Monday, December 29, 2014

CFP "It's Magic"—Volume 6 (2016) of Technoculture (5/1/15-4/30/16)

This sounds interesting:

Call for Proposals: "It's Magic"—Volume 6 (2016) of Technoculture, 1 May 2015 through 30 April 2016
full name / name of organization:
Technoculture: An Online Journal of Technology in Society
contact email: kdorwick@tcjournal.org
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/60020

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

—Arthur C. Clarke.

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.

—Gregory Benford

Technoculture seeks critical and creative works that use new media and/or are on the subject of technology. Volume 6 (2016), "It's Magic!", focuses on the tropes that associate technology with magic and vice versa.

Topics could include depictions of technologies that treat a wide range of subjects related to the social sciences and humanities. These subjects might include:

  • Essays that address the two maxims found above (Clarke's Third Law and Benford's variant on it)
  • Wishful and magical thinking and technology
  • Energy use that seems or is unlimited (whether of humans or machinery)
  • Lack of agency for end users due to magical thinking about technology
  • Technological design and magic as its inspiration
  • Cultures that have used or now use technology as magic as a means of control of their populace
  • The idea of magical figures in games and other online environments
  • Games based on fantasy
  • The idea of the wizard in productivity software such as Microsoft Office and OpenOffice
  • Technocracy
  • Popular descriptions of technology that use magical language in literature and film
  • Whiz kids in young adult and adult literature
  • Misunderstandings of technology as magic
  • Other readings of technology as magic in a variety of cultural and historical periods

We are not interested in “how to” pedagogical papers that deal with the use of technology in the classroom.

We publish scholarly/critical papers in the latest MLA or APA citation style, but creative works are also of interest to us. We are not seeking text-based work. Instead, we wish to publish visual media, and especially media designed for display/dissemination on a computer monitor including still images, video or audio. Genres could include digital poems, sound pieces, video essays, short audio or video documentaries, interviews, documentation of installations, and so on.

Inquiries are welcome to:

inquiries at tcjournal dot org

Technoculture is published continuously; we will accept submissions for Volume 6 (2016) between 1 May 2015 and 30 April 2016. Accepted submissions in 2015 will not appear on Technoculture's site until early 2016, though authors should receive a final decision within two to three months after submission.

Authors of all materials are welcome to submit abstracts and inquiries for critical works, creative works and reviews.

By web submission at 12/28/2014 - 19:36

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CFP Alice through the Ages: The 150th Anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1/31/15; UK 9/15-17/15)

Alice through the Ages: The 150th Anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Posted on December 21, 2014 by Public Information Officer
Alice through the Ages: The 150th Anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
15th-17th September 2015.
http://www.fantastic-arts.org/2014/alice-through-the-ages-the-150th-anniversary-of-alices-adventures-in-wonderland/


Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2015. Lewis Carroll famously opens his Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with his protagonist “burning with curiosity”, which leads Alice to follow the White Rabbit into an alternative reality. That same sense of curiosity has circulated about Wonderland since the book was first published. This conference aims to offer new understandings of the work by re-evaluating long held truisms, subjecting the text to new theoretical approaches and considering the history of adaptation and its uses in popular culture.

We invite innovative papers on Lewis Carroll from established scholars as well as new voices in the field, and those whose research focuses on cognate fields. We are especially interested in papers focused on the book’s initial production context, including Carroll’s biography and sources and influences; papers that interrogate and problematise some of the longstanding truisms associated with the text, such as its place at the start of the fantasy tradition for children and the relationship between author and illustrator; papers that examine how text and author have been read in terms of cultural studies, the history of science, the medical humanities, and the politics of literature; and papers considering adaptation and the powerful influence Wonderland has had on design and style.

Confirmed keynote speakers are Professor Dame Gillian Beer, Professor Jan Susina and Dr Kiera Vaclavik.

300 word proposals for 20-minute papers or 60-90 minute panel sessions should be submitted by 31st January 2015. We also invite poster presentations, exhibits, performances and any activities inspired by the Alice novels.

For more information, or to submit a proposal, please contact Professor Maria Nikolajeva mn351@cam.ac.uk or Dr Zoe Jaques, zj216@cam.ac.uk.

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CFP American Literature Association (varied) (Boston 5/21-24/15)

NOTE THAT INDIVIDUAL SOCIETIES HAVE SEPARATE DEADLINES WITH PROPOSALS DUE FROM LATE DECEMBER TO MID JANUARY.

American Literature Association
26th Annual Conference
May 21-24, 2015
Boston, MA

 Henry Adams Society CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS 
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CFP Alchemy in Harry Potter collection (3/1/15)

Alchemy in Harry Potter
Call for Papers Date: 2015-03-01
Date Submitted: 2014-12-16
Announcement ID: 218844
https://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=218844

Call for papers for a multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary collection of essays on alchemy in the Harry Potter novels.

In a 1998 interview with The Herald, J.K. Rowling said, "I've never wanted to be a witch, but an alchemist, now that's a different matter. To invent this wizard world, I've learned a ridiculous amount about alchemy. . . . I [had] to know in detail what magic can and cannot do in order to set the parameters and establish the stories' internal logic."


We are seeking papers for a collection of new essays on alchemy, broadly conceived, in the Harry Potter series. We welcome essays on alchemy itself and the alchemical symbolism in the novels.

And we welcome essays on the other transformations the series suggests. For one example, Rowling challenges readers to rethink how we use words like power, so by the end of the series Voldemort's brute strength looks more like a weakness and Luna's encouragement, "we're still here, we're still fighting," sounds like strength. For another, there are gendered transformations and explorations of race and class and a reevaluation of what makes one "successful." Different models of education, too, seem relevant to the "literary alchemy" broad model.

We prefer a focus mainly on the novels themselves, but from there, an article could certainly look into the films and fan phenomena.

We will accept full papers or proposals, which should be in Times New Roman, 12 pt. type, double spaced. Full papers should be no more than 25 pages, including references. Any citation style is fine at this point, although accepted chapters will need to be converted to Chicago style. Please send proposals (or full papers) to alchemy@monmouthcollege.edu by March 1, 2015. Full papers will be due by June 1, 2015.

We are in active conversation with Palgrave McMillan, which has expressed interest in the proposal and looks forward to sending it out for blind peer review. We plan to deliver the manuscript to Palgrave on July 15, 2015.


Dr. Anne Mamary (Philosophy & Religious Studies) & Dr. Christine D. Myers (History)
Monmouth College
700 E. Broadway
Monmouth, IL 61462

Email: alchemy@monmouthcollege.edu

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CFP MAPACA 2015 Initial Call (Philadelphia 11/5-7/15)

26th Annual Conference (http://www.mapaca.net/conference/2015)
November 5-7, 2015
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sonesta Philadelphia Downtown
The 26th annual conference of the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA) returns to Philadelphia. Details to follow.

Call for papers:
Proposals are welcome on all aspects of popular and American culture for inclusion in the 2015 Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Single papers, panels, roundtables, and alternative formats are welcome.

Proposals should take the form of 300-word abstracts, and may only be submitted to one appropriate area. Please, only submit one abstract per person, submit to one area, and be sure all presenters/authors are accounted for in abstract submission. Consult Area pages for area-specific themes, focuses, and instructions.
Submissions will be accepted beginning Spring 2015 To submit an abstract, create an account or log in to mapaca.net and visit the Submitting abstracts to the conference page for instructions.

For list of areas and area chair contact information, visit Subject Areas. Please contact Area Chairs for area-specific questions. General questions can be directed to the MAPACA Contact Page.
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CFP SFRA 2015 Conference (3/1/15; Stony Brook, NY 6/25-27/15)

Not sure how I missed this one:

SFRA 2015
The SF We Don't (Usually) See: Suppressed Histories, Liminal Voices, Emerging Media
http://sfra.org/sfra2015

Date: June 25-27, 2015

Location:
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY
https://goo.gl/maps/tJN19

Guests of Honor:
M. Asli Dukan (film) http://invisibleuniversedoc.com/
Alexis Lothian (digital) http://www.queergeektheory.org/
Vandana Singh (fiction + physics) http://users.rcn.com/singhvan/

Like any genre, and despite its historically marginal positioning vis-à-vis other genres, Science Fiction has its own canon, a general agreement on what texts are worthy of scholarly attention. But what might be revealed if we critically question the canon and consider what elisions its formation entails? What kinds of racial, gendered, classed, and sexual hierarchies are reinforced through the selection of certain texts as exemplary of the genre? What alternative genealogies might become visible if we look underneath “mainstream” or canonical SF and seek out those liminal voices that have been denied access to privileged outlets?

Given the (slowly) increasing visibility of women, LGBTQIA individuals, and people of color within the world of SF in recent years, both as creators and textual representations, it seems like an opportune moment to ask what submerged or marginal histories of the genre might be (re)constructed as well as what voices remain silenced. What can these alternative genealogies and liminal voices offer for considerations of genre definition and exploration?

Not only does taking a critical perspective on the canon lead us to ask what voices have been silenced or repressed, it also asks us to consider why SF in some media (literature, film) have been privileged over others (television, web series, theater, etc.). The development of new media technologies has generated a wealth of SF production within these emerging media. New distribution models built around streaming media services and social media platforms have provided alternative venues for science fiction films, web series, and short stories. Online fandoms have also provided generative ecologies for amateur and fan fiction in a variety of formats. What insights might be gained from more sustained critical attention to science fiction in these emerging media? What do these technological developments portend for the future of the genre?

We invite paper and panel proposals on any of the three Guests of Honor. We also invite paper and panel proposals that focus on all forms of science fiction and that address (but are not limited to) the following areas:

- Feminist and queer SF
- SF and ability/disability
- Liminal or marginal voices in canonical SF texts
- Online SF fandoms and fan fiction
- SF and new media studies
- SF beyond the West
- SF web series
- SF and the digital humanities
- SF drama and on the stage
- SF poetry
- SF music (music as SF; music in SF; SF music)
- Science as fiction/fiction as science
- Online SF film distribution and streaming video services
- Alternative histories and definitions of the genre

The deadline for paper and panel submissions is midnight on March 1st, 2015. Please submit a 250-400-word abstract to SFRA2015@gmail.com. Proposals for panels will also be considered; panel proposals should be submitted as one document. All presenters must be members of the SFRA.

Conference registration: https://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/secct/sbfevents.nsf/sfra
This link leads to the registration page, which is being handled by Stony Brook University. If you prefer to register and pay via mail, please contact me.

Hotel information and registration: coming August 2014
The conference hotel is the Hilton Garden Inn located on campus. It is a 2-minute stroll from the hotel to the conference proceedings. However, the number of rooms at the conference rate are LIMITED. Book early. The code for the conference rate is: "scifi."
http://hiltongardeninn.hilton.com/en/gi/groups/personalized/I/ISPSBGI-SC...

We also have conference rooms at the nearby Holiday Inn Express. They have a shuttle that runs to and from campus:
http://ichotelsgroup.com/redirect?path=rates&brandCode=EX&regionCode=1&l...

Guests can call 631-471-8000 1-800-HOLIDAY or http://www.stonybrookny.hiexpress.com

Dormitory information and registration:
Finally, we will have dorm rooms on campus available at a lower rate. The rooms are located in the newest dorms on campus. They are a 5-10 minute walk from the proceedings.
Link to follow soon!!

Travel information and arrangements: coming August 2014

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CFP The Toy as Hero Collection (4/1/15)

https://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=218838

CFP: Toy Stories: The Toy as Hero
Call for Papers Date: 2015-04-01
Date Submitted: 2014-12-16
Announcement ID: 218838

Abstracts are being welcomed for a proposed collection examining the toy as hero.  Toys, a celebrated part of childhood and often key figures in children’s imaginative play, have a fantastic history of heroism in print and film.  Open to examinations of literature, comics, and film, the collection seeks to be a repository of original essays that analyze the roles toys play as protectors of the child(ren) they love, as heroes of their own stories, or as champions for the greater good.

Possible pieces for consideration:

  • Winnie-the-Pooh
  • The Stuff of Legend
  • The Velveteen Rabbit
  • The Nutcracker
  • Calvin and Hobbes
  • The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
  • Toy Story
  • Toys in the Attic
  • The Indian in the Cupboard
  • Corduroy
  • The Steadfast Tin Soldier
  • Pinocchio
  • Midnight in the Dollhouse
  • Small Soldiers
  • The Mouse and His Child
  • Raggedy Ann and Andy
  • Labyrinth
  • Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave
  • Mennyms

Please send a short bio and abstracts of 300-500 words by April 1st. Abstracts on all topics that take an analytical or theoretical approach to the theme are welcome.

Tanya Jones is the co-editor for the collection "The Gothic Fairy Tale in Young Adult Literature: Essays on Stories from Grimm to Gaiman.”  She has published widely in the areas of Gothicism, pop culture, and literature.  A former English teacher and Department Chairperson, Tanya holds a M.Ed. and has presented her theoretical framework at various conferences and lectures.

Chris Stoneley is an independent scholar, poet, writer, and frequent public storyteller in the LA area.

(MCBBW)

-
Tanya Jones

Email: tanyacarinae@hotmail.com

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CFP Updating

It has been a chaotic semester (again), and I am sorry for not staying on top of the calls for papers. I did come across some of interest recently and will post those today. The backlog will be posted as time permits.


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