Book Publishing Assistant vacancy

Intellect is an independent academic publisher of books and journals, focusing on areas of creative practice & popular culture. We have a vacancy for a Book Publishing Assistant to work within our books team.

Duties will include:
∝ Primarily book project management, including editorial, production and marketing
∝ Liaising with authors, editors, printers and distributors
∝ Copywriting and assisting with production of promotional material for books
∝ Supervising production and distribution of e-books
∝ Coordinating royalties
∝ Attendance at conferences and trade shows
As part of a small team, there will be some other areas of work to which you may be asked to contribute.

The successful candidate will either have a postgraduate degree in publishing, or have at least two years experience in the publishing industry. Excellent organisational and communication skills, initiative and ability to manage and prioritize multiple responsibilities are important in this role. Good computer skills required; experience with Macs and Adobe & Office packages a bonus. Starting salary of £14K plus optional employer contribution of up to 8% for pension scheme.
Please apply with a full CV and covering letter at the earliest convenience to Sam King sam@intellectbooks.com.
Deadline 28th May. Interviews will be held at Intellect offices in Bristol on 4th and 5th June.

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Author article

Olivia Turnbull, author of theatre title: Bringing Down the House: The Crisis in Britain’s Regional Theatres has written an article about the regional theatre crisis for Whatsonstage.com. She looks at the recent problems faced by the Bristol Old Vic and how they reflect wider issues facing Britain's theatres in the 21st century, issues also comprehensively explored in her book.

To read Olivia's article in full visit: www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=207&story=E8831231242172

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Interview with author Terry Bolas about his new book Screen education: from film appreciation to media studies

How did you come to write Screen education: from film appreciation to media studies?
I had been very involved in the Society for Education in Film and Television (SEFT) in the 1960s when serious consideration of film and television took place only at the margins of educational establishments. Yet by the start of the 21st Century the study of the media in all their variety was everywhere. It was such a startling denouement that I was intrigued and determined to investigate. What surprised me was that no-one had yet taken up the challenge. For the many film and media studies graduates seeking doctorates, it was research that offered tremendous scope. I did subsequently come across other researchers looking into related areas like aspects of the film society movement or local film and cinema history. Perhaps it was simply that media teaching was now such an integral part of institutions that its graduates had no more curiosity about its provenance than an English or History graduate would have had about the institutional establishment of their respective studies.

Why does your account of the history start so early in the 20th Century?
The momentum of the movement picked up greatly in the 1970s and most of the brief introductory historical accounts that do exist tend to make only the scantest reference to preceding decades. But the huge investment of energy that took place in the 1970s was only possible because of the structures created by what had gone before. I was aware of this because I had known - and in some cases worked with - those who had been pioneers in the 1930s and 1940s. Subsequently much of the momentum in the 1950s had come from the ‘emergency trained’ teachers who had attended the one-year courses for ex-service personnel in the immediate post war period. They continued to play important roles as volunteers in the movement when I first became involved. They established the Society of Film Teachers (SFT), which subsequently became SEFT. Fortunately there is surviving and accessible evidence of their involvement to be found in the publications of the period: Film Teacher, The Film Teacher’s Handbook, Screen Education, Screen Education Yearbook.

What were your sources?
When I first proposed my project I had worked on the assumption that the two key organisations, the Education Department of the British Film Institute (BFI) and SEFT would have left substantial archives. Unfortunately this was not so. There were partial archives which were now being stored and maintained with proper recognition of their importance. But the current host archiving bodies had only been in a position to receive the material passed to them; they had had no control over what constituted the incoming documentation. I was particularly disappointed that the SFT/SEFT records from the 1950s and 1960s had disappeared, since I had acted as custodian of these documents when I was the Honorary Secretary of SEFT up till 1967. For me the process of research was rather different from that encountered by most researchers. Since so much of my enquiry depended on personal recollection I found myself interviewing people whom I had known or worked with some thirty five years ago. The response of my interviewees was a very positive one, since many were aware of the key period in which they had been involved and understandably thought having an account of it was a good idea. Many were prepared to share with me not only their recollections but their personal media teaching archives.

Apart from your involvement with SEFT you worked in the Education Department of the British Film Institute in the late 1960s and early 1970s. What are your recollections of that period?
The key figure at that time was Paddy Whannel who headed the Department. Like several of the SEFT activists, he had been trained as a teacher in the immediate post war period. While encouraging the members of his staff to develop their specialist areas of film criticism, he was committed to finding ways of introducing film and television study into schools. When he and Stuart Hall produced their ground-breaking book The Popular Arts, in order to give credibility to their enterprise, the dust jacket emphasised that each author had been a teacher in secondary modern schools. Unfortunately BFI Governors demonstrated more concern at Whannel’s drive for intellectual rigour among his colleagues than to his commitment to curriculum development in schools.

Why did you leave the BFI and return to teaching?
It is important that those whose careers have been consequent on their earning degrees in film or media to be aware there was no such career structure for teachers or lecturers until film and media studies began to be established in higher education in the late 1970s. For most of us ‘screen education’ was a phase we went through before returning to a more conventional career path in order to achieve promotion in teaching in school teaching or further education. Subsequently, once in post in a school, I always endeavoured to find ways to introduce aspects of film and media study into the curriculum.

How do you view the current situation around the delivery of media education?
It is curious, to say the least, that there was such a long gap of almost twenty years after SEFT disappeared before any comparable subject association was created for film and media teachers in schools, with the setting up of the Media Education Association in 2006. Of course there had long been an organisation for those teaching in higher education: Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA). This body had responded to the rapid and widespread expansion of media and associated subjects in the universities. The situation in schools was different. Essentially the years of collaboration between the BFI and SEFT had been the pioneer years with only limited developments in the curriculum and much teacher energy directed to establishing the credibility of media education. However, once there was scope within the secondary schools for students to sit public examinations in film and media, the focus for teachers became their own institutions. Their priorities were now set by Examining Boards. Government has subsequently thrown in a further complication by stressing the importance of ‘media literacy’ and giving responsibility for its implementation to a national regulatory body: Ofcom. In 1964 there was established the first course on which students might train and qualify as a teacher of Film and Television Studies; in 2009 there is now no similar provision for would-be media teachers. Consequently the teaching in schools of examination subjects in film and media is delivered by those who are usually drafted in from other disciplines.

Screen education: from film appreciation to media studies by Terry Bolas,
ISBN 9781841502373 is available now, visit:

www.intellectbooks.co.uk/books/view-Book,id=4630/

for further information and to buy your copy.

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CALL FOR BOOK PROPOSALS FOR ECREA BOOK SERIES

The Series Editors of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) invite the submission of book proposals for the ECREA Book Series:

WHO is invited to submit?
A clear preference is given to edited volumes that provide an overview of the work of the ECREA membership. At the same time, a degree of openness towards non-ECREA members is also considered to add value to the Book Series. For this reason, at least 50% of the chapters need to originate from ECREA members (individual members, or members through an institutional membership). For the same reason, at least one of the editors needs to be an ECREA member.

WHAT are we seeking?
ECREA Book Series Publications need to have a very clear theme on which they focus and which needs to be related to the focal points of ECREA (as described in article 3 of the ECREA statutes - see the ECREA website http://www.ecrea.eu). Although the series is open to the wide diversity of disciplines and subjects present among ECREA members, editorial choices will also take into account the potential audience of a proposed book.

What is the deadline for submissions?
Proposals need to be sent to the series editors (by regular mail or email) before 31 December, 2008 (17:00 GMT).

WHO subsidises the publication?
Each year, ECREA subsidises one publication. The ECREA Book Series editors will be in charge of selecting this publication. Their selection will be confirmed by a decision of the ECREA Executive Board.

Other publications may also be included in the ECREA Book Series. In this case, the editors will need to provide the necessary subsidies for the publication of the manuscript and for distributing a copy to each ECREA member. The inclusion of the book in the ECREA Book Series will still be dependant upon the decision of the ECREA Book Series editors and the Executive Board.

A more detailed version of the procedure is available at the 'Members only' segment of the ECREA website (http://www.ecrea.eu).

HOW should one submit a proposal or manuscript?
A form to submit a book proposal is available at the 'Members only' segment of the ECREA website (http://www.ecrea.eu). The form can be found in the DocArchive, in the folder "book series". The document is called "application form for book proposals." Only this form can be used for submitting a book proposal.

TO WHOM should it be sent?
Book proposals and manuscripts can be sent by regular mail or e-mail (attachment in .rtf, or .pdf format) to:

Nico Carpentier
Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University Brussels
Communication Studies Department - SCOM
Pleinlaan 2
B-1050 Brussels
Belgium
E-mail: Nico.Carpentier@vub.ac.be

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Full Backlist Catalogue

We now have a complete list of all our available book titles all in one place – our full backlist catalogue!

Our ongoing commitment is to publish in new and emerging academic subject areas related to popular culture. We publish approximately 35 books and 46 journals a year in creative media. Topics range from film studies, theatre and performance, music, television, art and design, education, language, gender study and international culture. This catalogue details all of our available titles published from 1987 to 2008 and features a selection of our books from each subject area.

Follow the link below to download the backlist catalogue as a PDF document:

www.intellectbooks.co.uk/Backlist_catalogue.pdf

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New book surveys fifty years of design and looks to the future of the industry

In The Designer, Rosemary Sassoon surveys fifty years of change in the world of design, evaluating the skills that have been lost, how new techniques affect everyday work, and how training methods prepare students for employment. This indispensable volume reveals how design is both an art and a skill – one with a rich past and momentous relevance for the future. Sassoon provides a fascinating account of her own career from her beginnings at art school and an apprenticeship, with accounts of long-forgotten techniques of the art. This is an important study of design as an art and a skill – a practical tool with a rich past and relevance for the future.

The Designer demonstrates how flexible attitudes and several lines of expertise work well in an ever-changing world. The book also includes contributions from eminent professionals in the field, focusing on the present and future roles designers play in society. Weaving together biography and career advice, theory and practice, The Designer provides a unique history of the art form and looks ahead to an age of ever-changing attitudes to drawing, aesthetics, and artistic practice.

Title Info: The Designer: Half a Century of Change in Image, Training, and Techniques
Author: Rosemary Sassoon
ISBN: 9781841501956
Paperback: 230x174mm
Price: £14.95 / $30

For more information, and to order the book direct from us, visit:
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/ppbooks.php?isbn=9781841501956

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From Shakespeare to Seinfeld – new book reflects on the past 40 years of TV culture

Solange Davin and Rhona Jackson's new edited volume, Television and Criticism unites a distinguished body of scholars to challenge the traditional boundaries between high and low TV culture. Through a theoretical lens, this volume addresses such topics as the blurring of genres, television and identity, and the sophistication of television audiences by examining examples from soap operas, televised adaptations of classic novels, film noir, and popular shows like Queer as Folk, Seinfeld, and Ally McBeal. Ranging from Shakespeare to Dragnet, this comprehensive study will interest all those with an interest in the history of TV culture.

CHAPTERS INCLUDE:
* Our Common Cultural Heritage: Classic Novels and English Television (Len Platt)
* Aspects of the Soap Opera and Other Stories (Dorothy Hobson)
* Shakespeare on American Television and the Special Relationship between the UK & the USA (Curtis Breight)
* Television as History: History as Television (Ann Wales)
* ‘The story you are about to see is true’: Dragnet, Film Noir and Postwar Realism (R. Barton Palmer)
* The Skilled Viewer (Rhona Jackson)
* The Culture of Post-Narcissism: Post-Teenage, Pre-Midlife Singles Culture in Seinfeld, Ally McBeal and Friends (Michael Skovmand)
* Television’s Vanishing Terms? Traditional Aesthetics and Television Drama in the Age of Reality TV (Felix Thompson)
* ‘I’ve been searching my soul tonight’: the Ally McBeal Effect (Jill Barker)

Title Info: Television and Criticism
Editors: Solange Davin and Rhona Jackson
ISBN: 9781841501475
Paperback: 230x174mm
Price: £19.95 / $40

For more information, and to order the book direct from us, visit:
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/ppbooks.php?isbn=9781841501475

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Art education, Science, Technology and Culture collide in a new book from Intellect

The future of art and education is evolving, propelling artists into unknown territory in the new media age.

Educating Artists for the Future edited by Mel Alexenberg offers ground-breaking guidelines for higher art-education, focusing on the way that contemporary education must accept and reflect changes in digital and cultural systems. This is the first book concerned with educating artists for the post-digital age, and presents dynamic teaching strategies from a culturally diverse range of artists, researchers and teachers, focusing on student-concentrated, interactive learning. Alexenberg’s volume provides imaginative discussion for teaching the relationships between art and technology, recognising the complex balance between cultural pride and global awareness. Educating Artists for the Future charts the dissolving boundaries between science, technology, culture and art, redefining higher art-education.


Title Info:
Educating Artists for the Future: Learning at the Intersections of Art, Science, Technology and Culture.
Editor: Mel Alexenberg
ISBN: 9781841501918
Paperback: 230x174mm
Published: 01 April 08
Price: £29.95 / $60
URL: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/ppbooks.php?isbn=9781841501918

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Declarations of Independence: American Cinema and the Partiality of Independent Production
by John Berra
John Berra explores the controversy of Independent American cinema, using directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderberg as examples of those who have also flourished in the mainstream circuit. This comprehensive book profiles the industry, questioning the supposed autonomy of independent cinema and asking if independent film can possibly survive in the face of the mass-production and profit of Hollywood. Praise for the book: ‘There has long been a gap in the film literature marked American Independent Cinema. John Berra's handsome and generous new study fills it to repletion. Prodigiously well-informed, economically literate, lengthy in its reach […] and infectiously enthusiastic in excellent prose, he has made an addition to the best literature of film without ever lapsing into the jargon of Theory.’ – Professor Fred Inglis, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies, University of Sheffield. While the survival of American independent cinema may be in question, it is reassuring to know that the efforts of those involved are celebrated: The Los Angeles Film Festival from June 19th-28th 2008 explores the work of independent filmmakers.

Hong Kong New Wave Cinema 1976 – 2000
by Pak Tong Cheuk
If you’re interested in film you’ll also be pleased to hear about Pak Tong Cheuk’s new book. Tong presents a comprehensive picture of the films made in this vibrant era and the complexity of issues they tackle such as East-West conflict, colonial politics, the struggle of women in a modernizing Asian city and identity crisis, all portrayed in visually striking ways. The book explores the development of TV and film industries in Hong Kong during the 1960s and 1970s, the elevated quality of cinema during this period and the entry of Hong Kong filmmakers, such as Tsui Hark and Ann Hui, into the mainstream and Hollywood in the 1990s. His study of the celebrated golden age of Hong Kong film contextualises 'New Wave' and describes its wide-reaching effects upon contemporary cinema in Hong Kong, the greater China region and far beyond. Praise for Hong Kong New Wave Cinema; ‘an interesting and detailed look at one of the most vital movements in the film industry during the latter part of the twentieth century.’ – Neil Koch, HKFilm.net.

Lovefuries: The Contracting Sea; The Hanging Judge; Bite or Suck
by David Ian Rabey
Fans of David Ian Rabey’s The Wye Plays can now get hold of the dramatist’s second volume of plays, Lovefuries, (part of Intellect’s Playtext series) Hailed as a fierce, pioneering Welsh playwright, David Ian Rabey is well known for his innovative, extreme drama that pushes the boundaries of contemporary theatre. Lovefuries offers a triple helping of powerful performance
pieces that dare to challenge the subjects of grief and sexual abuse and defy national and personal pressures to keep silent. David Ian Rabey reflects on one of the plays from the collection, The Hanging Judge; 'I think there may be a Hanging Judge in us all-an internalised voice…which mocks our achievements, dismisses our worth and is witheringly reductive of all possibilities.' Theatre in Wales describes the collection: ‘The struggle is fierce, suspenseful, and genuinely surprising in its outcome.’

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Intellect E-Books now available via Dawsonera

Intellect ebooks are now available for libraries to purchase via dawsonera, a leading eBook lending platform and acquisitions tool for academic and research libraries worldwide.
Intellect has 140 ebook titles available within the dawsonera catalogue (containing over 35,000 ebooks in total), and as we publish new books, we will ensure these are made available in ebook format on the dawsonera platform. Librarians can search all available Intellect titles at - http://www.dawsonera.com/ - login via the Admin portal, and click on the Advance search. Intellect is listed under the A-Z Publisher Directory.

For further information on how to order Intellect ebooks through dawsonera, contact Jude Norris (enquiries@dawsonera.com), or visit http://www.dawsonbooks.co.uk/services/e-books.html.

Intellect books are also available as e-books through the following providers:
Ebooks Corporation (Individuals and Libraries), Ebrary (Libraries), Netlibrary (Libraries), Myilibrary (Libraries), Ellibs (Individuals and Libraries) and Lightning Source (Libraries).

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Spring 2008 Promotion

Make a new Intellect journal subscription before 30th May 2008 and enjoy a book of your choice from our extensive range for FREE! Simply place your journal order with our journal distributors, Turpin, by contacting: custserv@turpin-distribution.com quoting reference ‘intellectspring’ in the subject header of your email and we’ll be in touch to find out which book you’d like to receive!

See our extensive list of titles at www.intellectbooks.com

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