The Wire and Its Representations of Baltimore: Through the Eyes of the Natives, Kimberly R Moffitt (University of Maryland Baltimore County)
Session 102 - The Wire as Televisual Experience
Moderator: Bev Skeggs (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Kramer Room
Paper:
- 102-a: What Does The Wire Tell us About 21st Century Television, David Hesmondhalgh (University of Leeds)
Session 103 - Surveillance, Technology and The Wire
Moderator: Rowland Atkinson (University of York)
Grimshaw Room
Papers:
- 103-a: Surveillance, Resistance and Technology in The Wire, Beverly Geesin (University of York)
- 103-b: Object Lessons: Dead Media, Live Wires, and 21st-Century Policing, Jann Matlock (University College London)
Thursday 26 November - 12.45-13.45
Lunch
Thursday 26 November - 13.45-15.15
Session 201 - Omar: Ethics, Power and Performativity
Albert Room
Moderator: Emma Uprichard (University of York)
Papers:
- 201-a: "No shame in my game": Examining Omar's Challenge to Systems of Authority and Power, Aidan Condron (University of Sussex)
- 201-b: “A man gotta live what he knows, right?”: Omar and ‘Performativity, Kerstin Mueller, Goldsmiths, University of London
- 201-c: A Man Must Have a Code: The Masculine Ethics of Snitching and Not-snitching, Thomas Ugelvik (University of Oslo)
- 201-d: Omar Little: An Obituary, Juliet Brown & Nilam McGrath (University of Leeds)
Session 202 - Authenticity, Truth and Myth
Moderator: Dominic Williams (University of Reading)
Kramer Room
Papers:
- 202-a: "Juking the Stats”: Truth and Fiction in Targets and Terror, Leo McCann, Paula Hyde, Edward Granter & John Hassard (University of Manchester)
- 202-b: The Wire and Myths of Social Exclusion, Simon Winlow (University of York)
- 202-c: Authentic Depictions? Ruth-Penfold-Mounce (University of York)
Session 203 - The Wire as Social Science Fiction I
Moderator: Mike Savage (CRESC, University of Manchester)
Papers:
- 203-a: The Wire as a Superior Story: How to Tell the Truth, Jonathan Minton (University of York)
- 203-b: The Wire: 'Social Science fiction’ or Genre TV? Jane Gibb & Roger Sabin (University of Arts London)
- 203-c: The Wire: A New Breed of 'Obsodrama', Freya Billington & Ruth Kelham (University of Gloucestershire)
Thursday 26 November - 15.15-15.45
Tea/Coffee Break- served in the breakout area
Thursday 26 November - 15.45-17.15
Session 301 - Childhood, Youth and Education
Kramer Room
Moderator: Nicholas Pleace (University of York)
Papers:
- 301-a: Out of the Mouths of Baltimoreans: The Educational Narratives of The Wire, Lindsay Fitzclarence, Arena Journal Magazine
- 301-b: Gangsters at School: Organizing Formal Education in The Wire, Hugo Gaggiotti (University of the West of England) & Miguel Gaggiotti (University of Kent)
Session 302 - Policing Re-Wired?
Grimshaw Room
Moderator: Peter Moskos (John Jay College of Criminal Justice/City University of New York)
Papers:
- 302-a: Street Police: Rules, Codes, and Mix-ups, Michel Kokoreff (University of Nancy 2)
- 302-b: Criminology Re-wired: Replacing the C.S.I. Problem with The Wire Problem? Craig Webber & David Graham (University of Southampton)
- 302-c: Policing as Social Engineering: Reflections on the “Hamsterdam” Experiment, Dominic Wood ( Canterbury Christ Church University)
Session 303 - The Wire as Social Science Fiction II
Moderator: Roger Burrows (University of York)
Albert Room
Papers:
- 303-a: Social Science Fiction: Some Analytical Issues, Mike Savage (CRESC, University of Manchester)
- 303-b: Policing the Crisis, or, Why We Love The Wire, Rebecca Bramall (University of Brighton) & Ben Pitcher (Oxford Brookes University)
- 303-c: The ' Writers' Room as Fiction-making Laboratory: The Wire as Sociotechnical Translation, John Farnsworth & Terry Austrin (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)
Thursday 26 November - 17.15-17.30
Tea/ Coffee break
Thursday 26 November - 17.30-19.00
Session 401 - Politics and The Wire
Kramer Room
Moderator: Anthony Bryant (Leeds Metropolitan University)
Papers:
- 401-b: “This here’s the world we got, people”: Political Theory after The Wire? Ben Bryant
- 401-c: 'A City Upon a Hill': The Wire and Its Distillation of the United States Polity, Mark Wheeler (London Metropolitan University)
- 401-a: Mutualism and Markets: An Exploration of Moral Regulation in The Wire, Ewen Speed & Lynne Pettinger (University of Essex)
Session 402 - The Wire as Social Science Fiction III
Albert Room
Moderator: Ruth Penfold-Mounce (University of York)
Papers:
- 402-a: Non Text-based Sociology: The Wire and Its Relationship to Public Sociology and Progress, Rowland Atkinson (University of York)
- 402-b: Complexity and the Case Study: ‘The Wire’ as Social Science? Emma Uprichard (University of York)
- 402-c: “The Game is the Game”: Bourdieu’s Theoretical Technologies and The Wire, Yousaf Ibrahim (University of Manchester)
Session 403 - Ethics of the Real
Grimshaw Room
Moderator: Roger Burrows (University of York)
Papers:
- 403-a: Ethics of the Real: Screening Masculinity, Violence and the Racial Everyday in The Wire, 1, Ashwani Sharma (University of East London)
- 403-b: Ethics of the Real: Screening Masculinity, Violence and the Racial Everyday in The Wire, 2, Koushik Banerjea (University of East London)
Thursday 26 November - 19.15
Drinks reception- Leeds City Museum
Friday 27 November
Friday 27 November-09.30- 10.30
Plenary Session 2
Albert Room
Moderator: Mike Savage, CRESC, University of Manchester
The Wire: Where Do Bunnys Come From? From Hamsterdam to Hubris
Anthony Bryant (Leeds Metropolitan University) & Griselda Pollock (University of Leeds)
Friday 27 November-10.30- 11.00
Tea/Coffee break- served in the breakout area
Friday 27 November-11.00- 12.30
Session 501 - Gender (In)Authenticities
Moderator: Bev Skeggs (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Kramer Room
Papers:
- 501-a: What The Wire Showed by not Showing: The Invisibility of Domestic Violence in Disordered Neighbourhoods, Enrique Gracia (University of Valencia)
- 501-b: Policing the Borders of White Masculinity: Labour, Whiteness, and the Neoliberal City in the Wire, Hamilton Carroll (University of Leeds)
- 501-c: “They saw your ghetto ass coming from Miles away”: Masculinity and Stringer Bell, Dan Ward
Session 502 – Watching The Wire I
Panel Discussion - 'True Citizens of the City': Watching The Wire Communally, Affectively, Repeatedly
Albert Room
Moderator: Roger Burrows (University of York)
- 502-a Discussants: Susan Anderson (Leeds Trinity and All Saints), Catherine Bates (Keele University), Michelle Gewurtz (University of Leeds), Kaley Kramer (Leeds Metropolitan University), Marcel Swiboda (University of Leeds) & Dominic Williams (University of Reading) merging with
- 502-b Open discussion about the role of The Guardian newspaper in the promulgation of The Wire with Steve Busfield, Head of Media and Technology, Guardian News and Media and the co-author of The Wire Re-up: the Guardian Guide to the Greatest TV Show Ever Made
Friday 27 November-12.30- 13.30
Lunch
Friday 27 November-13.30- 15.00
Session 601 - On Acoustics
Albert Room
Moderator: Rowland Atkinson (University of York)
Papers:
- 601-a: Music Supervision and The Wire: A Case Study in Ambient Naturalism, Jon Stewart (Lancaster University/ Brighton Institute of Modern Music)
- 602-b: “Don’t pump up the emotion”: The Creation and Authorship of a Sound World in The Wire, Robert Walker, Edinburgh Napier University
- 602-c: Policing Technology: Acoustic Practices in The Wire, Nicholas Chare (University of Reading)
Session 602 - Watching The Wire II
Kramer Room
Moderator: Emma Uprichard (University of York)
Papers:
- 602-a: Articulations of Acclaim: An Exploration of Critics' and Academics’ Responses to The Wire, Natasha Whiteman (University of Leicester)
- 602-b: Watching The Wire: The Fiction of Work in the Work of Fiction, Linda Speidel (Roehampton University)
- 602-c: Novel Media: The Wire and Collaborative Viewership, Daniel Trottier (Queen's University)
Session 603 - Narratives and Representations
Grimshaw Room
Moderator: Nick Gane (University of York)
Papers:
- 603-a: Stories undo Stories: Unravelling The Wire, Renata Tyszczuk (University of Sheffield)
- 603-b: “I Told You about Playing those Away Games”: The Structure of Hope and Inequality in The Wire, Christophe Ringer (Vanderbilt University)
- 603-c: The Wire and the World: Narrative and Metanarrative, Sheamus Sweeney, Dublin City University
Friday 27 November-15.00- 16.00
Albert Hall
Final Open Discussions and Close
Abstracts of all papers
All the paper abstracts and abstracts for pre-organised sessions are listed in chronological order in the following documents which are available to download as a Word file.
