CFP American Literature Association 2014 Conference (1/30/14)

Call for Papers

American Literature Association

25^th Annual Conference

 

May 22-25, 2014

Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill

400 New Jersey Avenue N.W.

Washington D.C. 20001

(202-737-1234)

Conference Director:  Alfred Bendixen

Texas A & M University

Conference Fee:  For those who pre-register before April 15, 2014:  $90 

($60 for Graduate Students, Independent Scholars, and Retired Faculty).

 After April 15, the fees are $100 and $75.

Deadline for Proposals:       January 30, 2014

The ALA website contains further details and instructions for submitting proposals as well as important information for representatives of participating author societies.  Proposals from individuals and program information from author societies should be sent to Professor Alfred Bendixen via email (abendixen@tamu.edu)

 by January 30, 2014 following the instructions on the website:

www.americanliterature.org

CFP Spec Issue on Border Crossings (12/1/13)

A head's up courtesy the American Literature Association (pdf at http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/english/ala2/Journal%20of%20American%20Drama%20and%20Theatre%202014.pdf).

CALL FOR PAPERS
Journal of American Drama and Theatre
SPECIAL ISSUE: BORDER CROSSINGS
Deadline: December 1, 2013

“The border is not merely a wall or a body of water. It is a force of containment that inspires dreams of being overcome and crossed…”
Ramón Rivera-Servera and Harvey Young, Performance in the Borderlands (2011)

The American Theatre and Drama Society invites submissions for the Spring 2014 issue of the Journal of American Drama and Theatre.

Borders have been conceived of as sites of tension, violently maintained boundaries that define, divide, contain and exclude, and as sites of hope, inviting resistance, transgression, crossings, and straddlings that open up endless possibilities for re-namings and re-formations, inclusion, and multiplicity. This special issue centers the border as both an imagined concept and a material reality, in the theatre of the Americas. It seeks to explore how the existence of borders and the movement across them has captured the attention of theatre artists and has modeled ways of thinking about the performance of identity. Contributors are invited to consider the relationship of American theatre and performance to conceptions of “borders” and acts of border crossing or straddling in the widest possible terms. Submissions may address theatre and performance (broadly construed) from across the Americas, North and South.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• American Theatre and Drama during politically contentious historical eras (e.g., the Great Depression or the Cold War)
• The Politics of translation/adaptation
• Hybridity and/or fluidity in dramatic form or style of production (Realism/nonrealism, notions of “Neo” and “Post” etc.)
• Issues of gender, sexuality, race, and/or ethnicity
• Inter/trans-disciplinarity in performance texts, process, and/or production
• Inter/trans-national and inter/trans-cultural exchanges in performance texts, process, or production
• New media

Manuscripts (4000-6000 words) should be prepared in conformity with the Chicago Manual of
Style, using footnotes rather than endnotes. Articles should be submitted as e-mail attachments,
using Microsoft Word format. Please note that all correspondence will be conducted by email.
Submissions must be received no later than December 1, 2013; please email articles to
Cheryl Black, Blackc@missouri.edu.

Authors do not need to be a member of the American Theatre and Drama Society to submit an
article, but submissions from members are especially encouraged. (For more information about
the society, see www.atds.org.)

Science Fiction Studies for November 2013

The latest number of Science Fiction Studies arrived this week. Here are the contents from the journal's website: http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/covers/cov121.html:

Science Fiction Studies
#121 = Volume 40, Part 3 = November 2013

ESSAYS ON STANISŁAW LEM’S SUMMA TECHNOLOGIAE
Edited by Rob Latham

• N. Katherine Hayles. Stanisław Lem’s Summa Technologiae: Mirror Text to The Cyberiad

• David Wittenberg. Indecision and Splendid Excess: Analogies of Evolution in Stanisław Lem’s Summa Technologiae

• Pawel Frelik. Stanisław Lem’s Summa Technologiae as Impossible Utopia

• Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr. The Summa and the Fiction

ARTICLES

• Mariano Martín Rodríguez. Longing for the Empire? Modernist Lost-Race Fictions and the Dystopian Mode in Spain

• Eileen McGinnis. Remediated Readers: Gender and Literacy in Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age

• Jonathan Newell. Abject Cyborgs: Discursive Boundaries and the Remade in China Miéville’s Iron Council

• Stephen Dougherty. The Dangerous Rays of the Future: Democracy, Media, Science Fiction

REVIEW-ESSAYS 

• Stephen Dougherty. The Self Is a Reader, The Reader a Time Traveler: Wittenberg’s Time Travel.

• Arthur B. Evans. Good News from France: Vas-Deyres’s Ces Français qui ont écrit demain , Bréan’s La Science-fiction en France , Fondanèche’s La Littérature d’imagination scientifique

• Pawel Frelik. How We Think When We Think About Science Fiction: Hayles’s How We Think

BOOKS IN REVIEW

• Adams’s Exploring Invented Languages and Rogers’s A Dictionary of Made-Up Languages (Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr.)

• Baxter/Wymer’s J.G. Ballard (Taylor Evans)

• Butler’s Science Fiction in the 1970s (David M. Higgins)

• Capanna’s Cordwainer Smith (Carol McGuirk)

• Lavigne’s Cyberpunk Women, Feminism, and SF (Rebecca Holden)

• McAvan’s The Postmodern Sacred (Matthew J. Bond)

• Macdonald/Bleiler/Donovan’s Political Future Fiction (David Seed)

• McNally’s Monsters of the Market (Sherryl Vint)

• Milner’s Locating Science Fiction (John Rieder)

• Seed’s The Atomic Bomb and Cold War Narratives (Pedro Groppo)

• Stiles’s Popular Fiction and Brain Science (Lorenzo Servitje)

• Walter’s New Translation of Verne’s Sphinx (Arthur B. Evans)

NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE

• International Science Fiction Symposium in Japan (Pat Murphy et al.)
• Communiqués from the First and Second International Science Fiction Symposia (Brian Aldiss et al.)
• Slavic Science Fiction in the Slavic Review (Anindita Banerjee).
• Imagine Local: A New Kind of Science Fiction Convention (Katharine Kittredge and Elizabeth Bleicher)
• Speculative Visions of Race, Technology, Science, & Survival (Tamara Ho)
• SF and Technoculture Studies (Rob Latham and Sherryl Vint)
• A Celebration of Doctor Who (Paul Booth)
• Current Research in Speculative Fictions (Chris Pak and Michelle Yost)
• Memory Palace (Mark Bould)
• The Spirit of Utopia (Andrew M. Butler)
• New Acquisition at the Eaton (Melissa Conway) 

Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! (2008)

The recent release of Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! is an engaging adaptation of the classic picture book. The primary audience is (of course) kids, but the focus on Ned McDodd, the Mayor of Whoville, as one the film's protagonists extends the message of the film--regarding the power of belief and faith--to adults as well. The DVD release includes a commentary track by the directors of the film.

CFP Symposium on The Politics and Law of Doctor Who (1/17/14)

Thanks to IAFA for the head's up:

Symposium Announcement and First Call for Papers: The Politics and Law of Doctor Who

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Public Information Officer

Friday 5th September 2014

University of Westminster

Doctor Who is the BBC’s longest-running drama television series and the world’s longest-running science fiction series. The massive public attention devoted to the show’s 50th anniversary and to its choice of new lead actor confirms that the programme merits serious academic attention. Politics, law and constitutional questions often feature prominently in Doctor Who stories, whether in the form of the Time Lords’ guardianship of the universe, the Doctor’s encounters with British Prime Ministers, or the array of governance arrangements in Dalek society. The show’s politics is also an adventure through time, from the internationalising moralism of the Barry Letts-Terrance Dicks years, the dark satire of Andrew Cartmel’s period as script editor and the egalitarianism of the Russell T. Davies era. Yet the politics and law of Doctor Who have yet to be the subject of wide-ranging scholarship. Proposals for 20 minute papers are therefore invited for a symposium on 5th September 2014, to be held in the University of Westminster’s historic Regent Street building just metres away from BBC headquarters. Possible subjects for papers might include, but are by no means limited to:

• Doctor Who’s ideology
• The Doctor’s political morality
• Comparison of politics of Doctor Who with politics of other
science fiction
• The merits/demerits of Harriet Jones as Prime Minister
• Doctor Who and devolution
• Portrayals of British sovereigns in Doctor Who
• Doctor Who’s politics of class, gender and sexuality
• Fan responses to “political” Doctor Who stories
• International law, intergalactic law and non-interference
• Globalisation and corporate domination
• Satire in Doctor Who
• Politics and law in audio adventures, comic books and novels
• War crimes and genocide
• The politics of UNIT and Torchwood
• The will of villains to secure power
• Political history and political nostalgia in Doctor Who
• Doctor Who’s construction of British national identity

Abstracts should be 250 words in length, and should be accompanied by a 100-word biography of the author. Abstracts should be sent to nicold@wmin.ac.uk – deadline for receipt of abstracts 17 January 2014.

CFP Mythcon 2014 (4/15/14)

At last:

Call for Papers: Mythopoeic Society Conference 45
Wheaton College, Norton, MA
Friday, August 8 through Monday, August 11, 2014
http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/45/

WHERE FANTASY FITS
Scholar Guest of Honor: Richard C. West
Winner of the 1976 Mythopoeic Award for Inklings Scholarship for Tolkien Criticism.
Author Guest of Honor: Ursula Vernon
Winner of the 2013 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature for Digger.

Fantasy literature does not fit comfortably into any scheme. Both old and new, traditional and innovative, popular and elite, mainstream and esoteric, escapist and engaged, high-tech and anti-technology, fantasy defies definitions and transcends categories, dramatizing the incompleteness of our understanding of our own imaginations. At Mythcon 45 we will discuss the place of fantasy in our culture, our institutions, and our hearts.

Central to this theme will be questions of genre: What is fantasy? What are fairy stories? What constitutes the fantastic? What is fantasy versus magical realism? What is speculative fiction? How does Tolkien’s legendarium fit in with the mythic texts such as Beowulf or the Norse Eddas or his scholarship? How do Lewis’s Narnia books or his science fiction fit into the classic literary tradition? How do fantasists question our fundamental assumptions about literature and the world? We can discuss authors who explore different genres or modes of writing that do not lend themselves to easy categorization such as Neil Gaiman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Guy Gavriel Kay, Tim Powers, Terry Pratchett, and others who make us ponder what it means to fit into a particular style or format. We invite papers that broadly consider the nature and boundaries of fantasy and the relationship between fantasy and different literary and artistic forms—how fantasy fits or resists our attempts to classify and define it.

Papers and panels dealing with the conference themes (or other themes sparked in your brain by this topic) are encouraged. As always, we especially welcome proposals for papers and panels focusing on the work and interests of the Inklings (especially J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams), of our Guests of Honor, and of other fantasy authors and themes. Papers and panels from a variety of critical perspectives and disciplines are welcome.

Individual papers will be scheduled for one hour to allow time for questions, but should be timed for oral presentation in 40 minutes maximum. Two presenters who wish to present shorter, related papers may also share a one-hour slot. Panels will be scheduled for 1.5-hour time slots and will normally include 3-5 presenters who speak briefly on the subject (usually 10-15 minutes), leaving substantial time for discussion with the audience.

Participants are encouraged to submit papers chosen for presentation at the conference to Mythlore, the refereed journal of the Mythopoeic Society (http://www.mythsoc.org/mythlore). All papers should conform to the MLA Style Manual. Papers from graduate and undergraduate students are especially encouraged; we offer an award for “Best Student Paper.” See http://www.mythsoc.org/awards/student-paper.

Paper and panel proposals (250 word maximum), along with contact information, should be sent to the Papers Coordinator at the following email address by 15 April 2014. AV and technology requests must be included in your proposal.

Papers Coordinator:
David D. Oberhelman
Edmon Low Library
Oklahoma State University
d.oberhelman@okstate.edu

The Mythopoeic Society is an international literary and educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and mythopoeic literature. We believe the study of these writers can lead to greater understanding and appreciation of the literary, philosophical, and spiritual traditions which underlie their works, and can engender an interest in the study of myth, legend, and the genre of fantasy. Find out about past conferences at (http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon).

CFP Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Popular Fantasy (12/15/13)

CFP for Edited Collection: Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Popular Fantasy

Call for Papers Date:	2013-12-15 (in 30 days)
Date Submitted:	2013-09-26
Announcement ID:	207015

Proposals are invited for essays which explore non-normative representations of gender and sexuality in a range of contemporary popular fantasy, including, but not limited to: tv episodes and series, films, computer games and MMORPGs, novels and short stories, comics and graphic novels, role-playing games and fanfiction. In creating a fantasy world anything is possible, therefore writers, artists, directors and producers of fantasy worlds must acknowledge a degree of responsibility for their world beyond that of other creators. Given that they can create a world and its inhabitants to be any way at all, why it is that a fantasy world is created -like this- is a valid question to ask. This collection will consider the ways in which contemporary writers, artists, directors and producers use the opportunities offered by popular fantasy to exceed or challenge gender and sexuality norms. In contrast to many claims made about the fantasy genre being necessarily conservative/reactionary, this collection will explore the ways in which this genre can be and is being used to reflect on the contingency of our gender and sexuality norms. With this in mind, proposals are invited for essays of c.7000 words exploring representations of the following in contemporary popular fantasy across all media and cultural formats: Trans* characters; Non-binary gender, genderqueer and genderfluid characters; LGB characters; Queer characters; Asexual characters; Cisgender women and men characters which challenge or do not conform to heteronormativity; Non-monogamy and non-monogamous characters and relationships; Non-normative femininity/masculinity; BDSM and alternative sexualities and sexual practices; Intersections between gender and sexuality and race, class, dis/ability, mental health, and national and regional identities. In addition to: The work of LGBTQI or poly-identified writers, artists, directors, producers, etc. in all fields of contemporary popular fantasy; Relationships between popular fantasy and feminism, gender studies, queer theory and politics; Authorial responsibility regarding the representation of gender and sexuality; Potentials and possibilities for non-normative representations of gender and sexuality in popular fantasy. These lists are far from complete and should be taken only as a starting point, rather than definitive. The intention in this collection is engage directly and explicitly with an enormously successful popular genre which is often overlooked by literary and cultural criticism, rather than to look at 'the fantastic' broadly conceived. This is not to ignore the permeable boundaries of popular fantasy and the ways in which this genre is in continual dialogue with other genres. Essays exploring liminality - as long as they maintain a primary focus on gender and sexuality - are welcome. The scope of the contemporary is as unstable as the boundaries of genre and therefore is open to discussion. Generally speaking texts under discussion should have been produced, released or published within the last 20 years, however if there is a clear reason for expanding this timeframe earlier texts may be considered. Please do get in touch to discuss your ideas. Once selected the table of contents and abstracts will be submitted to Ashgate Publishing, who have expressed an interest. Final inclusion in the published volume will be subject to peer review. Please send proposals of 500 words plus a short biography to j.roberts@bbk.ac.uk by 15th December.

Jude Roberts Birkbeck College j.roberts@bbk.ac.uk Email: j.roberts@bbk.ac.uk Visit the website at http://www.academia.edu/3627632/Gender_and_Sexuality_in_Contemporary_Popular_Fantasy

Doctor Who / Torchwood for SWPACA (11/15/13)

Sorry for the short notice. Deadline for papers closes tonight.


CFP: Doctor Who and/or Torchwood-REVISED

Location:	New Mexico, United States
Conference Date:	2014-02-19
Date Submitted:	2013-11-03
Announcement ID:	208205

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Area of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association invites paper or panel proposals on Doctor Who and/or Torchwood at the 35th annual meeting of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association in Albuquerque, New Mexico. February 19-22, 2014 Any and all topics will be considered, although we especially encourage proposals on: o genre (comedy, horror, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, etc.) o reception/transmission of either series internationally (past or present) o Doctor Who as brand o regeneration(s) of the series o gender o Use/misuse of technology o Perspectives on the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who o Queer readings and/or presentations of LGBQT characters o auteur-ship o fandom and fanwork o Intersections of Doctor Who and/or Torchwood with this year’s theme “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” Proposals Due: November 15, 2013 Submit 250-word paper or full panel (title & 250-wd abstract for each panelist) proposals at: http://conference2014.southwestpca.org Database opens July 1 Submit in category Science Fiction & Fantasy—Doctor Who Questions: Erin Giannini (egiannini37@gmail.com) For more details on the conference, please visit the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture/American Culture Association: http://southwestpca.org or follow us on Facebook & Twitter at www.facebook.com/southwestpca or @southwestpca More about the SF&F Area: With an average of 70+ presenters annually, The Science Fiction and Fantasy Area of the Southwest and Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association is one of the most dynamic and well attended areas at the conference. Numerous book and article publications have originated from our panels. The Area was founded in 1995 by Prof. Richard Tuerk of the Texas A&M University-Commerce (formerly East Texas State University) and author of Oz in Perspective (McFarland, 2007). The Area is currently chaired by Ximena Gallardo C. of the City University of New York-LaGuardia and co-author of Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley (Continuum: 2004); Rikk Mulligan of Longwood University, author of “Zombie Apocalypse: Plague and the End of the World in Popular Culture” (End of Days, McFarland 2009); Tamy Burnett of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, co-editor of The Literary Angel (McFarland, 2010); Brian Cowlishaw of Northeastern State University, author of "No Future Shock Here: The Jetsons, Happy Tech, and the Patriarchy" (The Galaxy is Rated G, McFarland: 2011); Erin Giannini, independent scholar, who has presented and published work on series such as Dollhouse, Supernatural, and Mystery Science Theater 3000; and Susan Fanetti, Associate Professor at California State University Sacramento.

Erin Giannini, PhD Albuquerque, NM 87102 egiannini37@gmail.com Email: egiannini37@gmail.com Visit the website at http://conference2014.southwestpca.org/

PCA/ACA 2014 CFP

Calls for papers for the 2014 meeting of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association are now online. Conference details as follows:

Please join us in Chicago, IL April 16-19, 2014 for the National Conference. We will be staying at the Marriott Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile. The PCA/ACA is highly regarded in academe with well over 5,000 academic oral presentations given internationally, two top-tier journals (The Journal of American Culture and Journal of Popular Culture), and over 3,000 members.  This year’s Chicago conference should be exciting with papers on an enormous array of subjects. The deadline for online submission of papers will be November 1, 2013. Please do not email your abstract to an Area Chair, proposals can only be submitted via the submission site.  (Proposing a presentation for the conference instructions)

 You will select a Subject Area, after that enter your proposal’s title, abstract of no more than 250 words and a short 50-word bio (please review your name, university, abstract title and abstract for spelling & grammar). Submit only one proposal to one area. You may not submit the same proposal to multiple areas.

Key Dates:
Nov 1, 2013 – Deadline for abstract proposals
Dec 15, 2013 – “Early Bird” registration deadline
Jan 15, 2014 – Last day to register for the conference and remain listed in the program
Feb 1, 2014 – Preliminary schedule published on-line

Complete area list follows . Click the link for details. Proposals are due 11/1/13.

A

Academics & Collegiate Culture

Adaptation (Film, TV, Lit., & Electronic Gaming)

Adolescence in Film & Television

Advertising

African-American Culture

Age of Theodore Roosevelt & Popular Culture

Aging & Senior Culture

American Indian Literatures & Cultures

American Literature

Animation

Appalachian Studies

Armed Conflict

Asian Popular Culture

Australian & New Zealand Popular Culture

B

Baby-Boomer Culture

BDSM/Kink/Fetish Studies

Beer Culture - Special Topic – New for 2014!

Biographies

Black Music Culture & Hip-Hop Culture

The Body and Culture

Border Studies, Cultural Economy & Migration

Brazilian Popular Culture

British Popular Culture

Business, Money, and Office Cultures

C

Caribbean and Transatlantic Cultural Production and Issues

Celebrity in Culture

Cemeteries & Gravemarkers

Children’s/YA Series Books and Dime Novels

Children‘s Literature & Culture

Circuses & Circus Culture

Civil War & Reconstruction

Collecting & Collectibles

Comedy and Humor

Comics and Comic Art

Communication & Digital Culture

Copyright and Intellectual Property

Creative Fiction Writing

D

Dance & Dance Culture

Disasters, Apocalypses & Catastrophes - New Name – Formerly Disaster Culture

E

Eastern European Studies

Ecology and Culture

Education, Teaching, History & Popular Culture

Eros, Pornography & Popular Culture

F

Fairy Tales

Fan Culture & Theory

Fashion, Style, Appearance, Consumption & Design

Fat Studies

Festivals & Faires

Film

Film Adaptation

Film & History

Fitness, Exercise & Physical Culture – New for 2014!

Folklore

Food in Popular Culture

G

Game Studies

Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Studies

Gender & Media Studies

Gender Studies

Generation X

German Literature & Culture

Gothic in Literature, Film, & Culture

H

Horror

I

Indian Culture, Art, & Media

Internet Culture

J

Jack London’s Life & Works

Journalism & Media Culture

L

Language Attitudes & Popular Linguistics

Latin American Film & Media

Latin Americans & Latinos: Identity Issues & Cultural Stereotypes

Latin American Literature & Culture

Law & Popular Culture

Libraries, Archives & Museums

Literature & Madness

Literature, Politics, & Society

Literature & Science

M

Material Culture

Medical Humanities: Health and Disease in Culture

Medievalism in Popular Culture

Memory & Representation

Men/Men’s Studies

Mental Health & Mental Illness

Motherhood/Fatherhood & Popular Culture

Music

Musicals, Stage & Film

Mystery & Detective Fiction

Mythology in Contemporary Culture

N

New England Studies

New/Special Topics in Popular Culture

Non-Fiction Writing

P

Philosophy & Popular Culture

Poetry Studies & Creative Poetry

Politics Portrayed in Electronic Print and Media

Popular American Authors

Popular Art, Architecture, & Design

Popular History in American Culture

Professional Development

Protest Issues & Actions

Pulp Studies

Punk Culture

R

Radio & Audio Media

Religion & Culture

Rhetoric, Composition, & Popular Culture

Romance

S

Science Fiction/Fantasy

Sea Literature, History, & Culture

Shakespeare on Film and Television

The Sixties

Soap Opera and Serialized Storytelling

Sports

Stephen King

Subcultural Style & Identity

T

Tarot in Culture

Television

Theatre & Drama

Travel & Tourism

Tolkien Studies - Special Topic – New for 2014! 

U

Undergraduate Sessions

Urban Studies

V

The Vampire in Literature, Culture, & Film

Vehicle Culture - New Name – Formerly Automobile Culture

Virtual Identities & Self-Promoting

Visual Culture

W

War After 1945: Literature, History, Culture, and the Arts

Westerns & the West

Women’s Studies

World’s Fairs & Expositions

CFP ICFA 2014 (10/31/13)

CfP: ICFA 35 "Fantastic Empires"

full name / name of organization: 

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts

contact email: 

shanes1@kent.edu

 

35th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts
Empire
March 19-23, 2014
Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel
The deadline for submitting proposals is October 31.

From space operas to medieval tales to seminal works of fantasy, imaginative fiction abounds in fabulous empires. ICFA 35 will investigate the widest range of topics relating to empire, including discussions of particular texts, analyses of the hegemonic and counterhegemonic forces of empire, evaluations of individual resistances to imperialism (and of empires striking back), and assays into various other aspects of the theme. We welcome proposals for scholarly papers and panels that seek to examine, interrogate, and expand any research related to empire and the fantastic.

In addition to essays examining our honored Guests’ work, conference papers might consider specific fantastic empires, imaginative imperial fantasies, the semiotics of empire, fantastic diasporas and migrations, margins and liminal space(s), media empires, technologies of empire, speculative post-nationalism, fantastic Others, myth and empire, geographical/ideological mapping, transnational trauma, the construction/constriction of identity, or the multiple metaphors of empire. Panels might discuss various theories of empire, postcolonialism and the fantastic, language and imperialism, cosmopolitanism in the actual cosmos, Orientalism in classic texts, horrific hordes in film, dystopian empires, or postmodern theory and empire.

Please join us in Orlando in 2014. We will add your intellectual and creative distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile.

CFP Woman Fantastic Collection (11/1/13)

Engaging the Woman Fantastic in Contemporary American Media Culture (Nov. 1, 2013 / Jan. 30, 2014)

full name / name of organization: 

Elyce Rae Helford (senior editor), Mick Howard, Sarah Gray-Panesi, Shiloh Carroll / Middle Tennessee State University

contact email: 

ewfcollection@gmail.com

 

The past thirty years have offered a growing and changing body of scholarship on images of fantastic women in American popular culture. Collections from Marleen Barr’s Future Females (1981) and Future Females: The Next Generation (2000) to Elyce Rae Helford’s Fantasy Girls: Gender and the New Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy Television (2000) and Sherrie Inness’s Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture (2004) have offered multifaceted commentary on ways in which contemporary media culture posits and positions “empowered” women in speculative fictions. Engaging the Woman Fantastic in Contemporary Media Culture takes part in this tradition and brings it to the present day with emphasis on texts from the 1990s to the present and media from young adult fiction to social networks. In particular, this edited scholarly collection, to be published in 2014 by Cambridge Scholars Press, engages with female protagonists, antagonists, and characters that challenge such simple binaries in popular literature, television, comics, videogames, and other new media. As a whole, the volume will examine how images of fantastic women address prevailing ideas of gender, race, sexuality, class, nation, and other facets of identity in contemporary American culture.

We welcome proposals on all aspects of the “Woman Fantastic” within an imaginative fictional context and originating or retaining special media resonance from the mid-1990s to the present. Submissions should be grounded in a particular critical or theoretical perspective and center on a single text and/or character. We especially seek manuscripts within the following categories:

• Media: social networks and internet culture (e.g. Tumblr’s Eschergirls, Twitter’s Feminist Hulk, webcomics)
• Approaches: postcolonial, queer, disability, fandom
• Focus: images of women of color and/or queer women in any medium other than film

Note: We do not seek submissions on film, non-American texts, or DC comics. Also, because we are most interested in publishing studies of texts that have not been written about extensively elsewhere (e.g. the Harry Potter novels), be sure to offer a unique focus or new angle if you write on academically popular texts.

To submit, send a two-page proposal with working bibliography and brief vita (as a single .doc or .rtf attachment) to ewfcollection@gmail.com by November 1, 2013. Complete, polished manuscripts are due by January 30, 2014. Queries are welcome. Acceptance will be handled on a rolling basis.

MAPACA 2013 Conference

The Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association has just posted the schedule for its upcoming conference in Atlantic City this November. The program can be accessed at http://mapaca.net/conference/schedule, and, for those interested in attending, registration information can be found at http://mapaca.net/conference/2013/conference-registration.

Extrapolation Summer 2013 Issue

The latest number of Extrapolation is now available. Contents as follows. Articles can be accessed online from the publisher at http://liverpool.metapress.com/content/l062g0104133/?p=832918c7b60c42e8a306341b4fadf169&pi=0.

Extrapolation 54.2 (Summer 2013)

Jules Verne's Dream Machines: Technology and Transcendence
DOI 10.3828/extr.2013.8
Author Arthur B. Evans
129-146

A Triumvirate of Fantastic Poets: Ambrose Bierce, George Sterling, and Clark Ashton Smith
DOI 10.3828/extr.2013.9
Author S. T. Joshi
147-161

The Rise and Fall of Wilbur Mercer
 DOI 10.3828/extr.2013.10
Author Richard Viskovic
163-182

The Foundations of E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros
DOI 10.3828/extr.2013.11
Author Joseph Young
183-203

Reviews of Books
DOI 10.3828/extr.2013.12
205-242

NEPCA 2013 First Session List

Here are the advance details of our 2013 session in Colchester, Vermont. Hope to see you there.

Northeast Popular Culture Association
36th Annual Conference
St. Michael's College, Colchester, Vermont
October 25-26, 2012

Saturday, 26 October
Panel Twenty-Five. Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend: Science Fiction Character and Narrative 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM

Chair: Michael Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)

Paper 1: Michael Torregrossa, “Echoes of Frankenstein in the Comics”

Paper 2:  Kristine Larsen (Central Connecticut State University), “Mutant, Monster, Freak”: Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher Series and the Ethics of Genetic Engineering 

Paper 3: Kerry Shea (Saint Michael’s College), “When Species Speak: Interspecies Communication in Sheri Tepper’s The Companions”

Paper 4: Lance Eaton (North Shore Community College), “Hydeuous Evolution: Exploring How the Dwarfish Hyde Became the Monstrous Hulk in the Classroom”

NEPCA Sessions 2012 Update

I just realized that I never updated our session list from last fall. We had two very intimate (and enlightening) sessions. Paper proposals and additional material are available (as noted) on St. John Fisher College's digital archive at http://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/nepca/conference/.

Northeast Popular Culture Association
35th Annual Conference
St. John Fisher College, Rochester, New York
October 26-27, 2012

Saturday, October 27, 2012: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
11. Science Fiction, Fantasy and Legend I: Visions of the Future (Kearney 317)

Chair: Michael Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)

Paper 1: Cory Matieyshen (National University): “Bert the Turtle Won't Save You: American Science Fiction Prose and Criticism of Nuclear Civil Defense During the 1950s” (proposal and paper)

Cory Matieyshen is a Master of Arts in History student at National University in La Jolla, California. He lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Papers by Derek Newman-Stille, Özüm Ünal, and Shannon Tarango have been withdrawn. 


Saturday, October 27, 2012: 10:15 AM-11:45 AM
17. Science Fiction, Fantasy and Legend II: Old Legends, New Stories (Kearney 317)

Chair: Michael Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)

Paper 1: Mary Bridgeman (Trinity College Dublin): “Complex subjects in Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, and True Blood” (proposal and PowerPoint)

Mary Bridgeman is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies and the School of English in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. She is in her third year of research, which is funded by The Irish Research Council. Her dissertation “Loving the Dark: Gendered Subjectivity in Three Popular 21st Century American Vampire Romance Narratives” focuses on negotiations of womanhood in Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, and True Blood. As last year’s winner of the William E. Brigman award at the national meeting of The Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, Mary will have an article entitled “Forged in Love and Death: Problematic Subjects in The Vampire Diaries” published in The Journal of Popular Culture in February 2013.

Paper 2: Laura Wiebe (McMaster University): “Witches, Elves, and Bioengineers: Magic and Science in Kim Harrison’s The Hollows” (proposal)

Laura Wiebe is a Ph.D. Candidate (ABD) in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University, where she will be teaching a course on Science Fiction in the Winter 2013 term. She also teaches in McMaster’s Women’s Studies program and at Brock University in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Department of Communications, Popular Culture and Film. Laura’s doctoral research focuses on science and technology studies, theories of gender and of genre, critical posthumanism, and popular culture, particularly contemporary speculative fiction. Her academic work also includes the study of metal music and culture.

Paper 3: Kathleen Mulligan (Providence College): “Robin Hood: from ‘History’ to Folklore and Back Again” (proposal)

Kathleen Mulligan has a B.A. in history from Providence College in Rhode Island, where she is currently continuing her studies in their Master’s program for Medieval and Modern European History. After obtaining her Master’s degree she hopes to continue on in a doctoral program to study British history.

Paper 4: Michael Torregrossa (Independent Scholar): “Once and Future Kings Revisited: The Theme of Arthur Redivivus in Recent Comics” [note revised title] (proposal)

Michael A. Torregrossa is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs). His research interests include adaptation, Arthuriana, comics and comic art, medievalism, vampires, and wizards. Michael is currently Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area Chair for the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association. He is also founder of The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain, founder of The Institute for the Advancement of Scholarship on the Magic-Wielding Figures of Visual Electronic Multimedia, and co-founder, with Carl James Grindley, of The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages; he also serves as editor for these organizations’ various blogs. Michael has presented his research at regional, national, and international conferences and has been published in Adapting the Arthurian Legends for Children: Essays on Arthurian Juvenilia, Arthuriana, The Arthuriana / Camelot Project Bibliographies, Cinema Arthuriana: Twenty Essays, Film & History, The 1999 Film & History CD-ROM Annual, The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf to Buffy, and the three most recent supplements to The Arthurian Encyclopedia.

CFP Foundation on Gaming and SF (4/15/14)

The following was recently posted on IAFA-L.

CFP: Foundation, special issue on Science Fiction and Videogames

For over half a century—from the spaceship duels of Spacewar! and the attacking waves of the Space Invaders, through to the explorations of the Metroid series and the complex environments of the Bioshock games—electronic gaming has made extensive use of science fictional themes and settings. Likewise, science fiction, in books like Ender’s Game, films like The Last Starfighter, and TV shows like Defiance, has often explored tropes of videogaming within its created worlds. Both regularly, even obsessively, address questions of identity, embodiment, and representation, as well as the constructions and constraints of culture; both are also constituted in the complex and often fraught relations between fan groups and society.

Foundation seeks papers for a special issue on science fiction and electronic gaming that will delineate and explore zones of concern shared by these two rapidly developing bodies of criticism and theory. What might their intersections reveal about the gaps, conflicts, and kinships of our present cultural moment? How does the history of science fiction criticism speak to game studies, and vice versa? How might the modes of play we develop in electronic realms translate to our methods of critical reading or viewing? What SF works, canonical or otherwise, might be read differently when seen as anticipating or responding to digital gaming?

All topics and methodologies are welcome, potentially including (but not limited to) genre theory, fandom, constructions and representations of cultural identities, physical and intellectual disability, platform studies and media archaeology, software and critical code studies, print culture, and readings of individual titles or series.

Send submissions of up to 8,000 words (including endnotes) by 15 April 2014 to journaleditor@sf-foundation.org, attaching the file as electronic text in either .rtf or .doc format. For questions about formatting, see the Foundation style guide at sf-foundation.org; direct all other inquiries to Andrew Ferguson at af3pj@virginia.edu.

Doctor Who Companions CFP

The following was posted on H-PCAACA recently. Unfortunately, the text is a bit corrupted. I will post a revised version when/if it becomes available.

*Call for Papers*

*Companions in Doctor Who: Roles, Characters and Themes*

On introducing the new companion Clara in March 2013, Steven Moffat,

*Doctor on the Doctor, her [sic] adventure that she [sic] goes on with the Doctor

Agree or disagree with this view, it is clear that the companion has become an integral part of the series *Doctor Who*. Rarely has the Doctor travelled without a companion since the show began in 1963.

as individuals and as a whole.

The editors welcome chapter proposals which deal with the companions as individuals, thematic groupings of companions by era/Doctor, gender and sexuality, feminism and its many permutations, or

With over forty characters travelling with the Doctor over the life of the series, there are many options available.

Proposals are due the 31 October 2013. The final article/chapter should be around 20-25 pages (Double spaced, Times New Roman 12)

Important dates:

Proposals due 31 October 2013; papers 30 September 2014; final edit 15 March 2015.

Editors: Dr Sherry Ginn & Dr Gillian Leitch

Please email your proposals to gilliandoctor@gmail.com

Thank you.

Advance Notice for Mythcon 45

The Mythopoeic Society has released the following details regarding Mythcon 45 to be held next summer. Further details and updates as they become available can be found at the conference's home page: http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-45/.


Mythcon 45
Where Fantasy Fits
Wheaton College
Norton, MA
August 8-11, 2014

Guests of Honor

Richard C. West – Scholar Winner of the 1976 Mythopoeic Award for Inklings Studies for Tolkien Criticism.

to be announced – Author


Where Fantasy Fits:

Fantasy literature does not fit comfortably into any scheme. Both old and new, traditional and innovative, popular and elite, mainstream and esoteric, escapist and engaged, high-tech and anti-technology, fantasy defies definitions and transcends categories, dramatizing the incompleteness of our understanding of our own imaginations. At Mythcon 45 we will discuss the place of fantasy in our culture, our institutions, and our hearts.

McFarland Catalog Fall 2013

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, has released its Fall 2013 catalog listing books due out this summer, fall, and winter. It can viewed online or downloaded via the following link: http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/about-mcfarland/contact-us/catalog-requests-mailing-list-sign-up/. I will post details to relevant books as they become available.

CFP Science Fiction and the Novel (9/1/14)

A head's up from the MLA's Announcements of General Interest list:

Studies in the Novel seeks critical responses to the genres of science fiction for a special issue, Science Fictions, to be edited by Farah Mendlesohn. Essays would consider debates within SF’s various communities of genre and affiliation, as well as across these communities, with an emphasis on the SF novel and writings of any kind by noted SF novelists. The submission deadline is 1 September 2014; all questions and submissions should be directed to studiesinthenovel@unt.edu.

Primeval: New World TV Marathon

Syfy will air a marathon of its "new" series Primeval: New World this Saturday, 10 August. The series is actually a Canadian-made production based on the popular ITV series Primeval, which aired in the US on BBC America. The latest version lasted for 13 episodes before its cancellation (and subsequent airing on Syfy). The Region 1 DVD/Blu-ray release of the series occurs this fall; the series is already available through video on demand services.




Marathon Schedule:

10:00 AM Primeval: New World - The New World
11:00 AM Primeval: New World - Sisiutl
12:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Fear Of Flying
01:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Angry Birds
02:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Undone
03:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Clean Up On Aisle 3
04:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Babes In The Woods
05:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Truth
06:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Breakthrough
07:00 PM Primeval: New World  - The Great Escape
08:00 PM Primeval: New World  - The Inquisition
09:00 PM Primeval: New World  - The Sounds Of Thunder - Part 1
10:00 PM Primeval: New World  - The Sounds Of Thunder - Part 2

PCA/ACA 2014 Conference

Before I forget:

The national joint conference of the Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association will be held next April in Chicago. Details and information on how to submit a proposal are now online at http://pcaaca.org/national-conference-2/. The list of subject areas (and area chair contact information) can be accessed at http://pcaaca.org/subject-areas-chairs/. Proposals are due by 1 November 2013.

NEPCA 2013 Conference Update

A quick post for the day without any of yesterday's ranting.

Details for registration and travel/lodging for the 2013 meeting of the Northeast Popular/American Culture Association are now available on their blog at http://nepca.wordpress.com/fall-conference/. The program has not yet been uploaded to the site.

Michael Torregrossa
Blog Editor
Science Fiction, Fantasy and Legend Area Chair

New Doctor Who--Who Cares?

Apparently the BBC announced yesterday that actor Peter Capaldi will be taking over as the next Doctor Who. Details (and some comments by fans at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23570354). Capaldi is 55 now, so this a big change from the younger Doctors we've had in recent years and (perhaps) suggests a change in the series's demographics (or the network's propagandist strategies).


However, as my post's title suggests, I'm not sure I really care about the Doctor anymore. Its been a good--sometimes great--run since 2005, but the departure of "the Ponds" (Amy Pond and Rory Williams) earlier in Season 7 seemed like a large slap in the face to fans (details at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2210593/Doctor-Who-fans-say-goodbye-Amy-Pond-killed-hands-weeping-angels.html and http://www.themarysue.com/steven-moffat-ponds/ and http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/aug/31/doctor-who-farewell-amy-ponds and (sorry) http://doctorwhotv.co.uk/most-heartbreaking-moments-of-the-ponds-exit-40223.htm [there's lots more to view at https://www.google.com/search?q=doctor+who+ponds+no+more]; more on Amy at http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/aug/31/doctor-who-farewell-amy-ponds) and I haven't had the desire to watch further.


Michael Torregrossa
Blog Editor

Amazon.com Concerns

Not to turn the blog into a soapbox, but readers might be interested in the fact that Amazon.com (and all its global affiliates) have removed all customer-uploaded images from its network in favor (apparently) of those images supplied by sellers. Thus, many products now have inadequate information on the site; out of print books no longer have cover images, DVDs and Blu-rays no longer have information on extras, and older CDs no longer have track information. The problem is worse for electronics and their accessories, as many customers have remarked. Extended discussions of this issue can be found in two forums on Amazon.com under Customer Uploaded Images DISCONTINUED!?!?!?! and Customer images gone? .

If you're also concerned about this change, which does irrevocably alter how many of use Amazon, please complete the survey Feedback on Customer Uploaded Images and Videos at http://www.amazon.com/gp/html-forms-controller/social-images-feedback.

Michael Torregrossa
Blog Editor

Science Fiction Studies for July 2013

The latest number of Science Fiction Studies is now available. It is a mixed bag of essays, as the following contents list details. Clicking the links below will take you to abstracts for the essays. :

Science Fiction Studies

#120 = Volume 40, Part 2 = July 2013

---

ARTICLES

• Alan C. Elms. Building Alpha Ralpha Boulevard 

• David M. Higgins. Psychic Decolonization in 1960s Science Fiction

• Carter F. Hanson. Memory’s Offspring and Utopian Ambiguity in Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Day Before the Revolution” and The Dispossessed

• Jaak Tomberg. On the “Double Vision” of Realism and SF Estrangement in William Gibson’s Bigend Trilogy

• Arthur B. Evans. The Apocalyptic Science Fiction of Jacques Spitz 

• Andrea L. Bell. The Critique of Chilean Industrialization in Hugo Correa’s Avatar Stories

• M. Elizabeth Ginway. A Paradigm of the Tropical: Brazil in Contemporary Anglo-American Science Fiction and Fantasy

• Umberto Rossi. Valerio Evangelisti: The Italian Way to Slipstream
  

REVIEW-ESSAYS 

• Neil Easterbrook. Cognitive Estrangement is Us: Youngquist’s Cyberfiction After the Future

• John Huntington. Future Wars: Krome’s An Anthology of Science Fiction War Stories, 1914-1945 and Seed’s Future Wars  
               

BOOKS IN REVIEW

• Allen/Williams’s Afterimages of Slavery (Isiah Lavender III) 

• Atwood’sIn Other Worlds (Csicsery-Ronay, Jr.) 

• Bould’s Science Fiction (Steven Shaviro) 

• Brooke’s Strange Divisions and Alien Territories (Jerome Winter) 

• Dick’s The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick (Umberto Rossi) 

• Layton’s The Humanism of Dr. Who (Elizabeth Lundberg)

• Lindow’s Le Guin and Moral Development (Stina Attebery) 

• Miller/Van Riper’s 1950s “Rocketman” TV Series and Their Fans: Cadets, Rangers, and Junior Space Men (Lincoln Geraghty) 

• Otto’s SF and Transformative Environmentalism (Gerry Canavan) 

• Scheerbart’s Lesabéndio, trans. Svendsen. (William B. Fischer) 

• Sellars/O’Hara’s Interviews with J.G. Ballard (Umberto Rossi)  

NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE

• Another Look at Leinster’s “Four Little Ships” (Edward Wysocki)             
• Response from the Author (Thomas Barrett)     
• Corrections (Rob Latham and Sherryl Vint)         
• Octavia E. Butler Celebration (Nalo Hopkinson)               
• 2014 PKD Festival (Umberto Rossi)         
• Stanley Kubrick Returns to LA (Pedro Groppo)
• 2013-14 Mullen Fellows Announced (Rob Latham)         
• 2013 New Genre Army Conference (Christos Callow Jr.)              
• Women and Science Fiction (Joan Gordon)        
• ICFA 2013 (Stina Attebery)         
• Eaton/SFRA 2013             
• Biohacking and Synthetic Biology (Karin Tybjerg and Louis Whiteley)   

Science Fiction Film & Television for 2013

I don't seem to have kept up to date on journals of late, but Science Fiction Film & Television has completed its run for 2013. The contents lists consists of a series of imbedded tables and will not easily reproduce on the blog. Volume 6, Number 1 of the journal is a special issue on The X-Files, and Volume 6, Number 2 appears to be an open-topic issue.Click the preceding links for more details.

Extrapolation Open Call

Not sure if I've posted this before-- 

Extrapolation has the following open call for papers on its publisher's website: 

Extrapolation was founded in 1959 by Thomas D. Clareson and was the first journal to publish academic work on science fiction and fantasy. It continues to be a leading, peer-reviewed, international journal in that specialized genre in the literature of popular culture.

It welcomes papers on all areas of speculative culture, including print, film, television, comic books and video games, and particularly encourages papers which consider popular texts within their larger cultural context.

The journal publishes a wide variety of critical approaches including but not limited to literary criticism, utopian studies, genre criticism, feminist theory, critical race studies, queer theory, and postcolonial theory. Extrapolation promotes innovative work which considers the place of speculative texts in contemporary culture. It is interested in promoting dialogue among scholars working within a number of traditions and in encouraging the serious study of popular culture.

We are particularly interested in the following areas of study: 

• Racial constructions in speculative genres 
• Children's and YA sf and fantasy 
• Sexualities 
• Fantastic motifs in mainstream texts 
• Gender and speculative texts 
• History of sf and fantasy 
• New weird fiction 
• Remakes, rewriting and retrofitting 
• Pulp sf and fantasy 
• The body in speculative texts 
• Posthumanism 
• Political sf and fantasy 
• Non-Western speculative traditions 
• Technoculture 

Please email submissions to Javier A. Martinez (extrapolation@utb.edu )

Essays should be approximately 4000-9000 words, written according to MLA standards and include a 100 word abstract. Neither embedded footnotes nor generated footnotes that some software systems make available should be used. Electronic submissions in MS Word are encouraged. The editors aim to respond to submissions within three months. Please do not send simultaneous submissions of articles to other publications.

Saving Mr. Banks

Here's a much more interesting looking film also due out from Disney. It explores the origins of the studio's Mary Poppins.

 

Frozen First Look

Here is the first trailer for Disney's upcoming animated feature film Frozen due out later in the year. Hopefully the real film will have less juvenile humor and more story.

 

Aging and Gender in Speculative Fiction -- Spec. Issue of Femspec (5/30/13)

One quick post for the day: 

CFP - Femspec: Special Issue on Aging and Gender in Speculative Fiction
Call for Papers Date: 2013-05-30 (in 3 days)
Date Submitted: 2013-03-05
Announcement ID: 201982

Femspec, an interdisciplinary journal dedicated to challenging gender through speculative means in any genre, invites papers for a special issue of Femspec, Aging and Gender in Speculative Fiction, examining speculative fiction books, TV shows, or movies that re-imagine the way we view women growing older and/or depict the way societal expectations of gender roles impact how we age. Keeping in mind the feminist thrust of the journal, we seek submissions that consider how major feminist sf writers depict aging characters, that apply feminist theory to depictions of aging in sf texts broadly defined, or that address sf’s potential to critique the relationship of gender to ideologies of aging in contemporary society or to re-imagine the future of aging primarily for women, but also for men within a gendered perspective.

The seeds for this special issue were planted at a paper session, "Women Growing Older in the Perilous Realm: Science Fiction and Re-Imagining Old Age" at the 2012 National Women’s Studies Conference 2012, chaired by Margaret Cruickshank. Whether analyzing a picture of older women as inhabiting a privileged position from which to critique society as in “The Space Crone,” a vision of the planet Vulcan where an older woman is the powerful high priestess, or the creation of a culture in which older women are given the most creative work as in Joanna Russ’s Whileaway, we need to ask: how does this re-imagining of old age empower older women, give new value to their accumulated knowledge or new expression to their abilities, apply a feminist lens to their subordination or oppression, or otherwise upend the hegemonic narrative of women’s aging as nothing but a decline into silence and invisibility.

Because Femspec is a fully independent journal funded by subscriptions rather than institutional support, subscription is required on submission. Essays undergo a rigorous two-step jury process with independent readers and members of the Femspec editorial board. Submissions can be sent directly to the special issue editor, Aishwarya Ganapathiraju, aganapath@gmail.com or to Femspec.org, where subscription information can be found.

In addition to this special issue, Femspec seeks scholarly submissions that explore gender issues in sf, apply feminist criticism to the study of sf or analyze the work of women writers in science-fiction media or “speculative fiction” broadly defined. The last date for submitting work for consideration is May 30, 2013.

Aishwarya Ganapathiraju
Femspec: Special Issue Editor
aganapath@gmail.com

Email: aganapath@gmail.com

Contemporary Uses of Fairy Tales in Popular Culture CFP (6/19/13)

Here's one more I just came across:

Contemporary Uses of Fairy Tales in Popular Culture
Publication Date: 2013-06-19 (in 26 days)
Date Submitted: 2013-03-18
Announcement ID: 202344

I invite submissions for an edited collection of essays on contemporary uses of fairy tales in popular culture. The collection will focus on recent reinterpretations and reboots of classical fairy tales, ways the contemporary texts address the original tales and narratological implications of the repetitions and adjustments of these stories. In essays that explore the functions and consequences of fairy tale reboots, remakes and updates, authors will consider the ways fairy tale generic conventions have been revised over time, representations of race, gender, class and sexual identity, the roles of archetypes, mythic tropes and patterns and the emergence of self-referential and meta-tales within these texts.

Essays may also address fan culture influence on contemporary tales, opportunities for interactivity and the roles of stars in fairy tale reboots. Text focus could include television series, feature-length films, comic books and graphic novels, games and animation.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:
• Fables (Bill Willingham/Vertigo, 2002-present)
• The Red Shoes (Kim Yong-gyun, 2005)
• Lost Girls (Alan Moore/Top Shelf, 2006)
• Hansel and Gretel (Yim Pil-Sung, 2007)
• Sydney White (Joe Nussbaum, 2007)
• Bluebeard (Catherine Breillat, 2009)
• The Sleeping Beauty (Catherine Breillat, 2010)
• Red Riding Hood (Catherine Hardwicke, 2011)
• Hanna (Joe Wright, 2011)
• Beastly (Daniel Barnz, 2011)
• Once Upon a Time (ABC, 2011-present)
• Grimm (NBC, 2011-present)
• Snow White and the Huntsman (Rupert Sanders, 2012)
• Mirror, Mirror (Tarsem Singh, 2012)
• Hansel and Gretel (Anthony Ferrante, 2013)
• Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (Tommy Wirkola, 2013)
• Jack the Giant Slayer (Bryan Singer, 2013)

Submit a two-page proposals by the deadline of June 19, 2013 to Dr. Melissa Lenos at melissalenos@gmail.com; questions may be addressed to the same. Please also include a short bio. If your proposal is selected, the final essay (5000-8000 words) will be due on December 1, 2013.

 Melissa Lenos
 Email: melissalenos@gmail.com