CFP Jane Austen Now Edited Collection (8/31/2026)

Of potential interest:

Jane Austen Now - Edited Collection

deadline for submissions:
August 31, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Robert Morris University

contact email:
pamboukian@rmu.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/04/21/jane-austen-now-edited-collection

The year 2025 marked the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, yet Austen seems to be only increasing in cultural relevance on a global scale. This edited collection explores new Jane Austen-related texts – including films, streaming series, prequel/ sequel novels, graphic adaptations etc. - of the twenty-first century, including…

• Representing Jane Austen and her family ex. Miss Austen, Miss Austen Regrets
• Rebooting Jane Austen’s works in new ways ex. Death Comes to Pemberley, Longbourne, The Other Bennet Sister
• Adapting Jane Austen’s works for a global audience ex. Bride & Prejudice, Aisha
• Exploring Janeites or Jane Austen fandom ex. Lost in Austen, Jane Austen Book Club
• Online fan communities, podcasts, YouTube channels, cookbooks, or fan fiction,
• Traveling to Austen destinations or creating Austen-inspired travel experiences in the UK and globally.

How does this very British author speak to the cultural hybridity of a modern global marketplace? How does the quiet life a Regency countrywoman generate political and cultural commentary regarding modern gender, masculinity, femininity, courtship, and marriage? How does a woman who wrote pen-and-ink manuscripts on a small side table inspire self-sustaining, international communities of readers, fans, and devotees using a variety of media? What is the relevance and appeal of Jane Austen now?

Submit: Abstract: 350-500 word & Bio: 1-2 pages incl. affiliations, publications/ conferences and other qualifications relevant to the topic.



Timeline: Abstracts due August 31, 2026/ Final essays due (if accepted) June 2027

Final essays: approx. 8 000 – 10 000 words using Chicago style with endnotes

Notes: Authors are responsible for obtaining any permissions needed for copyrighted material in the final essays, including licensing costs if any. This collection is in talks with a university press but is not under contract at this time.

Email questions or submit abstracts: Sylvia A. Pamboukian at Pamboukian@rmu.edu



Last updated April 23, 2026

CFP Disney: A Companion (1/1/2026)

Disney: A Companion

deadline for submissions:
January 1, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Lorna Piatti-farnell and Simon Bacon

contact email:
lpfarnell@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/07/26/disney-a-companion

The editors invite abstracts for a forthcoming edited volume entitled Disney: A Companion, which will offer a comprehensive critical exploration of The Walt Disney Company’s cultural, historical, aesthetic, political, and industrial significance. The Companion is intended for the Peter Lang Genre Fiction and Film Companion series (https://www.peterlang.com/series/gffc), and aims to bring together a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives that interrogate Disney’s enduring legacy and its evolving role in global media and culture.



Since its founding in the 1920s, The Walt Disney Company has shaped not only the animation industry but also broader cultural discourses around childhood, storytelling, consumerism, technology, representation, and national identity. Disney’s innovations in animation – from the early days of Steamboat Willie and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to the more recent digital revolutions seen in Frozen and Encanto – have established it as a central player in the development of visual culture. However, Disney’s influence and reach extend well beyond animation, and its characteristic fairy-tale narrative set ups. They encompass live-action films of different genres, television, comics, theme parks, corporate acquisitions and partnerships (including Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios), streaming platforms, and merchandising. Disney has not only contributed to the development of the animated film as we know it, but also arguably shaped how generations of audiences have experience transmedia storytelling on a wider scale. All of these aspects of the ‘Disney phenomenon’ form a complex conglomerate deserving of sustained scholarly attention across disciplines and contexts.



Taking this as a point of departure, this Companion seeks to engage with Disney not merely as a brand or an entertainment company, but as a key site for creative, cultural, social, historical, political, and industrial negotiations.



Topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Aesthetics and Technologies: techniques and styles in traditional, digital, and hybrid animation; evolution of character design and character identities; Disney’s visual storytelling strategies; evolving digital technologies; collaboration with and influence on other studios; audio-visual and industrial considerations, including the use of music and songs; critical approaches to the aesthetic, industrial, and cultural category of the ‘Disney film’.
• Franchises, Adaptations, and Transmedia Storytelling: convergence culture and the evolution of serial storytelling within the Disney empire, including Disney+ and the Disney Channel; case studies on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, and beyond, through a Disney lens; transnational reimaginings; paratextual materials, fan practices, remix culture, and counter-discourses surrounding Disney texts.
• The Body and Embodiment: how bodies are animated, idealized, and regulated in Disney media; discourses of beauty, physical transformation, and anthropomorphism; disability, and the relationship between the body and mental health in Disney narratives; body transformations and the construction of the self.
• Representations of ‘Good and Evil’: ethical boundaries and moral binaries within the Disney multiverse; constructions of heroes and villains, and the virtues/values associated with them; politicised understandings of purpose and goals; magic and witchcraft as central Disney tropes; monsters and the monstrous.
• Race, Ethnicity, and Representation: critical approaches to racial and ethnic portrayals in Disney films and television; Indigeneity and complex representations of ‘Otherness’ within Disney properties.
• Gender and Sexuality: changing depictions of femininity and masculinity; Feminist critique and queer readings of Disney narratives; gender performativity in animation and live-action; representation in the Disney Princess franchises and beyond; LGBTQI+ representation in both Disney texts and Disney fan communities.
• Ecology and the Environment: environmental critique within Disney films; corporate practices and environmental considerations; Disney parks and environmental discourses.
• Historical Perspectives: Disney's role in the development of the American film industry; propaganda and nationalism in wartime productions; corporate history and its intersections with broader historical events.
• Consumerism, Childhood, Nostalgia, and Fandom: the commodification of childhood and family entertainment; Disney’s influence on children’s culture and education; nostalgia and intergenerational fandom; critical explorations of ‘Disney adult’ fan communities; Disney cosplay and fan-narratives (including fan-vids, fan-fiction, and beyond); Disney and pedagogical discourses.
• Merchandise, Toys, and Marketing: audience-specific merchandise lines, including critical considerations of ‘Disney Princesses’ products and properties; rare items, collectibles, and exclusivity; branding and marketing strategies in diverse international contexts; Disney parks and the consumer experience.
• Creativity, the Cultural Industries, and Globalization: Disney’s global reach, including localized content and international reception; considerations over creativity and intellectual property; the cultural impact of Disney properties as creative channels; Disney properties, including theme parks, as cultural institutions in the transnational landscape.

The editors invite abstracts of 250-300 words on or around any of the above topics. Final essays will be 3,000 words in length.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 1st January 2026. Please email your abstracts (together with a short bio, 150 words max) for consideration to both editors: Lorna Piatti-Farnell, lorna.piatti-farnell@sae.ac.nz; and Simon Bacon, baconetti@googlemail.com.


Last updated July 28, 2025

CFP Edited Volume on Star Wars and Politics in the Disney Era (9/30/2025)

CFP: Edited Volume on Star Wars and Politics in the Disney Era

deadline for submissions:
September 30, 2025

full name / name of organization:
Dominic J Nardi

contact email:
dnardi@umich.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/07/28/cfp-edited-volume-on-star-wars-and-politics-in-the-disney-era

This edited volume seeks to collect scholarship on the treatment of political themes and world-building in the Star Wars franchise since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012. Scholars have thoroughly explored political topics in George Lucas’s works, but have paid less attention to how Star Wars projects under Disney have continued, changed, or challenged the franchise’s approach to politics. To advance the scholarship on this subject, we welcome proposals from a variety of disciplines and perspectives, including literary criticism, cultural history, political science, film studies, and fandom studies.



Possible / Suggested Topics:

We are willing to consider relevant proposals about Star Wars stories in any medium — including films, TV shows, novels, comics, and video games — published since Lucasfilm reset the Star Wars canon in April 2014. Below are some topics that essays selected for the volume might address. Please consider this list a starting point for ideas rather than an exhaustive checklist of desired coverage. 

• Everyday heroes and weapons of the weak in Rogue One and Andor
• Political idealism in The High Republic multimedia project
• Magical weapons to identify rightful rulers in Rebels, The Mandalorian, and The Book of Boba Fett
• Luthen’s accelerationism in Andor
• Links between the Empire and organized crime
• Post-conflict justice in the Aftermath and Alphabet Squadron novels
• Information warfare and propaganda, including the Star Wars Propaganda artbook
• Political parties in Bloodlines as a commentary on American polarization
• Star Wars Visions and Ronin as non-Western perspectives on politics in Star Wars
• Mistreatment of veterans in Rebels, The Bad Batch, Andor, and Obi-Wan Kenobi
• Transplanetary corporations and the military-industrial complex
• Income inequality and the donor class in The Last Jedi
• Pre-Mor Authority and the Empire’s use of contractors
• Political dynasties and/or cults of personality
• How political debates during the 2010s and early 2020s affected responses to the Sequel Trilogy
• Interconnections between the State and carceral institutions
• Tensions between political and religious institutions
• Nemik’s manifesto as political rhetoric

Submission and Contact:

Interested authors should email the following to sweede01@luther.edu and dnardi@umich.edu by September 30, 2025:

• 300-500 word abstract of your proposed chapter;
• Contact information - name, email address, and any institutional affiliation;
• Resume/CV for each author/co-author (in any format).

Selected authors will be notified by November 1, 2025, and will be invited to contribute a first draft of a full-length chapter by May 4, 2026. Essays should be between 5,000-7,500 words.



About the Editors

Derek Sweet (sweede01@luther.edu) has been a professor in the communication studies department since 2005, focusing on the topics of rhetoric and public address. Some of his course topics include Public Address, Advanced Public Address, Rhetoric of Everyday Life, Rhetoric of Spirituality, and Media & Popular Culture. He also coedited The Transmedia Franchise of Star Wars TV (Palgrave 2020) and wrote Star Wars in the Public Square (McFarland, 2015).

Dominic J. Nardi (dnardi@umich.edu) is a political scientist who researches the depiction of politics in science fiction and fantasy. He coedited and wrote chapters for The Transmedia Franchise of Star Wars TV (Palgrave 2020), Discovering Dune (McFarland 2022), and Studio Ghibli Animation as Adaptations (2025). He received his PhD from the University of Michigan and teaches at George Washington University.


Last updated July 28, 2025

CFP Adaptation and Terry Pratchett--Essay Collection (10/31/2025)

Adaptation and Terry Pratchett--Essay Collection

deadline for submissions:
October 31, 2025

full name / name of organization:
Anne Hiebert Alton & William C. Spruiell

contact email:
anne.hiebert.alton@cmich.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/06/03/adaptation-and-terry-pratchett-essay-collection

We invite proposals for an edited collection of essays on Adaptation and the work of Terry Pratchett. The book proposal will be submitted to Palgrave Macmillan or Bloomsbury Academic’s Perspectives on Fantasy series in the Spring of 2026.

Perhaps best known for his 41-book Discworld series, Terry Pratchett was also the author of numerous other works of fantasy and science fiction. While enormously popular during his lifetime, since his premature death in 2015 his works have only grown in critical statue, with several scholarly articles, books and book chapters, and collections of essays appearing in the last decade.[1] However, none have paid extensive attention to the multitude of adaptations of Pratchett’s works. Spanning areas including drama, film (animated, live-action, and CGI), spoken word recordings and performances, graphic and musical arts, and games (video, RPG, and board), these many and varied adaptations embody Linda Hutcheon’s notion of remediated narrative: the “repetition without replication” that brings together “the comfort of ritual and recognition with the delight of surprise and novelty” (7, 173).[2]

Ideally this volume will include essays that discuss a variety of types of adaptations, as well as showcase not only Pratchett’s Discworld novels but also his other works, including Nation, the Johnny Maxwell series, the Bromeliad trilogy, The Carpet People, various short stories, and perhaps Good Omens. Topics might focus on such areas including, but not limited to, the following:

Theoretical issues: 

• Adaptation, Interdisciplinarity, Reception, Inter-semiotic translation, etc.Is Pratchett’s work intrinsically adaptable? Is there something about it that makes it particularly appealing to experience through adaptation?
• Are some Pratchett works more adaptable than others?
• Given that adaptation necessarily involves change, are there patterned aspects or common threads for what Pratchett adaptations focus on (fidelity debates aside), regardless of mode?
• How do Pratchett adaptations work? How might they change the experience of the source text, and through that the ground on which any further interpretation is based?

Modes 

•  How do the potentials of different forms/modalities (or languages) interact with Pratchett’s texts – do they encourage adaptation into some forms at the expense of others? Do they affect the choice of what to adapt beyond what the economics of sales figures would suggest?
• What characteristics of Pratchett’s texts pose particular difficulties or challenges for adaptation, or (conversely) enable interestingly expanded possibilities for meaning in the new form?
• How do results from particular adaptations vary between modes/forms?

Roles of participants

• What kinds of roles do various participants in Pratchett adaptations – the initial author, the adaptor(s), the performer(s), the designer(s), the collaborator(s), etc. – play?
• What contributions might or should they make or be expected to make?

Treatments of specific source texts and their adaptations

• How are Pratchett’s works transformed through adaptation? What happens to the source text’s story as a result of adaptation?
• What are some of the contrasts between various adaptations of the same source text – e.g. Guards! Guards! comic book vs. stage play vs. television series vs. game(s); or The Amazing Maurice musical vs. CGI film; or Small Gods graphic novel vs. BBC radio drama vs. instrumental music rendering – into different modes, and why/how do these matter?
• If, as Sanders suggests, adaptations “highlight often perplexing gaps, absences and silences within the original” (126), what gaps can be identified in Pratchett adaptations and how do various adaptations engage with these gaps?[3]

Deadlines/Timeline: Proposals of a maximum of 500 words, along with brief author bios, should be sent by Friday 31 October 2025 to Professors Anne Hiebert Alton and William C. Spruiell via email at anne.hiebert.alton@cmich.edu. Notification of acceptance will be sent by 31 December 2025. Please send any questions to the same address.



[1] In addition to numerous articles, other published work includes Daniel Lüthi’s monograph Mapping a Sense of Humor: Narrative and Space in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Novels (2023); book chapters in Caroline Webb’s Fantasy and the Real World in British Children’s Literature (2015) and Andrew Rayment’s excellent Fantasy, Politics, Postmodernity: Pratchett, Pullman, Miéville and Stories of the Eye (2014); and at least six collections of essays: Discworld and the Disciplines: Critical Approaches to the Terry Pratchett Works (ed. Anne Hiebert Alton and William C. Spruiell, 2014); Philosophy and Terry Pratchett (ed. Jacob Held and James South, 2014); Discworld and Philosophy: Reality is Not What It Seems (ed. Nicholas Michaud, 2016); Terry Pratchett's Narrative Worlds: From Giant Turtles to Small Gods (ed. Marion Rana, 2018); Terry Pratchett’s Ethical Worlds: Essays on Identity and Narrative in Discworld and Beyond (ed. Kristin Noone and Emily Lavin Leverett, 2020); and Power and Society in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld: Building a Fantasy Civilization (ed. Justine Breton, 2025).

[2] Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Adaptation, 2nd ed., Routledge, 2013.

[3] Julie Sanders, Adaptation and Appropriation, 2nd ed., Routledge, 2016.



Last updated June 8, 2025

CFP Routledge Handbook of Doctor Who (1/24/2025)

 

Routledge Handbook of Doctor Who

deadline for submissions: 

January 24, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

University of Southern Queensland

contact email: 

marcus.harmes@usq.edu.au

source:https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/12/03/routledge-handbook-of-doctor-who. 

Contributions of 4000 words are invited for the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Doctor Who. Under contract with Routledge and edited by Catriona Mills, Russell Sandberg and Marcus Harmes, this large-scale Handbook will be a generational work encompassing all aspects of the global phenomenon Doctor Who. The purpose of the work is to further academic research and the interdisciplinary approach that fuses the exploration of the official and the fan made.

 

The below table of contents indicates which chapters still require contributors. Please also review the notes below on what the overall focus of each section will be and tailor your abstract to this focus.

 

Please submit a 150 word abstract by January 24th 2025outlining what your proposed chapter would focus on. The editors will be interested in chapters which address the nominated area in novel ways.

 

The full chapter will be due by December 16th 2025.

 

Send to marcus.harmes@usq.edu.au, c.mills@uq.edu.au and SandbergR@cardiff.ac.uk

 

Part I: The Television Show

                   

1. Beginnings and Transformations (Lambert and her black and white successors)- Unavailable
2. Navigating the 1970s (Letts) - Unavailable
3. Triumphs and Tragedies (Hinchcliffe, Williams) - Unavailable
4. Navigating the 1980s (JNT) - Unavailable
5. False Hopes and Restarts - Unavailable
6. Triumph of the Timelord (RTD) - Unavailable
7. Too clever for its own good? (Moffat ) - Available
8. Contested Progress (Chibnall) - Available
9. RTD Redux - Available

 

Part II: Expanding Doctor Who Fictional Universes

 

10. The Peter Cushing Films - Available
11. K9and Company, the Sarah Jane Adventures and the Australian K9 - Unavailable
12. Torchwood and Class - Available
13. The War Between the Land and the Sea - Unavailable
14. Fragments and Experiments: Short Episodes, Webcasts, Animations and AI - Available
15. BBC and Big Finish Audio Productions - Available
16. Interactive Experiences: Stage plays, Exhibitions, Conventions and Cosplay - Unavailable
17. Gaming: Escape Rooms and Computer Games - Available
18. Annuals and Comics- Unavailable
19. The Target Range - Unavailable
20. Novels for Children - Available
21. Novels for Adults - Unavailable
22. Fan Fiction and Fan Films - Unavailable
23. Parodies – Unavailable
24. Merchandise - Unavailable

 

Part III: The Literatures on and about Doctor Who

 

25. Behind the Scenes Extras (including Doctor Who: Confidential, Totally Doctor Who and Doctor Who: Unleashed and DVD / Blu Ray extras content) - Unavailable
26. Doctor Who Magazine and fanzines – Available
27. Podcasts – Available
28. Reference Works and Guides - Available

 

Part IV: Production Practices

 

29. Special Effects from Practical to Digital - Available
30. Costumes - Unavailable
31. Art and Set Design - Unavailable
32. Sound Design and Music- Available
33. Archival Survival and Global Audiences - Available

 

Part V: Themes

 

34. Social Class – Available
35. Gender / Feminism - Available
36. Race - Available
37. Queerness - Available
38. Disability – Available
39. Ageing– Available
40. Non-human, post-human, and monsters – Available
41. Environmentalism and Ecology – Unavailable
42. Law and Order - Unavailable
43. History and the Past - Unavailable
44. Philosophy and Economics – Available
45. Colonialism and Empire - Unavailable
46. Education and Pedagogy - Unavailable
47. War and Conflict – Available
48. Religion and Spirituality – Unavailable
49. Science and Technology – Unavailable
50. Language and Communication - Unavailable

 

Part I: The Television Show

Section focus: Each chapter should engage with an overarching and unifying set of issues which are:

• Overview of the era: the casting of the lead actor/s, the production team priorities

• Critical and academic interpretations of the era showing the complete era as a major media text in its own right
• The intersections between the era and its cultural and social historical context
• The most critical points of significance about each era
• And will highlight one serial/story/episode which exemplified the era

 

Part II: Expanding Doctor Who Fictional Universes

Section focus: The next section on the wider universe acknowledges and interprets the multiplying media texts which build on and exist beyond the strict BBC television canon of the series explored in the first chapters. Each chapter will be tightly focused and the section overall will traverse a range of genres and outputs. Chapters in this section will also:

• Focus upon the production history
• The relevant academic literature
• The social and cultural context of the works
• And will highlight one particular serial/story/episode/sequence to serve as an exemplar.

 

Part III: The Literatures on and about Doctor Who

Section focus: The third part examines the way the entire franchise both its canonical BBC incarnation and its expanded universe have become the subject of both academic discourse but other types of meta-textual commentary and extrapolation.  Chapters in this section will be intersecting with broader issues of the growth of fan communities and activities and the creative intentions of the creators of different types of literatures.

• The section will demonstrate ways Doctor Who has not only followed but has led trends in merchandising television and popular culture and how emergent technologies from VHS to DVD and Blu-ray have enabled the expansion of what constitutes television merchandise, from just episodes to even merchandising production paperwork. Chapters in this section will also:
• Focus on the historical development of the work
• The relevant academic literature, the social and cultural context of the work
• And will suggest an exemplar work.

 

Part IV: Production Practices

Section focus: The fourth section is more practically oriented on the making of the classic and revised series and each tightly focused chapter will showcase the way resources, creativity and imagination have shaped what has appeared or been heard on screen and how these have inspired in turn fans’ imaginations.

• As Doctor Who is also only partly archivally intact, the section will also consider the significance of the programme in wider understanding of television heritage, the global dissemination of BBC drama, and the preservation and use of archives.

 

Part V: Themes

Finally this section opens up a wide thematic canvas with the chapters exploring the issues raised by the chosen theme. Both classic and new Who must feature and contributors are also welcome to include wider works as per section II.

 

categories

fan studies and fandom

film and television

journals and collections of essays

popular culture

science and culture

Last updated December 5, 2024

CFC Countdown to Hallmark Collection (7/15/2022)

This is a neat idea:

Call for Chapters: Countdown to Hallmark

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/04/04/call-for-chapters-countdown-to-hallmark

deadline for submissions:
July 15, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Carlen Lavigne / Red Deer Polytechnic

contact email:
carlen.lavigne@rdpolytech.ca



Since launching its hugely popular “Countdown to Christmas” made-for-TV movie series in 2009, Hallmark has expanded its offerings of American small-town romances to include Valentine’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, New Year’s, and Hanukkah, as well as winter, spring, summer, fall, and “Christmas in July.” Dozens of original films are planned and shot each year, often in Canadian locations such as Vancouver and Ottawa. These now-year-round productions are formulaic, heteronormative, Christian, and overwhelmingly white—and they have been undeniably commercially successful, rocketing Hallmark to cable success and spawning imitations across multiple platforms.

Contributions are invited for this multinational, multidisciplinary collection of essays studying Hallmark Channel movies and Hallmark’s current dominance in the North American media landscape. The collection is intended as part of the Routledge Advances in Popular Culture Studies series. Topics explored may include, but are not limited to:

• Christian markers, secular tensions, and “inclusivity” (e.g. Hanukkah films)
• Heteronormative patterns and/or queer influences
• Racial diversity and/or BIPOC erasure
• Disability narratives and/or disability erasure
• Parenthood and challenges or reinforcements of nuclear family structures
• Evangelical Christianity and “Boycott Hallmark” movements
• Nostalgic casting (e.g. sitcom stars from the '80s and '90s)
• Urban and rural—images and myths of the big city vs. small-town America
• Capitalism, labour, and women’s careers
• The Hallmark script formula and the romance genre
• Jane Austen and other literary influences
• Escapism and formula TV during COVID or other disaster times
• Cross-promotion (e.g. Hallmark greeting cards, sweaters, tie-in novels)
• Comparisons between Hallmark productions and competitors such as Netflix and Lifetime

Submit an abstract of 250-400 words and a short bio to Dr. Carlen Lavigne (carlen.lavigne@rdpolytech.ca) by July 15, 2022. Accepted articles of 5000-6000 words will be due by January 15, 2023.


Last updated April 8, 2022

CFP Star Trek Discovery Collection (expired)

Sorry to have missed this earlier. It looks like the call was open for less than a month:

CFP: Context is for Kings – An Edited Collection on Star Trek: Discovery
https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2018/cfp-context-is-for-kings-an-edited-collection-on-star-trek-discovery/
March 22, 2018

Context is for Kings – An Edited Collection on Star Trek: Discovery

51 years after Star Trek: The Original Series first aired on U.S. American TV, Star Trek: Discovery is updating the franchise for the 21st century. Like TOS was in the 60s, Discovery is firmly rooted in the zeitgeist and current political climate—a fact that has led to surprising amount of backlash from some corners of the fandom. Thanks to the advantage of streaming platforms over network television, the series is also updating the largely episodic structure of the earlier installments to a more serial and coherent storytelling that allows for longer narrative arcs as well as a focus on in-depth character development.

Set 10 years before The Original Series, Discovery is notably darker than any of the previous iterations of the franchise. Depicting the Federation at war with the Klingon Empire, the first season raises questions about identity and othering, war and trauma, and the conflict between idealism and pragmatism. It explores how Starfleet, an organization ostensibly dedicated to exploration and diplomacy, deals with the ethical questions surrounding war, and the lengths people are willing to go to win. These questions are deepened and complicated by the fact that the series, unlike any of the previous entries in the Star Trek canon, focuses not exclusively on the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery and the United Federation of planets, but also presents the events from the point of view of the Klingon Empire. A foray into the Mirror Universe dominated by the fascist Terran Empire throws Starfleet’s ideals and the characters’ struggles to live up to them into even sharper relief.

In addition to the questions raised by the narrative, Discovery has continued the franchise’s commitment to representing diversity on screen. Featuring a woman of color in the lead role, a racially and ethnically diverse main and supporting cast, and introducing the franchise’s first gay couple (played by out gay actors), the show is even more inclusive than any of the previous Star Trek series. Discovery thus has once more proven Star Trek’s continued cultural relevance and has, after only one season, already warranted an in-depth academic study that engages with the series from the perspectives of a variety of academic disciplines, such as cultural studies, gender and queer theory, political science, philosophy, and more.

We thus invite contributions to an edited collection to be published with a notable international publishing house or University Press.

We already have contributions on:

• Military Femininities (Admiral Cornwell, Captain/Emperor Georgiou, Michael Burnham, L’Rell, Silvia Tilly/Captain Killy)
• Gabriel Lorca, Ash Tyler and the Question of Masculinity
•  “‘Lorca, I’m Gonna Miss Killing You:’” Possible Worlds and Counterfactuals in Star Trek: Discovery
• Fan Reception and Discussions of Political and Social Values in Discovery
• Cultural Relevance/Zeitgeist of TOS and Discovery in comparison

List of other possible topics can include, but are not limited to:

• Questions of racial diversity in casting and narrative
• Representation of femininities and masculinities
• LGBTQ representation on and off screen
• Depictions of war and trauma (portrayal of PTSD, torture, rape)
• Fandom (Fanart, fanfiction, conventions, cosplaying, etc.)
• The role of social media and resulting changes to fandom/fan engagement
• Discovery’s relationship to the Star Trek canon and expanded universe (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT; Star Trek novels)
• Serial storytelling and world building
• The portrayal of non-human/alien races, particularly the Klingon Empire and the Kelpien Saru
• The role of Science Fiction in the current political moment
• Discovery’s vision(s) of the future
• Depiction of scientific exploration (in general, and its conflict with the war effort in particular)
• Questions of moral philosophy and ethics

The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2018. Please include an abstract (300 words) on the topic you would like to write on, plus a short bio-blurb, and send it as a pdf to Mareike Spychala, M.A. (mareike.spychala@uni-bamberg.de) and Dr. des. Sabrina Mittermeier (Sabrina.Mittermeier@pecess.de).

We will inform all participants by May 15, and full papers (6500-8000 words in length) will have to be submitted by October 31, 2018.

CFP Pirates: Lifting the Jolly Roger in History and Popular Culture Collection (3/1/17)

Collection on pirates
https://www.cfplist.com/CFP.aspx?CID=10380

Event: 03/01/2017
Abstract: 03/01/2017

Location: N/a
Organization: American Press


Pirates: Lifting the Jolly Roger in History and Popular Culture
Edited by Antonio Sanna

Since the times of their brutal aggressions to vessels journeying over the seven seas, pirates have firmly captured the imagination of writers, directors and producers all over the world and have elicited an incredible impact over contemporary culture. Pirates have been studied and represented by Daniel Defoe, Walter Scott, Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, but they have also appeared in the works of William Shakespeare, Ann Radcliffe and Lord Byron. Although their fictional representation is very different from the reality of the (either duller or more atrocious) actions that they actually committed, these eighteenth- and nineteenth-century writers have modelled and defined the figure of the maritime outlaws that is still firmly impressed in our minds: expert mariners, bold hunters for treasures who were often obsessed with revenge, vulgar and ruthless predators roaming the coasts and the deep seas of the five continents. Cinema has equally invested in such a figure, from Albert Parker's The Black Pirate (1926), Michael Curtiz's The Black Hawk (1940) and Disney's Treasure Island (1950) to the successful saga Pirates of the Caribbean (2003-2017) – whose most recent instalment will be in cinemas in 2017 – and Shinji Aramaki's Space Pirate Captain Harlock (2013). Nevertheless, the figure of the pirate has not been confined to these media and has freely roamed through theatre, the visual arts, manga, anime, video games and park rides, thus demonstrating its centrality in contemporary popular culture.
This anthology will explore the figure of the pirate from multidisciplinary perspectives. This volume seeks previously-unpublished essays that explore the heterogeneous representations of both historical figures and fictional characters. We are particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches to the subject. There are indeed several themes worth exploring when analyzing the historical and fictional representation of pirates, utilizing any number of theoretical frameworks of your choosing.

Contributions may include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

• Historical pirates (in the seven seas)
• Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary pirates
• Twentieth-century and contemporary representations of pirates in literature
• Manga and anime
• Pirates in the visual arts and on the stage
• The Pirates of the Caribbean saga
• Video games
• Pirates and philosophy
• Pirates and sea creatures (including monsters and mermaids)
• Humour, Black Humour and the Macabre
• Gender and queer readings
• Ecocriticism
• Alienation and misperception, conformity/nonconformity
• Disfigurement, deformity and (dis)ability
• Death and the afterlife
• Adaptations, Remakes and Appropriations
• Music in films on pirates
• Fan practice and fan communities

The anthology will be organized into thematic sections around these topics and others that emerge from submissions. We are open to works that focus on other topics as well and authors interested in pursuing other related lines of inquiry. Feel free to contact the editor with any questions you may have about the project and please share this announcement with colleagues whose work aligns with the focus of this volume.
Submit a 300-500 word abstract of your proposed chapter contribution, a brief CV and complete contact information to Dr. Antonio Sanna (isonisanna@hotmail.com) by 1 March 2016. Full chapters of 4000-6000 words would be due by June/July 2017. Note: all full chapters submitted will be included subject to review.


Contact Email: isonisanna@hotmail.com

CFP Colllection on “You’re Not Cool Just Because You Teach with Comics”: Studies on the Integration of Popular Culture in Teaching and Learning About Education (proposals by 1/31/2016)

I don't know the context here, but it seems a worthwhile endeavor:

“You’re Not Cool Just Because You Teach with Comics”:  Studies on the Integration of Popular Culture in Teaching and Learning About Education
Call for Chapter Proposals
https://networks.h-net.org/node/GROUP_NID/discussions/83751/call-chapter-proposals

Discussion published by Edward Janak on Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Rationale:

A group of high school history teachers attended the 2015 meeting of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association.  After each of the first two days, they were enthused and excited to meet a group of like-minded people.  However, after one session, one of the teachers walked up looking dejected.  When asked what was wrong, he fumbled for words for a moment or two, then finally said “Just because you teach using comic books does NOT make you a cool teacher!  And it DEFINITELY doesn’t mean you know what to do with those comics.”

The purpose of this edited volume is to address that frustration.  It is intended to serve as a place for teachers and scholars to begin seeking ways in which popular culture has been tapped for research and teaching purposes in effective means around the country.  The book will be divided into two parts:

Part I will allow teachers and scholars who perform research using popular culture to provide a discussion on any methodological issue or other related topic;
Part II will allow teachers and scholars who have great success teaching via popular culture to discuss the pedagogy/andragogy they tap.

Submission Areas:

Predicted possible topics for papers include, but are not limited to:

• Reflections/linkages between schooling and popular culture in the United States;
• Theoretical perspectives to using popular culture in education, teaching, or preservice teacher education in the United States;
• Use of popular culture in both formal and informal settings;
• International/multinational/cross-border lenses through which popular culture/popular perception of schooling can be viewed;
• The role of history in education, teaching, or preservice teacher education in the United States and/or re-integrating historical foundations into education;
• Successful use(s) of popular culture in education, teaching, or preservice teacher education in the United States;
• Representation(s) of teaching and/or schooling in popular culture through history;
• How education has impacted/has been impacted by popular culture;
• The impact/emergence of LGBTQ studies in schooling and education;
• Queering any of the represented fields/multidisciplinary approaches to the represented fields (education, schooling, history, archival studies, teaching, preservice teacher education);
• Otherization/de-otherization of immigrants via their representation(s) in popular culture (Hollywood, Television);
• Tapping into (or resisting) popular technology to improve education; and/or
• Exploring the intersections of social media, social identity and education.

Proposals:

We thus invite educational scholars to submit the following to both of the editors appearing below:

An abstract of 500 words (excluding sources cited) providing an overview of the chapter in its entirety
A list of tentative sources cited/data points; and
Brief (1-2 page) curriculum vitae of each contributor including, when relevant: affiliation/position, publication history, and educational history.

Please note:  Graduate students, K-12 teachers and independent scholars are all highly encouraged to submit. When possible, we encourage collaboration with a university faculty member.

Submissions:

If accepted, contributors will be responsible for producing manuscripts that meet the following criteria:

• be relevant to the field and further the conversation;
• be a minimum of 5,000 words (20-35 pages) in length;
• follow all formatting and style guidelines from the Chicago Manual of Style;
• contain all original material (not have been previously published); and
• not contain any copyrighted material (images, lengthy passages, etc).

Important Deadlines and Dates:

• Submission of abstracts to editors: January 31, 2016
• Notification of decisions to contributors: April 2016
• Submission of proposal to Lexington Press: May 2016
• Chapter submission to editors: August 2016
• Revision/redraft of chapters from editors: November 2017
• Revision re-submission from contributors: January 2017
• Submission to press: June 1, 2017
• Tentative publication date: November 2017

Editor Information:

All enquiries should be directed to:

Dr. Edward Janak, Chair          
Educational Foundations and Leadership
Judith Herb College of Education
University of Toledo
5000-C Gillham Hall, Mail Stop 921
2801 West Bancroft Street
Toledo, OH  43606-3390
Phone: (419) 530-4114
Email: Edward.janak@utoledo.edu


Dr. Ludovic A. Sourdot
Associate Professor, Curriculum & Instruction
Department of Teacher Education
Texas Woman’s University
P.O. Box 425769
Denton, TX 76204-5769
Phone:(940) 898-2216
Email: lsourdot@mail.twu.edu

CFP Essay Collection on The Hobbit in Fiction and Film (abstracts by 12/1/2015)

From H-Film:
https://networks.h-net.org/node/14467/discussions/86662/cfp-essay-collection-hobbit-fiction-and-film-working-title

CFP: Essay Collection on The Hobbit in Fiction and Film (working title) with McFarland publisher

Discussion published by Janice Bogstad on Friday, October 2, 2015
COMPARING JACKSON’S The Hobbit FILMS TO TOLKIEN’s NOVEL: : Text into Film   Edited by Dr. Janice M Bogstad

 Call for papers for an essay collection -12-15 essays of 6000-8,000 words in length.

The deadline for receipt of an abstract, for consideration, is Dec 1, 2015. Final manuscripts are due March 1, 2016 with encouragement for earlier submission.  Contact me to discuss exceptions.



Send Abstracts and address queries to:    
Dr. Janice M. Bogstad, Professor    bogstajm@uwec.edu  715-836-6032
(McIntyre Library U of Wisconsin-Eau Claire   Eau Claire, WI  54702-5010

Manuscripts will be reviewed in a double-blind process by peer reviewers after having been tentatively accepted by the editor.

The collection will consider comparisons between Tolkien’s original Hobbit and the three Jackson films.  Of interest are structural parallels and differences, changes in character-focus from the book to the films, and considerations of philosophical differences in the overall message of Tolkien’s original book and Jackson’s films, but other well-supported arguments will also be considered.  As with the previously published essay collection, Picturing Tolkien (McFarland 2011), this collection will focus on positive comparisons. Essayists may wish to discuss features of the film that are, in their judgment, less successful, but will be asked to hold condemnation of the cinematic text simply on the basis of its differences from the textual narrative.  Authors may decide to focus on the films or the novel but the primary focus is comparative features of both.  Contribution to Tolkien scholarship can be articulated with two concepts:  its audience is the informed reader, not only the Tolkien, literary or film critic.  Its basic framework is in respect of co-measurability, that the books and the films are co-creations with parallel structures that intersect at certain points.  Each should be examined and compared as if those comparisons and intersections are significant to understanding contemporary Tolkien studies.

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 Essays for MLA Volume on Teaching Young Adult Literature (proposals by 11/1/2015)

Call for Essay Proposal for Volume on Teaching Young Adult Literature (1 November 2015)
full name / name of organization: MLA Publications
contact email: kscoat2@ilstu.edu
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63154

Proposals are invited for a volume entitled Teaching Young Adult Literature to be edited by Karen Coats, Mike Cadden, and Roberta Seelinger Trites. This volume in the MLA’s Options for Teaching series aims to bring together a range of articles describing innovative and successful approaches to designing and teaching stand-alone Young Adult Literature courses at the post-secondary level, as well as incorporating YA texts into other undergraduate and graduate courses relevant to MLA members and Education and Library Science faculty.

This volume will be a resource for new and experienced teachers of young adult texts. It will provide suggestions for supplementary materials and pedagogical activities for a variety of student audiences in a range of college settings. Abstracts that use specific YA texts as examples to demonstrate how to teach genres within YA literature (e.g. graphic narrative, historical fiction, the verse novel, etc.) are welcome, as are abstracts that focus on themes, topics, methods, and problems in teaching Young Adult literature in various settings.

Your abstract should clarify your intended topic, setting, its relevance to the subject of Young Adult literature pedagogy, the texts, genre(s) or theories you expect to explore, and the value of your intended topic to a broad range of instructors and students. Please note that any quotations from student papers will require written permission from the students. Contributors to a volume must be members of the MLA when their contribution is submitted in the final, approved manuscript, through publication.
If you are interested in contributing an essay of between 2000–3000 words, please submit an abstract of 350–500 words to Karen Coats at kscoat2@ilstu.edu by 1 November 2015.


By web submission at 07/25/2015 - 18:49

CFP Twenty-Five Years of Twin Peaks Collection (proposals by 9/30/2015)

[UPDATE] "It's Happening Again": Twenty-Five Years of Twin Peaks: EXTENDED DEADLINE! (new submission date: September 30 2015)
full name / name of organization: Eric Hoffman and Dominick Grace
contact email: dgrace2@uwo.ca
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63202

Call for Papers for "It's Happening Again": 25 Years of Twin Peaks is a proposed edited collection on the television show Twin Peaks. Eric Hoffman and Dominick Grace solicit essays for a new collection celebrating one of television's greatest cult phenomena. Originally airing in 1990/91, Mark Frost and David Lynch's Twin Peaks will be returning, just over twenty-five years after it went off the air, and this collection will explore the show in the context of its time, and its legacy. We are interested in papers on all aspects of the television program as well as on tie-ins and connected materials (e.g. the film Fire Walk with Me, the new Log Lady material added for the show's run on Bravo, the book The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, etc.). Possible subjects include but are not limited to:

narrative and the televisual medium
cinema versus television textuality
Twin Peaks in relationship to Lynch's oeuvre
Twin Peaks as pop culture phenomenon
Twin Peaks as satire
Twin Peaks as cult/experimental television
Twin Peaks and sexuality/gender/feminist contexts
generic explorations - specifically murder mystery/film noir, soap opera, horror, fantasy, science fiction, etc.

Completed papers can be submitted, in Word, to Dominick Grace (dgrace2@uwo.ca) or to Eric Hoffman (diamondjoecity@gmail.com). Papers should be between 5,000 and 7,000 words and should follow MLA guidelines. Inquiries and proposals are also welcome. Eric Hoffman and Dominick Grace are the co-editors of Dave Sim: Conversations, Chester Brown: Conversations and Seth: Conversations, all of which are part of the University Press of Mississippi's Conversations with Comics Artists series. Due date: September 30 2015.


By web submission at 07/29/2015 - 21:15

CFP A Critical Companion to Tim Burton (proposals by 9/30/2015)

I seem to have missed this:

A CRITICAL COMPANION TO TIM BURTON (Abstr. by 30 September) [REMINDER]
full name / name of organization:
Prof. Adam Barkam, Dr. Antonio Sanna
contact email:
adam_barkman@hotmail.com isonisanna@hotmail.com
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63475

A Critical Companion to Tim Burton
Edited by Adam Barkman and Antonio Sanna

Tim Burton is certainly one of the most popular directors of contemporary Hollywood. His oeuvre includes blockbuster films such as Batman (1989), Planet of the Apes (2001) and Alice in Wonderland (2010) as well as less profitable– but still highly recognizable - films such as Ed Wood (1994). His work with stop motion, evident in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005) and the recent Frankenweenie (2013) has further popularized and updated a technique that has been fundamental in cinema since the silent era. His distinctive and personal touch, a visionary style that is now referred to as “Burtonesque”, and his frequent collaborations with Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Danny Elfman (to mention merely a few) has contributed to establish a unique and identifiable brand. All of his achievements have offered (and still offer) an incredibly fertile ground for critical examination, analysis and discussion. Indeed, in recent years the scholarship on Burton has proliferated and a number of distinct theoretical approaches that analyze the director’s visual texts and their philosophical and cultural weight have emerged.

This anthology will explore Burton’s multi-medial oeuvre from multidisciplinary perspectives. This volume seeks previously-unpublished essays that explore the American director’s heterogeneous career, from short films such as Vincent (1982) and Frankenweenie (1984) and his direction of commercials and music videos to his drawings, paintings and photographs. We are particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches to the subject that can illuminate the diverse facets of the director’s work and his unique visual style. We do not yet have a publisher, but are very confident in finding one soon.
There are several themes worth exploring when analyzing Burton’s works, utilizing any number of theoretical frameworks of your choosing. We request that chapters based on formal analysis cover a maximum of three films to allow for reasonably close readings. Contributions may include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

• Burton and philosophy
• Burton and the visual arts
• Humour, Black Humour and the Macabre
• Burton and fairy tales
• Gender and queer readings
• Neo-Victorian art
• Exploration of dreams and the subconscious
• Fascination with machines and ecocriticism
• Mob mentality
• Alienation and misperception, conformity/nonconformity
• Disfigurement, deformity and (dis)ability
• Death and the afterlife
• Intertextuality
• Adaptations, Remakes and Appropriations
• Music and Danny Elfman
• Tim Burton in/and translation
• Evil Clowns
• Fan practice and fan communities

The anthology will be organized into thematic sections around these topics and others that emerge from submissions. We are open to works that focus on other topics as well and authors interested in pursuing other related lines of inquiry. Feel free to contact the editors with any questions you may have about the project and please share this announcement with colleagues whose work aligns with the focus of this volume.
Submit a 300-500 word abstract of your proposed chapter contribution, a brief CV and complete contact information to Prof. Adam Barkam (adam_barkman@hotmail.com) and Dr. Antonio Sanna (isonisanna@hotmail.com) by 30 September, 2015. Full chapters of 5000-7000 words would be due by 1 January, 2016. Note: all full chapters submitted will be included subject to review.

By web submission at 08/18/2015 - 00:43

CFP Game of Thrones versus History (proposals by 10/15/2015)

Game of Thrones versus History
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/78681/game-thrones-versus-history

Announcement published by Brian Pavlac on Friday, August 14, 2015
Type: Call for Publications
Date: August 15, 2015 to October 15, 2015
Location: United States
Subject Fields: Cultural History / Studies, Film and Film History, Literature, Medieval and Byzantine History / Studies

This is a call for original essays for The Game of Thrones versus History, an academic-trade title to be published by Wiley-Blackwell in April 2017 to coincide with the start of the seventh season of HBO's highly successful series.

The book will comprise a collection of essays by historians who explain the factual roots of George R. R. Martin's book series, A Song of Ice and Fire and the HBO television series, Game of Thrones.  Similar in vein to the volumes of Wiley's Pop Culture and Philosophy series, GoT v. H would reach out to fans and students who wish to enhance their experience of the fictional story, while deeping their knowledge of  history through parallels drawn by contributing history scholars.  Writing style would be entertaining as well as informative and thoughtful.  Scholarly apparatus would be kept to a minimum, but short bibliographies for further reading would follow each section.  In addition the book will comprise a List of Contributors, under which a short bio of each Contributor will appear.

For more information on possible themes and topic, go to http://gameofthronesversushistory.com/.

Interested scholars should submit a 300-word abstract by October 15, 2015. Finished papers of 4,000-5,000 words will be due April 30, 2016.  Contributors of accepted essays will recieve an honorarium as well as a copy of the book upon publication, and a chance to have some fun!

Kindly submit proposals by e-mail to Brian A. Pavlac, editor@gameofthronesversushistory.com



Contact Info:
Brian A. Pavlac

Contact Email:
editor@gameofthronesversushistory.com
URL:
http://gameofthronesversushistory.com/

CFP Legacy of Harryhausen (essay collection) (proposals by 9/11/2015)

Conventional Special Effects & Unconventional Thinking - The Legacy of Harryhausen
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/77787/conventional-special-effects-unconventional-thinking-legacy

Announcement published by Karen Zarker on Thursday, August 6, 2015
Type: Call for Papers
Date: August 6, 2015 to October 23, 2015
Subject Fields: Film and Film History, Digital Humanities

Deadline for essay pitches: Friday, September 11th

First drafts: Friday October 23rd

Final essay: Friday, November 13th

Submit your pitches to: PopMatters’ editor Dawn Eyestone dawn@popmatters.com; cc: zarker@popmatters.com

Email subject line:  Harryhausen SFX Legacy


Although filmmaker and special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen officially retired from feature filmmaking in the ‘80s, his legacy continues on the set of B-movie films and Hollywood blockbusters alike. Even filmgoers who’ve never heard of Harryhausen are likely familiar with his film techniques and might recognize one or two of his creations. Without Harryhausen’s creatures in Clash of the Titans, film geeks everywhere would be without the battle cry “Release the Kraken!” Without Harryhausen’s development of stop-motion filming, how would George Lucas have made Luke Skywalker run across a frozen wasteland on the back of a fictitious Tauntaun? Without Harryhausen’s monstrous inspiration, would Spielberg’s Jaws have been as terrifying?

Ray Harryhausen’s contributions to the film industry, especially to conventional special effects development and storytelling in the genre of science fiction and fantasy, are incalculable.

This series of essays seeks to examine and analyze this pioneer (dare we say titan?) of special effects (SFX) in-depth.

Essays for this series could touch on Harryhausen’s career, legacy, and inspiration; or specific films, SFX techniques, and genres. Authors are encouraged to be creative and, like Harryhausen himself, explore unique and interesting perspectives on the subject matter. Possible topics include:

• SFX as an intrinsic part of good storytelling
• Specific techniques as developed or used by Harryhausen and his contemporaries (e.g., Dynamation, Stop Motion, Rotoscoping)
• Harryhausen’s early career and inspiration, e.g., Willis O’Brien’s King Kong
• Critiques and analyses of feature films and other projects important to SFX development (e.g., Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Mysterious Island, Clash of the Titans (1983), George Pal’s Puppetoons, WWII Army propaganda films)
• Influences on later entertainment and contemporary pop culture, including connections to films/filmmakers (e.g., Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, Star Wars, The Terminator)
• Comparisons between films and their remakes as related to special effects and storytelling (e.g., Clash of the Titans 1981 v. 2010, King Kong 1933 v. 2005) though such essays should be scholarly and thoughtful, focused on filmmaking, genre, technique, and/or storytelling rather than fan arguments about “which was better”.

Of special interest to the editors are essays that touch on Harryhausen’s development of special effects in science fiction of the ‘50’s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, which contributed to the genre’s current place in mainstream entertainment; and essays that provide in-depth analyses of the connection between the use of conventional special effects and strong storytelling.

The editors are not looking for essays focused on computer generated effects; however, they will consider essays that discuss CGI as directly related to the use of conventional SFX and/or storytelling.

Essays accepted for this series should target Harryhausen and SF film fans or cultural generalists and will be published on the PopMatters website. Essays should be written in PopMatters style; erudite, engaging and entertaining, but not laden with academic language. Essays length is approximately 1,500 – 2,500 words in MLA format.

Contact Info:
Dawn Eyestone, Editor

Contact Email:
eyestone@popmatters.com
URL:
http://www.popmatters.com/post/196112-call-for-papers-ray-harryhausen/

CFP collection onOld age and aging in British theatre and drama (proposals by 10/1/2015)

An interesting idea:

Old age and aging in British theatre and drama - An edited collection
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/77681/old-age-and-aging-british-theatre-and-drama-edited-collection

Announcement published by Kasia Bronk on Friday, August 7, 2015
Type:
Call for Publications
Date:
October 1, 2015
Subject Fields:
Theatre & Performance History / Studies, British History / Studies

     In contrast to the ongoing childhood studies, humanistic gerontology is still largely an unexplored research area, despite more and more attention being paid to old age by historians, sociologists and literary scholars. The latter have taken up the subject of aging and the elderly, trying to create something like an all-encompassing literary ”meta-narrative old age" (Johnson and Thane, eds., Old age from antiquity to post-modernity, 17). Johnson and Thane suggest that this may be a fallacy and that one should rather focus on more contained historical and socio-cultural research areas when studying the processes and meaning of aging. This way, for instance, one can avoid interpretative mistakes attributed to Georges Minois. Thus, to answer Johnson and Thane’s call for strengthening ”our understanding of smaller questions” and consequently to ”produce a better history of old age and ageing” (18) the present volume will aim to investigate the notion of old age, or the "nebulous existence of unpredictable duration” (Von Dorotka Bagnel and Spencer Soper, eds., Perceptions of aging in literature, xix) via a diachronic inquiry into the phenomenon and its representations in visual and interactive artistic mediums – British theatre and drama. The proposed collection of essays on embodied conceptualisations of age and aging is to broaden and go beyond existing studies on old age, aging and Shakespeare whose understanding and presentation of ages of mankind and senescence in, for instance, King Lear, Hamlet and As you like it, have been extensively analysed. Interested authors are invited to explore ALL periods and pieces of British drama in their presentation of old age as a concept, theme as well as performance. Thus, thanks to its diachronic and comparative nature, the volume will hopefully broaden literary and cultural research on the final stages of life and yield new insights to the gaps in this area of humanistic gerontology. We invite abstracts on the following topics (but other notions related to age, the elderly and aging in drama across centuries are likewise encouraged):

• biological, chronological, functional, cultural definitions of old age, senescence and aging in drama but also beyond
• performativity of old age (markers of old age; the old body on stage; etc)
• comic and tragic elderly and their plight
• old age/aging and playwrights/playwriting (dealinh with aging by means of art; do older playwrights write about old age or focus on youth?)
• genderised aging on stage
• actors and actresses and aging
• younger versus older generations in drama (conflicts, struggles, reconciliations, etc)
• positive and negative stereotypes of the elderly
• stock characters (senex, crone, widow, benevolent father, dotard, etc) and their ‘mutations’ across centuries
• the influence of philosophical, religious and medical advice on old age and aging on drama (conduct texts, treatises, medical tracts, etc)
• class/race/gender and dramatised old age
• new perspectives on Shakespeare's conceptualisations of aging, ages of mankind, senescence, etc
• comparative research on dramatising old age and aging (English/British vs French, German, Italian, American, etc)
• the future of humanistic gerontology (and dramatic arts)

Interested authors are kindly asked to send 500-word abstracts by 1st of October 2015 to dr Katarzyna Bronk (kbronk@wa.amu.edu.pl and bbronkk@gmail.com). If accepted by the editors, selected abstracts will be collated into a thematic collection and proposed to an international publisher. Upon acceptance by the publisher, the authors will be asked to write full versions of their papers.



Contact Info:
dr Katarzyma Bronk Faculty of English Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland http://wa.amu.edu.pl/wa/bronk_katarzyna kbronk@wa.amu.edu.pl and bbronkk@gmail.com

Contact Email:
kbronk@wa.amu.edu.pl

CFP Edited collection on college movies (proposals by 11/1/2015)

Also of potential interest:

Edited collection on college movies
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/79113/edited-collection-college-movies
Discussion published by Randy Laist on Monday, August 17, 2015
Your network editor has reposted this from H-Announce. The byline reflects the original authorship.

Type: Call for Papers
Date: November 1, 2015
Subject Fields: American History / Studies, Film and Film History, Popular Culture Studies

Movies about college have been a staple of American cinema since the silent era.  Films like Harold Lloyd's The Freshman and Buster Keaton's College engaged popular ideas about the culture of campus life as it evolved throughout the 1920s, while also setting precedents for future cinematic representations of the college experience.  Benchmark films of the genre such as The Paper Chase, Animal House, and The Social Network provide insight into the ways that college has been variously imagined as a middle class rite of passage, a landscape of hedonistic fantasy, a microcosm of societal hypocrisy, a repressive system of deindividuation, and a carnivalesque holiday from "real life," to name just a few of the most conspicuous themes.  At the same time, even the most jejune examples of the college movie genre reveal ideological assumptions and communicate influential messages about the role of knowledge, learning, and intellectualism in society.

We are currently accepting chapter proposals for an edited volume devoted to the representation of college and campus life in movies.  While we hope to include a wide range of perspectives in the book, we are particularly interested in scholarship that examines the relationship between the cinematic representations of campus life and the lived experience of real college students.  To what extent do these cinematic representations inform the expectations, perceptions, and attitudes of students, faculty, and the general public?  Overviews of prevailing trends as well as close analyses of individual films are both welcome, as are examinations of the manner in which college films have addressed issues such as race, class, gender, technology, sexuality, disability, and cultural difference.​

Please submit 300-word chapter proposals to Randy Laist at rlaist@goodwin.edu and Kip Kline at klinech@lewisu.edu by November 1, 2015.

Contact Info:
Randy Laist at rlaist@goodwin.edu and Kip Kline at klinech@lewisu.edu

Contact Email: rlaist@goodwin.edu

CFP Wrestling with Identity: Nation, Race, and Culture in Professional Wrestling (proposals by 12/31/2015)

Of potential interest:

Wrestling with Identity: Nation, Race, and Culture in Professional Wrestling
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/79109/wrestling-identity-nation-race-and-culture-professional-wrestling

Discussion published by Aaron Horton on Monday, August 17, 2015
Your network editor has reposted this from H-Announce. The byline reflects the original authorship.

Type: Call for Publications
Date: December 31, 2015
Subject Fields: Nationalism History / Studies, Race Studies, Cultural History / Studies
Call for Chapters: Edited Volume on Professional Wrestling (Tentative Title: Wrestling with Identity: Nation, Race, and Culture in Professional Wrestling)

We are seeking contributors to our project, an edited volume of essays examining various aspects of professional wrestling and its relationship to other themes (nationalism, gender, race, etc.). The scope is broad and open, and authors are welcome to write about any individual, period, or location. For our purposes, professional wrestling is broadly defined as grappling contests for pay, regardless of whether the outcomes are predetermined – hence, this could include “shoot” contests from the late-nineteenth century to the current televised “sports-entertainment” product, or even mixed martial arts, popularized in the last two decades by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and other promotions. Both of the editors are trained as historians, but we welcome submissions from practitioners of all humanities and social science disciplines.

Examples of possible thematic topics include:

-Race in wrestling (example: "Nazis, Japs, and Pearl Harbor Attacks: German and Japanese Stereotypes in American Professional Wrestling")

-Gender in wrestling

-Pro wrestling and national or regional identity/culture

-Fan culture

-Mixed Martial Arts and (or even "as") pro wrestling

-Economic aspects of the business

-Profiles of particular individuals (example: "Rikidozan: Korean Icon of Japanese Nationality")

-Treatments of wrestling in other media (example: “Race and Villainy in The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity”)

Possible periods and locations for study include:

-The origins of pro wrestling in camp and carnival contests (1850s-1900)

-The early television era (1950s)

-The territorial era (1950s-1980s)

-Specific territories (examples: Mid-Atlantic in the Carolinas, WCCW in Dallas, AWA in Minnesota, Mid-South in Oklahoma, WWWF in the Northeast, etc.)

-Vince K. McMahon's drive toward monopoly (1980s)

-The "Attitude" Era (late 1990s) (example: “’Something strange has been happening…I don’t think there are good guys anymore, people seem to be sick of good guys’: National Identity, Authority, and the Hero in Professional Wrestling, 1996-1998”)

-Wrestling in Mexico, Japan, Europe, or elsewhere

Proposals should be no more than 1-2 pages, and should include a brief bio of the author. Interested individuals should email their proposals to Aaron Horton (Assistant Professor of History, Alabama State University) at ahorton@alasu.edu, or Zach Bates (M.A., history, Georgia State University, history PhD candidate, University of Calgary) at zachary.bates@ucalgary.ca. We hope to receive all chapter proposals by December 31, 2015 in order to move forward with the project in a timely manner.

Contact Email: ahorton@alasu.edu

CFP Essay on Steven Spielberg's Hook (proposal s by 9/6/2015)

CFP: Steven Spielberg's Hook
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/79022/cfp-steven-spielbergs-hook

Announcement published by debbie olson on Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Type: Call for Papers
Date: September 6, 2015

Collection title: Children in the Films of Steven Spielberg

Editors: Adrian Schober and Debbie Olson

Children are an almost essential feature of the landscape in the films of Steven Spielberg: from the alien-abducted Barry in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Elliott and his unearthly alter-ego in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), to the war-damaged Jim in Empire of the Sun (1987), the lost mecha child David in A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), and the eponymous boy hero of The Adventures of Tintin (2011). There are many other instances across Spielberg’s oeuvre. And contrary to his reputation as a purveyor of innocuous ‘popcorn’ entertainment, Spielberg’s vision of children/childhood is not all sweetness and light. Indeed, more discerning critics have noted the darker underpinnings of this vision, often fraught with tensions, conflicts and anxieties. While childhood is Spielberg’s principal source of inspiration, his ‘subject matter,’ this has never been the focus of a collection. We therefore seek an original article addressing both the ‘light’ and ‘dark’ aspects of childhood, or the interplay between childhood/adulthood in Spielberg's Hook. Our collection currently contains an impressive range of articles, but we feel an article on Hook would be an important addition to our collection.

We seek full essays or near complete essays that can be ready for submission to the publisher by end of September 2015. Deadline for submission is September 6th, 2015. Send essay as a word doc to Adrian Schober, beatles9@optusnet.com.au or Debbie Olson, dolson@uta.edu

This collection to be published by Lexington Books in the "Children and Youth in Popular Culture" series.

Contact Info:
Adrian Schober, Monash University; Debbie Olson, University of Texas at Arlington

Contact Email:
beatles9@optusnet.com.au