CFP The Age of the Geek collection (7/20/15)

Sounds like fun:

"The Age of the Geek:" Book collection. Abstract deadline 7/20/15
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/62590
full name / name of organization:
"The Age of the Geek:" Book Collection
contact email:
KELane@nwosu.edu
CFP: “The Age of the Geek:” Book collection

Submission Deadline: Abstracts are due July 20, 2015

“The Age of the Geek:” Book Collection

It’s every child’s schoolyard nightmare—to be called a “nerd.” From an early age, we know that being labeled a “nerd” or a “geek” isn’t a good thing. It implies too much knowledge and too few social skills. Yet, as much as we don’t want to be labeled a “geek,” it’s obvious that as a society we value their knowledge and expertise—or Best Buy wouldn’t have labeled their technical support “The Geek Squad.” Furthermore, the popularity of the reigning “nerd” powerhouse The Big Bang Theory (now available nightly via syndication) or any number of other series— CBS’s newest hit Scorpion, NBC’s Chuck and the ubiquitous “Nerd Herd,” BBC’s Doctor Who, or the Sci-Fi Channel’s Eureka (to name but a few)—proves that America may want to watch “geeks” and use them but we “wouldn’t wanna’ be them.” A quick glance through an evening’s primetime programming begs the question: is it that American culture is becoming more accepting of difference or have we made “geeking out” okay and thereby created a new level of “geekdom”?

This book collection seeks to examine the relationship between popular culture and the ever-changing geek or nerd—to look at the way the concept of the nerd has changed over time, and at what these changes can mean for the future of “nerds” of every type. Topics could include: defining the “geek,” the geek versus the nerd, female geeks or nerds, depictions of geeks, depictions of nerds, tropes surrounding nerds/geeks, Hollywood’s pseudo-nerd creations, the “babe” in nerd/geek television series or films, differences between the two terms and their depictions in television or film, the power of the nerd, the social acceptance of the term “geek,” and much more.

Article abstracts (approximately 500 words) and a brief CV should be sent to Dr. Kathryn E. Lane at KELane@nwosu.edu by July 20, 2015. Longer outlines or drafts are also welcome at this time. Selected authors will be notified by August 1, 2015. For those invited to contribute to the collection, articles should be 5,000-7,000 words (MLA format, minimal footnotes or endnotes, please), and completed essays should be submitted by November 30, 2015. Queries are welcome concerning submission topics.


By web submission at 06/17/2015 - 21:36

CFP Nine Worlds' Academia and Geek Culture Conference (4/1/14; London 8/8-10/14)

Sorry for the late posting:

Nine Worlds' Academia and Geek Culture Conference (8-10 August 2014)
full name / name of organization:
Nine Worlds
contact email:
sffacademic@nineworlds.co.uk
Academia and Geek Culture

Last year, the Nine Worlds convention hosted an academic conference. You can find the details of it at www.sffacademic.wordpress.com. This year, we’re intending to do it somewhat differently. Instead of having an academic conference in its own devoted room, we’ll be placing talks, panellists and other speakers in tracks on their own topic.

With that in mind, we’re inviting submissions for papers and suggested panels, as well as volunteers to talk on pre-organised panels. All areas of study surrounding ‘geek media’ are accepted – from video games to classic fantasy, and we welcome submissions from anyone who is a current student or has graduated with a degree in a relevant field. Talks will be ideally 20-30 minutes in length, and the standard panel time is 1 hour, 15 minutes.

Nine Worlds will take place in London (Heathrow) between the 8th and 10th of August 2014. Tickets are available for purchase on www.nineworlds.co.uk, and they will grant you access to the whole convention – not just the academic content.

Suggested areas of submission include:

- Video Games and the surrounding culture
- Board, Social and Role-playing Game
- Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature*
- Diversity and representation in geek culture
- ‘Geek’ film and TV
- Comics
- Religion/culture and geek culture
- Steampunk/other alternative history movements
- Fanfiction
- Science and its relation to geek media/culture

* We’re especially looking for some Game of Thrones content here.

Please ensure your paper/panel is suited to non-academics. Ideally, you may assume the audience has full knowledge of primary sources, but little secondary, so please take this into consideration. We intend to each session be accessible and understandable to those outside of the usual academic groups.

Please send a title, a 300 word abstract, your name and affiliation (university) to sffacademic@nineworlds.co.uk

The deadline for submissions is April 1st, 2014. This deadline is for abstracts only – the completed papers will be due mid-July.

Registration will be completed through the purchase of a ticket to the convention as a whole. Accommodation is available at the hotel, but should be booked separately by individual participants. All profits from the conference/convention will go to charity. Please do email if you have questions.

Nine Worlds deliberately tries to include parity of race, sexual orientation, genders and creeds as a part of its programming remit, wherever possible. We aim to follow this in our selection of panellists, and would also be interested in including papers or panels that address these issues. However, we are aware that some people do not want to discuss these as direct topics, and wish to be sensitive to this, so you will only be asked to speak on topics that you offer to.


By web submission at 02/13/2014 - 15:32

Extrapolation Open Call

Not sure if I've posted this before-- 

Extrapolation has the following open call for papers on its publisher's website: 

Extrapolation was founded in 1959 by Thomas D. Clareson and was the first journal to publish academic work on science fiction and fantasy. It continues to be a leading, peer-reviewed, international journal in that specialized genre in the literature of popular culture.

It welcomes papers on all areas of speculative culture, including print, film, television, comic books and video games, and particularly encourages papers which consider popular texts within their larger cultural context.

The journal publishes a wide variety of critical approaches including but not limited to literary criticism, utopian studies, genre criticism, feminist theory, critical race studies, queer theory, and postcolonial theory. Extrapolation promotes innovative work which considers the place of speculative texts in contemporary culture. It is interested in promoting dialogue among scholars working within a number of traditions and in encouraging the serious study of popular culture.

We are particularly interested in the following areas of study: 

• Racial constructions in speculative genres 
• Children's and YA sf and fantasy 
• Sexualities 
• Fantastic motifs in mainstream texts 
• Gender and speculative texts 
• History of sf and fantasy 
• New weird fiction 
• Remakes, rewriting and retrofitting 
• Pulp sf and fantasy 
• The body in speculative texts 
• Posthumanism 
• Political sf and fantasy 
• Non-Western speculative traditions 
• Technoculture 

Please email submissions to Javier A. Martinez (extrapolation@utb.edu )

Essays should be approximately 4000-9000 words, written according to MLA standards and include a 100 word abstract. Neither embedded footnotes nor generated footnotes that some software systems make available should be used. Electronic submissions in MS Word are encouraged. The editors aim to respond to submissions within three months. Please do not send simultaneous submissions of articles to other publications.

New/Recent CFPs

Here's a batch from the UPenn CFP site:

[UPDATE] CFP: The Ray Browne Conference on Popular Culture: Modes of Mobility: Popular Culture in an Age of Technology (deadline 11/16/12)

Call for Submissions: Studies in Popular Culture (no deadline)

CFP: The Gothic in Literature, Film and Culture (11/30/12; National PCA/ACA Conference, 3/27/13-3/30/13)

CFP Edited Collection on Dark Fairy Tales in Children's and Young Adult Literature (deadline 10/20/12)

Monsters and the Monstrous Volume 3, Number 1, Themed Issue on Monstrous Spaces/ Spaces of Monstrosity (deadline for submissions 3/8/13)

Call for Papers: Indigenous 'Deep' Space: Indigenous Absence and Presence in Sci-Fi and Comics (Southwest/Texas PCA deadline 11/16/12)

Call for Papers: Indigenous Science Fiction February 13-16, 2013 (SW/Texas PCA deadline 11/16/12)

The Geek and Popular Culture (SW/Texas PCA deadline 11/16/12)

Mystery & Detective Fiction Area, March 27-30, 2013, Washington, DC (National PCA deadline 11/30/12)

The Empire Tele-Calls Back: Indian Science Fiction in the Global Age (collection; deadline 11/30/12)

Weird Lovecraft: H.P. Lovecraft, Weird Tales, and the Construction of the American Horror Canon [Update] (panel; deadline 1/15/13)

Horror (Text, Media, Culture) (national PCA; deadline 11/30/12)

Call for Submissions - Edited Collection -- Fan Phenomena: Supernatural (deadline 9/15/12)

First Annual FANS Conference (deadline 2/1/13)

Stephen King Area-2013 Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference (Sumbissions: 11/30/12)

 The Age of Lovecraft: Cosmic Horror, Posthumanism, and Popular Culture (collection; deadline 10/31/12)

CFP Issues in Contemporary Geek Media (7/15/11)

http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/41899

Issues in Contemporary Geek Media - SCMS March 21-25, 2012
full name / name of organization: Society for Cinema and Media Studies
contact email: csoles@brockport.edu

Over the past decade, geeks -- both real and fictional -- have risen to a position of centrality and immense cultural power within the pop-cultural mediascape. This panel will explore the cultural and industrial issues raised by the rise of the geek as an onscreen and offscreen presence in contemporary media. Topics may include (but are not limited to) the rise of the superhero comic-book blockbuster, geeks in "independent" and alternative media, video games and their adaptation into blockbusters, early influences on the rise of pop cultural geekdom (e.g., Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Woody Allen, John Hughes, et. al.), and any critical approach to geek-centered texts and/or production trends which seeks to analyze the popularity of geek media and its socio-cultural effects and implications. While historical papers will be considered, the central aim of the panel is to elucidate critical / analytical tools and approaches which can be used to expose the issues which undergird the rise of pop-cultural geekdom and "geek chic" in contemporary media forms.

SUBMISSION DUE DATE: July 15, 2011
SEND SUBMISSIONS TO: Carter Soles, csoles@brockport.edu
CONFERENCE DATES: March 21-25, 2012, Boston Park Plaza Hotel and Towers, Boston, MA

email Carter Soles (panel chair) or see the SCMS website for more information