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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download the full CFP here: CFP_popmec

https://popmec.hypotheses.org/

CFP 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.

Voltron on CD!

Released in 2012, World Event Productions and Amazon.com offer an exclusive CD featuring music from the classic animated series Voltron: Defender of the Universe. The CD (available as a traditional disc and for digital download from Amazon) is a fun way to revisit the series, but the pieces are a bit of mixed bag, and full album is probably best for completists. There are tracks that feature the opening and closing of the series, which might be expected, plus the narration for the combining of the lion-bots to form Voltron, but the producers also include more eclectic choices, such as the leads into and out of commercial breaks and a dance remix of the score.

The complete track listing follows:

  1. Voltron Opener (Narration)

  2. Descent

  3. Mystical

  4. Alien Landscape

  5. A Witch

  6. Gladiator Fight

  7. Arrival

  8. Sneaking

  9. Bad Guys

  10. Royal Subjects

  11. Dangerous

  12. Bumper #1

  13. Voltron Will Be Back...

  14. And Now Back to Voltron...

  15. Quick Harp

  16. Majestic

  17. Castle of Lions

  18. Sad Princess

  19. Our Prayers Answered (Dialogue)

  20. At the Lake

  21. Hunk and Pidge

  22. Rushing

  23. The Cave

  24. Bumper #2

  25. Sand People

  26. Captured

  27. A Spy

  28. Voltron Arrives

  29. We Are Friends

  30. Defeat

  31. Quick Harp #2

  32. It's Me

  33. King Alfor

  34. Tension

  35. Underground Base

  36. Montage

  37. Bumper #3

  38. Voltron Will Be Back (Instrumental)

  39. Ready to Form Voltron (Dialogue)

  40. Voltron Closer

  41. Original Opener

  42. Original Opener W/ Sing Out

  43. Original Closer

  44. Form Voltron Sound Fx

  45. Voltage Sfx

  46. Voltage Bump

  47. Voltron DJ MacMan Dance Remix

  48. All Music Compilation

  49. Music of Voltron Montage

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 Sea Literature, History & Culture Area (10/1/015; PCA Seattle 3/22-25/2015)

Of potential interest:

Call for Proposals, Session, and Panels on SEA LITERATURE, HISTORY & CULTURE

Announcement published by Stephen Curley on Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Type: Call for Papers
Date: March 22, 2016 to March 25, 2016
Location: Washington, United States

For the joint national conference (22-25 March 2016 in Seattle, WA) of the Popular Culture & American Culture Associations (PCA/ACA), we invite proposals of individual papers or special panels.

Presentations related to fresh-water or sea-water may include topics like

 Literature, comics, art, music, television & movies
 History, politics, war & peace
 Culture, anthropology & ecology
 Folklore, mythology, legends & hoaxes
 Ships, boats, etc.
 Aquatic life
 Recreation, travel, tourism & festivals

DEADLINE: 1 Oct. 2015 to submit your 100-250 word proposal or abstract online to http://ncp.pcaaca.org

Contact Info:
Stephen Curley, Area Chair
Sea Literature, History & Culture
Dept. of General Academics
Texas A&M University at Galveston
Galveston, TX 77553-1675
(409) 740-4501
Contact Email:
curleys@tamug.edu
URL:
http://pcaaca.org

CFP Current Research in Speculative Fiction (3/9/15; Liverpool, UK 6/8/15)

Europeans have all the fun:

Current Research in Speculative Fiction [CRSF] 2015
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/60481
full name / name of organization:
Current Research in Speculative Fiction [CRSF] / University of Liverpool
contact email:
CRSF.team@gmail.com
Current Research in Speculative Fiction 2015
Monday 8th June 2015
University of Liverpool

With Keynote Lectures from:
Dr. Andrew M. Butler (Canterbury Christ Church University)
Dr. Sarah Dillon (University of Cambridge)

Returning for its fifth consecutive year, CRSF is a one day postgraduate conference designed to promote the research of speculative fictions, including SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY and HORROR; showcasing some of the latest developments in these dynamic and evolving fields. CRSF attracts an international selection of delegates and provides a platform for postgraduate students to present their current research, encourages discussion with scholars in related subjects and the construction of crucial networks with fellow researchers. The University of Liverpool, a leading centre for the study of speculative fiction and home to the Science Fiction Foundation Collection, will host the conference. We are seeking abstracts relating to speculative fiction, including, but not limited to, papers on the following topics:

•Alternate History •Alternative Culture •Animal Studies •Anime •Apocalypse •Body Horror •Consciousness •Cyber Culture •Drama •Eco-criticism •Fan Culture •Gaming •(Geo)Politics •Genre •Gender •Graphic Novels •The Grotesque •The Heroic Tradition •Liminal Fantasy •Magic •Meta-Franchises •Morality •Monstrosity •Music •Non-Anglo-American SF •Otherness •Pastoral •Poetry •Politics •Post-Colonialism and Empire •Proto-SF •Psychology •Quests •Realism •Sexuality •Slipstream •Spiritualism •Steampunk •Supernatural •Technology •Time •TV and Film •Urban Fantasy •Utopia/Dystopia •(Virtual) Spaces and Environments •Weird Fiction •World Building •Young Adult Fiction.

Please submit an abstract of 300 words for a 20 minute English language paper and a 100 word biography to CRSF.team@gmail.com by Monday 9th March 2015. Queries can be sent to the same address.

By web submission at 01/27/2015 - 16:25

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

An interesting idea for a collection:

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

Love Never Dies on Home Video

Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical Love Never Dies, the 2010 sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, is now available for home viewing. The film (released in 2012) is a re-staged and somewhat re-imagined version of the original London production (see  Wikipedia for details) and was produced in Australia in 2011; both the DVD and Blu-Ray versions include a special feature on the making of the play/film.

Love Never Dies offers an interesting look into the futures of the key characters from Phantom but has received mixed responses from fans. A number of clips from the musical numbers are featured at the show's YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/phantomloveneverdies, though (oddly enough) the film's trailer (below) is devoid of music beyond an instrumental theme.

CFP Reception of the Classical World in Heavy Metal (11/1/14)

Nov. 1, 2014: Heavy Metal Classics: The Reception of the Classical World in Heavy Metal
full name / name of organization:
Fletcher / Umurhan
contact email:
heavymetalantiquity@gmail.com

We are inviting contributions to a proposed volume on the reception of Greco-Roman antiquity by heavy metal artists. We welcome contributors from a variety of disciplines, including (but not limited to) Classics, Archaeology, Musicology, Sociology, Comparative Literature, and Cultural Studies, to illustrate and explore the enduring connection between heavy metal and the ancient world.

Possible topics include: the use of classical sources in lyrics; visual representations of the ancient world on album covers and in music videos; the role of gender in constructions of antiquity; the appeal of mythology; the use of classical material for political and social critiques; the construction of national identity through appeal to the ancient world; the use of Latin and/or Greek. The ideal contribution will demonstrate an awareness that a study of reception can show us just as much about Classics and its place and meaning in the modern world as it does about heavy metal as a genre. Such a contribution will also make it clear that song lyrics are only one aspect of musical genre.

Our proposed timeframe is: abstract submission by November 1, 2014; contributors notified of acceptance no later than December 15, 2014; first draft of contribution due by July 1, 2015; comments on contributions returned to authors no later than September 1, 2015; second draft of contribution due by December 31, 2015, with the shopping of the volume to presses to begin immediately after that. We will then submit the entire assembled volume to an interested publisher.

Send abstracts of no more than 500 words to heavymetalantiquity@gmail.com by November 1, 2014. Please include a bibliography, discography and current CV.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us:

Kris Fletcher, Louisiana State University (kfletc8@lsu.edu)

Osman Umurhan, University of New Mexico (umurhan@unm.edu)


By web submission at 05/14/2014 - 06:16

CFP Essays on Rock and Religion (9/15/14)

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Essays on Rock and Religion
full name / name of organization:
Robert P. McParland, PhD., Alex DiBlasi, M.A.
contact email:
mcparlandr@felician.edu; alexcharlesdiblasi@gmail.com
Call for Proposals: Saints, Sinners, and Seekers: A Collection of Essays on Rock and Religion

PROPOSAL DEADLINE: September 15, 2014

The aim of this book is to explore the relationship between religion/spirituality and rock music. Much has been written on the history of religious music itself, but not much exists on the role religion and spirituality have played in popular song. Music itself has long been considered a spiritual and even meditative practice; this book seeks to investigate rock music as an expression of religious inquiry, religious devotion, and even as a religious experience itself. From the rise of the American Evangelical movement to the widespread introduction of Eastern philosophies in the West, the past century has seen a radical change in the religious makeup of Western culture. Rock artists across the world have incorporated both new and old religious beliefs into their work, and it is our aim to take a similarly ecumenical approach with the essays in this book, covering a wide range of philosophies and belief systems. Scholars from a variety of backgrounds – music, religious studies, cultural studies, anthropology – are encouraged to submit for this volume.

Contributors are encouraged to consider addressing any number of the following in their submissions:

• Comparative Religion/World Religions
• The appearance of religion or spirituality in the work of major rock artists and their spiritual journeys – conversion, life changes, etc.
• Wonder and a sense of the Divine
• Seeking transcendence
• Relationships between music/rock music and religion (i.e., the “God Rock” movement of the 1970’s, the Hare Krishna movement, etc.)
• Heavy Metal and organized religion
• Seeking and spiritual exploration
• Millenialism, Apocalypticism
• The Quiet, Meditation, Contemplation and Music
• Mythology
• Mystery
• Salvation
• Values of Respect, Diversity, Charity, Love, Compassion, Hope, Faith, Justice, Wisdom, Kindness, Care
• Parables
• Community
• Prayer
• Prophecy
• The Afterlife (Heaven and Hell, Reincarnation)
• Celebration
• Ecstasy
• Rock and Ritual
• Charism
• Rock drawing upon black Gospel spirituals
• Psalms
• Peace/Shanti/Shalom
• Rock Music and Religious Dialogue
• Theodicy (that is, explaining suffering under a good God)
• Soul
• Karma
• Musical Pilgrimages (Liverpool, Memphis/Graceland, Haight-Ashbury)
• The Divine/Holy Spirit/Great Spirit
• Angels/Angelic visions
• Atonement
• Haggadah: religious storytelling
• Songs that quote religious scripture (the Bible, the Tao, Bhagavad Gita, Koran, etc.)
• Lamentations (songs for a broken world, modern chants of misery like those in the Hebrew Bible)
• Miracles

A few parameters:

• The plan is for this book to principally address the relationship between rock and religion. We ask that subjects be explicitly tied to rock music.
• It is the aim of both editors to include essays addressing all major world religions.
• As such, we also ask that potential contributors write as objectively as possible, avoiding dogmatic statements, agendas, or arguments with specific religious paths.

Essays can run anywhere from 3,500 to 5,000 words. Contributors should use MLA format. Avoid using quotes from song lyrics. Figures, photos, and illustrations are not recommended unless you can provide a high-resolution image for which the rights have also been cleared.

Please submit a 200-word abstract as a Word file (either .doc or .docx) by September 15, 2014, along with a current CV.

Any further questions, please feel free to contact either of the editors of this book:

Robert P. McParland, PhD.
Felician College
mcparlandr@felician.edu

Alex C. DiBlasi, MA
Independent Scholar
alexcharlesdiblasi@gmail.com


By web submission at 06/01/2014 - 19:56