CFP The Evolution of Evil in Fantasy and Science Fiction, Academia Lunare (11/30/2018)

(Apologies for cross-posting with the Arthurian villains' site)

The Evolution of Evil in Fantasy and Science Fiction, Academia Lunare
https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2018/the-evolution-of-evil-in-fantasy-and-science-fiction-academia-lunare/
July 9, 2018

Academia Lunare

Academia Lunare is the Luna Press Publishing academic branch for Fantasy and Science Fiction.

One of the most exciting aspects of fandom is the critical assessment of literature, as a way to show one’s love for a particular author or body of work. Speculative non-fiction is also a mirror for society, with an eye cast into the future.

The Evolution of Evil in Fantasy and Science Fiction
​
We are very proud to announce our third Call For Papers. The theme of the 2018 CfPs is: “The Evolution of Evil in Fantasy and Science Fiction”.

Our first call for papers, “Gender and Sexuality in Fantasy and Science Fiction” received 2 BSFA Awards nomination and one BSFA Awards shortlist. The second call for papers, “The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction”, will be out this summer.

It is time for a new challenge!

Writers are invited to explore the concept of evil in all its shapes and developments, in literature, games, movies and TV.

Here is some food for thought, though it should not restrict your own ideas:

• ​Focus on a specific character which has embodied the concept of evil
• The development of a specific archetypal character which, over the course of the centuries, has undergone a transformation from neutral/positive figure into an evil one, or vice versa – historical and socio-political influences that brought about this transformation
• Development of a representative type of evil over time (trolls, fairies, mad gods, dark lords, vampires, demons, etc.)
• The impact of religion on folklore
• Latest incarnations of evil mirroring socio-political changes
• Latest incarnations of evil in general
• Evil as an embodiment of modern society
• Evolution of evil through the ages
• Possible representations of minorities as evil
• Creating evil – what makes a successful villain?
• Heroes as villains
• Other representations of evil, e.g. hostile environments. Music as a tool for implying threat and hostility

​
Before you start, get in touch! Send us an email either with your abstract or simply to let us know what topic you intend to explore: it is perfectly fine to have more than one author discussing the same topic, as long as the angle is different.

Word Limit: up to 6,000 words.

Full references for citations must be included using Harvard referencing style. Download the full guide and the quick guide on the Academia Lunare page.

Closing Date: 30th of November 2018.

Publishing contract for all participants, with shared royalties from each sale and a free copy of the book.

Do not fear if this is your first non-fiction work: if you love research, you need a chance to start somewhere. Take a look at the past two Call For Papers blog posts and explore the articles submitted – it may help you decide your course of action.

For more information, please see https://www.lunapresspublishing.com/academialunare. FacebookTwitterGoogle+

CFP Journal Issue on Tim Burton (Spec Issue of Parol: Qauderni d'Arte e di Epistemologia) (expired)

Sorry to have missed posting this earlier; it is certainly a publication worth looking out for:

Journal Issue on Tim Burton
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/03/16/journal-issue-on-tim-burton

deadline for submissions: May 15, 2018

full name / name of organization: Dr. Antonio Sanna

contact email: isonisanna@hotmail.com



Journal Issue on Tim Burton

Edited by 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.

The Italian academic and peer-reviewed journal Parol: Qauderni d'Arte e di Epistemologia will dedicate one of its next issues to the artistic production of the American director, including a total of six/seven papers on the subject, that explore Burton’s multi-medial oeuvre from multidisciplinary perspectives. The issue will be edited by Antonio Sanna, co-editor of the volume A Critical Companion to Tim Burton (Lexington Books, 2017). The editor seeks previously-unpublished essays that explore the American director’s heterogeneous career, and is particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches to the subject that can illuminate the diverse facets of the Burton’s work and his unique visual style.

There are several themes worth exploring when analyzing Burton’s works, utilizing any number of theoretical frameworks of your choosing. The editor requests the papers to be based on formal analysis and to use an academic language. Papers on the visual style of Burton will be particularly appreciated, but contributions may include the following topics:

• 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 journal issue will be organized around these topics and others that emerge from submissions. I am 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 paper contribution, a brief CV and complete contact information in a single word file to Dr. Antonio Sanna (isonisanna@hotmail.com) by 15 May, 2018. Full chapters of 4000-6000 words will be due by 1 July, 2018 at the latest. Note: all full chapters submitted will be included subject to review.

CFP Student Conference on Alterity in Fantasy and Science Fiction (7/15/2018; University of Freiburg 10/19-20/2018)

CFP: Fantastic Beasts, Monstrous Cyborgs, Aliens and Other Spectres: Exploring Alterity in Fantasy and Science Fiction, Student Conference, English Department, University of Freiburg, 19-20 October 2018
https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2018/cfp-fantastic-beasts-monstrous-cyborgs-aliens-and-other-spectres-exploring-alterity-in-fantasy-and-science-fiction-student-conference-english-department-university-of-freiburg-19-20-october-20/
April 13, 2018

Fantastic Beasts, Monstrous Cyborgs, Aliens and Other Spectres: Exploring Alterity in Fantasy and Science Fiction

Student Conference, English Department, University of Freiburg, 19-20 October 2018

Identity formation operates through processes of exclusion by defining the self against an other. As Sencindiver et al argue: “[O]therness has been inseparable from human identity and affairs from time immemorial – the birth of subjectivity ineluctably implicates the birth of its concomitant and allegedly dark twin”. Alterity is a concept of ongoing relevance and describes “the quality of strangeness inherent in the other”. The relationship between self and other is based on hierarchical power structures that stem from an essentialist mind-set and serve as justifications of exclusionary practices such as imperialism, sexism and anthropocentrism. With the emergence of postmodern theory in the 1960s, the validity of these hierarchies has been continually called into question. Especially the deconstruction of the divide between high and popular culture led to a pluralisation of perspectives, giving a voice to those who had formerly been excluded and silenced.

Critical theorists such as John Storey have described popular culture itself as an other that is always defined against any other definitions of “culture” and “popular”. It follows that popular culture constitutes a hegemonic site of struggle and thus provides productive ground on which to contrast different discourses surrounding alterity, which can in turn confirm or subvert them. Popular culture is not a mere reflection of current cultural discourses but takes an active role, influencing the various ways in which we perceive and respond to otherness.

We are currently witnessing a proliferation of the genres of science fiction and fantasy, particularly in media such as film or television (consider for example the popularity of films and series such as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Game of Thrones, the Star Wars sequels, recent Star Trek reboots & prequels and many more). The study of fantasy and science fiction is especially rewarding in the context of analysing representations of alterity. Both genres construct elaborate alternative worlds in which encounters between human characters and sentient nonhuman others call into question the nature of the human and, with it, the boundaries between self and other. The thought experiments that characterise fantasy and science fiction estrange our known reality which promotes an active examination of our world. They throw into relief what we consider as other and provide new models to encounter alterity outside of fiction in the ‘real’ world.

This conference aims to address the representation of alterity in fantasy and science fiction, its impact on cultural practices and its subversive potential. We are interested in the role of form, medium and (sub)genre in negotiations of alterity. We welcome papers analysing popular cultural texts from diverse cultural contexts. Please note that the language of the conference is English.

Potential discussion topics may include, but are not limited to:

• different (re)configurations of the Other (racialised and gendered others, cyborgs, fantastic creatures, animal others, etc.)
• socio-historical perspectives on alterity (reconfigurations of the notion of the subaltern, the uncanny, etc.)
• fictional representations of liminal or hybrid identities
• the influence of philosophy, ethics, science or anthropology (amongst others) on science fiction and fantasy
• negotiations of otherness in different media (i.e. TV, film, podcasts, computer games, web-series, music, transformative works, art, literature, etc.)
• the political impact of ethical representations of alterity

This student conference is organised by two Masters students of British and North American Cultural Studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany, Julia Ditter and Anne Korfmacher. If you are a student (B.A., M.A. or PhD level) and interested in presenting a 20-minute paper at our conference, please submit a short proposal (around 200-250 words) and a short biography (including your current study program) to exploringalterity@anglistik.uni-freiburg.de by 15 July 2018. There is no conference fee to be paid and technical equipment for the presentation will be provided. Conference participants will be responsible for organising and paying for their own accommodation and food.

Please see https://exploringalterity.wordpress.com/cfp/ for more information.

References:

Sencindiver, Susan Yi, Marie Lauritzen and Maria Beville. “Introduction.” Otherness: A Multilateral Perspective, Peter Lang, 2011, p. 17 (pp. 17-42).
Buchanan, Ian. “Alterity.” A Dictionary of Critical Theory, Oxford UP, 2010. Online.
cf. Storey, John. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. Routledge, 2015. 7th Edition, pp. 13ff.

CFP Messengers from the Stars 2018 Conference (expired)

Sorry to have missed posting this sooner.

Science Fiction and Fantasy International Conference Messengers from the Stars: Episode V – “Fragments of Humanity”

https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/03/05/science-fiction-and-fantasy-international-conference-messengers-from-the-stars

 

deadline for submissions: 

April 30, 2018

full name / name of organization: 

School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon

contact email: 

mensageirosdasestrelas@gmail.com

Science Fiction and Fantasy International Conference

Messengers from the Stars:  Episode V – “Fragments of Humanity”

School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon

University Lisbon Centre for English Studies

November 29-30, 2018

http://messengersfromthestars.letras.ulisboa.pt/conference-2018/

CALL FOR PAPERS

Science Fiction and Fantasy objects are a permanent part of today’s cultural industry.  From the margins to mainstream culture, their ubiquity demands critical debate beyond the preconception of pop culture made for mass entertainment. The University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies (ULICES) invites you to take part in the 5th International Conference Messengers From the Stars: On Science Fiction and Fantasy to be held at the School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, on November 29-30, 2018. This year Episode V will focus on the theme “Fragments of Humanity.”

Since its very beginning, Fantasy and SF have questioned essential notions such as: “What does it mean to be human?”; “What are the boundaries of humanity?”; “Are we more or less human than our ancestors?”, among others. These recurrent themes emerged in 18th- and 19th-century writing, namely in the Gothic novel and in works such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) or in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), a book which celebrates its 200th birthday in 2018. Inspired by these pioneering texts and fed by advances in technology, such issues have become more and more complex in Fantasy and SF literature, cinema, TV series, comics and graphic novels, music, and other art forms. What is happening to the human body? Are we still human or are we becoming something else? Are we still whole or fragmented? Are we human, post-human, metahuman and/or transhuman? How can hybrids and monsters allow us to reflect on notions of self and identity? Must we redefine those notions? In that case, what is the role of A.I. in this redefinition? What is the impact of our fragmented humanity on our social environment? What may be the consequences in current and future cultures and their religious belief systems and creeds?

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

Topics may include but are not limited to the following:

▪     Artificial Intelligence;
▪     Ecocriticism;
▪     Fantasy and SF;
▪     Fantasy, SF and ethics;
▪     Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (and later adaptations/reinterpretations of the novel);
▪     Monsters and Monstrosity;
▪     Post-Humanism and Transhumanism;
▪     The Self, Humanity and Identity;
▪     The Other;
▪     Utopias/Dystopias;
▪     Vampires, zombies, werewolves and other undead bodies.

Confirmed keynote speakers:

Filipe Furtado – Full Professor (Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas – Universidade Nova de Lisboa) and author of A Construção do Fantástico na Narrativa (The Construction of the Fantastic in Narrative)

Mike Carey – British writer of comic books, novels, and films. He is the author of the acclaimed novel the Girl with All the Gifts (2014) which was adapted on screen in 2016. His most recent novel, published in April 2017, is The Boy On the Bridge, a stand-alone novel set in the same world as The Girl With All the Gifts.

Deadlines:
Individual papers, as well as thematic panel proposals, should have 250 words maximum and be sent to mensageirosdasestrelas@gmail.com along with a short biographical note (100 words maximum) by Apr 30, 2018.

Notification of acceptance will be sent by June 4, 2018.

Working Languages: Portuguese and English

Registration[1]:
Early bird registration:  June 4 –14 September
80 € / Students: 40 €
Late bird registration: 14 September – 19 October
100 € / Students: 70 €

Note:
1    Only after proof of payment is registration effectively considered.
2    Participants are responsible for their own travelling arrangements and accommodation.
3    Undergraduate and post-graduate students must send proof of student status with their registration.
4    All sessions are free. However, participants who are not presenting (or co-authoring) and wish to have access to the conference materials and coffee breaks can benefit from a special registration rate: 20€. Registration: June 4 – 26 November.

---

[1] The fee includes attendance at all sessions, conference material, coffee breaks and a certificate of participation.

Last updated March 6, 2018
This CFP has been viewed 935 times. 

CFP Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area 2018 (6/1/18; NEPCA Worcester, MA 10/19-20/18)

Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area
Eleventh-Anniversary and Farewell Sessions

2018 Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)
Worcester State University, Worcester, Massachusetts
19-20 October 2018
Proposals due 1 June 2018

Formed in 2008, the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area will hold its eleventh-anniversary and farewell sessions in 2018, and we seek proposals from scholars of all levels for papers and/or panels that explore any aspect of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic (including, but not limited to, elements of fairy tale, fantasy, gothic, horror, legend, mythology, and science fiction) and how creative artists have altered our preconceptions of these subtraditions by producing innovative works in diverse countries, media, and time periods and for audiences at all levels.
Presentations will be limited to 15 or 20 minutes in length depending on final panel size.
An archive of previous work in the area exists at our website Northeast Fantastic (https://northeastfantastic.blogspot.com), which is intended as a gateway to furthering research on the fantastic.

Special Topics:

• Given the proximity of the conference to Halloween, we are always interested in proposals related to monsters and the monstrous.
• This year, we are also looking for papers related to the fantastic in children’s culture, especially the works of the Walt Disney Company.
• Furthermore, in celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 2018, we are organizing a special session devoted to “Frankenstein 1818 to 2018: 200 Years of Mad Scientists and Monsters.” Details can at our outreach site Frankenstein and the Fantastic at https://FrankensteinandtheFantastic.blogspot.com/.

Directions for Submission:
Please contact area chair Michael A. Torregrossa at cfp.nepcafantastic@gmail.com, using “NEPCA Fantastic 2018” as your subject line, with any questions in advance of the 1 June 2018 deadline.
Submissions for papers and/or panels should be made online through the “2018 Proposal Form” at https://nepca.blog/2018-conference/. Please select “The Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction)” as your designated area. A complete submission includes contact information, academic affiliation (if any), an academic biographical statement (between 50 and 200 words), a paper title (no more than 60 characters), and a paper abstract (no more than 250 words). Do also send copies of your biography and proposal to the area chair at cfp.nepcafantastic@gmail.com, using “NEPCA Fantastic 2018” as your subject line.


The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) was founded in 1974 as a professional organization for scholars living in New England and New York. It is a community of scholars interested in advancing research and promoting interest in the disciplines of popular and/or American culture. NEPCA’s membership consists of university and college faculty members, emeriti faculty, secondary school teachers, museum specialists, graduate students, independent scholars, and interested members of the general public. NEPCA is an independently funded affiliate of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Membership is open to all interested parties, regardless of profession, rank, or residency. NEPCA holds an annual conference that invites scholars from around the globe to participate. In an effort to keep costs low, it meets on college campuses throughout the region.

Membership in NEPCA is required for participation and annual dues are included in conference registration fees. Further details are available at https://nepca.blog/membership-information/.

Frankenstein and the Fantastic Site

The Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area is pleased to announce the launch of its new outreach effort, Frankenstein and the Fantastic. The new blog can be accessed at http://frankensteinandthefantastic.blogspot.com/.


Michael Torregrossa
Area Chair

CFP Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area (6/15/16; NEPCA Keene, NH 10/21-22/16)

SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS
NINTH-ANNIVERSARY SESSIONS OF THE
FANTASTIC FANTASY, HORROR, AND SCIENCE FICTION) AREA

Visit us at NEPCA Fantastic: http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com

2016 Conference of The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)
Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire
21 and 22 October 2016
Proposals by 15 June 2016

Michael A. Torregrossa
Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair
NEPCAFantastic@gmail.com

Formed in 2008, the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area celebrates its ninth anniversary in 2016, and we seek proposals from scholars of all levels for papers that explore any aspect of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic (including, but not limited to, elements of fairy tale, fantasy, gothic, horror, legend, mythology, and science fiction) and how creative artists have altered our preconceptions of these subtraditions by producing innovative works in diverse countries and time periods and for audiences at all levels.

Special topics: Given the proximity of the conference to Halloween, we are always interested in proposals related to monsters and the monstrous, and, in anticipation of the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 2018, we are especially hoping for proposals that address aspects of the Frankenstein tradition and the fantastic.

Please see our website NEPCA Fantastic (http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com) for further details and ideas. Presentations will be limited to 15-20 minutes in length (depending on final panel size).

If you are interested in proposing a paper, please address inquiries and send your biography and paper abstract (each of 500 words) to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at nepcafantastic@gmail.com, noting “NEPCA Fantastic Proposal 2016” in your subject line. Do also submit your information on NEPCA’s official Paper Proposal Form accessible from https://nepca.wordpress.com/2016-conference/.

Please submit inquiries and/or proposals for complete panels directly to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at nepcafantastic@gmail.com.


The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) was founded in 1974 as a professional organization for scholars living in New England and New York. It is a community of scholars interested in advancing research and promoting interest in the disciplines of popular and/or American culture. NEPCA’s membership consists of university and college faculty members, emeriti faculty, secondary school teachers, museum specialists, graduate students, independent scholars, and interested members of the general public. NEPCA is an independently funded affiliate of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Membership is open to all interested parties, regardless of profession, rank, or residency. NEPCA holds an annual conference that invites scholars from around the globe to participate. In an effort to keep costs low, it meets on college campuses throughout the region.

Membership in NEPCA is required for participation and annual dues are included in conference registration fees. Further details are available at http://nepca.wordpress.com/membership-information/.

CFP Modern Myth and Legend (9/2/2015; Louisville, KY 2/18-20/2016)

Modern Myth and Legend - Louisville Conference (Feb. 18-20, 2016)
full name / name of organization:
International Lawrence Durrell Society
contact email:
clawsonj@gram.edu
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63312

The Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900


http://www.thelouisvilleconference.com


Louisville, KY | 18-20 February 2016

"we do create the world around us since we get it to reflect back our inner symbolism at us. Every man carries a little myth-making machine inside him which operates often without him knowing it. Thus you might say that we live by a very exacting kind of poetic logic--since we get exactly what we ask for, no more and no less."
--The Dark Labyrinth (1947)

Dealing overtly with ideas of myth and legend, Lawrence Durrell's The Dark Labyrinth chronicles the adventures of British tourists exploring a cave system on Crete just after World War II. Despite their awareness of how reality is transformed by their individual experiences, beliefs, and myth-making, they are no less susceptible to the fear of the minotaur which might be chasing them through the dark passageways. A myth becomes the way we understand the world. As a legend, the monster and its labyrinth offer grounds to reflect on personal terrors and emerge triumphant—or be consumed.

In anticipation of our upcoming conference on Crete, the International Lawrence Durrell Society calls for papers addressing the broad theme of Modern Myth and Legend for a society-sponsored session of the 2016 Louisville Conference. We welcome proposals on aspects of Durrell's writing or other topics addressing the theme. Some possible topics include the following:

• W. B. Yeats's esoteric blending of Greek, Irish, and other mythologies
• Refigured legends in the aftermath of T.S. Eliot's "Ulysses, Order, and Myth," including Iris Murdoch's The Green Night or John Gardner's Grendel
• Frazer's The Golden Bough and its impact on modernist literature
• Fantasy repurposing legend, as in Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series
• Mythologizing the 20th century in film, including for example Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth or Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away
• Legendary societies, urban legends, apocrypha, and literary mysteries
• Symbolic use of tall tales, or the literary adapting of Bigfoot, werewolves, vampires, minotaurs, homunculi, gorgons, witches, griffins, manticores, giants, etc.

Please send a 250-word abstract to James Clawson (clawsonj@gram.edu), International Lawrence Durrell Society, by Sept. 2, 2015. Final presentations should be limited to 20 minutes in length.


By web submission at 08/06/2015 - 20:58

CFP Monsters and the Irish Imagination (0/10/2015; NEACIS West Haven, CT 11/20-21/2015)

Monsters and the Irish Imagination
Session Sponsored by the Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association
For the New England ACIS Regional Conference
20-21 November 2015
University of New Haven
West Haven, Connecticut
Proposals by 10 September 2015

Following a successful session last year devoted to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and its afterlives, the Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association seeks to continue our association with the New England Region of the American Conference for Irish Studies by organizing a session (or set of sessions) devoted to the larger topic of monsters and the Irish imagination.

We seek proposals of 250 words and short biographical statements (50 words or less) from interested individuals. Presentations will be limited to 15-20 minutes speaking time.

Please submit required materials by 10 September 2015 to the session organizer, Michael Torregrossa, at nepcafantastic@gmail.com using the subject heading “Monsters and the Irish Imagination”.


The University of New Haven is located in West Haven, Connecticut and is easily accessible from Boston and New York by car and train. Direct inquiries to Chris Dowd, the conference organizer, at cmdowd@newhaven.edu. All conference presenters will be required to be members of the American Conference for Irish Studies (acisweb.org). Additional information on this year’s meeting (including details on registration and accommodations) is available at www.newhaven.edu/4486/academicprograms/undergraduate/english/894500/.

Further information on Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association can be found at nepcafantastic.blogspot.com.

CFP Small-Screen Souths: Interrogating the Televisual Archive (9/1/14)

CFP: Small-Screen Souths: Interrogating the Televisual Archive [Edited Collection]
Stephanie Rountree
Friday, July 25, 2014
H-PCAACA
Source:
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/35912/cfp-small-screen-souths-interrogating-televisual-archive-edited

CFP: Small-Screen Souths: Interrogating the Televisual Archive [Edited Collection]

Proposals due September 1, 2014

In recent years, the advent of reality television’s “hicksploitation” alongside the rise of scripted dramatic series such as True Blood and The Walking Dead has seemingly kept the U.S. South as a small-screen spectacle of wonder and exceptionalism. Yet the broader historical archive of televisual representation of the region reveals a more complicated picture of how television generates, enables, contaminates and disrupts discourses about the U.S. South, forming a medium for the reproduction of dominant ideologies about life in the region while also simultaneously broadcasting oppositional, subordinated, and alternative ways of thinking about space and place.

Capitalizing on recent innovations in southern studies, cultural studies, media studies, and American studies, this proposed collection will take on the large stakes of the small screen to examine how, from The Beverly Hillbillies to Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, much of the nation has long viewed the U.S. South through their televisions. In seeking to question and complicate the way that, as Katherine Henninger has aptly noted, “dominant narratives of southernness, black and white, privilege oral over visual expression, word over picture,” Small-Screen Souths: Interrogating the Televisual Archive will contribute to a body of emerging work that seeks to reveal the South as an intensely visual space while also demonstrating how television studies can participate in and even suggest new avenues for ongoing transformations in southern studies.

Small-Screen Souths: Interrogating the Televisual Archive, which has attracted the initial interest of a major university press, thus aims to bring together essays that critically interrogate televisual representations of the region and fill a significant gap in the existing scholarship on the U.S. South by considering the “South” and the televisual archive broadly, from sites of reception to archival presences in unexpected places. In examining the relationship between the U.S. South and television, this collection will examine how the televisual South speaks to national and transnational transformations, including changing modes of conceptualizing race, class, gender, and regional identity itself. We seek analyses of representations of the South from both the classical network era, and our contemporary “post-broadcast” era, where traditional definitions of imagined communities—signified by national audiences, national networks, and national programming—are no longer adequate for understanding current configurations of community and identity.

In so doing, we aim to engage with a wide variety of questions regarding the relationship between the U.S. South and television. How does television work to complicate or reaffirm the traditional iconic elements of “the South”? What does this material tell us about the continued (mis)conception of the region as a site of national exception? How does televisual representation help us interrogate the performative nature of regional studies? How does television entrench or complicate certain ways of seeing the South in relationship to the nation at large? Does television provide the space for a performance of place that can illuminate the transnational or hemispheric affiliations between the U.S. South and the Global South, or otherwise reveal aspects of the region’s complicated cultural hybridity and multiplicity?

Individual essays may of course be more focused and might consider the following topics:

• Television’s cultural influence on popular conceptions of the South
• Television and the commodification of the region
• Television’s relationship to lived social environments and material conditions in the South
• Televisual representations of racial constructions in the region
• Television, memorialization and memory
• The South and the politics of televisual pleasure
• Issues of genre: television and the southern gothic, the grotesque, etc.
• The role television plays in generating, mediating or resisting social change in the region
• Television’s role in globalizing the South and/or exporting “the South” to a global market
• Television’s relationship to the cultural logic of late capitalism
• The South and comedy /the sitcom South
• Television and the temporality of the South
• Broadcasting the sexual politics of the South
• Televisual representation of nation, class, sexuality, gender, youth and race
• Television and the nation-state / televisual nationhood
• Television and the representation of the urban and/or rural South
• Issues of authenticity and exploitation
• Television’s relationship to convergent media, including advertising and intermedia

500 word proposals should be sent to Gina Caison, Lisa Hinrichsen, and Stephanie Rountree at smallscreensouths@gmail.com by September 1, 2014. For those asked to contribute to the collection, completed essays of approximately 7,000 words will be due by January 15, 2015. Submissions from both established and emerging scholars are welcomed, as is work from multiple perspectives and disciplines.

Primeval: New World TV Marathon

Syfy will air a marathon of its "new" series Primeval: New World this Saturday, 10 August. The series is actually a Canadian-made production based on the popular ITV series Primeval, which aired in the US on BBC America. The latest version lasted for 13 episodes before its cancellation (and subsequent airing on Syfy). The Region 1 DVD/Blu-ray release of the series occurs this fall; the series is already available through video on demand services.




Marathon Schedule:

10:00 AM Primeval: New World - The New World
11:00 AM Primeval: New World - Sisiutl
12:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Fear Of Flying
01:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Angry Birds
02:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Undone
03:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Clean Up On Aisle 3
04:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Babes In The Woods
05:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Truth
06:00 PM Primeval: New World  - Breakthrough
07:00 PM Primeval: New World  - The Great Escape
08:00 PM Primeval: New World  - The Inquisition
09:00 PM Primeval: New World  - The Sounds Of Thunder - Part 1
10:00 PM Primeval: New World  - The Sounds Of Thunder - Part 2

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.

Contemporary Uses of Fairy Tales in Popular Culture CFP (6/19/13)

Here's one more I just came across:

Contemporary Uses of Fairy Tales in Popular Culture
Publication Date: 2013-06-19 (in 26 days)
Date Submitted: 2013-03-18
Announcement ID: 202344

I invite submissions for an edited collection of essays on contemporary uses of fairy tales in popular culture. The collection will focus on recent reinterpretations and reboots of classical fairy tales, ways the contemporary texts address the original tales and narratological implications of the repetitions and adjustments of these stories. In essays that explore the functions and consequences of fairy tale reboots, remakes and updates, authors will consider the ways fairy tale generic conventions have been revised over time, representations of race, gender, class and sexual identity, the roles of archetypes, mythic tropes and patterns and the emergence of self-referential and meta-tales within these texts.

Essays may also address fan culture influence on contemporary tales, opportunities for interactivity and the roles of stars in fairy tale reboots. Text focus could include television series, feature-length films, comic books and graphic novels, games and animation.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:
• Fables (Bill Willingham/Vertigo, 2002-present)
• The Red Shoes (Kim Yong-gyun, 2005)
• Lost Girls (Alan Moore/Top Shelf, 2006)
• Hansel and Gretel (Yim Pil-Sung, 2007)
• Sydney White (Joe Nussbaum, 2007)
• Bluebeard (Catherine Breillat, 2009)
• The Sleeping Beauty (Catherine Breillat, 2010)
• Red Riding Hood (Catherine Hardwicke, 2011)
• Hanna (Joe Wright, 2011)
• Beastly (Daniel Barnz, 2011)
• Once Upon a Time (ABC, 2011-present)
• Grimm (NBC, 2011-present)
• Snow White and the Huntsman (Rupert Sanders, 2012)
• Mirror, Mirror (Tarsem Singh, 2012)
• Hansel and Gretel (Anthony Ferrante, 2013)
• Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (Tommy Wirkola, 2013)
• Jack the Giant Slayer (Bryan Singer, 2013)

Submit a two-page proposals by the deadline of June 19, 2013 to Dr. Melissa Lenos at melissalenos@gmail.com; questions may be addressed to the same. Please also include a short bio. If your proposal is selected, the final essay (5000-8000 words) will be due on December 1, 2013.

 Melissa Lenos
 Email: melissalenos@gmail.com

Popular Preternaturaliana Now Online

We've just launched a new endeavor called Popular Preternaturaliana: Studying the Monstrous in Popular Culture at http://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/. The site is sponsored by the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area and (like NEPCA Fantastic) hosted by The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages in the hopes of providing a place to promote further study and debate of the preternatural where ever and when ever it may appear.

In the future, calls for papers and other postings relating to the monstrous, gothic, and horror can be found on the new site. 

Michael A. Torregrossa
Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area Chair, Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association
Co-Founder, The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance CFP (6/1/13)

Essay Collection: Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance
Publication Date: 2013-06-01 (in 30 days)
Date Submitted: 2013-02-05
Announcement ID: 201091

Articles about urban fantasy and romance novels are invited for a new, multi-contributor collection.

During the last few decades, urban fantasy and paranormal romance novels have come to the forefront in the publishing world. Normative heroes and heroines have been joined by werewolves, vampires, mermaids, shape-shifters, centaurs and dragons, to name but a few. These magical creatures fill the pages of books and the screens of movie theaters in ever-increasing numbers.

Such a vast industry—one that generated at least 75 million readers in 2008 alone (and has been growing since)—should not be disregarded. This collection will offer critical examinations of both urban fantasy and paranormal romance.

The following categories suggest possibilities but are by no means exhaustive:
• Gender
• Race
• Sexuality
• Romance
• Desire
• Domesticity
• Power
• Monstrosity
• Witchcraft
• Fandom and/or Reception
• Transformation and/or Adaptation
• Vampires, Shapeshifters, and other Supernatural Creatures
• Hybridity
• Heroism
• Villainy
• Memory

What to Send:

300 - 500 word abstracts (or complete articles, if available) and CVs should be submitted by June 1, 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the collection, a full draft of the essay (5000 – 8000 words) will be required by December 1, 2013.

Abstracts and final articles should be submitted to: paranormalromance.urbanfantasy@gmail.com

Margo Collins and Nadine Farghaly
Email: paranormalromance.urbanfantasy@gmail.com

CW's Superrnatural CFP (5/15/13)

One more from supernaturaltelevision@gmail.com for the night:


Essay Collection: CW's "Supernatural" television
Publication Date: 2013-05-15 (in 18 days)
Date Submitted: 2013-01-22
Announcement ID: 200641

Articles are invited for an edited collection on issues related to any element of the CW television series Supernatural.

The following categories suggest possibilities but are by no means exhaustive:
• Monstrosity
• Fandom and/or Reception
• Transformation and/or Adaptation
• Gender
• Race
• Desire and Sexuality
• Hybridity
• Vampires
• Shapeshifters
• Ghosts and Hauntings
• Demons and Angels
• Heroism
• Villainy
• Desire
• History and Memory
• Family
• Power
• Possession and/or Mind Control

What to Send: 300 - 500 word abstracts (or complete articles, if available) and CVs should be submitted by May 15, 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the collection, a full draft of the essay (5000 – 8000 words) will be required by October 15, 2013.

Abstracts and final articles should be submitted to supernaturaltelevision@gmail.com. Please include “Supernatural Submission” in your subject line.

Dr. Margo Collins
Email: supernaturaltelevision@gmail.com

Vampire Diaries Collection CFP (5/1/13)

Almost missed this one (though I'm starting to feel like I'm advertising for supernaturaltelevision@gmail.com). The Vampire Diaries (2009-) is a very popular series and a spin-off on The Originals has recently been announced for the fall.


Essay Collection: "The Vampire Diaries"
Publication Date: 2013-05-01 (in 4 days)
Date Submitted: 2013-01-22
Announcement ID: 200642

Articles are invited for an edited collection on issues related to any element of The Vampire Diaries (either the original books or the CW’s television series).

The following categories suggest possibilities but are by no means exhaustive:

• Monstrosity
• Fandom and/or Reception
• Transformation and/or Adaptation
• Gender
• Race
• Vampirism
• Shapeshifters
• Hybridity
• Witchcraft
• Heroism
• Villainy
• Adolescence
• Desire
\• History
• Memory
• Domesticity
• Power
• Possession and/or Mind Control

What to Send: 300 - 500 word abstracts (or complete articles, if available) and CVs should be submitted by May 1, 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the collection, a full draft of the essay (5000 – 8000 words) will be required by October 1, 2013.

Abstracts and final articles should be submitted to supernaturaltelevision@gmail.com. Please include “Vampire Diaries Submission” in your subject line.

 Dr. Margo Collins
Email: supernaturaltelevision@gmail.com

Zombie/Comedy CFP (6/1/13)

Another zombie collection. (See also a CFP on The Walking Dead at our comics blog.)


Edited Collection: Zombies and Comedy
Publication Date: 2013-06-01
Date Submitted: 2013-01-30
Announcement ID: 200898

The recent re-animation of the zombie in popular culture has led to the creation of the “zombie romantic comedy,” or the zomromcom. Examples of zombie comedies can be found in books, movies, and on the internet. Articles are invited for an edited collection on issues related to any element of zombie comedies (romantic or otherwise).

The following categories suggest possibilities for exploration but are by no means exhaustive:

• Love and zombies/the undead
• Love in the postapocalyptic world
• Romance and monstrosity
• Fandom and/or reception
• Transformation and/or adaptation in zombie comedies
• Gender
• Race
• Hybridity
• History and Memory
• Sex and the undead
• The literary zombie comedy
• The cinematic zombie comedy
• Zombie comedies and the internet

What to Send: 300 - 500 word abstracts (or complete articles, if available) and CVs should be submitted by June 1, 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the collection, a full draft of the essay (5000 – 8000 words) will be required by November 1, 2013.

Abstracts and final articles should be submitted to supernaturaltelevision@gmail.com. Please include “ZomCom” in your subject line.

Dr. Margo Collins
Email: supernaturaltelevision@gmail.com

CFP Frankenstein and Adaptation (6/30/13)

Thanks to Gene Kannenberg of Comics Research & Such for the head's up:

Adapting Frankenstein: The Monster’s Eternal Lives in Popular Culture

We propose to edit a  book of new essays on the general subject of the many ways Frankenstein has been adapted in popular culture, including films, television, radio, graphic novels, comic books, newspaper cartoons, music, the stage, novels, short stories, children’s and adolescent literatures, new media, and so forth.

We are interested in what has made Frankenstein’s monster so indestructibly fascinating to the public mind through the many generations since his inception in 1818—almost 200 years ago! We are interested in essays that explore the creature’s versatile ability to appear as threatening monster or sympathetic high school loser, as Milton the Monster or Frankenweenie, as eternal outsider refined in a Tibetan monastery or as a cloned sheep. We are also interested in indirect adaptations: Edward Scissorhands, The Stepford Wives, The Golem, The Colossus of New York, Godzilla and other spawn of the atomic age, as well as zombies and the various replicants, androids, robots, and re-animations.

Paper proposals should be around 300-450 words and should reflect current inter-textual approaches in adaptation theory. They might ask such questions as how an adaptation engages its source(s), our culture, and, perhaps, other adaptations; the relevance of a particular adaptation in the context of its time and culture; the significance of the monster’s role as cultural icon or matrix figure; how an adaptation changes our view of the source text, etc. Studies on adaption such as Hutcheon, The Theory of Adaptation, Leitch, Film Adaptation and its Discontents, Perry and Sederholm, Adapting Poe: Re-Imaginings in Popular Culture, and Albrecht-Crane and Cutchins, Adaptation Studies: New Approaches provide model adaptation studies and theory along the lines we suggest. We expect that successful articles will be rigorous and scholarly, but accessible to a more general audience.

Send proposals to Professors Dennis R. Perry (dperry@byu.edu)  or Dennis Cutchins (dennis_cutchins@byu.edu) before June 30, 2013.

Essential Supernatural Out Now

Insight Editions has recently released the following:

Knight, Nicholas, and Christopher Cerasi. The Essential Supernatural: On the Road with Sam and Dean Winchester. Foreword Eric Kripke. San Rafael, CA: Insight Editions, 2012. Print. 978-1-60887-145-2

Profusely illustrated, this over-sized book serves as both a guide to and celebration of the first seven seasons of the Supernatural television series. The book includes a wealth of photographs from the show, commentary by the cast and crew, and a variety of extras for the fans. The book concludes with predictions for the upcoming season eight and a short episode guide devoted to seasons one through seven.