CFP Transformers and SOGIE: Call for Proposals for Edited Collection (5/31/2025)

 

Transformers and SOGIE: Call for Proposals for Edited Collection

deadline for submissions: 

May 31, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Daniel M. Look

contact email: 

dlook@stlawu.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/09/25/transformers-and-sogie-call-for-proposals-for-edited-collection.

Title: TBD, but potentials include:

• ‘Til All Are One: Gender, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity/Gender Expression (SOGIE) in Transformers

Editors (Collaborators): Elizabeth Sanders, Daniel M. Look

Description / Call for Papers:

We are soliciting chapters/articles for an edited academic book on topics relating to the Transformers franchise and gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression.Proposals from academics and independent scholars covering official continuity/properties, fanfiction, the fandom, and content creators will be considered. Proposals should be for new essays, not republications of previous works.

Since its inception in 1984, the Transformers property has had a complicated relationship with concepts relating to sex and gender. During the creation of the names and personalities for the original characters, Bob Budiansky proposed that Ratchet, the medical robot, be a female character. Hasbro rejected the idea, reportedly saying "this is a boy toy. We don't wanna have, you know, girl robots."

However, during the Sunbow animated series, we are introduced to (unfortunately, one-dimensional) ‘female Autobots’ in the episode “The Search for Alpha Trion” and, in 1986, Transformers: The Movie introduced the first recurring female transformer in Arcee.

In the US Marvel comics continuity, the transformer Cloudburst states that for transformers “there are no men, no women…no mates!” Female transformers exist in the Marvel UK comic series, but this is primarily a result of that continuity incorporating aspects from the 1986 animated movie.

Starting in the animated series Beast Wars, cast inclusion of one or more female characters became more commonplace, but they were still heavily outnumbered. Likewise, their gender and gender expression and relationships, when they existed, were cisgender and heteronormative.

The 2005 IDW comics continuity changed this landscape and moved gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, and more diverse relationships closer to the spotlight with, we add, Hasbro’s endorsement and support. We see an incredible explosion of topics ranging from homonormative societies, gender without the “biological” concept of sex, transgender robots, and concepts for close, platonic relationships (amica endura) and spouses (conjunx endura).

These topics are complex and not something expected from a ‘toy’ franchise. Further, there was a directed effort to include women and LGBTQIA+ creators and consultants to write these stories in believable and sensitive ways. That effort has continued in follow up cartoon series, including Transformers: Earthspark, which introduced the first non-binary Transformer. Although some of the expected pearl-clutching occurred, the response was, by and large, positive. However, beyond interviews with creators and fan articles, little academic attention has been paid to the Transformers franchise and its relationship to these topics.

To our knowledge, there is no published academic work relating to this material. Our hope is that this edition will not only stand on its own, but also welcome and encourage further scholarship in this field.

Contributions could include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Potential Sections & Chapter Ideas

Why “Genderless” Means Male

• Portrayals of Masculinity
• Boys Toys = Boys: Hasbro specifying only wanted male character ers for G1 cartoon
• How “Genderless” Appears in Comics: more as “sex less,” but really all monosexed/gendered as male
• One of Those: Intimacy and emotions not being the focus (traditionally)
• The Trouble with Gobots: Gobots had many female characters and, for the most part, you could not tell male from female from their body design
• Monstrous Reproduction
  • Physically monstrous: Budding, Protoforms
  • Ideologically Monstrous: Made to Order, Vehicons
  • Frankenstein Approach: “Firstborn,” Dinobots, Tarantalus, Quintissons
  • Sacred Well: Vector Sigma, Quintus Prime
• The Problem of Fembots/Femmebots
  • Arcee’s Journey as “The Only One”
  • Toys for Boys: Fembots/Femmebots as Sexual/Romantic Objects
  • All Hail the Queen: Black Arachnia / Airachnid
  • Bringing Balance: Caminus (IDW), Fan Polls (female Megatronous/Victorion) + Windblade, Mairghread Scott (author)
• Queer Identities
  • Found Family: Conjunx Amica
  • MLM and WLW: Conjunx Endura
  • Trans-Transformers: Anode, Lug, Arcee
  • A Wonderful Experience: Nightshade, Non-binary Transformer
  • Intention vs. Interpretation: Knock Out and Breakdown
  • Frenemy or “Will they/Won’t They?”: Ratchet and Drift as a romantic partnership that would have been predicted had they been perceived as male/female

• Humans (Fans and Creators)
  • Own Voice: Queer Creators in Transformers (writers, consultants)
  • Importance of seeing yourself in your fiction
  • Unchecked Privilege and complaints about Genderswapping: “If you want more female characters create new characters”
  • Won’t someone think of the children?: Fan reactions to themes related to gender/orientation in fiction for children
  • Fan reactions: “don’t get your politics in my toys”
  • Cultural differences in reactions from international fanbase

• Misc.
  • Bishojou Figures
  • Kiss Players (tread carefully here)
  • TFs in love with humans, aliens, mermaids, etc. (Seaspray and Powerglide) as explorations of gender identity/sexual identity

To express interest and receive details about submitting a proposal, please contact the editors at esanders5@lamar.edu and dlook@stlawu.edu.

 This edited volume will be organized into thematic sections around these topics and others that emerge from submissions. Prospective authors should contact the editors with any questions, including potential topics not listed above.

Please submit a 300-500 word abstract of your proposed chapter contribution as a Word Document (not PDF) with a brief bio (in the same document), current position and experience with the topic, affiliation (if any), and complete contact information to editors Elizabeth Sanders and Daniel Look by May 31, 2025. Full chapters of 6000-8000 words are likely due December 2025. A publisher has shown preliminary interest.

Please share this announcement with anyone you believe would be interested in contributing to this volume. Proposals from academics and independent scholars covering official continuity/properties, fanfiction, the fandom, and content creators will be considered. 

Note: Acceptance of a proposed abstract does not guarantee the acceptance of the full chapter.

Last updated May 1, 2025

CFP The Oxford Handbook of Children's Film (7/31/2018)

Of potential interest:

Call for Proposals - The Oxford Handbook of Children's Film
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/07/02/call-for-proposals-the-oxford-handbook-of-childrens-film

deadline for submissions: July 31, 2018

full name / name of organization: Noel Brown (Liverpool Hope University)

contact email: brownn@hope.ac.uk



Calls for Proposals: The Oxford Handbook of Children’s Film

Edited by Noel Brown (Liverpool Hope University, UK)

Deadlines

• Abstracts (300–400 words): 31 July 2018
• First Drafts (8,000 to 10,000 words): 31 May 2019

I am seeking proposals for chapters for possible inclusion in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Children’s Film, under contract with Oxford University Press. Oxford Handbooks are intended to offer authoritative and up-to-date surveys of original research in a particular subject area, with essays giving critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates, as well as a foundation for future research.

In recent years, the study of films for children has emerged as a vibrant and diverse field of critical enquiry. This volume in the Oxford Handbook series will reflect both the plurality of the format and the methodological diversity evident in current and recent scholarship, and serve as an authoritative introduction to children’s film. It will address themes, issues and topics from across the international history of children’s cinema from the early twentieth century to the present, aiming to reveal larger patterns, continuities and changes in the form, and reflect the ways in which children’s film content and reception have been shaped by major socio-historical events.

The Handbook will be interdisciplinary in scope and I am open to contributions from across a range of theoretical or methodological approaches, including film studies, children’s literary and cultural studies, children’s education, cultural history, and animation studies. Although I envisage that many of the chapters will focus on feature-length fiction films, I am receptive to proposals that seek to examine shorts and non-fiction films.

Possible topics might include (but are not limited to):

• The genre and form of children’s film
• Historical changes and continuities
• Early traditions of children’s cinema
• The relationship between children’s cinema and the state
• Children’s propaganda films
• Children’s film and national identity
• Children’s film programming
• The boundaries of children’s cinema
• Performance and stardom
• Racial/sexual politics
• Fandom and/or paratexts
• Children’s film and transmedia
• Family audiences
• Adaptation
• The reception of children’s film among young people
• Adults’ relationships with children’s film

Please send abstracts of 300–400 words, and a biography of 50–80 words, to Noel Brown at brownn@hope.ac.uk by 31 July 2018. Please give the subject header as ‘Oxford Handbook proposal’. Notifications of acceptance will be sent no later than 31 August 2018. Chapters of 8,000 to 10,000 words will be due by 31 May 2019.