HoMER Network: History of Moviegoing, Exhibition and Reception
The HoMER Network is an association of media historians aiming to write a history of movies and media from the perspective of the audience. HoMER stands for the History of Moviegoing, Exhibition and Reception, and the network allows members to host conferences, workshops, and panels, often within NECS: European Network for Cinema and Media Studies.
The network was formed in 2004 in parallel with Richard Maltby's coinage of the term New Cinema History as a paradigm for a social history of film cultures, as opposed to an art history of the moving image. Both HoMER and the term "New Cinema History" aim to institutionalize Maltby's decade-long work with Melvyn Stokes researching cinema audiences, which included several international conferences and publications.
HoMER International Conferences have included:
- Cinema in Context, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 20-21 April 2006.
- The Glow in their Eyes, Ghent, Belgium, 14-16 December 2007.
- Proceedings: Explorations in New Cinema History, eds. Maltby, Biltereyst, Meers.
- Proceedings: Cinema, Audiences and Modernity, eds. Biltereyst, Maltby, Meers.
- Glow in their Eyes Revisited, Prague, Czech Republic, 19 June 2013.
- Comparative Approaches to Moviegoing, Milan, Italy, 18 June 2014.
- What is Cinema History? Glasgow, Scotland, 20-24 June 2015.
- Histories of Moviegoing, Potsdam, Germany, July 2016.
- Circuits of Cinema: Movie & Media Distribution, Toronto, Canada, 21-24 June 2017.