CFP ARISTEIA: The Journal of Myth, Literature, and Culture (Spec. Issue on Myth, Deep Time, Extinction, Survival) (5/15/2022)

ARISTEIA: The Journal of Myth, Literature, and Culture

Special Issue on Myth, Deep Time, Extinction, Survival

deadline for submissions: May 15, 2022

full name / name of organization: 

Michael T. Williamson / Indiana University of Pennsylvania

contact email: mtwill@iup.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/09/23/aristeia-the-journal-of-myth-literature-and-culture-special-issue-on-myth-deep-time

Call for Papers for ARISTEIA: The Journal of Myth, Literature, and Culture

Myth, Deep Time, Extinction, Survival

ARISTEIA: The Journal of Myth, Literature, and Culture returns after a twenty-year hiatus. This peer-reviewed print journal is now published under the auspices of the Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. For our first issue, we invite scholarly essays of 5,000-7,000 words, poems of any length (including epic poems), and short stories of no more than 4,000 words. This issue’s theme encourages contributors to explore the relationship between Myth, “Deep Time” (geological time, metaphysical time, cosmological time, etc.), Extinction, and Survival. Please send preliminary abstracts of 500 words by December 10, 2021 or completed essays, poems or stories to Dr. Michael Williamson (mtwill@iup.edu) and Allen Shull (mrhcc@iup.edu) by May 15, 2022.

Myth can give us hope, existential strength, and the courage to face adversity. It can bring people and communities together. Weaving together (aspirational and/or inspiring) tales from our various mythological traditions, we can sustain ourselves in times of plenty and in times of scarcity. Myth attests to disasters as well as creations, and it beckons us, often uncertainly, towards forms of transcendence and plenitude that challenge our conceptions of what it means to be human.  Recent studies on geology, literature, and culture, for instance, reinforce the role that mythological thinking plays in shaping our expectations regarding catastrophe and continuity. David Sepkoski’s recent examination of how geological thinking affects culture, Catastrophic Thinking, for example, explores “the recognition that extinction is a ubiquitous, even commonplace phenomenon represents a profound shift in scientific and cultural awareness of the tenuousness of life and the balance of nature that has taken place over the past two hundred years” (17). Embracing and enriching diversity may seem to be a solution, but “but we also struggle with what diversity is and what it means” (16). As one of the most primary cultural artifacts of the human imagination, myth activates ideas about time, extinction, and diversity. How do we regard the death of plants and animals in catastrophic climate change, and how do we react to extinctions in the past, even the deep past? How do we deal with social extinctions, whether language death, erosion of the middle class and social mobility, or loss of traditional cultures and folkways? Do we mourn losses or celebrate amalgamations?  Our editorial board encourages scholarly research and creative writing that engages with these questions.

Subjects to Consider:

• Literary and cultural conception of extinction of species, family, language
• Literary and cultural conception of diversity in species and in cultures
• Literary and cultural conception of feuds, aristocratic extinction, or changing ways of life
• The literary and cultural conception of future extinctions and diversifications
• Literary genres and artistic branches as sites for extinction and diversification
• Language preservation, evolution, convergence, death, preservation, revival, reconstruction, and artificial construction
• Literary and cultural conception of catastrophe: loss, rescue, abandonment, and exile
• Literary and cultural conception of cross-temporal connections: immortality, time travel, preservation, rediscovery

Scholarly essays on all periods of literary and cultural history are welcome, but this issue especially welcomes works related to Mythology and Science Fiction, Mysticism, and literature and cultural objects from historical times of stress such as the plagues, revolutions, and natural disasters. Poems and short stories should address the theme of this cfp in a clear way.

Please direct inquiries to Dr. Michael T. Williamson (mtwill@iup.edu) and Allen Shull (mrhcc@iup.edu) For more information on the Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative visit https://www.iup.edu/news-item.aspx?id=294439&blogid=6121

Last updated September 24, 2021

CFP The Child of the Future Conference (1/5/2022; Cambridge, Eng. 6/30-7/1/2022)

The Child of the Future, Call for Paper Proposals 

Deadline for submission: January 5th, 2022

deadline for submissions: January 5, 2022

full name / name of organization: University of Cambridge

contact email: thechildofthefuture2022@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/11/15/the-child-of-the-future-call-for-paper-proposals-deadline-for-submission-january-5th

The Child of the Future 

Call for Paper Proposals

Deadline for submission: January 5th, 2022 

University of Cambridge, St John's College | Thursday June 30th – Friday July 1st, 2022 

"...the symbiont children developed a complex subjectivity composed of loneliness, intense sociality, intimacy with nonhuman others, specialness, lack of choice, fullness of meaning, and sureness of future purpose." (Haraway, 2016, Staying With The Trouble, p.149)  

After living through a once-in-a-generation pandemic, whilst in the midst of a slowly-evolving climate crisis, our expectations about what the future of humanity will look like have been called into serious question. These disruptions have impacted the world of children perhaps more than that of adults. In the wake of lockdowns and school closures, children’s development, interpersonal connections, and engagement with media, learning and play have become increasingly unstable and unpredictable. More concretely, populations are declining around the world, calling into question how many children of the future there will be and where we might find them.  Correspondingly, the ways in which we conceptualise the child are shifting. In parallel to world events, theoretical discourse in the fields of childhood studies have experimented with viewing children as ontologically fluid. Scholars are increasingly thinking outside of the temporal binary implied by the words “adult” and “child”, instead refiguring childhood and the wider spectrum of age as complex assemblages and entanglements; the child with greater time left (Beauvais, 2018 p.77), the child enfolded in matter and meaning across time (Barad, 2007), the human and the nonhuman inextricably linked (Haraway, 2016). This shift can be seen in children’s literature and media studies’ more recent interest in posthumanism, new materialism, spectrality and other adjacent theories which read childhood through the more abstract complication of animals, plants, objects, texts and technologies.  This conference aims to bring together these burgeoning conversations that are increasingly evident across disciplines at a time where these connections are more relevant than ever before. We are looking to explore the many and varied ways that scholars may conceptualise the idea of ‘the child of the future’. We hope to hear papers that interpret the topic in many different ways, those that consider the ‘child of the future’ as both real and imagined, actual and fictional.  In addition to a focus on the child of the future, proposal topics may include (but are in no means limited to):

• Posthumanism
• The Anthropocene and/or Chthulucene and/or Capitalocene
• New Materialism
• Nonhuman modes of being (animal, plant, microorganism, robot, etc.)
• Spectrality and hauntology
• Environments, bodies and spatiality
• Spirituality/religion
• Engaging with the past/ theorising the future
• Adaptation and transformation
• Memory
• Sci-fi, fantasy and non-mimetic media
• Technology and materiality
• Intergenerationality
• Pedagogy

We welcome papers of a duration of 20 minutes that will be arranged into thematic panels. Papers that blend the creative and the critical will be considered, and interdisciplinary papers and panel proposals are also encouraged. We particularly wish to offer opportunities for graduate students and other early-career scholars. If you fall into this category, please indicate in your application if you wish to be considered for one of our funded conference bursaries.  Please send an abstract of 300 words, a short biography (100 words) and 5-8 keywords in a Word document to thechildofthefuture2022@gmail.com with the following subject line: ‘The Child of the Future abstract’. Submissions must be received by 5th January 2022. Notification of acceptance will be sent out at the start of February 2022.  In line with COVID-19 guidance and regulations, we anticipate that this conference will go ahead as planned in person at St John’s College, University of Cambridge. However, we are conscious of the safety of all speakers and attendees and as such will update you of any changes should they arise. Thank you for considering this CFP, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Last updated November 15, 2021

Now Available Mythlore 139

Recently received from the Mythopoeic Society was Mythlore issue 139 for Fall/Winter 2021. The issue can be purchased directly at https://www.mythsoc.org/mythlore/mythlore-139.htm. The contents listed below are from the same site.

Mythlore 139 Volume 40, Issue 1 (Fall/Winter 2021)

Table of Contents

Editorial

— Janet Brennan Croft

All Worthy Things: The Personhood of Nature in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium

— Sofia Parrila

The Shape of Water in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

— Norbert Schürer

Mirrors to the Underworld: Reflective Portals between Life and Death in the Harry Potter Series

— Trenton J. McNulty

Lewis and Clarke in the Caves: Art and Platonic Worlds in Piranesi

— Julie M. Dugger

Just Reading A Spell for Chameleon: An Appreciation with Caveats, and an Elegy

— Dennis Wilson Wise

Responsibility and Critical Thinking as Markers of Adulthood in Two Coming-of-Age Fantasy Series: Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching Novels and Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimeus Trilogy

— Anna Köhler

The Conscience of Solomon Kane: Robert E. Howard’s Rhetorics of Motive, World, and Race

— Gabriel Mamola

But Where Shall Wisdom be Found? The Lord of the Rings and the Wisdom Literature of the Hebrew Bible

— Mattie E. Gustafson

“Taliessin in the Rose-Garden”: A Symbolic Analysis

— Joseph Thompson

The Enigmatic Loss of Proto-Hobbitic

— Thomas Honegger

How Tolkien Saved His Neck: A lusinghe Proposition to the Oxford Dante Society

— John R. Holmes

Notes and Letters

Keystone or Cornerstone? A Rejoinder to Verlyn Flieger on the Alleged “Conflicting Sides” of Tolkien’s Singular Self — Donald T. Williams

A Holiday by the Sea: In Search of Cair Paravel — Reggie Weems

Jane Austen’s Lady Susan as a Possible Source of Inspiration behind C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters — Song (Joseph) Cho

Review Essay

Women Tarot Artists Inspired by the Golden Dawn: Recent Publications — Emily E. Auger

Reviews

Tolkien’s Modern Reading by Holly Ordway — Kris Swank

The Flight of the Wild Gander by Joseph Campbell — Phillip Fitzsimmons

God and the Gothic by Alison Milbank — Douglas A. Anderson

The Saga of the Volsungs: With the Saga of Ragnar Lothrok, translated by Jackson Crawford — Phillip Fitzsimmons

Tolkien the Pagan? Reading Middle-earth through a Spiritual Lens, edited by Anna Milon — Alana White

Re-Orienting the Fairy Tale: Contemporary Adaptations across Cultures, edited by Mayako Murai and Luciana Cardi — Nada Kujundžić

George MacDonald’s Children’s Fantasies and the Divine Imagination by Colin Manlove — Tiffany Brooke Martin

The Cards: The Evolution and Power of Tarot by Patrick Maille — Emily E. Auger

Terry Pratchett’s Ethical Worlds, edited by Kristin Noone and Emily Lavin Leverett — Felicity Gilbert

Briefly Noted:

Thanks for Typing, edited by Jukliana Dresvina, and In and Out of Bloomsbury by Martin Ferguson Smith — Janet Brennan Croft

Encyclopedia of Mythical Objects by Theresa Bane — John Zacharias

The Shared Witness of C.S. Lewis and Austin Farrer by Phillip Irving Mitchell — Landon Loftin

CFP PAMLA 2022 Call for Special Sessions (2/2022-4/30/2022; Los Angeles 11/11-13/2022)

 GEOGRAPHIES OF THE FANTASTIC AND THE QUOTIDIAN:

PAMLA 2022 CALL FOR SPECIAL SESSIONS

Source: https://www.pamla.org/pamla-2022-call-for-special-sessions/

PAMLA welcomes special session proposals for the 2022 PAMLA conference at the UCLA Luskin Conference Center and Hotel in Los Angeles, California (early morning Friday, November 11 through Sunday night, November 13, 2022) on topics of scholarly interest that are not too close to the topics of our general (standing) sessions (go to https://www.pamla.org/about/constitution-bylaws/ and search for “general sessions” to find a list of PAMLA’s standing sessions). Our system for paper proposals will open in February 2022, with April 30th as the submission deadline.

While we welcome special session proposals on a wide variety of topics, we are particularly interested in special session proposals that engage with the 2022 PAMLA Conference Theme: Geographies of the Fantastic and Quotidian.

As we converge on the magnificent, incomprehensible megalopolis of Los Angeles in November of 2022, it would be timely to consider the many “ecologies” of our lived spaces and places. [1] We might think dialectically in terms of clear, dynamic oppositions: exterior and interior spaces, for instance, or those we would categorize as real or surreal—or, perhaps to return to Los Angeles, “hyperreal.”[2] Within those texts we like to dwell—metaphorically at least, for the longue durée or for brief, eccentric interludes—as we discover that time intersects with space in surprising and contradictory ways.

The 2022 Special Theme invites our scholarly community to consider the overdetermined landscapes both of the imagination and of everyday experience. In the process, we hope collectively to interrogate the multiple topographies and topologies of our cherished narratives, for as Michel de Certeau reminds us, “stories … carry out a labor that constantly transforms places into spaces or spaces into places.”[3]

Los Angeles itself would certainly offer fertile ground for scholarly excavation, but we strongly encourage submissions that explore what Gaston Bachelard termed the “poetics of space” within texts of all sorts, as well as all sizes and varieties of context. Particularly fascinating might be explorations of the extraordinary, the exemplary, the “out of this world” sorts of places, real and figurative: the spaces of the fantastic and the bizarre. Conversely, the lived and experienced environments of the banal might spark equally fertile archaeologies of the everyday. For that is the allure of the often inscrutable or illegible cities of the imagination: they open up new territories.

We welcome special session proposals (due January 31, 2022) on any topic for our 2022 annual conference. Those that harmonize with our special theme might include all varieties of heterotopologies; explorations of fictional domains; Borgesian labyrinths; road narratives; enclaves of digital introspection or connection; theme parks; elision, caesura, and other grammatological openings; migration/border crossings; psychedelic “trips” of all sorts; native practices of tending the land; mirrors and projections; choreography and dance; exteriority/interiority; the politics or rhetorics of dispossession; theatrical staging; embodiment and disembodiment; panopticism; the family and/or spaces of domesticity; museums and archives; loitering; Zoom and other hauntings; homelessness and houselessness; settler colonialism; communities and cliques; as well as both paroxysmal places and quiet passages.

—

[1]    To borrow a fitting phrase from the famed British/American architectural critic Reyner Banham, whose Los Angeles: Architecture of the Four Ecologies, when read today, projects an alluring, smog-shrouded palimpsestual map of a city which has been repeatedly rewritten over the half-century since its publication.

[2]    Interestingly, both Umberto Eco’s 1973 “Travels in Hyperreality” and Jean Baudrillard’s 1981 Simulations reveal a fascination with Los Angeles, and particularly Disneyland, as the epicenter of a [seemingly] quintessentially American tendency to sanctify the fantastic.

[3]    It might seem outlandish to evoke Michel De Certeau’s spatial rhetorical practice of “walking in the city” within the paradigmatic autopia of Southern California (The Practice of Everyday Life, 118, 91), at least in the shadow of the New Wave/Punk pop eloquence of Missing Persons’ 1982 slightly vicious ditty. But, as Jane Jacobs teaches us in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, the intricate “sidewalk ballet” of neighborhoods, large and small, routinely transcends the pedestrian (66).

Now Available Mythlore 138

Mythlore 138 Volume 39, Issue 2

Spring/Summer 2021   

Available for purchase from the Mythopoeic Society at http://www.mythsoc.org/mythlore/mythlore-138.htm.

Table of Contents

Editorial
— Janet Brennan Croft

Special Issue Contents: Honoring Ursula K. Le Guin: Citizen of Mondath

Introduction to the Special Issue: The Art, the Craft, the Tale of Vision and Re-vision: Ursula K. Le Guin Shows the Way
— Melanie A. Rawls

Aspects of Worldbuilding: Taoism as Foundational in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Saga
— Dennis Friedrichsen

Magic, Witchcraft, and Faërie: Evolution of Magical Ideas in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle
— Oleksandra Filonenko

The Taoist Myths of Winter: Mythopoesis in The Left Hand of Darkness
— Derance A. Rolim Filho

Who is There? Subjectivity, Transformation, and the Child’s Journey in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan
— Meghgann Cassidy

“Beware Her, the Day She Finds Her Strength!”: Tehanu and the Power of the Marginalized to Affect Social Change in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Saga
— Jon Alkorta Martiartu

The Four Deaths of Ged
— John Rosegrant

Special Issue Notes:
— The Practical Geography of Always Coming Home, David Bratman
— Ursula’s Bookshelf, Kris Swank

---

Notes and Letters

• Regarding “The ‘Polish Inkling,’” David Bratman
• In Memoriam: Richard C. West, Janet Brennan Croft

 

Reviews

• Tolkien’s Lost Chaucer, by John M. Bowers — Joe R. Christopher
• Tarot, by Jessica Hundley, and Astrology, by Andrea Richards — Emily E. Auger
• Crossing a Great Frontier: Essays on George MacDonald’s Phantastes, edited by John Pennington — Tiffany Brooke Martin
• Re-Enchanted: The Rise of Children’s Fantasy Literature in the Twentieth Century , by Maria Sachiko Cecire — T.S. Miller
• Rebirth in the Life and Works of Beatrix Potter, by Richard Tuerk — John Rosegrant
• The Art of the Occult: A Visual Sourcebook for the Modern Mystic, by S. Elizabeth — Emily E. Auger
• The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Medievalism, edited by Joanne Parker and Corinna Wagner — Alana White
• Journey Back Again: Reasons to Revisit Middle-earth, edited by Diana Pavlac Glyer — Megan N. Fontenot
• Waking the Dead: George MacDonald as Philosopher, Mystic, and Apologist , by Dean Hardy — Jeremy M. Rios
• Splendour in the Dark: C.S. Lewis’s Dymer in His Life and Work, edited by Jerry Root — Melody Green
• Fantasies of Time and Death: Dunsany, Eddison, Tolkien, by Anna Vaninskaya — Sarah R.A. Waters
• Briefly Noted: Fafnir: Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research — Janet Brennan Croft

 

 

CFP SWPACA 2022 Conference (10/31/21; Albuquerque 2/23-26/22)

 From the PCA newsletter:

Call for Papers Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA) Annual Conference   43rd Annual Conference, February 23-26, 2022 Hyatt Regency Hotel & Conference Center Albuquerque, New Mexico http://www.southwestpca.org Submissions open on August 1, 2021 Proposal submission deadline: October 31, 2021   Proposals for papers and panels will soon be accepted for the 43rd annual SWPACA conference. One of the nation’s largest interdisciplinary academic conferences, SWPACA offers nearly 70 subject areas, each typically featuring multiple panels. For a full list of subject areas, area descriptions, and Area Chairs, please visit http://southwestpca.org/conference/call-for-papers/   All proposals must be submitted through the conference’s database at http://register.southwestpca.org/southwestpca   For details on using the submission database and on the application process in general, please see the Proposal Submission FAQs and Tips page at http://southwestpca.org/conference/faqs-and-tips/   Individual proposals for 15-minute papers must include an abstract of approximately 200-500 words. Including a brief bio in the body of the proposal form is encouraged, but not required.     For information on how to submit a proposal for a roundtable or a multi-paper panel, please view the above FAQs and Tips page.     The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2021.     SWPACA offers monetary awards for the best graduate student papers in a variety of categories. Submissions of accepted, full papers are due January 1, 2022. SWPACA also offers travel fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, visit http://southwestpca.org/conference/graduate-student-awards/   Registration and travel information for the conference is available at http://southwestpca.org/conference/conference-registration-information/   In addition, please check out the organization’s peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, at http://journaldialogue.org/ If you have any questions about a particular area, please contact its Area Chair; you can find Area Chair contact information here: http://southwestpca.org/conference/call-for-papers/. If you have general questions about the conference, please contact us at support@southwestpca.org, and a member of the executive team will get back to you.   We look forward to receiving your submissions!

CFP: Edited volume on Star Trek and Star Wars (8/2/2021)

Call for Proposals: Edited volume on Star Trek and Star Wars

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/05/11/call-for-proposals-edited-volume-on-star-trek-and-star-wars

deadline for submissions:
August 2, 2021


full name / name of organization:
Emily Strand and Amy H. Sturgis for Vernon Press


contact email:
drahsturgis@gmail.com



Call for Abstracts

Edited volume on Star Trek and Star Wars

Edited by Emily Strand, MA and Amy H. Sturgis, PhD

Vernon Press

The generations-spanning, multimedia franchises Star Trek and Star Wars will form the focus for this edited collection of scholarly essays. As venerable and evolving repositories of science fiction and fantasy storytelling, and as towering pillars of popular culture, both Star Trek and Star Wars inspire, transform, and even at times inflame their often overlapping fan bases. Together with the publisher, the editors seek proposals for essays exploring these franchises’ themes, narratives, characters, treatment of moral and philosophical dilemmas, religious or spiritual notions, and other aspects. (Abstracts for essays which compare or contrast the two franchises are also welcome.) Collected essays will offer insight — from a variety of disciplines and perspectives — on how these franchises contribute to popular culture and the tradition of speculative storytelling.

Abstracts and subsequent essays should be academically rigorous yet accessible to the informed (even non-academic) reader.

Abstracts of 300-500 words in length should be submitted, along with a brief biographical statement, by August 2, 2021.

Authors of accepted papers will be notified by September 1, 2021, and paper drafts should be submitted by January 10, 2022.

Please submit proposals via email (with or without attachment) to emilykcstrand@gmail.com and drahsturgis@gmail.com.

Last updated May 11, 2021 

 

CFP MMLA Milwaukee 2021 Roundtable: Fantastic Viruses (5/20/21; MMLA 11/4-7/2021)

 MMLA Milwaukee 2021 Roundtable: Fantastic Viruses

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/05/05/mmla-milwaukee-2021-roundtable-fantastic-viruses

Event site: https://www.luc.edu/mmla/convention/

deadline for submissions:
May 14, 2021


full name / name of organization:
Joseph Donica, Noah Jampol, CUNY


contact email:
joseph.donica@bcc.cuny.edu




We seek submissions for an MMLA session on "fantastic viruses" for the November 2021 Milwaukee conference.

Topics can include but are not limited to:

Viruses in sf and fantasy lit and film

​Collectivities of the infected, uninfected, or vaccinated 

Please send 300-500 word proposals to the email addresses below by May 14. We apologize for the quick turnaround, but proposals are due to MMLA by May 20. joseph.donica@bcc.cuny.edu noah.jampol@bcc.cuny.edu.

Last updated May 11, 2021 

May the Fourth Be With You

Happy Star Wars Day!

Celebrate with some old-school animation with the Ewoks, now on Disney+.

CFP Pop Enlightenments: The Eighteenth Century Now (6/18/2021)

CFP: Pop Enlightenments: The Eighteenth Century Now

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/04/22/cfp-pop-enlightenments-the-eighteenth-century-now

deadline for submissions: June 18, 2021


full name / name of organization: Emrys Jones and Madeleine Pelling


contact email: mp656@york.ac.uk



Contemporary depictions of the long eighteenth century – whether drawn from historic sources or responding imaginatively to the era’s multifarious legacies – regularly captivate TV, film and theatre audiences and gamers alike. Increasingly, scholarly biographies provide the basis for big budget biopics, eighteenth-century narratives are adapted in new and experimental ways, objects from museum collections are replicated in cultures of fandom, and academics are invited onto sets as consultants. During a global moment in which the representation and deployment of history in the public sphere are subject to new and urgent scrutiny, we ask what function film, television, gaming, theatre and more can perform when depicting the eighteenth century in our modern world? Can such works speak to perceived eighteenth-century ideas and values and, simultaneously, the shifting paradigms of our own time? How, and why, should we engage?

Pop Enlightenments will bring together scholarly essays and interviews with creative industry professionals. Building on conversations begun in Emrys Jones’s Pop Enlightenments podcast, it takes a broad approach to explore how eighteenth-century forms and narratives are variously taken up, recycled and re-visioned in contemporary media. It asks which histories are being told and by whom.

We seek proposals for chapters from scholars, including early career researchers. Particular areas for analysis and discussion might include, but are not limited to:

• The eighteenth century’s imaginative currency in contemporary popular culture
• The representation (or misrepresentation) of historical crimes and traumas
• Intersections between eighteenth-century models of culture and our own
• Considerations of genre and audience expectation
• Contrasting international contexts for adaptation and re-creation
• Recent shifts in historiographical discourse, and industry responses to these

We welcome contributions discussing any cultural sources from the last twenty years. The list below, while not exhaustive, provides some examples of possible focus points.

Potential contributors are requested to send 300-word abstracts to emrys.jones@kcl.ac.uk and mp656@york.ac.uk by 17th June 2021.



Works of Interest

Television

• Bridgerton
• Outlander
• Poldark
• Harlots
• The Great
• Taboo
• The Scandalous Lady W
• Versailles
• Turn: Washington’s Spies
• Black Sails
• Roots
• Frontier
• Catherine the Great
• Banished
• Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Film

• Belle
• Amazing Grace
• The Favourite
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire
• Emma.
• The Duchess
• A Little Chaos
• Marie Antoinette
• Mary Shelley
• Bright Star
• Beauty and the Beast
• Last of the Mohicans
• The Patriot
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Interview with a Vampire
• Sleepy Hollow
• John Adams
• Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
• The Royal Affair
• Love and Friendship
• Rob Roy
• Lady J
• Casanova

Theatre

• The Madness of King George
• Hamilton

Games

• Assassin’s Creed III, IV, Rogue and Unity
• The Council
• Return of the Obra Dinn
• We. The Revolution
• Banner of the Maid

Last updated April 23, 2021
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CFP Greek Mythology & Modern Culture: Reshaping Aesthetic Tastes (11/30/21; Spec Issue of Humanities)

Greek Mythology & Modern Culture: Reshaping Aesthetic Tastes

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/03/29/greek-mythology-modern-culture-reshaping-aesthetic-tastes

deadline for submissions: November 30, 2021


full name / name of organization: Humanities


contact email: phillipzapkin@gmail.com




Dear Colleagues,

Much of the Western world has a rising problem with white nationalists. These white supremacists often co-opt fields like Classics, medievalism, and Norse mythology to support their racist ideologies—twisting these disciplines and repressing or ignoring evidence for the multicultural and multiracial realities of the ancient and medieval world. In terms of Classics, these distortions and appropriations have been documented by an emerging generation of scholars like Donna Zuckerberg, Dan-el Padilla Peralta, Curtis Dozier, Sarah Bond, and others. Ancient myth, literature, and symbols continue to pervade modern culture.

In particular, Greek myth continues to shape modern worldviews, influence contemporary artists and writers, and appeal to our literary and aesthetic tastes. However, understandings of Greek myth—both in its original context and its reception by later generations—have changed dramatically over time. This special issue of Humanities seeks articles about current research in Greek mythology. Submissions should present cutting edge research about an aspect of Greek myth, prepared for a general audience.

Specific topics might include:

• Greek drama, tragedy, or comedy
• Greek vase paintings
• Epic or lyric poetry
• Reception studies
• Adaptations
• (Re)-Examinations of mythic structures (e.g., rethinking Joseph Campbell’s Hero With A Thousand Faces)
• Feminist analysis of Greek myth
• Postcolonial analysis
• Psychoanalytic analysis
• Generic or cross generic analysis (e.g., myths adapted for film or TV)
• Cross-cultural comparison between Greek myths and myths from other cultures
• Children’s or Young Adult literature, movies, or TV

This special issue seeks to offer an impression of the field, with essays presenting different arguments about Greek myth. While this is a broad brief, the issue as a whole should explore the ways in which Greek myth, and debates about it, remains relevant to the modern world.

Dr. Phillip Zapkin
Prof. Dr. Kevin Wetmore
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information



Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Humanities is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Last updated April 6, 2021 

 

CFP Storytelling to and about Boys: Meanings and Representations in Children’s Media (4/16/21; Spec Issue Boyhood Studies)

Storytelling to and about Boys: Meanings and Representations in Children’s Media

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/03/30/storytelling-to-and-about-boys-meanings-and-representations-in-children%E2%80%99s-media

deadline for submissions: April 16, 2021


full name / name of organization: Boyhood Studies


contact email: BoyhoodStorytelling@gmail.com




In recent decades, research has repeatedly demonstrated the overrepresentation of boys and men in children’s media (tv and movies, literature, and games). This field of research has, justifiably, focused primarily on the impact of this inequality on girls and women and has grown to consider not only the quantity of representations but also their content.

In this special issue of Boyhood Studies, the guest editors, Cliff Leek and Jonathan Allan, invite scholars to turn this critical lens toward boys. What types of stories do we tell to and about boys? Who is telling the stories? Which stories are overrepresented and which stories are missing? What are the effects of the stories we tell (on boys, on their interactions with people around them, on who boys grow up to be…)? How are the boundaries of stories for boys defined and maintained? How and why do adults reread/revisit/remember the stories of their boyhoods? We invite scholars to consider children’s media not only as leisure/entertainment, but also as a source of children’s socialization and, therefore, a building block of society. We also encourage authors not to lose sight of how boys themselves experience media by considering what it means to read children’s media boyishly.

Submissions could take the following formats:
1) Full length empirical papers relevant to or dealing with gender and children’s media (max 6,000 words including references).
2) Commentary pieces illuminating trends or arguing for new directions in thinking about children’s media – especially as it relates to gender and boys (max 4,000 words including references).
3) Reviews of children’s media (tv and movies, literature, or games) that deal specifically with the gendered messaging to/about boys (max 1,000 words).

Timeline: The deadline for abstract submissions is April 16, 2021. Decisions will be made on which submissions to invite for the special issue by the end of April 2021. Full submissions will be due in October 2021 and the special issue will be published in Spring 2022.

To submit a work for consideration for the special issue, please prepare a 250-500 word abstract and
submit it using the form at this link: https://forms.gle/Wg4YKXj1q2tr2MyR9

Contact the editors at BoyhoodStorytelling@gmail.com. More information, including the style guide, can be found at: www.berghahnjournals.com/boyhood-studies

Last updated April 6, 2021
This CFP has been viewed 17 times. 

CFP Pandemics (6/30/21; Spec Issue Messengers from the Stars: On Science Fiction and Fantasy)

Messengers from the Stars: On Science Fiction and Fantasy No. 6, 2021 - Pandemics 

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/04/06/messengers-from-the-stars-on-science-fiction-and-fantasy-no-6-2021-pandemics

deadline for submissions: June 30, 2021


full name / name of organization: ULICES-ULisbon/Messengers from the Stars


contact email: mfts.journal@gmail.com




Messengers from the Stars: On Science Fiction and Fantasy

No. 6, 2021

Edited by: Elana Gomel

Co-edited by: João Félix

Messengers from the Stars is an international, peer-reviewed journal, offering academic articles, reviews, and providing an outlet for a wide range of creative work inspired by science fiction and fantasy. The 2021 issue will be dedicated to the following theme:

Pandemics


For the 2021 Messengers from the Stars issue, we will focus on the current pandemic and how it relates to past and present cultural expressions. The concept of a globally-impacting health threat has been widely explored in dystopian fiction from Mary Shelley’s The Last Man to Margaret Atwood’s MaddAdam trilogy, among many others. In a wider sense, however, the contagion trope in literature and the arts is far-reaching and with a well-established tradition that is closely related to that of historical plagues. Whether by placing its characters in lockdown due to the Black Death as in Boccaccio’s Decameron or speculating on the impending threat of a SARS outbreak in a globalized world as in Soderbergh’s Contagion, the health-related catastrophe is as present in fiction as any other human experience.

Therefore, given the current global pandemic, we look at where and how events of this nature are represented, whether in literature, film, television, videogames or other cultural expressions. What are their fundamental concerns and expectations? How do they reflect on the human experience when faced with such a catastrophe? What role do science and superstition play in these instances? How is our worldview informed by these narratives, past and present?

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Ecotopias, dystopias, overpopulation and sustainability
• Medical Humanities in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and the uncanny
• Speculative fiction and concerns for the future
• Pandemics and temporalities (utopia/dystopia/apocalypse, perception of time during epidemics)
• Prophetic visions, occultism and the supernatural, particularly in relation to perceived global calamities
• Representations of the pandemic across the arts and contemporary discourse in general
• Zombies, vampires, parasitic aliens and other contagious threats

Submissions, between 4000 and 6000 words in English, must be sent to mfts.journal@gmail.com by June 30, 2021. The authors will be notified by the end of July. You can download the CFP here.

In addition, you can propose a book or film review. We welcome book and film reviews on current science fiction and fantasy research and PhD dissertations. Reviews should be between 500 to 1,000 words. Longer reviews, e.g. dealing with more than one book, should be agreed upon with the Editorial Board.

All submissions must follow the journal’s guidelines available here.



Last updated April 6, 2021
This CFP has been viewed 26 times.

CFP Children's Literature (4/15/21; PAMLA 11/11-14/21)

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) Conference CFP: Children's Literature (Nov. 11-14 2021)

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/03/22/pacific-ancient-and-modern-language-association-pamla-conference-cfp-childrens

deadline for submissions: April 15, 2021


full name / name of organization: Craig Svonkin, Metropolitan State University of Denver


contact email: director@pamla.org




PAMLA 2021 LAS VEGAS: "CITY OF GOD, CITY OF DESTRUCTION" (Thursday, November 11 - Sunday, November 14, 2021 at Sahara Las Vegas Hotel, hosted by University of Nevada, Las Vegas)

Session: British Literature and Culture: To 1700

Contacts: Craig Svonkin, Metropolitan State University of Denver (director@pamla.org)


Description: This general session invites submissions on a wide range of topics relating to children’s literature, including novels, picture books, graphic novels, or theatrical performances intended for, or consumed by, children. This session entertains paper proposals on a wide variety of topics, including childhood studies, children's television, children's literature with respect to image-text interactions, and the conference theme of "City of God, City of Destruction."

Conference Note:

This November, PAMLA will be offering both in-person (in Las Vegas, NV) and virtual sessions, which you can search for today, alongside important deadlines, membership details and conference fees.

Top tip: when you log in and enter the Call for Papers portal, remember that you have to click on the title of the session that you are interested in submitting your paper to, and then click on the green “Submit Abstract” icon at the top right corner of the page!

And for those who are interested, note that our conference theme this year is “City of God, City of Destruction,” an homage to contemporary urban literature, culture, architecture, as well as other topics, including the noir genre, postmodern cityscapes, dystopia and postindustrial decay, and/or the sublime, spiritual spaces found across many urban depictions.

We look forward to reading your submissions, and all of us at PAMLA HQ hope for calmer, better days ahead.


Last updated March 26, 2021
This CFP has been viewed 27 times.

CFP Literature and Popular Culture (8/1/21; NEPCA 10/21-23/21)

Literature and Popular Culture 

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/04/05/literature-and-popular-culture


deadline for submissions: August 1, 2021


full name / name of organization: Northeast Popular & American Culture Association


contact email: susan.gorman@mcphs.edu




The Literature and Popular Culture area for the 2021 Northeast Popular & American Culture Association conference is accepting paper and panel proposals from faculty and graduate students. NEPCA’s 2021 virtual annual conference will be held online from Thursday, October 21-Saturday, October 23, 2021. Abstracts are due by August 1, 2021.

The NEPCA Literature and Popular Culture area welcomes papers that analyze and evaluate the connections between popular culture and literature, understood broadly. How does popular culture inform and/or react to literature, and what are the implications for that relationship?

Presentations can discuss many different theoretical and disciplinary perspectives. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• Analyses of individual/multiple works that engage with popular culture
• Intersections of popular culture and Literature
• Retelling of works of literature in popular culture media
• Publication, reception and audience of Literature and popular culture
• Popular culture trends in Literature
• Literary genres and how they are explored in popular culture
• Any other topics that bring together these two areas

Please submit paper proposals of 250 words via the paper proposal form available on the NEPCA website (http://bit.ly/PopCFP2021) to the Literature and Popular Culture area chair Susan Gorman (susan.gorman@mcphs.edu) by August 1, 2021. Please ensure that your proposal is jargon-free and understandable to a broad audience.

For more information, please visit the NEPCA website: https://nepca.blog/conference/.

Susan Gorman, Area Chair
Literature and Popular Culture
MCPHS University

179 Longwood Avenue

Boston, MA 02115
Email: susan.gorman@mcphs.edu
Visit the website at https://nepca.blog/
 

Last updated April 6, 2021 

 

CFP Fantasy and Science Fiction Area (8/1/21; virtual 10/21-23/2021)

My thanks to Amie Doughty for sharing this:

CALL FOR PAPERS:

Fantasy and Science Fiction Area

Northeast Popular/American Culture Association

The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (NEPCA) is seeking paper proposals on the topic of Fantasy and Science Fiction for its fall conference to be held virtually from Thursday, October 21 through Saturday, October 23, 2021.



Highlighting the more positive aspects of the fantastic genre, the Fantasy and Science Fiction area seeks to examine texts that bring about a sense of wonder in their receivers through their representation of the marvelous, and we welcome submissions from scholars of all levels for papers that explore any aspect of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic that might promote this work. Topics can include, but are not limited to, elements of fairy tale, fantasy, legend, mythology, and science fiction; proposals should investigate how creative artists have shaped and/or altered our preconceptions of these sub-traditions by producing innovative works in diverse countries, time periods, and media and for audiences at all age levels.



Please submit your proposals through the NEPCA conference website: https://nepca.blog/conference/



NEPCA presentations are generally 15-20 minutes in length and may be delivered either formally or informally. NEPCA prides itself on holding conferences which emphasize sharing ideas in a non-competitive and supportive environment involving graduate students, junior faculty, and senior scholars.



Deadline for proposals is August 1, 2021.



Questions should be directed to the area chair, Amie Doughty, at Amie.Doughty@oneonta.edu. 

 

Mythcon 51 Update and New CFP (5/15/21; virtual event for Summer 2021)

 Further news from the Mythopoeic Society: http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm

Mythcon 51

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Mythcon 51
A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON

Moving Online - Dates To Be Determined

   

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ANNOUNCEMENT

Due to ongoing health concerns and the realization that we cannot now plan something that may violate future New Mexico state health and safety regulations, whatever they are in July-August of this year, the Council of Stewards has decided to postpone the next in-person Mythcon until summer of 2022; the date will be July 29-August 1, 2022. Our venue and Guests of Honor have all agreed to this change and the conference theme will remain the same.

Because the costs associated with a virtual online event are less than the costs of an in person event, if you are already a member of Mythcon 51, your membership will automatically "roll over" to next year (Mythcon 52 in 2022) but if you cannot attend next year, please contact mythcon@mythsoc.org and request a refund of your Mythcon 51 membership. For those who paid the non-member prices, your membership in the Mythopoeic Society associated with joining the conference will be extended by a year (again!). Thank you for understanding.

The virtual option will be very different from our usual Mythcons, but what we miss out on we hope to make up for in new and different ways, and we’ll see everyone once it’s safe to do so. On some level this is a chance to get back to our Mythopoeic Society roots and gather with friends (if virtually!) to just discuss what we love. Best of all, the cost of registration will be steeply reduced, though prices have not been set yet.

Check back for confirmed details in Mythprint #397 as well as Mythlore #138, and as always on our website, www.mythcon.org. Thank you for understanding!

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Call for Papers (subject to change)

Papers of the traditional Mythopoeic variety are still welcome, though we are looking forward to trying out a new panel model that we are calling Panel Discussions (see below).

Time slots: Individual long papers may still have hour-long time slots but are now encouraged to be no more than 30 minutes for the paper and 15 minutes for discussion; Individual short papers about 15 minutes for the paper and 10 minutes for discussion; Panels are now 60 minutes, about 30 minutes for the panel and 20 minutes for discussion. For traditional paper and panel proposals:

Email papers abstracts of 200-500 words to:
Cami Agan (Papers Coordinator),
cami.agan@oc.edu

Email panels abstracts of 50-150 words to:
Leslie Donovan (Panels Coordinator),
leslie.a.donovan@gmail.com

Presenters who have already submitted have the option of presenting at Mythcon 51 virtually or being automatically accepted into the Mythcon 52 program. All presenters must register for the conference at which they wish to present.

Eligible presenters should see details on our Alexei Kondratiev student paper award at: http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/alexei.htm.

Discussion Panel and Alternative Programming Options
Though we have not formally revised the call for papers just yet, we are excited to experiment with different presentation models that may work better over an online platform, privileging panels of short papers or group discussion panels.

Have a topic in mind you want to discuss, but pandemic brain has got you down so you don’t want to write a paper about it? Revive the roots of the Society by proposing to Moderate a Discussion Panel for Mythcon 51—virtually! Moderators would need to come prepared with a mythopoeic discussion topic, some opening remarks, some questions for the attendees, and plan to facilitate discussion.

Want to submit a Discussion Panel, or have an idea for Alternative Virtual Mythcon programming?
Email 200-500 word proposals to:
Megan Abrahamson
mythprint@mythsoc.org

The new deadline for submissions is May 15, 2021. Please check in on Facebook, Twitter, or www.mythcon.org for an updated and complete Call For Papers as well as other updates about the now-virtual conference. 

Mythcon 52 Update (Summer 2022)

 The latest from the Mythopoeic Society: http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm

Mythcon 52

New Dates!    July 29 - August 1, 2022

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Mythcon 52
The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien

Albuquerque, New Mexico
July 29 - August 1, 2022

  

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ANNOUNCEMENT

Due to ongoing health concerns and the realization that we cannot now plan something that may violate future New Mexico state health and safety regulations, whatever they are in July-August of this year, the Council of Stewards has decided to postpone the next in-person Mythcon until summer of 2022; the date will be July 29-August 1, 2022. Our venue and Guests of Honor have all agreed to this change and the conference theme will remain the same.

Your membership will automatically "roll over" to next year but if you cannot attend next year, please contact mythcon@mythsoc.org and request a refund of your Mythcon 51 membership. For those who paid the non-member prices, your membership in the Mythopoeic Society associated with joining the conference will be extended by a year (again!). Thank you for understanding.

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Theme: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien

Mythcon 52’s theme provides multiple opportunities to explore the Other in fantasy and mythopoeic literature. Tolkien spoke in “On Fairy-stories” of “the desire to visit, free as a fish, the deep sea; or the longing for the noiseless, gracious, economical flight of a bird.” We invite discussion about the types of fantasy that are more likely to put us into contact with the alien, such as time portal fantasy and space travel fantasy. In addition to Inklings, some writers who deal particularly well with the truly alien who might be explored include Lovecraft, Gaiman, Le Guin, Tepper, and others. Other topics that might be fruitfully explored are: depictions of the alien Other in film and television (Contact, Arrival, HBO’s Watchmen, etc.); developing constructed languages that are truly different from those of Earth-based humans; fantastical Others in indigenous myths (such as Coyote and Spider Woman from Native American mythology); and American folklore about the alien (flying saucers, alien abduction, Area 51, Roswell).

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Guests of Honor

Rivera Sun - Author Guest of Honor

Rivera Sun is a change-maker, a cultural creative, a protest novelist, and an advocate for nonviolence and social justice. She is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection, The Roots of Resistance, and other novels. Her young adult fantasy series, the Ari Ara Series, has been widely acclaimed by teachers, parents, and peace activists for its blending of fantasy and adventure with social justice issues. Going beyond dragon-slayers and sword-swingers, heroes and sheroes in Ari Ara’s world stop wars and wage peace. They use active nonviolence to make powerful change. In all her works, Rivera Sun advocates that if we want to build a culture of peace, we have to tell new stories that still appreciate, but go beyond the old myths, epics, and legends that rehash outdated war and violence narratives. The Way Between, the first book in the Ari Ara Series, has been read by numerous groups of all ages, while the second book in the series, The Lost Heir, is the winner of the 2019 Nautilus Award Silver Medal in Middle Grade Fiction.

Rivera Sun’s essays have been published in hundreds of journals nationwide. She is a frequent speaker and presenter at schools, colleges and universities, where The Dandelion Insurrection has been taught in literature and political science courses. Rivera Sun is also the editor of Nonviolence News, an activist, and a trainer in making change with nonviolence. Her essays and writings are syndicated by Peace Voice and have appeared in journals nationwide. She lives in an Earthship house in New Mexico.

David Bratman - Scholar Guest of Honor

David Bratman is has been reading Tolkien for over fifty years, and has been writing Tolkien scholarship for nearly as long. His earliest contribution to the field was the first-ever published Tale of Years for the First Age, right after The Silmarillion was published. Since then he’s published articles with titles like “Top Ten Rejected Plot Twists from The Lord of the Rings,” “Hobbit Names Aren’t from Kentucky,” and “Liquid Tolkien” (on Tolkien and music). He’s been co-editor of Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review since 2013, and has written or edited its annual “Year’s Work in Tolkien Studies” since 2004. David edited The Masques of Amen House by Charles Williams and contributed the bio-bibliographical appendix on the Inklings to Diana Pavlac Glyer’s The Company They Keep. He has also written on C.S. Lewis, Ursula Le Guin, Mervyn Peake, Neil Gaiman, and others. For the Mythopoeic Society he was editor of the monthly bulletin Mythprint for fifteen years, and has worked on many Mythopoeic Conferences, including serving twice as chair. He’s a retired academic librarian and an active classical music reviewer who lives with his wife, Berni (a soprano and violinist), and two cats in a house they call Minnipin Cottage.

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Location

Please plan to join us at the Ramada Plaza Hotel by Wyndham in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Mythcon 52. Albuquerque is a wonderful “destination city” where Mythcon has been held only once before in 2011 (Mythcon 42) and is well worth the return.

Updated CFP SFRA 2021 (new proposal deadline 5/1/21)

 Source: http://www.sfra.org/SFRA-2021-Call-for-Papers.

•  
  

Call for Proposals:

Science Fiction Research Association

(Virtual) Annual Conference 2021

Friday, 18 June - Monday, 21 June 2021

Virtual Host: Seneca College, Toronto, Canada

Conference Theme: The Future of/as Inequality

Keynote Speaker: Madeline Ashby

[Company Town, How to Future: Leading and Sensemaking in an Age of Hyperchange, Machine Dynasty series]

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Joy Sanchez-Taylor

[Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color]

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Lars Schmeink


[Biopunk Dystopias: Genetic Engineering, Society and Science Fiction; The Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture, Cyberpunk and Visual Culture]

Special Guest: Aisha Matthews

[The MOSF Journal of Science Fiction; Director of Literary Programming for the Museum of Science Fiction’s annual Escape Velocity Conference.]

The Science Fiction Research Association invites proposals for its 2021 annual conference, to be held virtually from June 18 until June 21, 2021 and sponsored by Seneca College, Toronto, Canada. Topics related to the conference theme include (but not limited to the following:

• posthumanism(s) and the economies of/and poverty
• (hyper) exploitation and posthuman labouring bodies
• reinforcing/redefining social class
• utopianism and post-capitalist societies
• the Anthropocene; or, we’re not all in the same (sinking) ship, are we?
• Indigenous survivance
• speculative technologies of resistance

We also welcome papers on topics relevant to science fiction research broadly conceived that are not specifically related to the conference theme, including proposals for virtual panels and roundtables, if technologically feasible.

300-500 word abstracts should be sent to Graham J. Murphy (graham.Murphy@senecacollege.ca) by May 1, 2021 (extended deadline). Notification of acceptance will occur on a rolling basis beginning April 1. Attendees will be organized into thematic “streams” and present short, ten-minute presentations in a synchronous manner on the Cisco Webex virtual conferencing platform; precirculation of written papers is recommended but not required.

The conference will be international, with presentations in local timezones so all may participate.

General questions concerning this call for papers, conference panels, etc. can be directed to Graham J. Murphy (graham.Murphy@senecacollege.ca) and/or SFRA president Gerry Canavan (gerry.canavan.marquette.edu).

You will also need to join SFRA (or renew your membership) to register for the conference. For more on registration categories and deadlines, visit the SFRA website.

CFP Midwest Popular Culture is Association / American Culture Association 2021 Conference (4/1/21; Minneapolis 10/7-10/21)

 The Midwest Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association has announced its call for papers for its 2021 Annual Conference. At present, the event is slated to be face-to-face. Further detail on the conference and information how to submit a proposal are available from the MPCA/ACA's website. 

CFP City of God, City of Destruction PAMLA 2021 Conference (4/15/21; Las Vegas and remote 11/11-14/21)

This event includes calls for papers in fantasy, horror, Gothic, and science fiction, among other related topics. Check out the list online for proposed sessions.

City of God, City of Destruction PAMLA 2021 Call for Papers

Source: https://www.pamla.org/pamla2021/




We hope our PAMLA friends and members are well as we move into a safer, saner, and healthier 2021!

PAMLA 2021 will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada between Thursday, November 11 and Sunday, November 14, 2021 at the Sahara Las Vegas Hotel and Virtually (Online).

We are pleased that the 118th annual conference will be hosted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The PAMLA 2021 Conference will be two, yes two, conferences in one! We will have our normal In-Person Panels (we are asking everyone participating in the in-person conference to have had a COVID-19 vaccine beforehand), but we will also be having Virtual (Online) Panels at this year’s PAMLA Conference. You can see which sessions are which at our CFP Page (some panels are still in the process of switching from In-Person to Virtual, and the In-Person conference will only take place given a safer, more vaccinated reality, which we are increasingly confident will happen by the fall).

Can you attend the In-Person conference at the lovely Sahara Las Vegas and still be a part of a Virtual (online) Session? YES, yes you can–and it will be as easy as walking to your hotel room, and logging into your laptop and using the Sahara’s free hotel room wifi to deliver your paper and take part in your session. We are nicknaming this option The PAMLA 2021 Daily Double: The Best of Both Worlds!

Enjoy the in-person conference, the pleasures of Las Vegas, and your own and other Virtual panels. Win-win, Ka-Ching!

We will be adding more information soon about how to make a reservation at the Sahara Las Vegas at the amazingly reasonable special PAMLA rate we’ve arranged.

The PAMLA 2021 Call-for-Papers page (CFP page) and Online Paper Proposal System are now open! You have until April 15 to propose a paper to one (or more) of our many approved sessions. Should you have any questions, feel free to call or email PAMLA Executive Director Craig Svonkin: 626-354-7526 or director@pamla.org. Or email PAMLA’s terrific Assistant Director David John Boyd: assistant@pamla.org.

PAMLA could use your support! Please consider joining PAMLA for the 2021 year, so as to receive our terrific journal, Pacific Coast Philology, and also, if you have a few extra dollars, please consider making a donation to support PAMLA during these difficult times. Go here to join or rejoin PAMLA (and, if you can, please make a donation to the PAMLA General Fund–we could use your help!).



PAMLA 2021’s Conference Theme is “City of God, City of Destruction,” ideal for Las Vegas, a city known for its Janus-like nature as both a historic spiritual beacon in the frontier of the American West and a modern city that has celebrated the world’s greatest cities! But PAMLA is an open city: open to panels and papers that connect to the special conference theme, and open to panels and papers that do not. More information about the conference theme is available here: https://www.pamla.org/conference/2021-conference-theme/



Please visit our conference and registration portal to sign up today.


PAMLA Dates and Deadlines

• Abstract paper proposals to conference sessions due: April 15, 2021
• Early-bird conference payment period: January 1, 2021 – May 31, 2021.
• PAMLA membership payment due for all accepted conference participants: July 1, 2021.
• Regular conference payment period: June 1, 2021 – September 1, 2021
• Late payment period: September 2, 2021 – November 1, 2021
• After November 2, those who haven’t paid their conference fees will be removed from the conference program

CFP Nature and Overnature in SF and Fantasy Discourses (5/28/21; Messengers from the Stars -online 11/25-26/21)

Messengers from the Stars: Episode VI

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/03/12/messengers-from-the-stars-episode-vi

deadline for submissions: May 28, 2021


full name / name of organization: School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon/University Lisbon Centre for English Studies


contact email: mensageirosdasestrelas@gmail.com

Messengers from the Stars: Episode VI

Online Conference

School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon

November 25-26, 2021

Nature and Overnature in SF and Fantasy Discourses

Science Fiction and Fantasy are lasting fields of inquiring into today’s world. They have become privileged means to question issues of aesthetic, ethical, political, social, economic, environmental and historical nature with high impact on contemporary societies. They have promoted hot-button issues and rich critical debates in literature as well as in cinema, TV, and videogames among other media.

The University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies (ULICES) invites you to take part in the 6th International Conference Messengers from the Stars: On Science Fiction and Fantasy to be held at the School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, on November 25-26, 2021. This year Episode VI will focus on the theme “Nature and Overnature in SF and Fantasy Discourses”.

Since humankind’s early days, our relationship with nature has undergone different stages and attitudes. From fear and antagonism to deep integration or attempt at subjugation, we humans have tried both to understand our environment and make the most of it. “What is our bond with Nature? Are we part of it or are we its destroyers?”; “What will be the consequences of our former and current actions towards Nature?”; “Are we the dominant species or is this just a human delusion?”; “What is the connection between Nature and social environment?”.

Also, under scrutiny is our inner nature, either as an immaterial everlasting sector or as a mutable human feature: “In distancing ourselves from Nature are we losing our natural humanity?”; “Are we more or less naturally human than our ancestors?”; “How has technology challenged the nature of our humanity?”; “Are we becoming over-natural?”; “Is there a universal human nature or do we embrace plural human natures?”

These are ever-present themes in Fantasy narratives, as masterly explored in Tolkien’s legendarium and C. S. Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles, as well as in many other 20th and 21st century authors, namely Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea cycle. They are also at the core of many SF visions, since the very beginning of the genre with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, H. G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau and John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids, to name just a few.



Inspired by these pioneering texts and fed by advances in technology, such issues have become more and more complex in Fantasy and SF literature, cinema, TV series, comics and graphic novels, music, and other art forms. Moreover, we are witnessing a turning point in our relationship with nature, the most dramatic since our existence, which clearly has raised new doubts and anxieties but also new forms of self-awareness about our role in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has alerted us to the dangers of our current ways of living as well as to our vulnerabilities. This is the time to find responsible solutions able to open up, for us and for the next generations, a healthier future.

We welcome papers of 20 minutes as well as joint proposals for thematic panels consisting of 3 to 4 participants. Postgraduate and undergraduate students are also welcome to participate.

Topics may include but are not limited to the following:

• Artificial Intelligence;
• Ecocriticism;
• Fantasy, SF and ethics;
• Human nature and natural environment;
• Nature/over-nature and the human body;
• Natural and social environment;
• Utopias/Dystopias.

Call for pitches 5MP (five-minute pitches)

This year we are also interested in hearing from you if you are an undergraduate student (MA or PhD) and have a great project still in its early stages. The Five-Minute Pitch Call is inspired in the international competition Three-Minute Thesis (3MT). This is a great opportunity to showcase the innovative nature of your proposal even if there are no results yet. Break down your topic and tell us why everyone should be paying attention to your research.

Please, communicate your ideas effectively. Pitches will need to include (though not restricted to) the following: Name, Affiliation and Contact Information; Overview and Aim; Research Question; Material and Methods; and So what? (originality and relevance).

Your pre-recorded pitch should be no longer than 5 minutes and will be available on the conference website.



Deadlines:

Proposals for individual papers, as well as for thematic panels, should have 250 words maximum and be sent to mensageirosdasestrelas@gmail.com along with a short biographical note (100 words maximum) by May 28, 2021.

Notification of acceptance will be sent by July 5, 2021.

Working Languages: Portuguese and English



Registration fees:

Early bird registration: July 6 – September 17

30 € / Students: 10 €

Late bird registration: September 18 – October 19

60 € / Students: 20 €



Notes:
Only after proof of payment is registration effectively considered.
Undergraduate and post-graduate students must send proof of student status with their registration.
The registration fee includes attendance of all sessions, digital conference material, and a certificate of participation.

Last updated March 12, 2021 

 

CFP Student Submissions to Journal of Fantasy and Fan Cultures

Call for Undergraduate and Graduate Submissions: Journal of Fantasy and Fan Cultures Vol 2

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/02/28/call-for-undergraduate-and-graduate-submissions-journal-of-fantasy-and-fan-cultures

deadline for submissions: October 1, 2021


full name / name of organization: The Journal of Fantasy and Fan Cultures


contact email: jffc@siu.edu




Submissions are now open for the second issue of The Journal of Fantasy and Fan Cultures. Submissions are due October 1, 2021.





The topic of the second issue is an open one, and any essays on fantasy and fan cultures (broadly construed) will be considered.

You may submit once per issue for each category (creative non-fiction and academic essays). We are not interested in publishing fan fiction or poetry.

Submissions must be between 2500-7500 words and, if scholarly, must be in MLA citation format. Please use Times New Roman 12 pt font. All submissions should be in .doc or .docx (Microsoft Word) format; we cannot accept PDFs. Current undergraduates and graduate students in any major or field are eligible to submit, as are holders of master’s degrees.



We consider only previously unpublished work. We ask for first rights to publish accepted work online; after publication, all rights revert to the author.



To submit, please send an email to jffc@siu.edu with the following before October 1, 2021:
Your document for submission (in .doc or .docx format) attached to the email with a cover sheet (this will be the only place you put your name)
The word “submission” and the category (creative non-fiction or academic essay) in the subject line of the email
A brief bio in the body of the email



Last updated March 4, 2021