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
This CFP has been viewed 16 times.

CFP PopMeC Conference (4/5/20; Madrid 5/27-28/20)

CFP: PopMeC, Instituto Franklin–UAH (Alcalá de Henares) on May 27–28, 2020
https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2020/cfp-popmec-instituto-franklin-uah-alcala-de-henares-on-may-27-28-2020/
February 11, 2020

PopMeC Conference
Instituto Franklin–UAH (Alcalá de Henares) on May 27–28, 2020

Thanks to the pervasiveness of popular culture in everyday life, its products embody a fundamental driving force in forging the collective imaginary of both national and foreign publics. The timely construction, consolidation, and intrinsic political potential of popular representations—myths, symbols, images, and signs—has undeniably facilitated the shaping of identities, discourses, and communities. The diversity and peculiarities of the American society can therefore be traced through the analysis of popular culture and multimodal cultural expressions, conveyed by means such as film, comics and graphic novels, TV and web series, videogames, music, books, and whatnot.

PopMeC aims at providing a collaborative, engaging, and fair environment for any interested scholar, promoting the sharing of knowledge, experience, and ideas across disciplines and thematic fields. We’re also working to foster a stimulating space for early career researchers and postgraduate students in North American studies, thus we’ll warmly welcome their proposals.

The conference will approach popular media and culture products—as well as their publics and reception—from an intersectional, multidisciplinary standpoint and a diverse range of perspectives. We’re looking for engaging, fresh, interesting papers acknowledging and exploring a variety of images and narratives, their configurations and aims, as well as examining the intersectional connections between identities, politics, and history, traceable in and across cultural products.

We welcome proposals for 20 min individual papers or panels constituted of three papers, on topics including (but not limited to):

> the representation of specific ethnic / religious / gender / etc. groups in the US popular media and culture (including mainstream, alternative, and self-representations)
> the articulation of American national ethos, myths, symbols and heroes
> public history and the representation of US history for the non-specialized public
> the reception of popular culture products and their publics
> comparative studies of contrasting / similar representations
> the US society as represented through humor, caricature, and satire
> deconstruction of national storytelling and stereotyped narratives

Please, send your proposal by April 5, 2020 to popmec.call@gmail.com attaching your abstract (200-250 words), inclusive of a short bio (100-120 words), name, affiliation, and email contact in a single file. All proposals (unless differently specified by the author) will be considered for both presentation in the conference and publication on the academic blog. Feel free to check our author guidelines page and to contact us for further information.

The languages of the conference will be English and Spanish. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend limiting the use of Spanish coherently with your chosen topic.

Registration fee:
> Full 45€ for waged scholars
> Reduced 15€ for unwaged scholars (e.g. postgraduate students, independent researchers)
[Coffee breaks and light lunch will be provided]

Key dates:
> April 5 deadline for proposals
> April 14 notification of acceptation and opening of registration
[We plan on doing a first round of evaluations by March 8 so that if your proposal needs a little retouching, we let you know and you can still resubmit it!]

Further details on keynote speakers, venue and registration will be provided shortly.
Organizing committee @ Instituto Franklin–UAH:
> Daniel Bustillo
> Carlos Herrero
> Anna Marta Marini
> Joaquín Saravia

Download the full CFP here: CFP_popmec

https://popmec.hypotheses.org/

CFP Giger Conference (4/26/20; Lausanne 11/25-27/20)

CFP: Les mondes de H.R. Giger : entre littératures et arts, The Worlds of Giger : between literature and the arts
https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2020/cfp-les-mondes-de-h-r-giger-entre-litteratures-et-arts-the-worlds-of-giger-between-literature-and-the-arts/
February 19, 2020

Les mondes de H.R. Giger : entre littératures et arts
The Worlds of Giger : between literature and the arts
Colloque international

Organisé par l’Université de Lausanne (UNIL) et la Maison d’Ailleurs (Yverdon-les-Bains)
25-27 novembre 2020, Université de Lausanne

Appel à contributions / Call for papers

Hans Ruedi Giger (1940-2014) est sans nul doute l’un des artistes suisses les plus célèbres au monde, depuis qu’il a conçu les décors et les créatures, notamment des films Alien et Dune. Mais il y a un Giger d’avant Alien également. Son œuvre comprend des peintures, des dessins, des sculptures, des objets de design ou encore des bandes dessinées, sans compter les multiples déclinaisons de son univers sur le plan mondial. C’est aussi un artiste pétri de littérature fantastique et de science-fiction, qui a souvent rendu hommage à l’un des maîtres du genre, H.P. Lovecraft. C’est la première fois que son œuvre est proposée comme enseignement à l’Université en Suisse et qu’un colloque international lui est consacré dans une université. En effet, parmi les nombreuses publications consacrées à l’artistes, les études scientifiques font figure d’exception. Ce colloque se propose de commencer à combler cette lacune.

Hans Ruedi Giger (1940-2014) is no doubt the most famous Swiss artist since he has designed te worlds and/or creatures of films such as Alien or Dune. But there is a Giger before Alien too. His work includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, objects and furniture or comics, not to mention the multiple uses of his universe in other fields (tattoe, etc). He is also fascinated by fantastic literature, and especially by H. P. Lovecraft. This is the first scientific conference devoted to his work.

Some possible topics

• Literary inspidations : Lovecraft etc
• Dreams : from surrealism to psychedelism
• Satire and caricature
• Giger in films : Dune /Alien / Species …
• Design
• Technical inventions (aerograph…)
• Erotism / Pornography
• Biomecanics
• Religion and esoterism
• Passages and trains (ghosts)
• Visionary architectures
• Comics
• Video games
• The Museum as Gesamtkunstwerk
• Derivatives : tattoe…
• Etc.

Les propositions de communication sont à adresser à Marc Atallah (marc.atallah@unil.ch) et Philippe Kaenel (philippe.kaenel@unil.ch), en anglais ou en français, jusqu’au 26 avril 2020. Elles comprendront une courte biobibliographie et un abstract de la communication (1500-2000 signes).
The proposals are to be sent to Marc Atallah (marc.atallah@unil.ch) and Philippe Kaenel (philippe.kaenel@unil.ch), in english or in french until 26 april 2020.
Le colloque est soutenu par l’Université de Lausanne (Centre des Sciences historiques de la culture – SHC, et la Section de français).

CFP “Being Dragonborn: Critical Essays on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” (edited collection 10/31/2018))

CFP: Call for Chapters: “Being Dragonborn: Critical Essays on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” (edited collection)
https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2018/cfp-call-for-chapters-being-dragonborn-critical-essays-on-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-edited-collection/
August 14, 2018

Type:
Call for Papers

Date:
October 31, 2018

Location:
Ohio, United States

Subject Fields:
Cultural History / Studies, Popular Culture Studies, Women’s & Gender History / Studies, Humanities, Digital Humanities

Call for Chapters: “Being Dragonborn: Critical Essays on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” (edited collection)

In advance of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’s tenth anniversary in 2021, this collection of essays seeks to investigate how the game hails its player as “dragonborn,” a calling that merges political, social, and religious narratives in the game toward the player’s assumption of the dragonborn identity position: savior of Skyrim. Our collection aims to identify and explore these hailed positions within the cultural ecology of the game, which is always connected to the player’s out-of-game realities. Situated on the threshold of intricately detailed “cultural” cities and the expansive “natural” wilderness, the dragonborn negotiates the complex political workings of life under the civil war between the rebel Stormcloaks and the Imperial Legion.

Being Dragonborn will be the first collection of critical inquiries into the Elder Scrolls franchise. Skyrim depicts the complexities of the video game medium as seen in the player’s precarious position between the in-game fantasy world and out-of-game subjectivities, realities, and positions. The game’s narrative, gameplay, iconography, music, and in-game mechanics and items are invested in a romanticized invention of medieval life and architecture, colonialist and militaristic structures of play amid civil war, and particular constructions of gender, class, race, and language. How these critical issues coalesce in the game, and through the experience of playing the game, make Skyrim a fertile space to consider what this winner of over 200 Game of the Year awards teaches its loyal players, modders, and enthusiasts.

The collection would be geared toward the interest of game studies scholars, game designers, Skyrim players, and instructors who may already incorporate Skyrim into the classroom—many of us wearing several of these proverbial hats simultaneously. The collection’s title—Being Dragonborn—speaks to the primacy of player ontology and identity within the game by means of the game’s colonial narratives, medieval resonances, in-game labor and economic conditions, aesthetically sublime environment, and its consumptive and productive practices. In an attempt to go beyond fraught dichotomies and territorial disputes within Game Studies that restrict discourse on the video game medium, the editors seek diverse and interdisciplinary approaches, readings, and methodologies.

The editors are looking for fresh, interpretive analyses of Skyrim that call attention to issues of culture, politics, theory, practices, game design, and the gaming industry. The collection welcomes contributions from emerging and established scholars on topics including the following:

• Visual aesthetics of Skyrim – the sublime and the immanent 

• Post-colonial approaches to the social and militaristic game narrative and play 

• Neomedievalist approaches to Skyrim—tradition, lore, nostalgia, architecture 

• Critical race theory—the ex-nomination of whiteness in Skyrim; racial hierarchies; 
confronting the racialized other in the game 

• Religious studies approaches to Skyrim narratives, mysticism, or mythologies 

• Politics and simulation of (civil) war in the game 

• Music studies—in game songs, music, and covers that operate harmonically and/or 
contrapuntally with other in-game elements 

• Marxist approaches to in-game labor, leisure, property ownership, 
production/consumption practices, and idyllic domestic spaces 

• Linguistic and cultural studies of Dovahzul, the dragon language embedded in Skyrim 
shouts, word walls, names, and conversation. 

• Modding Skyrim—analysis of modding community, modding interfaces, IP and 
economic concerns related to modders/industry
• Gender, sex, and sexuality in Skyrim—queer readings of Skyrim
• Psychoanalytic approaches to player experience, ludic forms, and game narrative 

• Studies of spatiotemporality in the game and its historico-cultural affordances 

• Skyrim VR—technical and/or metaphysical considerations of Skyrim in light of Skyrim’s 
recent VR release. 

• Feminist and eco-feminist approaches to Skyrim ecologies 

• Teaching with Skyrim—affordances and dangers of gaming pedagogies 

• Philosophical and theoretical arguments emerging out of gameplay or fan experience 

• Studies that account for the material engagements of the game’s design, marketing, 
promotion

400-word abstracts are due by October 31, 2018. Please send abstracts in .doc(x) format and queries to Mike Piero (mikepiero@gmail.com) and Marc A. Ouellette (mouellet@odu.edu) with the subject heading “Being Dragonborn.” This collection is under contract with McFarland & Company for their Studies in Gaming series, edited by Matthew Wilhelm Kapell. If your abstract is accepted, full essays between 5,000-7,500 words will be due by May 31, 2019. 
When submitting an abstract, please provide: 


Name, rank/position and affiliation, email address 

Proposed chapter title 

400-word abstract 

Up to 5 keywords for the essay 

Do you plan to include figures or images in the essay?


Contact Info:
Mike Piero, Associate Professor of English, Cuyahoga Community College, and Ph.D. Candidate, English, Old Dominion University, mikepiero@gmail.com


Marc A. Ouellette, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, Old Dominion University and Learning 
Games Initiative Research Fellow, mouellet@odu.edu 


Contact Email:
mikepiero@gmail.com

CFP Food and Drink in Science Fiction, Edited Volume (proposals by 11/15/2018)

CFP: Food and Drink in Science Fiction, Edited Volume
https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2018/cfp-food-and-drink-in-science-fiction-edited-volume/
August 7, 2018

CFP, edited volume: Food and Drink in Science Fiction

“But now, we must eat!”
Food and Drink in Science Fiction

Deadline for abstracts: November 15, 2018

Edited by Cindy Miller, Steve Rabitsch, and Michael Fuchs this volume will discuss food and drink in science fiction across media—movies, television shows, literature, video games, comics, etc. Of course, as forms of sustenance, food and drink are among the essential elements of life. But this is also precisely why representations of food and drink are always ripe with meaning. As this book will show, science fiction uses food and drink to explore pertinent issues ranging from the homogenization of food in a globalized economy to the exploitation of our natural resources and the attendant phenomena of water, air, and soil pollution, deforestation, and the scarcification of food.

If you are interested in contributing to this volume, please submit a 500-word proposal to science.fiction.food@gmail.com. All submissions will be acknowledged. If you do not receive a confirmation of receipt within 48 hours, you may assume that your email hasn’t reached us for some reason. In that case, please re-submit. Please also direct any questions you might have to the email address indicated above.
We will most likely first approach European university presses with this project, as they generally move ahead faster than their American counterparts.

Please check out this attached CFP for more details, and do not hesitate to drop us a line if you have any questions.

CFP International Journal of James Bond Studies (11/30/2018)

An interesting call from a new open-access journal:

International Journal of James Bond Studies 2(1)
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/06/08/international-journal-of-james-bond-studies-21

deadline for submissions: November 30, 2018

full name / name of organization: International Journal of James Bond Studies

contact email: ian.kinane@roehampton.ac.uk



The International Journal of James Bond Studies is now accepting submissions for Volume 2.


The International Journal of James Bond Studies is an academic peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing interdisciplinary scholarship on all aspects of Ian Fleming’s James Bond franchise. The journal aims to develop contemporary critical readings of Ian Fleming’s James Bond across literary, filmic, and cultural history, and offers broader criticism of the popular appeal of Fleming’s creation and its relation to the spy genre. The journal will appeal to scholars, academics, and cultural critics whose work focuses on Ian Fleming and James Bond, as well as to fans of the James Bond franchise who wish to supplement their knowledge in this area.


Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• the James Bond novels (both original and continuation);
• the James Bond films;
• the music of James Bond;
• James Bond computer games;
• television, radio, and comic adaptations;
• James Bond parodies and/or spin-offs;
• James Bond merchandise;
• the cultural impact of James Bond;
• James Bond and spy fiction;
• other academic works on James Bond

Articles of 6,000-8,000 words and reviews of 2,000 words will be considered.


For full details on the style guide and journal conventions, please see our submissions page: http://jamesbondstudies.roehampton.ac.uk/about/submissions/



You can also connect with the International Journal of James Bond Studies on Facebook (@JamesBondStudies) and Twitter (@IJJBS).

CFP Neo-Dickens for a New Audience: Reading, Watching, and Teaching Dickens in the 21st Century (9/30/208; NeMLA 2019)

"Neo-Dickens for a New Audience: Reading, Watching, and Teaching Dickens in the 21st Century" (Dickens Society Sponsored Panel)
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/06/15/neo-dickens-for-a-new-audience-reading-watching-and-teaching-dickens-in-the-21st

deadline for submissions: September 30, 2018

full name / name of organization: Northeast Modern Language Association

contact email: matobin@psu.edu



"Neo-Dickens for a New Audience: Reading, Watching, and Teaching Dickens in the 21st Century" (Dickens Society Sponsored Panel)

Deadline for submissions: September 30, 2018
Name of organization: Northeast Modern Language Association
Contact email: matobin@psu.edu

Call for proposals for the Dickens Society sponsored panel at the Northeast Modern Language Society convention to be held in Washington, DC March 21-24, 2019


"Neo-Dickens for a New Audience: Reading, Watching, and Teaching Dickens in the 21st Century" (Dickens Society Sponsored Panel)

Chair: Mary Ann Tobin, PhD, The Pennsylvania State University

As Jessica Cox defines it, Neo-Victorianism involves "creative works that in some way engage with Victorian literature and culture, and scholarly works that seek to explore the shifting relationship with the Victorian period . . . often through a critical investigation of Neo-Victorian creative works." Charles Dickens's characters, settings, and Boz himself have been re-imagined, appearing in Neo-Vic novels, television shows, films, and videogames, like Lynn Shepherd's "The Solitary House," BBC One's "Dickensian," Ridley Scott's "The Man Who Invented Christmas," and Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed: Syndicate." This panel will consider what Neo-Dickensian works like these tell us about our current "relationship with the Victorian period" and suggest ways to make productive use of them in the classroom.

The submission deadline is September 30, 2018. All abstracts must be submitted through the NeMLA CFP web site at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/. Search for panel #17234, "Neo-Dickens for a New Audience: Reading, Watching, and Teaching Dickens in the 21st Century." General guidelines for abstracts can be found at https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/callforpapers/submit.html. View the conference web site at https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html. Send questions regarding the panel to matobin@psu.edu.

Panelists will be notified of acceptance or rejection by October 15, 2018. NeMLA membership is not required to submit abstracts. However, if your abstract is accepted to a session and you agree to present at the convention, you will be required to pay for membership and convention registration.

New Book--Gothic Landscapes: Changing Eras, Changing Cultures, Changing Anxieties

A new book from members of the area:

Gothic Landscapes: Changing Eras, Changing Cultures, Changing Anxieties
Editors: Yang, Sharon Rose, Healey, Kathleen (Eds.)
http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783319331645

Hardcover $99.99
price for USA
ISBN 978-3-319-33164-5

eBook $79.99
price for USA (gross)
ISBN 978-3-319-33165-2
Digitally watermarked, DRM-free
Included format: PDF, EPUB
ebooks can be used on all reading devices


About this book:

• Looks at the role of landscapes in Gothic Fiction - an under-examined area
• Broad historical sweep, from 18th century to 20th century
• Examines other media including film

This book is about the ways that Gothic literature has been transformed since the 18th century across cultures and across genres. In a series of essays written by scholars in the field, the book focuses on landscape in the Gothic and the ways landscape both reflects and reveals the dark elements of culture and humanity. It goes beyond traditional approaches to the Gothic by pushing the limits of the definition of the genre. From landscape painting to movies and video games, from memoir to fiction, and from works of different cultural origins and perspectives, this volume traverses the geography of the Gothic revealing the anxieties that still haunt humanity into the twenty-first century.



Table of contents (13 chapters)

Introduction: Haunted Landscapes and Fearful Spaces—Expanding Views on the Geography of the Gothic
Yang, Sharon Rose (et al.) / Pages 1-18

Dark Shadows in the Promised Land: Landscapes of Terror and the Visual Arts in Charles Brockden Brown’s Edgar Huntly
Healey, Kathleen / Pages 21-46

Haunting Landscapes in “Female Gothic” Thriller Films: From Alfred Hitchcock to Orson Welles
Biesen, Sheri Chinen / Pages 47-69

“Beauty Sleeping in the Lap of Horror”: Landscape Aesthetics and Gothic Pleasures, from The Castle of Otranto to Video Games
Davenport, Alice / Pages 71-103

What the Green Grass Hides: Denial and Deception in Suburban Detroit
Vayo, Amber B. / Pages 107-124

“Go Steady, Undine!”: The Horror of Ambition in Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country
Drizou, Myrto / Pages 125-145

The Convent as Coven: Gothic Implications of Women-Centered Illness and Healing Narratives in Toni Morrison’s Paradise
Waller-Peterson, Belinda M. / Pages 147-168

Haunting Memories: Gothic and Memoir
Moore, Erica / Pages 169-198

The Indian Gothic
Pai, Nalini / Pages 201-223

St. Bernard’s: Terrors of the Light in the Gothic Hospital
Rieger, Christy / Pages 225-238

Nature Selects the Horla: How the Concept of Natural Selection Influences Guy de Maupassant’s Horror Tale
Yang, Sharon Rose / Pages 239-269

Ruins of Empire: Refashioning the Gothic in J. G. Ballard’s Empire of the Sun (1984)
Watson, Alex / Pages 271-291

Gothic Landscapes in Mary Butts’s Ashe of Rings
Foy, Roslyn Reso / Pages 293-305



About the editors:

Sharon Rose Yang is Professor of English at Worcester State University, USA. She both teaches and writes on the Gothic and nineteenth-century literature. She has published in nineteenth-century literature and is the author of Goddesses, Mages, and Wise Women: The Female Pastoral Guide in Sixteenth-and Seventeenth-Century English Drama.

Kathleen Healey is Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Worcester State University, USA. Her research includes literature and the visual arts, Gothic Literature, and American Literature.

CFP The Journal of Games and Gaming (4/30/17)

The Journal of Games and Gaming (JGG)
https://www.cfplist.com/CFP.aspx?CID=10145
Event: 12/31/2017 - 12/31/2017
Abstract: 04/30/2017

Location: United Kingdom
Organization: The Museum of Games and Gaming


The Museum of Games and Gaming is putting together a body of work for publication in its first journal and is pleased to be launching this as an open call for papers. This is a great opportunity to get your work published as there is no publication fee, your paper will be peer reviewed and you will be assigned an editor.

The first edition of the journal is looking for Original Research, Book Reviews and Short Articles in any area covered by our current Research Themes (please see the list on our website).

If you have an idea for a paper or a work in progress please contact us as soon as possible at info@museumofgaming.org.uk with your proposal including an abstract.


Contact Email: info@museumofgaming.org.uk
Website: http://www.museumofgaming.org.uk/research.cfm

CFP Ongoing Video Games Studies for the Popular Culture Review

Ongoing Video Games Studies CFP for the Popular Culture Review
Discussion published by Amy Green on Tuesday, September 15, 2015
https://networks.h-net.org/node/GROUP_NID/discussions/83096/ongoing-video-games-studies-cfp-popular-culture-review


The Popular Culture Review is seeking out scholarly articles on video games to be included as part of an ongoing series featured in each issue. While we want to keep the range of topics open, serious consideration of the digital narrative, especially in the form of focused analyses of specific titles or series, are of special interest. Approaches combining the ludological approach with the narratological approach are also of interest. The goal of the journal is to continue to expand upon a growing and serious consideration of gaming as a storytelling platform.

Please submit your articles, as blind attachments, to Dr. Amy M. Green, who is the editor of the gaming section. The PCR accepts electronic submissions only. Please direct them to amy.green@unlv.edu and indicate PCR Gaming Article Submission in your subject line. Please include all author information and the title of the article in the body of your email message.



Additional Information:

The Popular Culture Review is the refereed journal of Far West Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, sponsored by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and is published twice yearly. Members of the FWPCA/FWACA receive each issue as part of membership. Single copies may be purchased for $7.50 by individuals. Yearly subscriptions for institutions and libraries are $25.00. Address correspondence to the editor.

Documentation may be in the form appropriate to the discipline of the author. Otherwise, MLA format is preferred. Quotes and paraphrased passages must be followed by their citations within the text. In accordance with copyright laws, we request that quotations not exceed one-hundred (100) words in length.

The author is responsible for obtaining permissions for illustrations, song lyrics, advertisements, etc., which are to be published with the article.

Authors must be members at time of publication. (Persons who have registered for our conference are automatically members for the year of attendance. Those who have been members for at least two years are exempt.)

CFP Fictional Maps International Conference (10/30/2015; Poland 1/21-23/2016)

Thanks to IAFA-L for the head's up:

Fictional Maps International Conference 2016 ~ January 21st-23rd, Katowice (Poland)
http://fictionalmaps.org/

Mapping the imaginary has always been a challenge for world-building and storytelling alike. Map of the fictional world subverts the very essence of an actual cartography: it represents a territory that cannot be discovered or traversed in a non-fictional realm and yet it delivers much more than a usual map: a promise of the journey into unknown. An exquisitely quotable phrase coined by J. R. R. Tolkien, who claimed to “start writing with a map and [then] make the story fit” is only reprising what have always been evident to cartographers and creators of imaginary worlds: maps precede territories and are inevitably becoming the most essen­tial part of modern and postmodern storyworlds. Ambrosius Holbein’s wood­cut in the first edition of Thomas More’s Utopia, collectors editions map in video games, atlases of fictional universes, animated map routes in online reportages, or even interactive maps outlining the worlds of blockbuster TV shows—these are all indications of a significant shift in contemporary storytelling that looks for creating many and more access points to the fictional storyworld. Hence conference atten­dees will be asked to submit abstracts of presentations or posters’ descriptions revolving around:

• fictional topography and geopotics;
• map theory & theorists;
• the dichotomy of a map and a territory;
• ways of mapping the imaginary;
• fictional cartography (maps, atlases, mini-maps, plans, charts, etc.)
• maps of secondary, imaginary, fictional, possible or impossible worlds;
• relationship between world-building and map-making;
• function of maps: between navigating and augmenting the world;
• navigating the actual and the imaginary: Tim Ingold’s trail-following and wayfaring;
• case studies in literature;
• case studies in video games;
• case studies in movies and TV shows;
• case studies in comic books, graphic novels and other media;
• case studies in transmedia storytelling and transmedial franchi­ses;
• case studies in fictional worlds;

Confirmed keynote speaker:

STEFAN EKMAN (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), author of the book Here Be Dragons. Exploring Fantasy Maps & Settings (Wesleyan UP 2013).

The conference language shall be English. 600-words abstracts of presentations or posters featuring (1) the title of pre­sentation or poster, (2) a concise bio-note, (3) current affiliation, and (4) all necessary contact information should be submitted until October 30th 2015 at fictionalmaps@gmail.com. Notifications on both accepted and rejected submissions shall be sent no sooner than in two weeks from the deadline. Poster presentations will be displayed during the poster session and accompanied by a general discussion with the presenters.

The conference fee will be 150€ (125€ for students) for the full coverage of English editions of printed conference materials and all other essentials. Polish attendees will be kindly asked to transfer the equivalent of the fee in local currency (600 PLN, 400 PLN for students). For more detailed information please follow to “Registration”.

Any further details regarding the venue, accommodation and transportation will be continuously updated at the website http://www.fictionalmaps.org. Organisers are also open to answering all questions and requests at fictional­maps@gmail.com.

The conference will be followed by a peer-reviewed monograph, published by Facta Ficta Research Centre and licenced under Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 as an ebook sto­red in a globally accessible repository (CeON Center for Open Science).

We look forward to seeing you in Katowice!

Krzysztof M. Maj
Ksenia Olkusz
on behalf of Organising Committee

CFP Collection on Nationalism and Popular Culture (proposals by 11/15/2015)

One last call for the night:

Call for Chapter Proposals - Nationalism and Popular Culture
full name / name of organization:
Tim Nieguth
contact email:
tnieguth@laurentian.ca
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63374

Our world is a world of nations. The existence and fundamental importance of nations, national identities, or national boundaries is rarely questioned. Yet, the scholarly literature on nationalism has shown that national communities are socially constructed, that national identities are fluid, and that national boundaries are constantly contested. Clearly, maintaining nations requires a great deal of collective effort. How is it that this effort is rendered invisible? How have nations come to be seen as natural? Why do individuals buy into the idea of national identity?

In order to fully answer these questions, we need to examine the links between nationalism and popular culture. Movies, TV series, popular music, sport, video games, comics and other elements of everyday culture are intimately involved in the production (and contestation) of nationhood. Showtime’s hit series Homeland, for example, closely reflects American values and sensibilities; Britpop played a prominent role in British nation-branding; and the Beijing Olympics offered an important venue for the dissemination of official Chinese nationalism.

This volume will focus on three themes in analyzing nationalism and popular culture:

• Communities (e.g., what are the links between nationalism and social inequality? What, if anything, do members of the nation owe one another? What are the core beliefs, myths, and values of the nation? What are the origins of the nation, and what is its future?)
• Limits (e.g., what are the borders of the nation? Who belongs to the nation and who does not? Who are the nation’s “Others”? Are national boundaries secure or under threat?)
• Sovereignty (e.g., who is seen to rule the nation? What is the relationship between nations, states, and markets? Where does the nation fit in the global order? What actors, rules, or power structures govern the production of national identity and popular culture?)

The editor invites proposals for chapters that address one of these broad themes. The volume is primarily designed as an examination of empirical cases, but theoretically oriented chapter proposals are welcome as well. The editor aims to include case studies from a wide range of geopolitical contexts, covering both the Global North and Global South.

Please email chapter proposals of about 300-500 words to tnieguth@laurentian.ca by November 15, 2015, together with your full contact information and a short biographical statement. The editor will review proposals by early December. If accepted for inclusion in the volume, chapters should be completed and submitted to the editor by April 30, 2016. Chapters should be 7,000-8,000 words in length, must be original work, and must not be under review or accepted for publication elsewhere. Please note that it is the responsibility of individual contributors to secure permissions for any copyrighted material included in their chapter.

For further information, please feel free to contact the editor at:

Tim Nieguth
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
Laurentian University - Barrie
130 Bell Farm Road, Suites 2 & 3
Barrie, Ontario
Canada L4M 5G6
Email: tnieguth@laurentian.ca
URL: https://laurentian.ca/faculty/tnieguth


By web submission at 08/10/2015 - 19:01

CFP Game Studies and Determinism (Spec Issue of Reconstruction) (proposals by 10/1/2015)

Reconstruction 16.3, Games and Determinism (Oct. 1, abstracts)
full name / name of organization: Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture
contact email: reconstruction.submissions@gmail.com
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63221

Reconstruction 16.3: Game Studies and Determinism,
edited by Reconstruction staff
(Abstracts 250-500 words, due Oct. 1 2015, completed papers by Feb 1, 2016)

Even though it might be considered a relatively new discipline, Game Studies has galvanized around a readily recognizable set of determinisms. Indeed, the necessity of differentiating between video and computer games instantiates highlights an important pair. Conversely, it might be argued that a set of determinisms have galvanized around Game Studies, not least of which is the ongoing duel of the ludology and narratology dichotomies. Similarly, the mere existence of the debate regarding whether or not games constitute art seems to invoke the potential for invocations of auteur theory, if not definitions of art and aesthetics. Yet, as the “gamergate” fiasco reveals, familiar categories like player and genre break down under the weight of the determinism contained within. Likewise, the complete elision of queer perspectives, readings and subjectivities exists in and through the almost symbiotic relationship between an admittedly sexist industry and an academy eager to criticize it through the equally deterministic sex role theory that continues to dominate academic considerations of gender. Thus, the editors seek papers that explore/explode the various determinisms that have arisen in, through and about game studies. There would be a particular welcome and/or interest in papers from emerging scholars and/or scholars who would like to take the opportunity the revisit their own work or works that have become part of the lexical orthodoxy. Scholars would be invited to consider particular games, game genres and game elements as well as more theoretical considerations, particularly with regard to tertiary or other modes of game related production that have arisen and were not envisioned and/or encompassed when the canonical modes of reading were established as such.

Suggested topics include:

• demythologizing or deconstructing deterministic criticism in Game Studies
• beyond sex role theory
• exclusions of gender performativity and play
• the industry of critical commonplaces
• the empire (building) of gamification tropes
• outside and/or before the "magic circle"
• paratexts and other texts "outside" the game
• beyond gamers
• Game Studies and disciplinary occlusions
• disciplinary occlusions and Game Studies
• win or lose

Please send abstracts and queries to Marc Ouellette at reconstruction.managing@gmail.com with the subject heading “Game Studies and Determinism” by Oct. 1, 2015.

N.B. As an online journal, we are able to incorporate images and multimedia submissions.

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture (ISSN: 1547-4348) is an innovative online cultural studies journal dedicated to fostering an intellectual community composed of scholars and their audience, granting them all the ability to share thoughts and opinions on the most important and influential work in contemporary interdisciplinary studies. Reconstruction publishes three Themed Issues and one Open Issue per year.

Send Open Issue submissions (year round) to: reconstruction.submissions_at_gmail.com and submissions for Themed Issues to the appropriate editors listed on the site at www.reconstruction.eserver.org

Reconstruction also accepts proposal for special issue editors and topics. Reconstruction is indexed in the MLA International Bibliography.


By web submission at 08/01/2015 - 12:28

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 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



----------------------------------------------------------------------

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 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 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 Crank up the Resolution: Cyberpunk in Visual/Virtual Media (abstract by 8/1/15)

A reminder from the SFRA Listserv:

Call for Contributions
Crank up the Resolution: Cyberpunk in Visual/Virtual Media

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)

Contributions are invited for a critical anthology focusing on cyberpunk beyond its literary dimension, its presentation in visual/virtual media, and its ongoing relevance in the 21st century.

Cyberpunk, that immensely popular form of 1980s science fiction (SF), was shaped by the innovative and highly stylized literary works of writers such as William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, and Lewis Shiner, to name a few. Gibson’s debut novel Neuromancer is the ur-text of cyberpunk, and as the opening line quoted above reveals, it is a genre that relied strongly on visual motifs for its brushed-chrome literary splendor. The cyberpunk imaginary is richly saturated with computer-generated worlds, video games, music videos, simulated stimuli, consensual hallucinations, and many other technologies that highlight the visual and/or the virtual. As a result, the importance of the visual/virtual component readily translated cyberpunk into contemporaneous film, television, and video games, such as Blade Runner (1982), Tron (1982), Videodrome (1983), Max Headroom (1985; 1987), Wasteland (1987), Akira (1988), and so forth.

It is in no small part due to this visual/virtual form that cyberpunk survived many pronouncements of its demise over the years and decades that followed its initial popularity. Cyberpunk has evolved beyond the original cadre of eighties-era authors and undergone transformations in successive waves with increasingly varied thematic and political interests and goals; in other words, as Thomas Foster remarks in The Souls of Cyberfolk, cyberpunk “didn’t so much die as experience a sea change into a more generalized cultural formation.”

Visual and virtual embodiments of cyberpunk have continued to resonate well into the new millennium, in media as varied as film, television, video games, comic books/graphic novels, and art (photography, painting, design, fashion, etc.); yet, monographs and anthologies tend to focus overwhelmingly on literary cyberpunk with little attention paid to its visual/virtual offspring. Crank up the Resolution: Cyberpunk in Visual/Virtual Media seeks to redress this oversight by focusing on the ‘sea changes’ of cyberpunk in visual/virtual media, including (but not limited to) the following:

Cyberpunk in Film and Television

·     Aeon Flux
·     Akira
·     Almost Human
·     Avalon
·     Blade Runner
·     Dollhouse
·     Elysium
·     Gamer
·     Ghost in the Shell
·     Hackers
·     Hardwired
·     Johnny Mnemonic
·     Lawnmower Man
·     RoboCop
·     Sleep Dealer
·     Strange Days
·     TekWar
·     Terminator
·     The Matrix
·     Total Recall
·     Tron
·     Ultraviolet
·     Videodrome
·     Virtuosity

Cyberpunk in Video Games

·     Beneath a Steel Sky
·     Cyberpunk 2077  
·     Cypher
·     Deus Ex
·     Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon  
·     Fear Effect
·     Metal Gear Solid
·     Neocron
·     Remember Me  
·     Shadowrun  
·     Shin Megami Tensei
·     Syndicate
·     System Shock
·     Wasteland
·     Watch Dogs

Cyberpunk in Comic Books/Graphic Novels

·     Transmetropolitan
·     The Resistance
·     Hard Boiled
·     Heavy Liquid
·     Singularity 7
·     Channel Zero
·     Hard Drive
·     Ballistic
·     Doktor Sleepless
·     The Surrogates


Cyberpunk in art/photography/design/fashion/advertisement 

The visual/virtual in Cyberpunk-derived genres 

Theoretical approaches to visual/virtual cyberpunk

Aesthetics of visual/virtual cyberpunk

Crank up the Resolution: Cyberpunk in Visual/Virtual Media seeks to highlight visual and virtual forms of cyberpunk with outstanding academic scholarship and new critical approaches in an anthology that can be readily accessible to academics, scholars, teachers, and students alike. 1-2 page abstracts (Word or RTF) and brief biographies are invited by August 1st, 2015.

The projected timeline for the anthology is: Abstracts due by August 1st , 2015; participants notified by Sep 1st 2015; finished papers due Jan 1st , 2016; revisions in spring 2016; publication in fall 2016 (pending publisher timelines).

Submissions and queries can be sent to the editors Graham J. Murphy (Seneca College, Toronto, Canada) and Lars Schmeink (Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research, Hamburg, Germany) via email. Regular mail addresses will be provided upon request.

Graham J. Murphy: gjamurphy@gmail.com
Lars Schmeink: lars@wortraub.com

Millennial Mythmaking: Essays on the Power of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, Films and Games

Been catching up on my McFarland collections. Perlich and Whitt offer a varied yet deeply informative set of essays.

Millennial Mythmaking: Essays on the Power of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, Films and Games
http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-4562-2
Edited by John Perlich and David Whitt

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-4562-2
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-7864-5592-8
notes, bibliographies, index
212pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2010

Price: $39.95
Available for immediate shipment

About the Book
Contemporary myths, particularly science fiction and fantasy texts, can provide commentary on who we are as a culture, what we have created, and where we are going. These nine essays from a variety of disciplines expand upon the writings of Joseph Campbell and the hero’s journey. Modern examples of myths from various sources such as Planet of the Apes, Wicked, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Spirited Away; the Harry Potter series; and Second Life are analyzed as creative mythology and a representation of contemporary culture and emerging technology.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii
Preface: "There and Back Again…"      1

Contrasting Colors
1. Sorting Heroic Choices: Green and Red in the Harry Potter Septology
(KIRSTIN CRONN-MILLS and JESSICA SAMENS)      5
2. The Complexity of Evil in Modern Mythology: The Evolution of the Wicked Witch of the West
(JASON EDWARDS and BRIAN KLOSA)      32
3. Polysemous Myth: Incongruity in Planet of the Apes
(RICHARD BESEL and RENEE SMITH BESEL)      51

New Champions
4. The Hero with the Thousand-and-First Face: Miyazaki’s Girl Quester in Spirited Away and Campbell’s Monomyth
(DEE GEORTZ)      67
5. The Odyssey of Madame Souza: A Heroine’s Quest in The Triplets of Belleville
(DAVID WHITT)      83
6. Rethinking the Monomyth: Pan’s Labyrinth and the Face of a New Hero(ine)
(JOHN PERLICH)      100

No Boundaries
7. Actors and Their Mythic Heroes: From the Doctor to Captain Kirk
(DJOYMI BAKER)      129
8. Running Free in Angelina Jolie’s Virtual Body: The Myth of the New Frontier and Gender Liberaton in Second Life
(ELLEN GORSEVSKI)      146
9. So Where Do I Go from Here? Ghost in the Shell and Imagining Cyborg Mythology for the New Millennium
(JAY SCOTT CHIPMAN)      167

Epilogue: "Always in Motion Is the Future…"      193
About the Contributors      197
Index      199


About the Editors
John Perlich is a professor of communication studies at Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska.
David Whitt is an associate professor of communication at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska.

CFP Music for New Frontiers: Re-Locating the Sounds of the Western (1/10/15)

An interesting idea for a collection:

Call for Abstracts: Music for New Frontiers: Re-Locating the Sounds of the Western (collection)/abstracts due 2015-1-10
Publication Date: 2015-01-10
Date Submitted: 2014-07-08
Announcement ID: 214937

Call for Abstracts: Music for New Frontiers: Re-Locating the Sounds of the Western (collection)

We all know the sound of the “classic” movie Western, and what it signifies: a sense of the bravura and heroics associated with the genre illustrated through clean-cut good guys and shifty-eyed bad guys, a rustic landscape, showdowns and brawls. In a 2014 television commercial for Nissan, two men display their car keys with a knowing look: who will win this horserace? In another, two women don cowboy hats to compete for a pair of fashionable shoes on display between them. Similarly, a commercial for the weedkiller “Roundup,” features narration in a rhythmic patter reminiscent of the song “Ringo,” while a chorus of men sing in the background and we hear a single crack of a whip, evoking the classic scores of Dmitri Tiomkin. All of these commercials feature a stylized music that we recognize from classic Westerns: open chords, simple harmonies, long melodies reminiscent of folk tunes, and the changes to those sounds brought about by the “Spaghetti” Westerns of the 1960s: percussion mimicking the sounds of the mythological American West with its jingling spurs, bird calls, and galloping hooves. Advertising companies know that we will respond positively (whether male or female) to the music that transports us to another time (and place?) when we stood up to competition, whether another person or a weed.

Westerns, and their scores, full of iconic motifs, timbres, and harmonies, have always helped us to interpret our past and our present, deal with political and social issues, and delineate the moral behavior of the various bad guys and good guys of the periods depicted. Whether in print, on the stage, or on the screen, the genre is unique and thus inspires a particularly unique soundtrack. This soundtrack changed when the Western was transplanted to Italy, but music for the Western by both American and non-American composers has endured and has been interpreted to new environments for a variety of reasons.

So what happens when that soundtrack is transposed to other settings? Recent films, anime, television shows, stage productions, and video games, including Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 Django Unchained, 2013’s The Lone Ranger, anime’s GunXSword, the 2012 Doctor Who episode “A Town Called Mercy,” and the recent Half-Life spinoff Fistful of Frags have embraced the Western aesthetic in their settings, costuming, plots, and music. While some of these productions use the American “old west” as audiences know it from Gunsmoke and High Noon, more of them explore locations and scenarios far from these traditional renderings. Even Bruce Springsteen has used the main title theme from The Magnificent Seven as his intro music at live shows, positioning him as essentially American.


This collection seeks to locate and relocate the Western and its soundtrack in recent media. Possible topics include music and the intersections of works that both reference the traditional Western and stand apart from it:

• Westerns set outside of the United States, including Japan, Australia, and Osterns from the Soviet bloc
• Space or Supernatural Westerns
• Anime
• Video games
• TV shows and series in non-Western settings
• Operas (aside from “La Fanciulla del West”)
• Popular musics, including sampling and mashups
• Sports
• Commercials
• Radio programs
• Shakespeare and classical literature
• Stage productions, including both plays and musicals
• Other non-Western literature

…In other words, places where you wouldn’t normally expect to hear “Western” music, but where it is used nonetheless as a recognizable musical signifier.


Please submit abstracts of 500 words by January 10, 2015 in .doc(x), .rtf. or .odt form to both Mariana Whitmer (samed@pitt.edu) and Kendra Preston Leonard (kendraprestonleonard@gmail.com). For accepted abstracts, full essays of 5,000-8,000 words will be due September 1, 2015.

Mariana Whitmer (samed@pitt.edu) and Kendra Preston Leonard (kendraprestonleonard@gmail.com)
Email: kendraprestonleonard@gmail.com