Thursday, July 30, 2015

CFP Society of American Culture Studies Conference (9/1/2015; Moscow 12/4-11/2015)

Heads up from the SFRA website:

Society of American Culture Studies
DATE: December 4-11, 2015
LOCATION: Lomonosov Moscow State University
http://www.sfra.org/node/78

Dear Colleagues,

The XLIst International conference of the Russian Society of American Culture Studies will be held December 4-11, 2015 at Lomonosov Moscow State University Journalism Department. Its theme – “Imagining and Building Peace in American Culture”.

Sections: Journalism, American Culture of the 17-19th Centuries, Contemporary Literature and Culture, Drama, Ethnic Contribution, Gender, Fantastic in the Arts, Canadian perspectives. Besides a traditional Round Table discussion: Imprints – Image of America and Image of Russia will be held and two more – Arthur Miller’s Centennial (coordinator Dr. Maya Koreneva) and Herman Melville’s Literary Legacy (coordinator Dr. Luisa Bashmakova 888lpb@gmail.com).

Suggestions for additional sections and panel discussions are welcome with 300 words description and at least two other panelists’ names suggested until September 1st, 2015.
Official languages of the conference are English and Russian. All participants will understand papers given in English and will provide an English resume of their talk, if given in Russian.
Deadline for abstracts - September 10, 2015 (half a page). Please send them to all to larmih@gmail.com

On the basis of delivered and discussed papers an annual bilingual collection is published.
Conference fee $ 100 US, payable upon arrival, includes also an excursion to Kremlin and a farewell party.

Information about visa support: As it is a lengthy process – please send the needed materials [copy of two first pages of passport and info on place of birth (city and country), affiliation and position, office address, phone and fax numbers, place of visa application, dates of arrival and departure] to the address larmih@gmail.com no later than September 10, 2015.

See you at our conference!
Larisa Mikhaylova


CFP ACLA Conference 2016 (Harvard 3/17-20/2016)

A few sessions of interest for the upcoming ACLA meeting:

The American Comparative Literature Association's 2016 Annual Meeting will take place at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts March 17-20, 2016.
http://www.acla.org/annual-meeting

Our online portal will open for seminar submissions in early July, with a deadline of August 31. Individuals interested in participating in a particular seminar are encouraged to be in touch with the organizers over the summer; paper submissions through the portal will open Sept. 1 and close Sept. 23.

Horror
http://www.acla.org/seminar/horror

Pirate Narratives Then and Now: Theory and Implication
http://www.acla.org/seminar/pirate-narratives-then-and-now-theory-and-implication

Utopias, Dystopias, and the Work of the Imagination
http://www.acla.org/seminar/utopias-dystopias-and-work-imagination


Tuesday, July 21, 2015

CFP Fantastic Cities: American Urban Spaces in Science Fiction & Fantasy Collection (deadline 7/15/15)

One final call for the day (though do note the expired deadline):

Call for Contributions
Fantastic Cities: American Urban Spaces in Science Fiction & Fantasy
Editors: Prof. Stefan L. Brandt (Univ. of Graz) Dr. Michael Fuchs (Univ. of Graz) Dr. Stefan Rabitsch (Univ. of Klagenfurt)

Basin City, Caprica City, Coruscant, Gotham City, Mega-City One, Metropolis, Nos Astra, the Sprawl, and so on—SFF teems with iconic urban environments. These cities serve as geographical backdrops, but also provide, as  Vivian Sobchack has argued, the “premises for the possibilities and trajectory of narrative action.” Yet while Sob-chack claims that representations of fantastic urban spaces depict “the failure of modernism’s aspirations in im-ages that speak of urban exhaustion, postmodern exhilaration, and millennial vertigo,” in SFF, cities also embody unlimited possibilities, transcultural ideals, and utopian dreams. Cities thus function both as beacons of progress and freedom and as harbingers of decay and destruction.

In the American context, this duality has repeatedly been expressed in diverse cultural artifacts. After all, John Winthrop famously imagined the New World as a ‘city upon the hill’ and William James, Sr., praised American cities for their “courage, the heaven-scalding audacity … and the great pulses and bounds of progress,” while Thomas Jefferson feared that cities were “pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of men.” More recently, texts as different as Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day  and Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster adaptation Minority Report  have tapped into the ambiguous feelings and meanings connected to the American city.

Our collection seeks to discuss American urban spaces in science fiction & fantasy. We want to embrace SFF’s diversity and welcome chapter proposals on science fiction per se, alternate history, cosmological horror, super-natural and/or paranormal fiction, just to name a few possible (sub-)genres. Likewise, our notion of ‘American’ urban spaces is rather expansive and includes (a) representations (or simulations) of ‘real’ American cities (note: we are especially interested in explorations of cities other than New York City and Los Angeles), (b) fictional cities located in the United States, and (c) cities whose geographical location is unclear or even outside the sov-ereign territory of the United States, but whose representations are enmeshed in the (trans)American urban im-aginary (e.g. Buenos Aires in Starship Troopers.

Chapters may explore different media (literature, movies, video games, comics, visual arts, television, etc.) and address topics including, but by no means limited to:

  • futuristic cities and the American past (and the present)
  • (virtual) embodiment in (futuristic) urban spaces
  • speculative history and the city
  • (post-)apocalyptic urban spaces
  • space stations and star cruisers as urban spaces
  • (invisible) walls in and around the fantastic city


If you are interested in proposing a chapter, please email an abstract of 500–800 words to fantasticcities@fuchsmichael.net. Your abstract should outline your working thesis and briefly sketch the theo-retical framework(s) within which your chapter will be situated. If you propose a chapter on a primary text fre-quently discussed within the context of urbanity (e.g.Blade Runner), please submit a longer abstract in order to clarify what your interpretation will add to the existing literature. All submissions will be acknowledged. If you do not receive a confirmation of receipt within 48 hours, you may assume that your email was lost in the depths of cyberspace. In that case, please re-submit. Please note that we will not include previously published essays in the collection. Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you might have at the email indicated above and/or Mi-chael at m.fuchs@uni-graz.at and/or Steve at stefan.rabitsch@aau.at.

Roadmap:
July 15, 2015: abstract deadline
July 31, 2015: notification of acceptance/rejection (Please note: Acceptance of your abstract does not automatically guarantee your chapter’s inclusion in the collection.)
December 15, 2015: first drafts due
February 29, 2016: feedback on first drafts
publication expected in 2017



CFP Future Humans (9/30/155; NeMLA 2016)

Future Humans
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/73857/future-humans
Announcement published by Louisa MacKay Demerjian on Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
September 30, 2015
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Social Sciences

How do we understand ourselves as human beings?  Historically, we have considered where we are in time and place and in relation to others.  Throughout history, humans have wondered about their origins and about their futures.  Charles Darwin gave some a foundation of understanding where human beings came from and how we evolved.  The greater question now is how we will change; will human beings continue to evolve and adapt in response to the changes in the natural world?  Or will the changes be more deliberate?  In what ways will human beings be responsible for the ways we change in the future?  This panel invites an examination of literature, film, and other media and how they represent future humans.  Considering the speed with which technology advances, how might we be plunging headlong into a future we might have only imagined?  Will future humans evolve naturally or will we change deliberately being combined with technology and becoming “cyborgs”?  Will the nature that shapes our evolution be the one we created through climate change?  Will our present world be changed in order to shape a future we are more comfortable anticipating?  In short, human beings have consistently been preoccupied with the future; considering some of the visions of the future presented in novels and movies, what has gone by the wayside and what has shown prescience?  How might we use these predictions of the future as bellwether so we might change course and shape a future that’s more to our liking?

Human beings have traditionally been preoccupied with visions of the future. We may now have more power to shape the future of human beings for better or worse, intentionally or unintentionally. Technology advances so quickly, it leaves little time to consider the long-term. How might novels and films present futures and allow us to accept or reject their projections? This panel invites discussion of individual representative works and/or multiple works for comparison.

This panel will take place between March 17 and 20, 2016 in Hartford, CT.

Abstracts are due by Sept. 30, 2015.  To submit an abstract, please go to: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15601

Contact Email:
lmdemerjian@gmail.com
URL:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15601

NEWS: 2015-16 Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship (deadline 10/1/15)

A heads up from SFRA-L:

2015 Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship Open to Applicants

The deadline for the 2015-16 Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship has been extended to 5 pm, Thursday, October 1, 2015. Applications and questions should be sent to csws@uoregon.edu.  The 2015-16 Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship is sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women in Society, Robert D. Clark Honors College, and University of Oregon Libraries Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA).

Purpose: The intention of the Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship is to encourage research within collections in the area of feminist science fiction. The UO Libraries Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) houses the papers of authors Ursula K. Le Guin, Joanna Russ, Kate Wilhelm, Suzette Haden Elgin, Sally Miller Gearhart, Kate Elliot, Molly Gloss, Laurie Marks, and Jessica Salmonson, along with Damon Knight. SCUA is also in the process of acquiring the papers of James Tiptree, Jr. and other key feminist science fiction authors. For more about these collections, visit http://library.uoregon.edu/node/3524.

Fellowship description: This award supports travel for the purpose of research on, and work with, the papers of feminist science fiction authors housed in SCUA. These short-term research fellowships are open to undergraduates, master’s and doctoral students, postdoctoral scholars, college and university faculty at every rank, and independent scholars working in feminist science fiction. In 2015, $3,000 will be awarded to conduct research within these collections. The fellowship selection committee will include representatives from the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS), Robert D. Clark Honors College (CHC), and SCUA.

Fellows will:

Complete their research at the University of Oregon within a year of award notification;
Submit a 1,000-word (maximum) essay on their research topic to CSWS for possible inclusion in publications;
Meet with representatives from CSWS, CHC, and SCUA during their visit to Eugene;
Submit a separate paragraph to CSWS documenting the specific collections consulted during the fellowship;
Submit a copy of their final project or publication to CSWS;
Acknowledge the Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship and its sponsors (CSWS, CHC, and SCUA) in all publications resulting from the research fellowship.
Applicants must submit by Thursday, October 1, 2015:

A 1,000-word (maximum) proposal that describes the project for which these collections will be consulted, as well as the role that the applicant expects these collections will play in the project;
An anticipated budget for the research visit;
A two-page curriculum vitae or resume;
Full contact information;
Two letters of recommendation.
Applications (as PDF attachments) and questions should be emailed to: csws@uoregon.edu.

Printable flier available at http://csws.uoregon.edu/wp-content/docs/grants/2015_Le_Guin_Fellowship_flyer_update.pdf


CFP Social Justice (Redux) (The WisCon Chronicles Vol. 10) (9/30/15)

From the SFRA listserv:

Call for papers The WisCon Chronicles Vol. 10:  Social Justice (Redux), edited by Margaret McBride

One thing I admire in Ursula K. LeGuin's writing is her willingness to publicly examine and change her way of seeing the world and her fiction (as in Tehanu, published almost 20 years after The Earthsea Trilogy or the 1976 "Is Gender Necessary?" followed by the 1989 "Redux" version of that essay). I hope The WisCon Chronicles 10 Social Justice (Redux) authors will have the same attitude, for we seem to bring up problems of social injustice so often.  Mary Anne Mohanraj, who edited The WisCon Chronicles 9,  focused on social justice issues in her introduction, as did several included essays. The fiction and WisCon 39 guest-of-honor speeches by Alaya Dawn Johnson and Kim Stanley Robinson focused on multiple aspects of social justice: environmental collapse, need for reduced population, and climate change; violence against women; racial inequality in publishing and elsewhere; gender issues, including reproductive rights; inequality of income and power; etc. Yet current newspapers or blogs about Ferguson or gay marriage or our own science fiction community show that we must continue to address such issues in fiction and elsewhere (I hope in WisCon Chronicles 10!). The "redux" aspect of the volume might include essays on how terms used in debates about social justice could be problematic.

I am particularly interested in how science fiction is addressing social justice, especially the idea that environmental programs need to include equality for women and minorities. Essays examining the fiction of any past guest of honor at WisCon or Tiptree Award winner or any science fiction that looks at environmental concerns or diversity issues would also be appropriate. 2016 will be the 40th year for WisCon, so personal memories from guests of honor, committee members, and also people new or long-time to WisCon will be considered, even if not linked directly to social justice issues.
Please submit essays, personal remembrances, poetry, short fiction for consideration by September 30, 2015 to mcbride@uoregon.edu.

--
Margaret McBride
University of Oregon

Monday, July 20, 2015

Videogame Cultures Conference (Oxford 9/11-13/15)

Also of interest:

CFP: Videogame Cultures The Videogame Cultures Project
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/64914/cfp-videogame-cultures-videogame-cultures-project
Discussion published by Daniel Fandino on Thursday, March 19, 2015

Videogame Cultures
The Videogame Cultures Project

Friday 11th September – Sunday 13th September 2015
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Presentations:
Videogames have probably become one of the most progressive mediums in the 21st century. The videogame genres and sub-genres are rapidly diverging and many concepts are merging with those from other media and even with the environment of the “real” world (alternate reality games). Consequently the scope of the project is not limited to videogame studies only, but many other disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics, information science, criminology, military studies or ethology, to name but a few. All have found play, game, game-model, player behaviour, game design and players’ relation to the virtual environment as a high priority within their own fields of research. The result of all these influences is that the discourse on videogame cultures is constantly evolving giving it an ever wider range of influence and an increasingly an inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary character.

This year’s Videogame Cultures will be devoted to exploring the various ways in which videogame culture and genres develop within the framework of five thematic tracks. Because of the complexity and variety of videogame culture and the overlapping of issues across themes, we are inviting participants of various and all backgrounds (academic, developer, producer, player, etc.) to submit proposals on several topics of interest to them. Presenters are additionally encouraged to think broadly within and across thematic tracks; we encourage submissions addressing research questions such as (though not limited to) those listed here below.

1) Videogames and their Players:
Gender and Gameplay: How are changing the players demographies? How to solve the situation of gender inequality and sexual harassment in the videogaming environments (Gamer Gate controversy). To what extent is it really possible to study videogame fan cultures? What ethical issues are related to the study of videogame culture?

2) Serious Games and Simulations:
New technologies developed for a future generation of virtual environments as Oculus Rift and Sony Project Morpheus are about to hit the market. Game developers and experience designers are currently developing new forms of gameplay. What principles do govern current game design? What strategies exist for creating believable simulations? What services to be established with virtual reality reborn technology? What visual formats will bring the post-photorealistic era?

3) Gamification/Ludification:
Models of play have an impact in the research areas beyond videogame studies. Playful elements and functional models are built in many applications in economics and social sciences. We would like to explore how playful elements have changed the interaction between the user and applications. What trends in a gamified application design are emerging in mobile and online banking, tele-sports or tele-health?

Other topics with these areas include:

Videogames and Gaming:
– Theories and Concepts of Gaming. Videogames as Text.
– Videogames as Interactive Media.
– Space of Videogames.
– Multidisciplinary Approaches to Videogame Analysis.

Videogame Cultures:
– Usage Trends and Emerging Practices in Online and Offline Gaming. – Games as Cultural Artefacts.
– Pervasive Gaming.
– Studying Fan Cultures.

Games and Society:
– Ethical Issues in Videogames.
– Videogame Controversy – Gender Equality.
– Rating, Violence, Sex, Morality. Censorship.

Immersion and Embodiment:
- New Forms of Interaction.
– Immersion and Collaboration in Videogames.
– Sound, Music, Touch, and Game Space
– Evolution of Gaming.
– The Role of Innovative Interfaces – Virtual Reality reborn (Oculus Rift, Sony Project Morpheus).

Games with Meaning?:
– Gamification.
– The Relationship between Game and Gamer.
– Social Impact Simulations – Games and Virtual Reality as Experience.
– Serious Games and Simulations.

Subsequently we encourage submission of proposals for short workshops, practitioner-based activities, best practice showcases, how-to sessions, live demonstrations, performances, and pre-formed panels. We particularly welcome short film screenings; photographic essays; installations; interactive talks and alternative presentation styles that encourage engagement.

What to Send:
300 word proposals should be submitted by Friday 1st May 2015. All submissions are at least double blind peer reviewed. Proposals should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: VG7 Proposal Submission.

All abstracts will be at least double blind peer reviewed. Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs:
Daniel Riha: rihad@inter-disciplinary.net
Rob Fisher: vg7@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the ‘Critical Issues’ series of research projects run by Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference must be in English and will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook.  Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s). All publications from the conference will require editors, to be chosen from interested delegates from the conference.

Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation.

For further details of the conference, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/cyber/videogame-cultures-the-future-of-interactive-entertainment/call-for-papers/

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

Dr. Rob Fisher
Priory House
149B Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1993 882087
Email: vg7@inter-disciplinary.net
Visit the website at http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/cyber/videogame-cultures-the-future-of-interactive-entertainment/call-for-papers/

CFP Minor Cultures Conference (Australia 12/1-3/15)

Sorry for the belated post; proposals were due in June:

Call for Papers: Minor Culture 2015
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/69372/call-papers-minor-culture-2015
Discussion published by Timothy Laurie on Thursday, May 7, 2015

Call for Papers: Minor Culture 2015

Conference for the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia

The University of Melbourne
Parkville Campus (Melbourne, Australia)

w: culture-communication.unimelb.edu.au/events/minor-culture-conference

 November 30: Prefix Postgraduate Day

December 1-3: Minor Culture Conference


Abstract

Minor Culture creates a space for inter-disciplinary dialogues around the study of place, identity and marginality, and addresses research on everyday cultural productions and media texts, cultural policy and discourses of sustainability, digital life and creative industries, and public cultures in the Asia-Pacific region. The conference also invites responses to the following questions:


  • How are minor cultures inhabited? When do minor cultures become uninhabitable?
  • Is the concept of minority still useful in explaining contemporary forms of cultural marginality?
  • How do categories such as indigeneity and Aboriginality, gender and sexuality, class, disability, race and citizenship produce minoritising effects? How might these categories change when mobilised through governmental discourses, newsmedia, and everyday usage?
  • Who narrates experiences of minoritisation? For whom are these narratives produced? How is minoritarianism articulated through film, music, television, literature, performance, and digital cultures?
  • In what ways do practices of government and cultural policy shape relationships between local, national and transnational cultures? To what extent are legal regulations implicated in the formation of minoritarian practices?
  • How do new minor or major cultural formations emerge? Through which means do political practices resist or intervene in these formations?
  • Do minor cultures require novel theoretical tools or research methodologies? What do "experimental" approaches to cultural research look like? What alternative kinds of knowledge could such approaches make available?
  • Is minority a humanist concept? What place could "majority" and "minority" have within post-anthropocentric thinking?
  • And when do minor cultures cease to be minor?



Keynote Speakers

Distinguished Professor Ien Ang (University of Western Sydney)

Professor Jose Neil C. Garcia (University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City)

Professor Meaghan Morris (University of Sydney & Lingnan University, Hong Kong)

Professor Tejaswini Niranjana (Centre for the Study of Culture & Society, Bangalore; Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai; Lingnan University, Hong Kong)



Invited Speakers

Dennis Altman, Tony Bennett, Gemma Blackwood, Tony Birch, Vijay Devadas, Catherine Driscoll, Gilbert Caluya, Ghassan Hage, Koichi Iwabuchi, Peter Jackson, Sue Luckman, Mark McLelland, Stephen Muecke, Greg Noble, Rosemary Overell, Michelle Phillipov, Elspeth Probyn, Katrina Schlunke, Katsuhiko Suganuma, Graeme Turner, and Nabeel Zuberi.




Prefix Postgraduate Day

The Prefix postgraduate day in 2015 will be divided into two halves, the first involving seminars and workshops on publishing in Cultural Studies (and adjacent disciplines), and the second involving discussions of Cultural Studies research outside the academy. Invited speakers include Professor Greg Noble (University of Western Sydney) and Associate Professor Chris Healy (University of Melbourne), with additional speakers to be confirmed. These sessions will be followed by a social networking even, then drinks and nibbles in Carlton (near the University of Melbourne). Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher participants in ‘Minor Culture’ will automatically be accepted into the Prefix day.



Abstracts

Please email csaa2015@lists.unimelb.edu.au by 1 June 2015 with:

An abstract (250 words max.)
A title for the presentation (15 words max.)
A short bio (30 words max.) Include your name, email address, degree level and institutional affiliation. This should be included both in the body of the email and as an attachment


Panel Proposals

Panel proposals are welcome. In addition to submitting a 250 word abstract for each presenter, please submit an abstract (100 words) and a title (15 words max.) for the panel as a whole to csaa2015@lists.unimelb.edu.au. As we have a tight schedule this year, panels will be limited to three persons each. Presenters will be notified of their acceptance no later than 1 July 2015.



Postgraduate Travel Bursaries

Travel bursaries will be made available to a limited number of postgraduates and Early Career Researchers attending ‘Minor Culture’. More information will be made available shortly, but if you have any urgent questions about funding support for the conference, please email csaa2015@lists.unimelb.edu.au.



Conference Co-convenors

Dr Rimi Khan & Dr Timothy Laurie

(Screen and Cultural Studies, The University of Melbourne)



Conference Organising Committee at The University of Melbourne

Assoc. Professor Chris Healy (Screen and Cultural Studies)
Assoc. Professor Fran Martin (Screen and Cultural Studies)
Assoc. Professor Scott McQuire (Media and Communications)
Professor Angela Ndalianis (Screen and Cultural Studies)
Professor Nikos Papastergiadis (Director of the Research Unit in Public Cultures)
Assoc. Professor Audrey Yue (Screen and Cultural Studies)



w: culture-communication.unimelb.edu.au/events/minor-culture-conference

w: facebook.com/events/1376299406028329/



CFP Popular Culture - Serial Culture: Nineteenth-Century Serial Fictions in Transnational Perspective, 1830s-1830s (9/1/15; Germany 4/28-30/16)

Call for Papers: Popular Culture - Serial Culture: Nineteenth-Century Serial Fictions in Transnational Perspective, 1830s-1830s (deadline Sept. 1, 2015)
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/69799/call-papers-popular-culture-serial-culture-nineteenth-century
Discussion published by Daniel Fandino on Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Popular Culture – Serial Culture: Nineteenth-Century Serial Fictions in Transnational Perspective, 1830s-1860s
University of Siegen, April 28-30, 2016
Conveners: Prof. Dr. Daniel Stein / Lisanna Wiele, M.A.
North American Literary and Cultural Studies
DFG project “Serial Politicization: On the Cultural Work of American City Mysteries, 1844-1860”


Recent publications such as Transnationalism and American Serial Fiction (Okker 2011) and Serialization in Popular Culture (Allen/van den Berg 2014) remind us that serial modes of storytelling, publication, and reception have been among the driving forces of modern culture since the first half of the nineteenth century. Indeed, as studies of Victorian serial fiction, the French feuilleton novel, and American magazine fiction indicate, much of what we take for granted as central features of contemporary serial fictions traces back to a particular period in the nineteenth century between the 1830s and the 1860s. This is the time when new printing techniques allowed for the mass publication of affordable reading materials, when literary authorship became a viable profession, when reading for pleasure became a popular pastime for increasingly literate and socially diverse audiences, and when previously predominantly national print markets became thoroughly international.


These transformations enabled, and, in turn, were enabled by, the emergence of popular serial genres, of which the so-called city mystery novels are a paradigmatic example. In the wake of the success of Eugène Sue’s Les Mystères de Paris (1842-43), a great number of these city mysteries appeared across Europe (especially France, Great Britain, and Germany) and the United States, adapting the narrative formulas and basic storylines of Sue’s roman feuilleton to different cultural, social, economic, and political contexts. These city mystery novels constitute what may be described as the first transnational and multilingual genre of popular serial fiction, and they will serve as one focal point of our conference. We are particularly interested in papers that analyze the evolution of the city mystery novel from a single popular text to a popular serial genre, but we also invite papers on a wide range of issues dealing with all aspects of serial popular culture of the 1830s to 1860s. We explicitly encourage interdisciplinary and transnational approaches within but also beyond our own American Studies focus.


Please send abstracts (max. 250 words) and short bios to stein@anglistik.uni-siegen.de and wiele@anglistik.uni-siegen.de by September 1, 2015.

Prof. Dr. Daniel Stein
Lisanna Wiele, M.A.
Adolf-Reichwein-Str. 2
57068 Siegen
Email: stein@anglistik.uni-siegen.de; wiele@anglistik.uni-siegen.de
Visit the website at http://www.uni-siegen.de/phil/anglistik/news/633570.html

CFP Special Issue on Asian Popular Culture (12/31/15)

CFP: Special Issue on Asian Popular Culture in The Journal of Popular Culture
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/70898/cfp-special-issue-asian-popular-culture-journal-popular-culture
Discussion published by Lisa Funnell on Tuesday, May 26, 2015

CFP: Special Issue on Asian Popular Culture
Journal of Popular Culture

In popular and critical imagination, the term “Asian popular culture” has become synonymous with the ideas, images, and phenomena of East Asia and specifically with Japanese animation and Chinese martial arts cinema. What is often overlooked is the range and diversity of Asian popular culture, which extends from South Asia (e.g. India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) through Southeast Asia (e.g. Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand) to East Asia (e.g. China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan). In addition, much of this popular culture is transnational as it is produced, distributed, and/or consumed across national borders. In an increasingly interconnected world, Asian popular culture is expansive, multifaceted, mobile, and widely consumed.  

The Journal of Popular Culture is seeking submissions for a special issue on “Asian Popular Culture.” We are looking for submissions that are cutting-edge and truly advance the field of popular culture studies in new ways. We welcome articles that explore the popular cultural activities and cultural products of South, Southeast, and East Asia, which include but are not limited to:

-film
-television
-music
-literature
-sports
-videogames
-animation (print, digital)
-cosplay and larping
-star and fan culture
-youth culture

We are particularly interested in essays that examine transnational Asian popular culture.

Articles should be between 5000 and 7500 words in length. Authors should consult The Journal of Popular Culture’s “Author Guidelines” for details on format and citation style: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5931/homepage/ForAuthors.html

The deadline for submissions is December 31, 2015.  Please submit your work through the ScholarOne system, which can be accessed through the above link.

It is important that you include the words “Special Issue Submission” before your title (e.g. Special Issue Submission: Chinese Warrior Women).

Please direct your inquires about the special issue to Lisa Funnell (lfunnell@ou.edu) and Yuya Kiuchi (kiuchiyu@hdfs.msu.edu).  

CFP Game Studies Area (10/1/15; PCA/ACA 2016)

Still cleaning my inbox:

Call for Submissions - Game Studies Area of Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/72221/call-submissions-game-studies-area-popular-culture-association
Discussion published by Daniel Fandino on Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Game Studies Area: 2016 PCA/ACA National Conference.

 The Game Studies area of the National Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association Conference invites proposals for papers and panels on games and game studies for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference to be held Monday, March 21 through Friday, March 25, 2016 at the Sheraton in Seattle, WA.

The database for proposal submissions opens July 1.

Below, please find:

I. Topics of Interest

II. Submission Process

III. Information about the Conference

IV. Contact Information



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I. Topics of Interest

The organizers seek proposals and papers covering all aspects of gaming, gaming culture and game studies.  Proposals can address any game medium (computer, social, console, tabletop, etc) and all theoretical and methodological approaches are welcome.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

-- new game mediums and platforms (Facebook, iPhone/iPad/iPod, etc)

-- representation or performance of race, class, gender and sexuality in games

-- gaming culture, game specific cultures, and multicultural and cross-cultural issues

-- game development, design, authorship and other industry issues

-- game advertising, reviews, packaging, promotion, integrated marketing and other commercial concerns

-- political and legal entailments such as regulation, censorship, intellectual property

-- ludology, textual criticism, media ecology, narratology, etc as paradigms for games studies

-- player generated content in MUDs and MMORPGs, Mods, maps and machinima

-- game genres, platforms, consoles, console wars and connections to other media

-- serious games for education, business, healthcare, (military) training, etc

-- space and place in games, play spaces, virtual/physical communities, mobile gaming and localization

-- digital literacy, discourse practices, social norms and norming, the politics of play

-- public discourse/controversy over violence, militarism, sex, criminality, racism, etc in games

-- game pedagogy and classroom practices, gamification, learning as play



II. Submission Process

The Game Studies area of the National Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association Conference, which began as the Video Games Studies area in 2003, has the most enduring footprint of any North American academic organization that give serious attention to the social and cultural impact of games and gaming. The area continues to grow and offers two avenues for scholars to participate and present their work.

A. Paper Proposals

For individual paper proposal submissions, please submit a 250-word (maximum) abstract by October 1, 2015.  Submissions must be made online at http://ncp.pcaaca.org.  Detailed instructions for using the online submission system can be found at http://www.pcaaca.org/conference/instructions.php.

B. Panel Proposals

For panel submissions, please submit a 250-word (maximum) panel abstract, as well as 100-word abstracts for each individual presentation, by October 1, 2015. Panel proposals must be emailed to digitalgames.pcaaca@gmail.com. Be sure to include the proposed title of the panel, the organizer’s name, affiliation, mailing address, and email, as well as this information for all panelists. Panel submissions may take the form of debates, dialogs, roundtable discussions, thematic panels, (or other format,) and should be designed to last approximately eighty minutes.



III. Information about the Conference

A. So that there will be ample time for discussion, each individual paper presentation should be designed to last approximately twelve to fifteen minutes (there will typically be four presentations per session with time for Q&A).

B. Technology for use during presentations may be limited. More information about the conference can be found at http://www.pcaaca.org/

C. Presenters will be required to join either the Popular Culture Association or the American Culture Association prior to attending the conference, as well as pay a registration fee for the conference. Information about these fees can be found at http://www.pcaaca.org/conference/membership_registration.php.

D. Awards and Travel Grants are offered, on a competitive basis, by the National Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association

1. Travel Grants

The Michael Schoenecke Travel Grant for Graduate Students to the National Conference. For application requirements, please visit http://www.pcaaca.org/grant/schoenecke.php

The Peter Rollins Travel Grant for Early-Career Faculty. For application requirements, please visit http://www.pcaaca.org/grant/rollins.php

The Madonna Marsden International Travel Grant for Individuals presenting at the National Conference. For application requirements, please visit http://www.pcaaca.org/grant/marsden.php

2. Graduate Student Awards

William E. Brigman Award for the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper presented at the National Conference in a specific year. Applications go to Brigman Award, c/o Gary Hoppenstand, Journal of Popular Culture, 4C Morrill Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 . Please send three hard copies of the paper (without author's name), as well as a copy on disc and photocopy of your student identification card. Those concerned for their privacy may obscure the Social Security number should it appear on the card. Please also include a copy of the acceptance letter/email from the PCA area chair who accepted the paper for presentation in the national conference. Papers should address popular culture and be accepted for a PCA panel. Submissions must be received by January 7th of the year the conference is held. The winning paper must be presented at the upcoming PCA/ACA meeting in the year it is accepted. Should the winning paper not be presented in person, the award will be forfeited. The winning author is invited to submit the essay to The Journal of Popular Culture and work with the editor toward its publication. This award is selected by a panel chosen by the editor of the journal. The winner receives a $500 travel award to attend the national conference in the year the paper is selected.

William M. Jones Award for the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper presented at the National Conference in a specific year. Entries are submitted to Amy Dudley, Editorial Assistant, William M. Jones Graduate Student Paper Award Selection Committee, the Journal of American Culture, Virginia Wesleyan College, 1584 Wesleyan Drive, Norfolk, VA 23502. Papers must be submitted by January 7th of the year the conference is held. Three copies of the paper, as well as a photocopy of the applicant's student identification card must be submitted. Papers should address American culture. The winning paper must be presented at the PCA/ACA conference. The winner receives a $500 travel award to attend the national conference in the year the paper is selected. Should the winning paper not be presented in person, the award will be forfeited. The winning author should also submit the essay to the Journal of American Culture and work with the editor toward its publication. This award is selected by a panel chosen by the editor of the journal.



IV. Contact Information

Questions and concerns can be sent to digitalgames.pcaaca@gmail.com, or may be directed to one of the area chairs listed below.

Matthew Wysocki, Department of Communication, Flagler College

mwysocki@flagler.edu

Nicholas Mizer,

nicholas.j.mizer@gmail.com

Matthew Wysocki
Flagler College

Email: mwysocki@flagler.edu


CFP Roundtable on Metaphors of Detection (9/30/15; NeMLA 2016)

“Metaphors of Detection” (Roundtable)
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74127/%E2%80%9Cmetaphors-detection%E2%80%9D-roundtable
Announcement published by Cecilia Feilla on Sunday, July 5, 2015

Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
September 30, 2015
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Literature
CALL FOR PAPERS

Roundtable on “Metaphors of Detection”

Northeast Modern Language Association 47th Annual Convention

Hartford, Connecticut

March 17-20, 2016

Metaphors make the detective. Whether Dupin's "clew," Holmes's game metaphor ("the game's afoot"), Poirot's puzzles and gestalt, or the labyrinths of film noir, the governing metaphors of the great fictional detectives encapsulate the underlying social, hermeneutic, and cultural assumptions that govern their methods. This roundtable aims to bring together a variety of approaches, examples, and interpretations of the guiding metaphors of detective fiction from the genre's origins to the present day. Short presentations on detective narratives in any genre, language, or medium are welcome; talks on a single metaphor, author, or nexus of metaphors and authors are of particular interest.

Deadline for abstracts: Sept. 30, 2015

Please submit an abstract of 250-500 words directly to the specified NeMLA link for the roundtable at

http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/15900

Follow the instruction to create a user account. Session ID 15900.

Session organizer: Cecilia Feilla, Department of English and World Literatures, Marymount Manhattan College

Session Format: Roundtable

Area: Anglophone/Comparative Literature

Contact Info:
Cecilia Feilla (Marymount Manhattan College)

Contact Email:
cfeilla@gmail.com
URL:
http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/15900

CFP 21st Century Film and Television (Spec Issue) (10/15/15)

CFP: Special Issue on 21st Century Film and Television
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/74222/cfp-special-issue-21st-century-film-and-television
Discussion published by Rosalind Sibielski on Sunday, July 5, 2015
Your network editor has reposted this from H-Announce. The byline reflects the original authorship.

Type: Call for Papers
Subject Fields: Cultural History / Studies, Journalism and Media Studies, Visual Studies

The Projector is developing a special (potentially double) issue on the evolving roles of television and film in the twenty-first century. The issue(s) will feature research that illuminates cultural, aesthetic, or material aspects of contemporary popular media, which is created, interpreted, and recreated in an environment filled with interactive channels, where films, television-streaming programming, and news of the day are “events” shaped by forces ranging from corporate entities to celebrities to active members of participatory culture.

The issue(s) will provide a venue for scholarship that can shed new light, for example, on television-streaming platforms (broadcast, cable, niche and mainstream online sites), which supply all types of producers and viewers with venues for news, entertainment, and their vision of quality drama or oppositional cultural expression, while the American film industry, working with an array of international artists, entrepreneurs, and global censors, increasingly moves towards immersive sensory experiences and the multivalent franchise/transmedia storytelling well suited to postmodern participatory audiences.  

The special issue(s) could be a venue for scholarly contributions in other forms, including: short research essays, pedagogical essays on using popular media, book reviews, or interviews with practitioners, etc. Contact C. Baron cbaron@bgsu.edu with questions about these options.

The Projector is a peer-reviewed journal with an international editorial board; the blind, peer-review policy requires that authors’ names not appear within essays. Submissions must be double-spaced (no additional space between paragraphs), and use American English spelling. Research articles should be about 20-25 pages. They must use current MLA in-text and works cited citation. See https://www.theprojectorjournal.com for full submission guidelines.

Submissions should be emailed to cbaron@bgsu.edu as Word files before October 15, 2015. Submit essays as an email attachments, with essay titles and contact information in the message.

Contact Info:
The Projector: A Journal on Film, Media, and Culture

Contact Email: cbaron@bgsu.edu
URL: http://theprojectorjournal.com

CFP Identity and the Fragmented Self in the Age of Social Media (9/30/15; NeMLA 2016)

Note mention of cyborgs below:

CFP: Body, Voice, and Being: Identity and the Fragmented Self in the Age of Social Media (47th Annual NeMLA)
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74234/cfp-body-voice-and-being-identity-and-fragmented-self-age-social
Announcement published by Bofang Li on Sunday, July 5, 2015

Type: 
Call for Papers
Date: 
March 17, 2016 to March 20, 2016
Location: 
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields: 
Digital Humanities, Humanities, Sociology

CALL FOR PAPERS, Northeast MLA Convention, Hartford CT, March 17-20th 2016.

In June 2015, the former Olympic decathlete formerly known as Bruce Jenner unveiled his new trans-identity. Caitlyn Jenner’s first public act was to tweet her Vanity Fair cover, with its headline "Call me Caitlyn," from her new Twitter account. This declarative move allowed her supporters to tweet messages that, in their address to her new username, @Caitlyn_Jenner, at once fulfilled her headline request while reinforcing her new identity. The tweet marks Jenner’s rebirth on social media, signalling her (re)entrance into a mode of identity formation/presentation in which the majority of adult Americans now engage. What renders Jenner’s situation remarkable is the way in which her new identity positions her as an adult digital native, without a digital media history. Where social media accounts are often also repositories of past lives, hosting evidence of a contiguous identity at times in conflict with self-presentation, Jenner’s (so far) lack this archontic function. Caitlyn Jenner is, in many ways, born digital, and her acts of self-definition on social media mark the genesis of a media-inflected existence while highlighting the interplay between lived, performative, and representational identities online and in "real life."

    In our increasingly digitized world, social media is understood as a tool of communication and community as well as a way for users to revel in the potential of self-definition. As the choice of social networking sites proliferates, so too does the possibility of multiple identities, with 75% of online adults managing multiple social networking profiles. This panel calls for papers to explore the implications of multiple identity creation. Potential topics include: the cyborg in the digital age; identity and platform; the unified/diffuse self; identity as performance; the self and the digital other; following, friending, trolling; internality/externality and digital identity. Abstracts of 350 words welcome at the submission URL (http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/15944) by 30th September deadline.


Contact Info: 
Bofang Li, Yale University

Contact Email: 
bofang.li@yale.edu
URL: 

CFP Animation Area (10/1/15; PCA/ACA 2016)

PCA/ACA Animation Division CFP for National Conference 2016
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74545/pcaaca-animation-division-cfp-national-conference-2016
Announcement published by David Silverman on Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
October 1, 2015
Subject Fields:
Digital Humanities, Cultural History / Studies
The Animation Area of the Popular Culture Association seeks individual-papers and panel proposals for presentation at the National Conference of the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association.

Proposals which consider the diversity of animation in relation to popular culture are welcomed. Possible themes for papers/panels include but are not restricted to:

Animated adaptations, comics and animation, propaganda, public information, advertising, animated television series, animation for education, animation aesthetics, gender issues, animation studios, online animation, comedy, documentary, South Park, the work of Matt Groening, CGI/animated special effects, anime.

Interested individuals are asked to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words (including presentation title) and complete contact information (name, institutional affiliation, mail and e-mail addresses, and contact telephone number) to http://ncp.pcaaca.org .  (Although the site is pretty user friendly, find general instructions at

http://pcaaca.org/national-conference-2/proposing-a-presentation-at-the-conference/ )

Panel proposals of 4 speakers and/or discussion panels of 4-6 participants each are also encouraged.

Please include the following:

Panel Title

Name and contact information for the Panel Chair


Titles and abstracts of each paper


Contact information for each presenter


All presenters must be members of the PCA and must register for the conference.

Here is the schedule of deadlines and pertinent dates:



1 July                          Database Opens for Submissions

1 October                    Registration Opens

1 October                    Deadline for Paper Proposals

15 November               Early Bird Registration Rate Ends

1 December                 Preliminary Program Available

15 December              “Drop Dead”: Participants Not Registered Removed from Program

1 January 2016            Final Program to the Publisher

15 February 2016        Conference schedule and program available

21-25 March 2016      Seattle!

Contact Info:
David S. Silverman
Kansas Wesleyan University
Salina, KS 67401
(785) 827-5541 ext. 5227
david.silverman@kwu.edu

AND/OR

Peter Chanthanakone
University of Iowa
peter@pixade.com
Contact Email:
david.silverman@kwu.edu

URL:
http://pcaaca.org/national-conference/proposing-a-presentation-at-the-conference/

CFP Representation of Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the 21st-century American Media (9/30/15; NeMLA 2016)

Representation of Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the 21st-century American Media - NeMLA 2016, Hartford (CT) March 17-20
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74542/representation-ethnic-and-racial-minorities-21st-century-american
Announcement published by Javier Venturi on Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
September 30, 2015
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Ethnic History / Studies, American History / Studies

One of the problems with representations of racial and ethnic minorities in the 21st-century American media is that there aren't enough main characters, male and female role models, that will fairly represent their social advancement and academic achievements through sitcoms, movies, and mainstream media. Minorities (African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, Pacific Islander, Eskimo, Native Americans, etc.) are, on the whole, proportionately underrepresented in the media relative to their population. For example, in the popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory and recent Divergent film series, the roles of minority characters tend and continue to be secondary to male and female white protagonists. Minority characters are portrayed as sidekicks, best friends, hero’s nemeses, terrorists, funny male/female foreign characters, or represent the “other” who struggles to understand and accept the American way of life. This panel will analyze and discuss the misrepresentation and cultural marginalization of ethnic and racial minorities in the 21st-century American media, asking questions such as why are racial minorities portrayed more often as lower class individuals and what are the latest developments in the representation and reception of media output produced by, for or about ethnic minorities? Please submit 250-word abstracts in English to Javier Venturi.

Contact Info:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

This year, NeMLA (Northeast Modern Language Association) has implemented a user-based system to accept and track abstract submissions. In order to submit an abstract using the button for a CFP entry, you must sign up with NeMLA and log in. Using this new system, you can manage your personal information and review and update your abstract following submission. Signing up is free, and you only have to do it once:

https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15955

Chair: Javier Venturi

URL:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15955

CFP Gaming/Gender: 2015 Mechademia Conference on Asian Popular Cultures (9/1/15; Minneapolis 9/25-27/15)

CFP: Mechademia Conference on Asian Popular Cultures, 2015 “Gaming/Gender”
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74516/cfp-mechademia-conference-asian-popular-cultures-2015-
Announcement published by Jen Caruso on Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
September 1, 2015
Location:
Minnesota, United States
Subject Fields:
Asian History / Studies, Digital Humanities
Mechademia Conference on Asian Popular Cultures, 2015

“Gaming/Gender”

September 25-27, 2015

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Special Guest: Brianna Wu

The recent rash of death threats toward feminist media critic, Anita Sarkeesian after her polemic on the violence toward women in video games, has focused attention on what has always been “accepted” as a given: video games are made by males for males. In the crosshairs of a narrowed, constructed male gaze, representations of women have indeed been predominately the sexualized subjects of extreme violence in gaming. This is the case despite the fact that women also play video games, critique and write about video games, and even create video games. An article from The Guardian from September 17th of 2014 stated, “While ‘hardcore’ gaming is clearly still rooted in its traditional user base (playing games is considered the most entertaining media amongst males aged 16-24), what the study shows is a widening audience who are exploring games through new platforms.”

 Additionally, in light of the fact that in spite of its massively misogynist aspects, indeed many women not only play these hardcore video games, but actually apparently enjoy playing them; we question how to address these problems -- not only just the rampant misogyny, but the broader abuses of that can underlay the misogyny; those societal issues of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexualities.

• How women are depicted is not always strictly about sex and violence, but being as those are significant factors, how should women be portrayed in games – particularly action/war games?

• Is gaming as exclusively a “man’s world” and the only role for women being the over-sexualized, highly “consumable” victims?

• Do videogames, anime, and manga simply reinforce negative gender, ethnic, class, and racial stereotypes, or is there a possibility for critique embedded in the games or cultures that produce and consume them?

These topics represent only a few of the broad concerns over issues of gender and gaming currently in the news.

This conference invites scholars, fans, and creators to consider the situation and respond with presentations as we expand the discursive field against the vast mediated (dis)information found on the web. We welcome both in-person presentations at the conference as well as remote presentations via Zoom (much like Skype) for those unable to make it to Minneapolis.

Teachers: We also have an “Emerging Scholars Panel” for your advanced undergraduate students to participate in during this event. They can also register at the same site below.

Please send 250 word proposals to mechademia@mcad.edu by September 1, 2015.



Contact Email:
mechademia@mcad.edu
URL:
http://mcad.edu/events-fellowships/mechademia

CFP Essays on European film since 1990 (8/20/15)

Call for submissions for a new anthology on European film since 1990
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74697/call-submissions-new-anthology-european-film-1990

Announcement published by John Williams on Friday, July 10, 2015

Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
August 20, 2015
Subject Fields:
Communication, European History / Studies, Film and Film History, Fine Arts, French History / Studies, German History / Studies, Modern European History / Studies

I am putting together an anthology of new research on European film since 1990. The book is intended for classroom use in both contemporary European history and film courses. The work needs to be genuinely cross-disciplinary, emphasizing relationships between social change, popular political culture, and cinematic representation; and the language needs to be straightforward (i.e. jargon-free) and accessible to both advanced undergraduates and the general reading public. Chapters might focus either on a specific film as exemplary of broader developments or on a wider selection of films viewed from a thematic perspective.

If you are interested in contributing chapters that meet these criteria to the project, please send your CV and a proposal of between 300 and 500 words by August 20, 2015 to John Williams, Department of History, Bradley University at johnw@bradley.edu.

Contact Info:
Professor John A. Williams

Department of History

Bradley University

Peoria, IL 61625 USA

(309) 677-3182

Contact Email:
johnw@bradley.edu

CFP Footprints of Orpheus: Cult, Topoi, and Character in Medieval and Early Modern Britain (9/30/15; NeMLA 2016)

Footprints of Orpheus: Cult, Topoi, and Character in Medieval and Early Modern Britain--A NeMLA 2016 Panel
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/75274/footprints-orpheus-cult-topoi-and-character-medieval-and-early

Announcement published by David Pecan on Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Type:
Conference
Date:
March 17, 2016 to March 20, 2016
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Medieval and Byzantine History / Studies, Modern European History / Studies, Literature


Footprints of Orpheus: Cult, Topoi, and Character in Medieval and Early Modern Britain

As scholars of Medieval and Early Modern culture, what can we learn from considerations of the Orphic presence in the literature of Britain? The idea and image of Orpheus, in folk narrative, cultural analogue, literary motif, emblem, symbol, and foundational myth, has influenced and inspired the British literary tradition since its very beginning, and as such offers opportunities for close readings of influence and innovation of the prototype.  Drawn from Celtic, Classical, Scandinavian, and Continental source material, Orpheus and Orphic analogues have enabled the development and characterization of poetic progenitors, bardic personae, narrative performativity, and tales of the poet as hero, within and without patterns of social cohesion and divergence.  Additionally, manifestations of Orpheus have informed notions of the authoritative “voice” of poetic text, links between creation and ownership of literary artifacts, the idea of the “author” as “tradition,” and the interface of performativity and the literary marketplace.  Hosted by Professor David Pecan of SUNY Nassau, this NeMLA 2016 panel invites papers from interested faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars.

Please submit proposals via the NeMLA website: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp and access Session # 15726 or search term Orpheus.  The deadline for abstract submission is September 30th, 2016.

Northeast Modern Language Association

47th Annual Convention

Hartford, Connecticut

March 17-20, 2016

Hosted by the University of Connecticut

Contact Email:
david.pecan@ncc.edu
URL:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp

CFP Video Games, Culture, & Justice (10/1/15)

CFP: Video Games, Culture, & Justice
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74784/cfp-video-games-culture-justice

Announcement published by Kishonna Gray on Friday, July 10, 2015

Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
July 11, 2015 to October 1, 2015
Subject Fields:
Communication, Contemporary History, Cultural History / Studies, Digital Humanities, Demographic History / Studies, History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Library and Information Science

Call for Papers: Video Games, Culture, & Justice

The purpose of this edited volume is to propel game studies towards a more responsive existence in the area of social justice.  The text will attempt to move beyond the descriptive level of analysis of what and begin engaging the why, highlighting the structural and institutional factors perpetuating inequalities that permeate gaming culture and extend into a myriad of institutions.  The public outcry associated with GamerGate has put 'why' at the forefront of game studies. GamerGaters, who gained media attention through their misogynist and racist attacks on women gamers and developers, even tried to justify their campaign as an attempt to restore the ethics needed in video game journalism. This attack directed at 'social justice warriors' brought the hidden reality of harassment, cyberbullying, sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other injustices to light.  These attacks are part and parcel of gaming culture; challenges to the lack of diversity or the gross stereotypes are often met with demonization and rhetorical violence directed at those who merely seek to help gaming reach its fullest potential. Yet, in these struggles, we must move beyond individual acts of prejudice, discrimination, and microaggressions to examine the structural and institutional factors that allow them to exist.   We must look at how the daily practices sustain what Mark Anthony Neal calls "micro-nooses" and lived reality of violence on and offline.



Amid this culture of violence, the gaming industry has embraced the rhetoric of diversity and inclusion.  In response to protests, game developers have incorporated statements asserting their commitment to producing diverse games and building an industry no longer dominated by white men. Given the post-racial rhetorical turn of the last six years, it is important to push conversations about gaming and gamers beyond diversity, to expose the disconnect between rhetorics of multiculturalism and the struggle for justice and equity.  It is important to highlight the contradiction between ideals of inclusion espoused within the video game industry and society as a whole and the persistence of injustices within the structural and institutional context in which they may have developed. This compilation not only seeks to answer these questions but also to produce work that intervenes in the culture of violence and inequity from which these works emanate from inside and outside of academia.



Traditionally, academic public discourses concerned with criminal justice focused on issues pertaining to crime and legal justice; within game studies, there has an effort to examine criminogenic effects of violent video games on the streets.  We must move beyond this simple construction of justice and video games.  This interdisciplinary text defines justice broadly, but in terms to speak to the struggle of racial, gender, and social justice.  Moving beyond abstract principles, the collection focuses on the stakes playing out in virtual reality, demonstrating the ways that struggles for justice online, in the policy booth, in the court house, in our schools, in legislatures and in streets must be waged online.



As such, this collection seeks a broader range of critical perspectives on justice issues within gaming culture seeking whether gaming culture can foster critical consciousness, aid in participatory democracy, and effect social change.  It will give voice to the silenced and marginalized, offering counter narratives to those post-racial and post-gendered fantasies that so often obscure the violent context of production and consumption. In offering this framework, this volume will be grounded in the concrete situations of marginalized members within gaming culture.



Early career scholars, game industry personnel, gaming activists, graduate students, and others are invited to submit work addressing the connected themes of Video Games, Culture, & Justice.  Suggested essay topics may include (but are not limited to):



·         Representation and Identity in Video Games

·         Examining the complex nature of intersections

·         Marginalized identities within gaming culture

·         Developing culturally responsive games

·         Activism within video games

·         Power and anonymity

·         Negative experiences in multiplayer settings

·         Applying social justice theories to gaming

·         Militarization and video games

·         Cyberbullying, online harassment, and other virtual violence

·         Policing game communities

·         Swatting and blurring boundaries of virtual and physical spaces

·         Online disinhibition, anonymity, and trolling

·         The impact of serious games and games for change

·         Hacking inequalities (sexism, racism, heterosexism, ableism, etc)

·         Solutions to eliminate bias

·         Hypermasculinity in tech culture

·         Methodological successes and challenges

·         Genre, representation, and social justice

·         Gaming interfaces as social praxis

·         The graphical arms race: hyperreality, phenotype, and identity



Please submit abstracts (500 word max) along with a short bio and your CV/resume to gamesculturejustice@gmail.com by September 15th, 2015.  Authors will be notified by October 5th, 2015 if their proposals have been accepted for the prospectus.  Final essays should be within the range of 4000 – 6000 words, submitted as a Word or Rich Text Format.  Notifications to submit full essays will occur shortly after abstracts are submitted and they will be due December 28th, 2015.  For more information please contact the co-editors at gamesculturejustice@gmail.com.



Deadline for Abstracts: September 15th, 2015

Full Essays Due: December 28th, 2015



André Brock (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan.  His research interests include digital and online performances of race and culture, African American technoculture, and critical cultural informatics.  Follow him on Twitter @DocDre.



Kishonna L. Gray (Ph.D., Arizona State University) is the Director of the Critical Gaming Lab at Eastern Kentucky University as well as faculty in the School of Justice Studies, African/African-American Studies, & Women & Gender Studies.  Her work broadly intersects identity and new media although she has a particular focus on gaming.  Her most recent book, Race, Gender, & Deviance in Xbox Live, provides a much-needed theoretical framework for examining deviant behavior and deviant bodies within that virtual gaming community.  Her work can be found at www.kishonnagray.com and at www.criticalgaminglab.com.  Follow her on Twitter @DrGrayThaPhx and @CriticalGameLab.



David J. Leonard (Ph.D., University of California – Berkeley) is Associate Professor and chair in the Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies at Washington State University, Pullman.  He regularly writes about issues of race, gender, inequality, and popular culture.  His work has appeared in a number of academic journals and anthologies.  His works can be found at http://www.drdavidjleonard.com. Follow him on Twitter @drdavidjleonard.



Contact Info:
For more information please contact the co-editors at gamesculturejustice@gmail.com

André Brock (University of Michigan), Co-Editor

Kishonna L Gray (Eastern Kentucky University), Co-Editor

David J Leonard (Washington State University), Co-Editor

Contact Email:
gamesculturejustice@gmail.com
URL:
http://www.criticalgaminglab.com/cfp-video-games-culture--justice.html

CFP Southern Studies Conference (10/15/15; Alabama 2/5-6/16)

Southern Studies Conference
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/75401/southern-studies-conference

Announcement published by John Havard on Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Type: Conference
Date: October 15, 2015
Location: Alabama, United States
Subject Fields: African American History / Studies, American History / Studies

Now in its eighth year, the AUM Southern Studies Conference invites panel and paper proposals on any aspect of Southern literature. The conference will be held 5-6 February 2016. Topics may include but are not limited to:

--Southern food studies
--Slavery and the American South; slave narratives
--Civil War narratives
--Civil Rights narratives; explorations of race and conflict
--Southern religion and literature
--Ecocriticism and the landscape of Southern writing
--Regionalist writers of the American South
--Explorations of the Southern worker
--The plantation novel
--Changing conceptions of Southern aristocracy in literature
--Southern women writers
--Southern travel writing
--Southern children’s literature
--Cross-cultural exchanges between the South and other geographic areas
--Native American literature of the South
--Stories of immigration / migration and border-crossings
--Contemporary reconceptions of "The South"
--Contemporary literacy and writing programs of the American South
--Studies of works by canonical Southern authors such as Twain, Welty, and Faulkner
--Studies of works by lesser-known Southern writers

This two-day conference includes two keynote presentations. One will be given by Dr. Trudier Harris, a renowned scholar of African-American literature from the University of Alabama. The other will be given by Dr. Kenneth W. Noe, a distinguished Civil War historian from Auburn University. Registrants to the conference will also be able to enjoy a variety of peer-reviewed panels and exhibits on southern topics representing all of the liberal arts disciplines.

Proposals can be emailed to southernstudies@aum.edu and should include a 250-word abstract and a brief CV. The deadline is 15 October 2015. Proposals will be refereed by established scholars in each discipline. For more information, please visit the conference website:

http://www.liberalarts.aum.edu/southern-studies-conference

or contact

John C. Havard
Assistant Professor of English
Auburn University at Montgomery
jhavard@aum.edu

Contact Info:
John C. Havard
Assistant Professor of English
Auburn University at Montgomery
jhavard@aum.edu

Contact Email:
jhavard@aum.edu

CFP Mater Dolorosa: The Representation of the Blessed Mary in Literature and Art (7/31/15)

Call for Book Chapters. Mater Dolorosa: The Representation of the Blessed Mary in Literature and Art
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74980/call-book-chapters-mater-dolorosa-representation-blessed-mary

Announcement published by Elena Shabliy on Monday, July 13, 2015

Type: Call for Publications
Date: July 11, 2015 to July 31, 2015
Location: United States
Subject Fields:
Ancient History, Art and Art History, European History / Studies, Medieval and Byzantine History / Studies, Modern European History / Studies, Religious Studies and Theology

In today’s complex world religious discourse is especially crucial, considering that secularism is expanding around the globe. We seek contributions on the representation of the Virgin Mary in World Literature and Art. Comparative approaches are always welcome. Religious and cultural literacy is important for domestic and international politics, the practice of peace, harmony, justice, and social prosperity. Thus, this edited volume will help diminish religious illiteracy. Universitas Press has agreed to publish this edited volume. Contributions are welcome from scholars in various disciplines in the humanities. Please send your proposals, along with your CV by July 31, 2015, to Elena Shabliy eshabliy@tulane.edu.

July 31, 2015: Proposal Submission Deadline


Contact Info:
Elena Shabliy, an Interdisciplinary Scholar, Tulane University eshabliy@tulane.edu

Contact Email:
eshabliy@tulane.edu
URL:
http://universitaspress.com/

CFP Children and Media (7/20/15; SCMS 2016)

CFP: SCMS 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia - Panel on Children and Media, Disney, Nickelodeon, Gender, Girls etc.
https://networks.h-net.org/node/14467/discussions/74776/cfp-scms-2016-atlanta-georgia-panel-children-and-media-disney

Discussion published by Christina Hodel on Friday, July 10, 2015

Children, Teens and Everyone In-between: Youth Media

This panel is intended to explore representations of childhood/children on screen. The panel is currently broadly conceived and is open to submissions relating to other aspects of children’s media although topics relating to girls and gender are highly encouraged.

Some possible suggestions for topics are below, but again, please apply if anything related to children and media (and especially gender) is part of your thesis.

·         Disney, Nickelodeon and other producers of children’s media content
·         Child gender and sexuality issues
·         Race, Culture, Class and Children
·         Children and relationships
·         Advocating for children
·         The dark side of childhood/children
·         Child perpetrators and victims of violence on screen
·         The status of children’s films and/or family films in terms of genre
·         The commercial and/or aesthetic aspects of children’s media
·         The reception of children’s media
·         Participatory video or child-led cinema
·         The liminality of childhood and its relation to questions of nationhood on screen
·         Aspects of film and television that teach us about current constructions of childhood
·         How films/television resist/undermine contemporary constructions of childhood
·         How media helps us better understand the role of children in a given societal context
·         How media shed light on the relationship between children/adults
·         Depictions of childhood understood as metaphors for specific cultural phenomena
·         Societal anxieties embedded in media featuring children
·         Explanations of how ideas regarding childhood have affected movies and television

Proposals should be sent to Christina (hodel@ku.edu) and consist of a 250 word abstract, a list of three keywords, and a brief biographical statement listing your title, the name of your college or university, and your areas of research.

Deadline to submit is July 20, 2015.
Decisions will be communicated by July 25, 2015.


CFP Tarot/Divination Area (10/1/15; PCA/ACA 2016)

CFP: Tarot/Divination at the 2016 PCA/ACA conference
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/75067/cfp-tarotdivination-2016-pcaaca-conference

Discussion published by Emily Auger on Thursday, July 16, 2015

It's time to submit proposals for the Tarot and Other Methods of Divination area at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) conference in Seattle March 21-25 (Monday through Friday), 2016. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to,

a) any aspect of the traditional or innovative uses of Tarot, astrology, cartomancy, I Ching, numerology, runes, tarot, tasseomancy, etc., such as counseling, fortune-telling, and gaming, etc.

b) the history and analysis of any of these practices, including relevant individuals, organizations, objects, texts, etc.

c) the history and analysis of representations of any of these practices in comics, drama, film, graphic novels, literature, television, etc.

All participants should be prepared to present their work as scholarly research and/or for the benefit of an interested audience of academics.

Submissions should be made to the conference website and should include an abstract or proposal (100-250 words), a short biography (100-150 words), and CV.

Deadline: The conference submission website closes Oct. 1, 2015.

Queries welcome.

Emily E. Auger, PhD

PCA/ACA Conference website: http://pcaaca.org/

Personal website with faq page for the area: http://emilyeauger.weebly.com/cfp-tarot--divination-at-the-pcaaca-conference.html

Email: augeremily@gmail.com

CFP Failed Adaptations from Page to Screen (9/30/16; NeMLA 2016)

"Ruined!" On Failed Adaptations from Page to Screen | NeMLA 2016 (Abstract Submission Deadline: September 30, 2015)
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/75907/ruined-failed-adaptations-page-screen-nemla-2016-abstract

Announcement published by Derek McGrath on Monday, July 20, 2015

Type: Call for Papers
Date: June 30, 2015 to September 30, 2015
Location: Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields: Film and Film History, Literature

This session will explore adaptations that fail in some way. Among our goals, we would like to identify what could be productive about failed adaptations. How do such failures identify what not to do, and can an adaptation that fails to be faithful to its source material still produce a valuable, worthwhile text? We are particularly interested in proposals that look at the adaptation of older artistic and literary forms in online and/or interactive content.

Submit abstracts (300 words maximum) by September 30, 2015, to Session ID#15658 at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15658

An adaptation from page to screen is fraught with tension due to potentially conflicting goals: on the one hand, adhering to its source material, and on the other hand, attempting to make something new. Adaptation can be imagined as an argument between the creator of the original text and the creator of its adaptation, hilariously - and perhaps accurately - represented by Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep’s characters cursing each other in the appropriately titled film Adaptation.

This session will explore adaptations that fail in some way. Among our goals, we would like to identify what could be productive about failed adaptations. How do such failures identify what not to do? And can an adaptation that fails to be faithful to its source material still produce a valuable, worthwhile text?

Potential topics will include not only those adaptations that diverge so drastically from the plot, characterization, and setting of the original story but also the formal differences. How does the screen fail to adapt more covert aspects present in narration? How is the fantastic reduced to the realistic in image, performance, and setting? Which ekphrastic challenges did the creators fail to adapt moving between media?

In Spring 2016, the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) will meet in Hartford, Connecticut, for its 47th Annual Convention. Every year, this event affords NeMLA’s principal opportunity to carry on a tradition of lively research and pedagogical exchange in language and literature.

Please join us for this convention, which will feature approximately 400 sessions, dynamic speakers, and cultural events. Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA session; however, panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar). Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable.

Full information regarding the 2016 Call for Papers may be found on NeMLA's website: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp

Contact Info:
Emily Lauer (SUNY Suffolk County Community College), lauere@sunysuffolk.edu

Derek McGrath (SUNY Stony Brook), derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com

Contact Email:
lauere@sunysuffolk.edu
URL:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15658


CFP Cultural Encounters during Global War, 1914-1918: Traces, Spaces, Legacies Conference (9/14/15; London 1/21-23/16)

This sounds interesting:

Cultural Encounters during Global War, 1914-1918: Traces, Spaces, Legacies

Announcement published by Daniel Steinbach on Friday, July 17, 2015

Type: Call for Papers
Date: September 14, 2015
Location: United Kingdom
Subject Fields:
British History / Studies, American History / Studies, Communication, Eastern Europe History / Studies, European History / Studies, French History / Studies, German History / Studies, Languages, Cultural History / Studies, Italian History / Studies, Military History, Modern European History / Studies, Nationalism History / Studies, Psychology, Russian or Soviet History / Studies, Social History / Studies, Sociology, Spanish and Portuguese History / Studies, World History / Studies

Call for Papers for an interdisciplinary conference on Cultural Encounters during Global War, 1914-1918:
Traces, Spaces, Legacies

Date:           21 – 23 January 2016

Place:          London, United Kingdom

Convenors:  Dr Santanu Das, King’s College London

                    Prof Andreas Gestrich, German Historical Institute

                    Dr Daniel Steinbach, King’s College London



The First World War resulted in an unprecedented range of encounters between peoples from different ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds. Soldiers from across the globe travelled to different theatres of war – Europe, the Middle East, East Africa, Egypt, Gallipoli – where they not only encountered fellow-soldiers and non-combatants with different languages, religions or customs, but also interacted with friendly or belligerent civilians. Between 1914 and 1918, on French soil alone, there were over 1 million Asian and African men, both soldiers and non-combatants, in addition to soldiers from Australia, New Zealand and North America.

Europe would never be the same again not just in terms of the war’s wreckage but in terms of people, ethnicities and cultures that were encountered, manipulated, studied, befriended. These encounters not only affected the individuals involved, but left deep traces in the literature, arts and culture of the times.

Simultaneously, a different kind of ‘cultural encounter’ was being engineered within Europe: the belligerent states were each trying to win over the neutral nations by funding cultural institutions and trying to influence artists, writers and opinion makers throughout the war. Neutral countries, particularly Sweden and Switzerland, became hubs for the activities of anti-colonial revolutionaries from Asia and North Africa. Furthermore, belligerent countries carried out intensive propaganda in Europe as well as in the colonies to ensure either imperial loyalty or to mobilize anti-colonial feelings and actions.

This interdisciplinary conference seeks to investigate the different kinds of encounters, exchanges and entanglements happening during wartime. What particular pressures did the conditions of war put on such encounters? What is the relationship between ‘forced encounters’ (as in camps for POW or civilian internees), ‘voluntary’ encounters (as in towns, markets, billets) and the state-sponsored ideologically motivated ‘indirect’ encounters (in the neutral countries)? Does encounter always involve exchange? What were the structures of power and how did they navigate the prevalent ideologies of race? How did the encounters and exchanges occur across linguistic, national, religious, ethnic and social barriers, and what were their post-war legacies in terms of social, cultural, artistic and literary memory for Europe? Papers which pay attention to encounters or exchanges which involve colonials and neutrals – which is still a largely under-researched area – are particularly welcome.

The conference aims to overcome the dominant national and geographical approaches to the First World War and seeks to investigate moments and processes of cultural encounters, exchange, porosity and (mis-)understanding from different disciplinary perspectives, including history, geography, literature, anthropology, cultural, area, visual and gender studies. We would like to invite papers on the following themes, but are also open other aspects of cultural exchange during the First World War:


  • Spaces of cultural encounters and exchange (e.g. ships, trenches, camps, billets, hospitals)
  • Cultural encounters and/or exchange among soldiers at the front and between soldiers and civilians
  • Occupation, captivity, deportation and cultural exchange
  • Medium of cultural exchange (e.g. newspapers, letters, journals, films)
  • Propaganda and cultural exchange
  • Contemporary public and private reaction to and reflection on cultural exchange
  • Intellectual, literary and artistic exchanges and networks during the war
  • Transnational movements (Pan-Asianism, Pan-Africanism, Pan-Islamism) and anti-colonial networks
  •  Impact of the cultural exchanges and their post-war legacies



Accommodation will be provided for speakers for the duration of the conference and speakers’ travel expenses will be reimbursed within reason.

Proposals from scholars at any stage in their career are invited and papers with an interdisciplinary approach are particularly welcome.

Participants should send abstracts of up to 300 words for a 20-25 minute paper, a short biography, and any enquiries to daniel.steinbach@kcl.ac.uk by 14 September 2015.



Contact Info:
Dr Daniel Steinbach

King's College London

Virgina Woolf Building

22 Kingsway

London WC2B 6LE

Contact Email:
daniel.steinbach@kcl.ac.uk
URL:
http://www.cegcproject.eu/activities-events/cegc-events-conferences-and-workshops/


CFP Doctor Who and History (9/1/15)

Another call from the SFRA-L:

Call for Chapter Proposals: Doctor Who and History

Deadline: 1 September 2015 (contributors will be notified within two weeks of the deadline)

When Sydney Newman created a new family-orientated show for the BBC back in early 1963, he envisioned it as being, in John Reith’s terms, to “educate, inform and entertain”, one in which all stories “were to be based on scientific and historical facts as we knew them at that time”. It was no coincidence therefore that consequently the Doctor took on board the TARDIS a science teacher and a history teacher to learn from and share in his travels. “How wonderful,” Newman would later recall, “if today’s humans could find themselves on the shores of England seeing and getting mixed up with Caesar’s army in 54 BC, landing to take over the country; be in Rome burning as Nero fiddles; get involved in Europe’s tragic 30 years war, etc.” There would be no bug-eyed monsters, Newman warned, and the Doctor was not allowed to interfere in history, only to observe.

Over fifty years later, Doctor Who has itself become part of the cultural history of Britain, and its many stories across television, audio plays and books – whether set in the past or populated with the inevitable bug-eyed-monsters – have engaged directly and indirectly with important contemporary and historical issues, characters and events.

We invite contributions for an edited volume that focuses on Doctor Who and History: A Cultural Perspective. While there have been many publications recently celebrating the show’s longevity, or those reflecting on the programme as a product of the BBC as British institution, this volume focuses specifically on the topic of history. This publication promotes a scholarly and interdisciplinary approach to Doctor Who, exploring how the programme reflects on and contributes to notions of history.

Doctor Who engages with history in multifarious ways and can therefore reveal much about how history is practised, produced, consumed and remediated. Chapter proposals may therefore seek to explore Doctor Who from a diverse range of academic approaches (e.g. media studies; reception theory; fan studies; education) and should draw on and identify appropriate historiographical methods and debates. It is envisaged that the collection will speak both to the programme and to history as a subject area.

Your contribution may focus on the classic series, the reboot (or both), the Big Finish audios, original novels, or fan fiction.

That said, your contribution might focus on some aspect of


  • Reflections in the programme of particular social and political eras and events
  • How the show engages with historical cultural icons
  • How the show expresses a continuing dialogue with literature, folklore, and mythology
  • Tensions between academic and ‘public history’, between history from above and below
  • How changing approaches to history and alterations in understanding of historical fact have impacted upon the show
  • Non-canonical historical travels or themes
  • The interaction of media and technologies in how they inform the practice of history in the programme
  • Developments in the Doctor’s strict policy of non-intervention – or not
  • Case studies of the ‘pure historicals’/pseudo historicals/celebrity historicals


Topics already under consideration include the depiction of Nero and the early Roman Empire in 1965’s The Romans, imagery of the Holocaust, focalisation techniques in lost story Marco Polo, and an investigation into the cultural practices and social sign-posting in The Awakening.

Proposals/abstracts should be 300-350 words in length and sent as a Word file. Accepted proposals will be developed into 5000-8000 word essays (including notes and references). Please send your abstract (and all correspondence) to Carey Fleiner, University of Winchester (carey.fleiner@winchester.ac.uk) James A. Jordan, University of Southampton (J.A.Jordan@soton.ac.uk) and Dene October, University of Arts London (d.october@lcc.arts.ac.uk).

See https://doctorwhoandhistory.wordpress.com/. for details.


--
Dr Lincoln Geraghty FHEA, FRSA
Reader in Popular Media Cultures

School of Media and Performing Arts
University of Portsmouth