Call for Papers: Popular Culture - Serial Culture: Nineteenth-Century Serial Fictions in Transnational Perspective, 1830s-1830s (deadline Sept. 1, 2015)
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/69799/call-papers-popular-culture-serial-culture-nineteenth-century
Discussion published by Daniel Fandino on Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Popular Culture – Serial Culture: Nineteenth-Century Serial Fictions in Transnational Perspective, 1830s-1860s
University of Siegen, April 28-30, 2016
Conveners: Prof. Dr. Daniel Stein / Lisanna Wiele, M.A.
North American Literary and Cultural Studies
DFG project “Serial Politicization: On the Cultural Work of American City Mysteries, 1844-1860”
Recent publications such as Transnationalism and American Serial Fiction (Okker 2011) and Serialization in Popular Culture (Allen/van den Berg 2014) remind us that serial modes of storytelling, publication, and reception have been among the driving forces of modern culture since the first half of the nineteenth century. Indeed, as studies of Victorian serial fiction, the French feuilleton novel, and American magazine fiction indicate, much of what we take for granted as central features of contemporary serial fictions traces back to a particular period in the nineteenth century between the 1830s and the 1860s. This is the time when new printing techniques allowed for the mass publication of affordable reading materials, when literary authorship became a viable profession, when reading for pleasure became a popular pastime for increasingly literate and socially diverse audiences, and when previously predominantly national print markets became thoroughly international.
These transformations enabled, and, in turn, were enabled by, the emergence of popular serial genres, of which the so-called city mystery novels are a paradigmatic example. In the wake of the success of Eugène Sue’s Les Mystères de Paris (1842-43), a great number of these city mysteries appeared across Europe (especially France, Great Britain, and Germany) and the United States, adapting the narrative formulas and basic storylines of Sue’s roman feuilleton to different cultural, social, economic, and political contexts. These city mystery novels constitute what may be described as the first transnational and multilingual genre of popular serial fiction, and they will serve as one focal point of our conference. We are particularly interested in papers that analyze the evolution of the city mystery novel from a single popular text to a popular serial genre, but we also invite papers on a wide range of issues dealing with all aspects of serial popular culture of the 1830s to 1860s. We explicitly encourage interdisciplinary and transnational approaches within but also beyond our own American Studies focus.
Please send abstracts (max. 250 words) and short bios to stein@anglistik.uni-siegen.de and wiele@anglistik.uni-siegen.de by September 1, 2015.
Prof. Dr. Daniel Stein
Lisanna Wiele, M.A.
Adolf-Reichwein-Str. 2
57068 Siegen
Email: stein@anglistik.uni-siegen.de; wiele@anglistik.uni-siegen.de
Visit the website at http://www.uni-siegen.de/phil/anglistik/news/633570.html
Monday, July 20, 2015
CFP Special Issue on Asian Popular Culture (12/31/15)
CFP: Special Issue on Asian Popular Culture in The Journal of Popular Culture
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/70898/cfp-special-issue-asian-popular-culture-journal-popular-culture
Discussion published by Lisa Funnell on Tuesday, May 26, 2015
CFP: Special Issue on Asian Popular Culture
Journal of Popular Culture
In popular and critical imagination, the term “Asian popular culture” has become synonymous with the ideas, images, and phenomena of East Asia and specifically with Japanese animation and Chinese martial arts cinema. What is often overlooked is the range and diversity of Asian popular culture, which extends from South Asia (e.g. India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) through Southeast Asia (e.g. Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand) to East Asia (e.g. China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan). In addition, much of this popular culture is transnational as it is produced, distributed, and/or consumed across national borders. In an increasingly interconnected world, Asian popular culture is expansive, multifaceted, mobile, and widely consumed.
The Journal of Popular Culture is seeking submissions for a special issue on “Asian Popular Culture.” We are looking for submissions that are cutting-edge and truly advance the field of popular culture studies in new ways. We welcome articles that explore the popular cultural activities and cultural products of South, Southeast, and East Asia, which include but are not limited to:
-film
-television
-music
-literature
-sports
-videogames
-animation (print, digital)
-cosplay and larping
-star and fan culture
-youth culture
We are particularly interested in essays that examine transnational Asian popular culture.
Articles should be between 5000 and 7500 words in length. Authors should consult The Journal of Popular Culture’s “Author Guidelines” for details on format and citation style: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5931/homepage/ForAuthors.html
The deadline for submissions is December 31, 2015. Please submit your work through the ScholarOne system, which can be accessed through the above link.
It is important that you include the words “Special Issue Submission” before your title (e.g. Special Issue Submission: Chinese Warrior Women).
Please direct your inquires about the special issue to Lisa Funnell (lfunnell@ou.edu) and Yuya Kiuchi (kiuchiyu@hdfs.msu.edu).
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/70898/cfp-special-issue-asian-popular-culture-journal-popular-culture
Discussion published by Lisa Funnell on Tuesday, May 26, 2015
CFP: Special Issue on Asian Popular Culture
Journal of Popular Culture
In popular and critical imagination, the term “Asian popular culture” has become synonymous with the ideas, images, and phenomena of East Asia and specifically with Japanese animation and Chinese martial arts cinema. What is often overlooked is the range and diversity of Asian popular culture, which extends from South Asia (e.g. India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) through Southeast Asia (e.g. Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand) to East Asia (e.g. China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan). In addition, much of this popular culture is transnational as it is produced, distributed, and/or consumed across national borders. In an increasingly interconnected world, Asian popular culture is expansive, multifaceted, mobile, and widely consumed.
The Journal of Popular Culture is seeking submissions for a special issue on “Asian Popular Culture.” We are looking for submissions that are cutting-edge and truly advance the field of popular culture studies in new ways. We welcome articles that explore the popular cultural activities and cultural products of South, Southeast, and East Asia, which include but are not limited to:
-film
-television
-music
-literature
-sports
-videogames
-animation (print, digital)
-cosplay and larping
-star and fan culture
-youth culture
We are particularly interested in essays that examine transnational Asian popular culture.
Articles should be between 5000 and 7500 words in length. Authors should consult The Journal of Popular Culture’s “Author Guidelines” for details on format and citation style: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5931/homepage/ForAuthors.html
The deadline for submissions is December 31, 2015. Please submit your work through the ScholarOne system, which can be accessed through the above link.
It is important that you include the words “Special Issue Submission” before your title (e.g. Special Issue Submission: Chinese Warrior Women).
Please direct your inquires about the special issue to Lisa Funnell (lfunnell@ou.edu) and Yuya Kiuchi (kiuchiyu@hdfs.msu.edu).
CFP Game Studies Area (10/1/15; PCA/ACA 2016)
Still cleaning my inbox:
Call for Submissions - Game Studies Area of Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/72221/call-submissions-game-studies-area-popular-culture-association
Discussion published by Daniel Fandino on Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Game Studies Area: 2016 PCA/ACA National Conference.
The Game Studies area of the National Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association Conference invites proposals for papers and panels on games and game studies for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference to be held Monday, March 21 through Friday, March 25, 2016 at the Sheraton in Seattle, WA.
The database for proposal submissions opens July 1.
Below, please find:
I. Topics of Interest
II. Submission Process
III. Information about the Conference
IV. Contact Information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I. Topics of Interest
The organizers seek proposals and papers covering all aspects of gaming, gaming culture and game studies. Proposals can address any game medium (computer, social, console, tabletop, etc) and all theoretical and methodological approaches are welcome.
Possible topics include but are not limited to:
-- new game mediums and platforms (Facebook, iPhone/iPad/iPod, etc)
-- representation or performance of race, class, gender and sexuality in games
-- gaming culture, game specific cultures, and multicultural and cross-cultural issues
-- game development, design, authorship and other industry issues
-- game advertising, reviews, packaging, promotion, integrated marketing and other commercial concerns
-- political and legal entailments such as regulation, censorship, intellectual property
-- ludology, textual criticism, media ecology, narratology, etc as paradigms for games studies
-- player generated content in MUDs and MMORPGs, Mods, maps and machinima
-- game genres, platforms, consoles, console wars and connections to other media
-- serious games for education, business, healthcare, (military) training, etc
-- space and place in games, play spaces, virtual/physical communities, mobile gaming and localization
-- digital literacy, discourse practices, social norms and norming, the politics of play
-- public discourse/controversy over violence, militarism, sex, criminality, racism, etc in games
-- game pedagogy and classroom practices, gamification, learning as play
II. Submission Process
The Game Studies area of the National Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association Conference, which began as the Video Games Studies area in 2003, has the most enduring footprint of any North American academic organization that give serious attention to the social and cultural impact of games and gaming. The area continues to grow and offers two avenues for scholars to participate and present their work.
A. Paper Proposals
For individual paper proposal submissions, please submit a 250-word (maximum) abstract by October 1, 2015. Submissions must be made online at http://ncp.pcaaca.org. Detailed instructions for using the online submission system can be found at http://www.pcaaca.org/conference/instructions.php.
B. Panel Proposals
For panel submissions, please submit a 250-word (maximum) panel abstract, as well as 100-word abstracts for each individual presentation, by October 1, 2015. Panel proposals must be emailed to digitalgames.pcaaca@gmail.com. Be sure to include the proposed title of the panel, the organizer’s name, affiliation, mailing address, and email, as well as this information for all panelists. Panel submissions may take the form of debates, dialogs, roundtable discussions, thematic panels, (or other format,) and should be designed to last approximately eighty minutes.
III. Information about the Conference
A. So that there will be ample time for discussion, each individual paper presentation should be designed to last approximately twelve to fifteen minutes (there will typically be four presentations per session with time for Q&A).
B. Technology for use during presentations may be limited. More information about the conference can be found at http://www.pcaaca.org/
C. Presenters will be required to join either the Popular Culture Association or the American Culture Association prior to attending the conference, as well as pay a registration fee for the conference. Information about these fees can be found at http://www.pcaaca.org/conference/membership_registration.php.
D. Awards and Travel Grants are offered, on a competitive basis, by the National Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association
1. Travel Grants
The Michael Schoenecke Travel Grant for Graduate Students to the National Conference. For application requirements, please visit http://www.pcaaca.org/grant/schoenecke.php
The Peter Rollins Travel Grant for Early-Career Faculty. For application requirements, please visit http://www.pcaaca.org/grant/rollins.php
The Madonna Marsden International Travel Grant for Individuals presenting at the National Conference. For application requirements, please visit http://www.pcaaca.org/grant/marsden.php
2. Graduate Student Awards
William E. Brigman Award for the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper presented at the National Conference in a specific year. Applications go to Brigman Award, c/o Gary Hoppenstand, Journal of Popular Culture, 4C Morrill Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 . Please send three hard copies of the paper (without author's name), as well as a copy on disc and photocopy of your student identification card. Those concerned for their privacy may obscure the Social Security number should it appear on the card. Please also include a copy of the acceptance letter/email from the PCA area chair who accepted the paper for presentation in the national conference. Papers should address popular culture and be accepted for a PCA panel. Submissions must be received by January 7th of the year the conference is held. The winning paper must be presented at the upcoming PCA/ACA meeting in the year it is accepted. Should the winning paper not be presented in person, the award will be forfeited. The winning author is invited to submit the essay to The Journal of Popular Culture and work with the editor toward its publication. This award is selected by a panel chosen by the editor of the journal. The winner receives a $500 travel award to attend the national conference in the year the paper is selected.
William M. Jones Award for the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper presented at the National Conference in a specific year. Entries are submitted to Amy Dudley, Editorial Assistant, William M. Jones Graduate Student Paper Award Selection Committee, the Journal of American Culture, Virginia Wesleyan College, 1584 Wesleyan Drive, Norfolk, VA 23502. Papers must be submitted by January 7th of the year the conference is held. Three copies of the paper, as well as a photocopy of the applicant's student identification card must be submitted. Papers should address American culture. The winning paper must be presented at the PCA/ACA conference. The winner receives a $500 travel award to attend the national conference in the year the paper is selected. Should the winning paper not be presented in person, the award will be forfeited. The winning author should also submit the essay to the Journal of American Culture and work with the editor toward its publication. This award is selected by a panel chosen by the editor of the journal.
IV. Contact Information
Questions and concerns can be sent to digitalgames.pcaaca@gmail.com, or may be directed to one of the area chairs listed below.
Matthew Wysocki, Department of Communication, Flagler College
mwysocki@flagler.edu
Nicholas Mizer,
nicholas.j.mizer@gmail.com
Matthew Wysocki
Flagler College
Email: mwysocki@flagler.edu
Call for Submissions - Game Studies Area of Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/72221/call-submissions-game-studies-area-popular-culture-association
Discussion published by Daniel Fandino on Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Game Studies Area: 2016 PCA/ACA National Conference.
The Game Studies area of the National Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association Conference invites proposals for papers and panels on games and game studies for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference to be held Monday, March 21 through Friday, March 25, 2016 at the Sheraton in Seattle, WA.
The database for proposal submissions opens July 1.
Below, please find:
I. Topics of Interest
II. Submission Process
III. Information about the Conference
IV. Contact Information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I. Topics of Interest
The organizers seek proposals and papers covering all aspects of gaming, gaming culture and game studies. Proposals can address any game medium (computer, social, console, tabletop, etc) and all theoretical and methodological approaches are welcome.
Possible topics include but are not limited to:
-- new game mediums and platforms (Facebook, iPhone/iPad/iPod, etc)
-- representation or performance of race, class, gender and sexuality in games
-- gaming culture, game specific cultures, and multicultural and cross-cultural issues
-- game development, design, authorship and other industry issues
-- game advertising, reviews, packaging, promotion, integrated marketing and other commercial concerns
-- political and legal entailments such as regulation, censorship, intellectual property
-- ludology, textual criticism, media ecology, narratology, etc as paradigms for games studies
-- player generated content in MUDs and MMORPGs, Mods, maps and machinima
-- game genres, platforms, consoles, console wars and connections to other media
-- serious games for education, business, healthcare, (military) training, etc
-- space and place in games, play spaces, virtual/physical communities, mobile gaming and localization
-- digital literacy, discourse practices, social norms and norming, the politics of play
-- public discourse/controversy over violence, militarism, sex, criminality, racism, etc in games
-- game pedagogy and classroom practices, gamification, learning as play
II. Submission Process
The Game Studies area of the National Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association Conference, which began as the Video Games Studies area in 2003, has the most enduring footprint of any North American academic organization that give serious attention to the social and cultural impact of games and gaming. The area continues to grow and offers two avenues for scholars to participate and present their work.
A. Paper Proposals
For individual paper proposal submissions, please submit a 250-word (maximum) abstract by October 1, 2015. Submissions must be made online at http://ncp.pcaaca.org. Detailed instructions for using the online submission system can be found at http://www.pcaaca.org/conference/instructions.php.
B. Panel Proposals
For panel submissions, please submit a 250-word (maximum) panel abstract, as well as 100-word abstracts for each individual presentation, by October 1, 2015. Panel proposals must be emailed to digitalgames.pcaaca@gmail.com. Be sure to include the proposed title of the panel, the organizer’s name, affiliation, mailing address, and email, as well as this information for all panelists. Panel submissions may take the form of debates, dialogs, roundtable discussions, thematic panels, (or other format,) and should be designed to last approximately eighty minutes.
III. Information about the Conference
A. So that there will be ample time for discussion, each individual paper presentation should be designed to last approximately twelve to fifteen minutes (there will typically be four presentations per session with time for Q&A).
B. Technology for use during presentations may be limited. More information about the conference can be found at http://www.pcaaca.org/
C. Presenters will be required to join either the Popular Culture Association or the American Culture Association prior to attending the conference, as well as pay a registration fee for the conference. Information about these fees can be found at http://www.pcaaca.org/conference/membership_registration.php.
D. Awards and Travel Grants are offered, on a competitive basis, by the National Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association
1. Travel Grants
The Michael Schoenecke Travel Grant for Graduate Students to the National Conference. For application requirements, please visit http://www.pcaaca.org/grant/schoenecke.php
The Peter Rollins Travel Grant for Early-Career Faculty. For application requirements, please visit http://www.pcaaca.org/grant/rollins.php
The Madonna Marsden International Travel Grant for Individuals presenting at the National Conference. For application requirements, please visit http://www.pcaaca.org/grant/marsden.php
2. Graduate Student Awards
William E. Brigman Award for the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper presented at the National Conference in a specific year. Applications go to Brigman Award, c/o Gary Hoppenstand, Journal of Popular Culture, 4C Morrill Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 . Please send three hard copies of the paper (without author's name), as well as a copy on disc and photocopy of your student identification card. Those concerned for their privacy may obscure the Social Security number should it appear on the card. Please also include a copy of the acceptance letter/email from the PCA area chair who accepted the paper for presentation in the national conference. Papers should address popular culture and be accepted for a PCA panel. Submissions must be received by January 7th of the year the conference is held. The winning paper must be presented at the upcoming PCA/ACA meeting in the year it is accepted. Should the winning paper not be presented in person, the award will be forfeited. The winning author is invited to submit the essay to The Journal of Popular Culture and work with the editor toward its publication. This award is selected by a panel chosen by the editor of the journal. The winner receives a $500 travel award to attend the national conference in the year the paper is selected.
William M. Jones Award for the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper presented at the National Conference in a specific year. Entries are submitted to Amy Dudley, Editorial Assistant, William M. Jones Graduate Student Paper Award Selection Committee, the Journal of American Culture, Virginia Wesleyan College, 1584 Wesleyan Drive, Norfolk, VA 23502. Papers must be submitted by January 7th of the year the conference is held. Three copies of the paper, as well as a photocopy of the applicant's student identification card must be submitted. Papers should address American culture. The winning paper must be presented at the PCA/ACA conference. The winner receives a $500 travel award to attend the national conference in the year the paper is selected. Should the winning paper not be presented in person, the award will be forfeited. The winning author should also submit the essay to the Journal of American Culture and work with the editor toward its publication. This award is selected by a panel chosen by the editor of the journal.
IV. Contact Information
Questions and concerns can be sent to digitalgames.pcaaca@gmail.com, or may be directed to one of the area chairs listed below.
Matthew Wysocki, Department of Communication, Flagler College
mwysocki@flagler.edu
Nicholas Mizer,
nicholas.j.mizer@gmail.com
Matthew Wysocki
Flagler College
Email: mwysocki@flagler.edu
CFP Roundtable on Metaphors of Detection (9/30/15; NeMLA 2016)
“Metaphors of Detection” (Roundtable)
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74127/%E2%80%9Cmetaphors-detection%E2%80%9D-roundtable
Announcement published by Cecilia Feilla on Sunday, July 5, 2015
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
September 30, 2015
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Literature
CALL FOR PAPERS
Roundtable on “Metaphors of Detection”
Northeast Modern Language Association 47th Annual Convention
Hartford, Connecticut
March 17-20, 2016
Metaphors make the detective. Whether Dupin's "clew," Holmes's game metaphor ("the game's afoot"), Poirot's puzzles and gestalt, or the labyrinths of film noir, the governing metaphors of the great fictional detectives encapsulate the underlying social, hermeneutic, and cultural assumptions that govern their methods. This roundtable aims to bring together a variety of approaches, examples, and interpretations of the guiding metaphors of detective fiction from the genre's origins to the present day. Short presentations on detective narratives in any genre, language, or medium are welcome; talks on a single metaphor, author, or nexus of metaphors and authors are of particular interest.
Deadline for abstracts: Sept. 30, 2015
Please submit an abstract of 250-500 words directly to the specified NeMLA link for the roundtable at
http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/15900
Follow the instruction to create a user account. Session ID 15900.
Session organizer: Cecilia Feilla, Department of English and World Literatures, Marymount Manhattan College
Session Format: Roundtable
Area: Anglophone/Comparative Literature
Contact Info:
Cecilia Feilla (Marymount Manhattan College)
Contact Email:
cfeilla@gmail.com
URL:
http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/15900
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74127/%E2%80%9Cmetaphors-detection%E2%80%9D-roundtable
Announcement published by Cecilia Feilla on Sunday, July 5, 2015
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
September 30, 2015
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Literature
CALL FOR PAPERS
Roundtable on “Metaphors of Detection”
Northeast Modern Language Association 47th Annual Convention
Hartford, Connecticut
March 17-20, 2016
Metaphors make the detective. Whether Dupin's "clew," Holmes's game metaphor ("the game's afoot"), Poirot's puzzles and gestalt, or the labyrinths of film noir, the governing metaphors of the great fictional detectives encapsulate the underlying social, hermeneutic, and cultural assumptions that govern their methods. This roundtable aims to bring together a variety of approaches, examples, and interpretations of the guiding metaphors of detective fiction from the genre's origins to the present day. Short presentations on detective narratives in any genre, language, or medium are welcome; talks on a single metaphor, author, or nexus of metaphors and authors are of particular interest.
Deadline for abstracts: Sept. 30, 2015
Please submit an abstract of 250-500 words directly to the specified NeMLA link for the roundtable at
http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/15900
Follow the instruction to create a user account. Session ID 15900.
Session organizer: Cecilia Feilla, Department of English and World Literatures, Marymount Manhattan College
Session Format: Roundtable
Area: Anglophone/Comparative Literature
Contact Info:
Cecilia Feilla (Marymount Manhattan College)
Contact Email:
cfeilla@gmail.com
URL:
http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/15900
CFP 21st Century Film and Television (Spec Issue) (10/15/15)
CFP: Special Issue on 21st Century Film and Television
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/74222/cfp-special-issue-21st-century-film-and-television
Discussion published by Rosalind Sibielski on Sunday, July 5, 2015
Your network editor has reposted this from H-Announce. The byline reflects the original authorship.
Type: Call for Papers
Subject Fields: Cultural History / Studies, Journalism and Media Studies, Visual Studies
The Projector is developing a special (potentially double) issue on the evolving roles of television and film in the twenty-first century. The issue(s) will feature research that illuminates cultural, aesthetic, or material aspects of contemporary popular media, which is created, interpreted, and recreated in an environment filled with interactive channels, where films, television-streaming programming, and news of the day are “events” shaped by forces ranging from corporate entities to celebrities to active members of participatory culture.
The issue(s) will provide a venue for scholarship that can shed new light, for example, on television-streaming platforms (broadcast, cable, niche and mainstream online sites), which supply all types of producers and viewers with venues for news, entertainment, and their vision of quality drama or oppositional cultural expression, while the American film industry, working with an array of international artists, entrepreneurs, and global censors, increasingly moves towards immersive sensory experiences and the multivalent franchise/transmedia storytelling well suited to postmodern participatory audiences.
The special issue(s) could be a venue for scholarly contributions in other forms, including: short research essays, pedagogical essays on using popular media, book reviews, or interviews with practitioners, etc. Contact C. Baron cbaron@bgsu.edu with questions about these options.
The Projector is a peer-reviewed journal with an international editorial board; the blind, peer-review policy requires that authors’ names not appear within essays. Submissions must be double-spaced (no additional space between paragraphs), and use American English spelling. Research articles should be about 20-25 pages. They must use current MLA in-text and works cited citation. See https://www.theprojectorjournal.com for full submission guidelines.
Submissions should be emailed to cbaron@bgsu.edu as Word files before October 15, 2015. Submit essays as an email attachments, with essay titles and contact information in the message.
Contact Info:
The Projector: A Journal on Film, Media, and Culture
Contact Email: cbaron@bgsu.edu
URL: http://theprojectorjournal.com
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/74222/cfp-special-issue-21st-century-film-and-television
Discussion published by Rosalind Sibielski on Sunday, July 5, 2015
Your network editor has reposted this from H-Announce. The byline reflects the original authorship.
Type: Call for Papers
Subject Fields: Cultural History / Studies, Journalism and Media Studies, Visual Studies
The Projector is developing a special (potentially double) issue on the evolving roles of television and film in the twenty-first century. The issue(s) will feature research that illuminates cultural, aesthetic, or material aspects of contemporary popular media, which is created, interpreted, and recreated in an environment filled with interactive channels, where films, television-streaming programming, and news of the day are “events” shaped by forces ranging from corporate entities to celebrities to active members of participatory culture.
The issue(s) will provide a venue for scholarship that can shed new light, for example, on television-streaming platforms (broadcast, cable, niche and mainstream online sites), which supply all types of producers and viewers with venues for news, entertainment, and their vision of quality drama or oppositional cultural expression, while the American film industry, working with an array of international artists, entrepreneurs, and global censors, increasingly moves towards immersive sensory experiences and the multivalent franchise/transmedia storytelling well suited to postmodern participatory audiences.
The special issue(s) could be a venue for scholarly contributions in other forms, including: short research essays, pedagogical essays on using popular media, book reviews, or interviews with practitioners, etc. Contact C. Baron cbaron@bgsu.edu with questions about these options.
The Projector is a peer-reviewed journal with an international editorial board; the blind, peer-review policy requires that authors’ names not appear within essays. Submissions must be double-spaced (no additional space between paragraphs), and use American English spelling. Research articles should be about 20-25 pages. They must use current MLA in-text and works cited citation. See https://www.theprojectorjournal.com for full submission guidelines.
Submissions should be emailed to cbaron@bgsu.edu as Word files before October 15, 2015. Submit essays as an email attachments, with essay titles and contact information in the message.
Contact Info:
The Projector: A Journal on Film, Media, and Culture
Contact Email: cbaron@bgsu.edu
URL: http://theprojectorjournal.com
CFP Identity and the Fragmented Self in the Age of Social Media (9/30/15; NeMLA 2016)
Note mention of cyborgs below:
CFP: Body, Voice, and Being: Identity and the Fragmented Self in the Age of Social Media (47th Annual NeMLA)
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74234/cfp-body-voice-and-being-identity-and-fragmented-self-age-social
Announcement published by Bofang Li on Sunday, July 5, 2015
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
March 17, 2016 to March 20, 2016
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Digital Humanities, Humanities, Sociology
CALL FOR PAPERS, Northeast MLA Convention, Hartford CT, March 17-20th 2016.
In June 2015, the former Olympic decathlete formerly known as Bruce Jenner unveiled his new trans-identity. Caitlyn Jenner’s first public act was to tweet her Vanity Fair cover, with its headline "Call me Caitlyn," from her new Twitter account. This declarative move allowed her supporters to tweet messages that, in their address to her new username, @Caitlyn_Jenner, at once fulfilled her headline request while reinforcing her new identity. The tweet marks Jenner’s rebirth on social media, signalling her (re)entrance into a mode of identity formation/presentation in which the majority of adult Americans now engage. What renders Jenner’s situation remarkable is the way in which her new identity positions her as an adult digital native, without a digital media history. Where social media accounts are often also repositories of past lives, hosting evidence of a contiguous identity at times in conflict with self-presentation, Jenner’s (so far) lack this archontic function. Caitlyn Jenner is, in many ways, born digital, and her acts of self-definition on social media mark the genesis of a media-inflected existence while highlighting the interplay between lived, performative, and representational identities online and in "real life."
In our increasingly digitized world, social media is understood as a tool of communication and community as well as a way for users to revel in the potential of self-definition. As the choice of social networking sites proliferates, so too does the possibility of multiple identities, with 75% of online adults managing multiple social networking profiles. This panel calls for papers to explore the implications of multiple identity creation. Potential topics include: the cyborg in the digital age; identity and platform; the unified/diffuse self; identity as performance; the self and the digital other; following, friending, trolling; internality/externality and digital identity. Abstracts of 350 words welcome at the submission URL (http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/15944) by 30th September deadline.
Contact Info:
Bofang Li, Yale University
Contact Email:
bofang.li@yale.edu
URL:
CFP Animation Area (10/1/15; PCA/ACA 2016)
PCA/ACA Animation Division CFP for National Conference 2016
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74545/pcaaca-animation-division-cfp-national-conference-2016
Announcement published by David Silverman on Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
October 1, 2015
Subject Fields:
Digital Humanities, Cultural History / Studies
The Animation Area of the Popular Culture Association seeks individual-papers and panel proposals for presentation at the National Conference of the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association.
Proposals which consider the diversity of animation in relation to popular culture are welcomed. Possible themes for papers/panels include but are not restricted to:
Animated adaptations, comics and animation, propaganda, public information, advertising, animated television series, animation for education, animation aesthetics, gender issues, animation studios, online animation, comedy, documentary, South Park, the work of Matt Groening, CGI/animated special effects, anime.
Interested individuals are asked to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words (including presentation title) and complete contact information (name, institutional affiliation, mail and e-mail addresses, and contact telephone number) to http://ncp.pcaaca.org . (Although the site is pretty user friendly, find general instructions at
http://pcaaca.org/national-conference-2/proposing-a-presentation-at-the-conference/ )
Panel proposals of 4 speakers and/or discussion panels of 4-6 participants each are also encouraged.
Please include the following:
Panel Title
Name and contact information for the Panel Chair
Titles and abstracts of each paper
Contact information for each presenter
All presenters must be members of the PCA and must register for the conference.
Here is the schedule of deadlines and pertinent dates:
1 July Database Opens for Submissions
1 October Registration Opens
1 October Deadline for Paper Proposals
15 November Early Bird Registration Rate Ends
1 December Preliminary Program Available
15 December “Drop Dead”: Participants Not Registered Removed from Program
1 January 2016 Final Program to the Publisher
15 February 2016 Conference schedule and program available
21-25 March 2016 Seattle!
Contact Info:
David S. Silverman
Kansas Wesleyan University
Salina, KS 67401
(785) 827-5541 ext. 5227
david.silverman@kwu.edu
AND/OR
Peter Chanthanakone
University of Iowa
peter@pixade.com
Contact Email:
david.silverman@kwu.edu
URL:
http://pcaaca.org/national-conference/proposing-a-presentation-at-the-conference/
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74545/pcaaca-animation-division-cfp-national-conference-2016
Announcement published by David Silverman on Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
October 1, 2015
Subject Fields:
Digital Humanities, Cultural History / Studies
The Animation Area of the Popular Culture Association seeks individual-papers and panel proposals for presentation at the National Conference of the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association.
Proposals which consider the diversity of animation in relation to popular culture are welcomed. Possible themes for papers/panels include but are not restricted to:
Animated adaptations, comics and animation, propaganda, public information, advertising, animated television series, animation for education, animation aesthetics, gender issues, animation studios, online animation, comedy, documentary, South Park, the work of Matt Groening, CGI/animated special effects, anime.
Interested individuals are asked to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words (including presentation title) and complete contact information (name, institutional affiliation, mail and e-mail addresses, and contact telephone number) to http://ncp.pcaaca.org . (Although the site is pretty user friendly, find general instructions at
http://pcaaca.org/national-conference-2/proposing-a-presentation-at-the-conference/ )
Panel proposals of 4 speakers and/or discussion panels of 4-6 participants each are also encouraged.
Please include the following:
Panel Title
Name and contact information for the Panel Chair
Titles and abstracts of each paper
Contact information for each presenter
All presenters must be members of the PCA and must register for the conference.
Here is the schedule of deadlines and pertinent dates:
1 July Database Opens for Submissions
1 October Registration Opens
1 October Deadline for Paper Proposals
15 November Early Bird Registration Rate Ends
1 December Preliminary Program Available
15 December “Drop Dead”: Participants Not Registered Removed from Program
1 January 2016 Final Program to the Publisher
15 February 2016 Conference schedule and program available
21-25 March 2016 Seattle!
Contact Info:
David S. Silverman
Kansas Wesleyan University
Salina, KS 67401
(785) 827-5541 ext. 5227
david.silverman@kwu.edu
AND/OR
Peter Chanthanakone
University of Iowa
peter@pixade.com
Contact Email:
david.silverman@kwu.edu
URL:
http://pcaaca.org/national-conference/proposing-a-presentation-at-the-conference/
CFP Representation of Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the 21st-century American Media (9/30/15; NeMLA 2016)
Representation of Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the 21st-century American Media - NeMLA 2016, Hartford (CT) March 17-20
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74542/representation-ethnic-and-racial-minorities-21st-century-american
Announcement published by Javier Venturi on Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
September 30, 2015
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Ethnic History / Studies, American History / Studies
One of the problems with representations of racial and ethnic minorities in the 21st-century American media is that there aren't enough main characters, male and female role models, that will fairly represent their social advancement and academic achievements through sitcoms, movies, and mainstream media. Minorities (African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, Pacific Islander, Eskimo, Native Americans, etc.) are, on the whole, proportionately underrepresented in the media relative to their population. For example, in the popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory and recent Divergent film series, the roles of minority characters tend and continue to be secondary to male and female white protagonists. Minority characters are portrayed as sidekicks, best friends, hero’s nemeses, terrorists, funny male/female foreign characters, or represent the “other” who struggles to understand and accept the American way of life. This panel will analyze and discuss the misrepresentation and cultural marginalization of ethnic and racial minorities in the 21st-century American media, asking questions such as why are racial minorities portrayed more often as lower class individuals and what are the latest developments in the representation and reception of media output produced by, for or about ethnic minorities? Please submit 250-word abstracts in English to Javier Venturi.
Contact Info:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
This year, NeMLA (Northeast Modern Language Association) has implemented a user-based system to accept and track abstract submissions. In order to submit an abstract using the button for a CFP entry, you must sign up with NeMLA and log in. Using this new system, you can manage your personal information and review and update your abstract following submission. Signing up is free, and you only have to do it once:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15955
Chair: Javier Venturi
URL:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15955
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74542/representation-ethnic-and-racial-minorities-21st-century-american
Announcement published by Javier Venturi on Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
September 30, 2015
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Ethnic History / Studies, American History / Studies
One of the problems with representations of racial and ethnic minorities in the 21st-century American media is that there aren't enough main characters, male and female role models, that will fairly represent their social advancement and academic achievements through sitcoms, movies, and mainstream media. Minorities (African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, Pacific Islander, Eskimo, Native Americans, etc.) are, on the whole, proportionately underrepresented in the media relative to their population. For example, in the popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory and recent Divergent film series, the roles of minority characters tend and continue to be secondary to male and female white protagonists. Minority characters are portrayed as sidekicks, best friends, hero’s nemeses, terrorists, funny male/female foreign characters, or represent the “other” who struggles to understand and accept the American way of life. This panel will analyze and discuss the misrepresentation and cultural marginalization of ethnic and racial minorities in the 21st-century American media, asking questions such as why are racial minorities portrayed more often as lower class individuals and what are the latest developments in the representation and reception of media output produced by, for or about ethnic minorities? Please submit 250-word abstracts in English to Javier Venturi.
Contact Info:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
This year, NeMLA (Northeast Modern Language Association) has implemented a user-based system to accept and track abstract submissions. In order to submit an abstract using the button for a CFP entry, you must sign up with NeMLA and log in. Using this new system, you can manage your personal information and review and update your abstract following submission. Signing up is free, and you only have to do it once:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15955
Chair: Javier Venturi
URL:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15955
CFP Gaming/Gender: 2015 Mechademia Conference on Asian Popular Cultures (9/1/15; Minneapolis 9/25-27/15)
CFP: Mechademia Conference on Asian Popular Cultures, 2015 “Gaming/Gender”
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74516/cfp-mechademia-conference-asian-popular-cultures-2015-
Announcement published by Jen Caruso on Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
September 1, 2015
Location:
Minnesota, United States
Subject Fields:
Asian History / Studies, Digital Humanities
Mechademia Conference on Asian Popular Cultures, 2015
“Gaming/Gender”
September 25-27, 2015
Minneapolis College of Art and Design
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Special Guest: Brianna Wu
The recent rash of death threats toward feminist media critic, Anita Sarkeesian after her polemic on the violence toward women in video games, has focused attention on what has always been “accepted” as a given: video games are made by males for males. In the crosshairs of a narrowed, constructed male gaze, representations of women have indeed been predominately the sexualized subjects of extreme violence in gaming. This is the case despite the fact that women also play video games, critique and write about video games, and even create video games. An article from The Guardian from September 17th of 2014 stated, “While ‘hardcore’ gaming is clearly still rooted in its traditional user base (playing games is considered the most entertaining media amongst males aged 16-24), what the study shows is a widening audience who are exploring games through new platforms.”
Additionally, in light of the fact that in spite of its massively misogynist aspects, indeed many women not only play these hardcore video games, but actually apparently enjoy playing them; we question how to address these problems -- not only just the rampant misogyny, but the broader abuses of that can underlay the misogyny; those societal issues of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexualities.
• How women are depicted is not always strictly about sex and violence, but being as those are significant factors, how should women be portrayed in games – particularly action/war games?
• Is gaming as exclusively a “man’s world” and the only role for women being the over-sexualized, highly “consumable” victims?
• Do videogames, anime, and manga simply reinforce negative gender, ethnic, class, and racial stereotypes, or is there a possibility for critique embedded in the games or cultures that produce and consume them?
These topics represent only a few of the broad concerns over issues of gender and gaming currently in the news.
This conference invites scholars, fans, and creators to consider the situation and respond with presentations as we expand the discursive field against the vast mediated (dis)information found on the web. We welcome both in-person presentations at the conference as well as remote presentations via Zoom (much like Skype) for those unable to make it to Minneapolis.
Teachers: We also have an “Emerging Scholars Panel” for your advanced undergraduate students to participate in during this event. They can also register at the same site below.
Please send 250 word proposals to mechademia@mcad.edu by September 1, 2015.
Contact Email:
mechademia@mcad.edu
URL:
http://mcad.edu/events-fellowships/mechademia
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74516/cfp-mechademia-conference-asian-popular-cultures-2015-
Announcement published by Jen Caruso on Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
September 1, 2015
Location:
Minnesota, United States
Subject Fields:
Asian History / Studies, Digital Humanities
Mechademia Conference on Asian Popular Cultures, 2015
“Gaming/Gender”
September 25-27, 2015
Minneapolis College of Art and Design
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Special Guest: Brianna Wu
The recent rash of death threats toward feminist media critic, Anita Sarkeesian after her polemic on the violence toward women in video games, has focused attention on what has always been “accepted” as a given: video games are made by males for males. In the crosshairs of a narrowed, constructed male gaze, representations of women have indeed been predominately the sexualized subjects of extreme violence in gaming. This is the case despite the fact that women also play video games, critique and write about video games, and even create video games. An article from The Guardian from September 17th of 2014 stated, “While ‘hardcore’ gaming is clearly still rooted in its traditional user base (playing games is considered the most entertaining media amongst males aged 16-24), what the study shows is a widening audience who are exploring games through new platforms.”
Additionally, in light of the fact that in spite of its massively misogynist aspects, indeed many women not only play these hardcore video games, but actually apparently enjoy playing them; we question how to address these problems -- not only just the rampant misogyny, but the broader abuses of that can underlay the misogyny; those societal issues of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexualities.
• How women are depicted is not always strictly about sex and violence, but being as those are significant factors, how should women be portrayed in games – particularly action/war games?
• Is gaming as exclusively a “man’s world” and the only role for women being the over-sexualized, highly “consumable” victims?
• Do videogames, anime, and manga simply reinforce negative gender, ethnic, class, and racial stereotypes, or is there a possibility for critique embedded in the games or cultures that produce and consume them?
These topics represent only a few of the broad concerns over issues of gender and gaming currently in the news.
This conference invites scholars, fans, and creators to consider the situation and respond with presentations as we expand the discursive field against the vast mediated (dis)information found on the web. We welcome both in-person presentations at the conference as well as remote presentations via Zoom (much like Skype) for those unable to make it to Minneapolis.
Teachers: We also have an “Emerging Scholars Panel” for your advanced undergraduate students to participate in during this event. They can also register at the same site below.
Please send 250 word proposals to mechademia@mcad.edu by September 1, 2015.
Contact Email:
mechademia@mcad.edu
URL:
http://mcad.edu/events-fellowships/mechademia
CFP Essays on European film since 1990 (8/20/15)
Call for submissions for a new anthology on European film since 1990
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74697/call-submissions-new-anthology-european-film-1990
Announcement published by John Williams on Friday, July 10, 2015
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
August 20, 2015
Subject Fields:
Communication, European History / Studies, Film and Film History, Fine Arts, French History / Studies, German History / Studies, Modern European History / Studies
I am putting together an anthology of new research on European film since 1990. The book is intended for classroom use in both contemporary European history and film courses. The work needs to be genuinely cross-disciplinary, emphasizing relationships between social change, popular political culture, and cinematic representation; and the language needs to be straightforward (i.e. jargon-free) and accessible to both advanced undergraduates and the general reading public. Chapters might focus either on a specific film as exemplary of broader developments or on a wider selection of films viewed from a thematic perspective.
If you are interested in contributing chapters that meet these criteria to the project, please send your CV and a proposal of between 300 and 500 words by August 20, 2015 to John Williams, Department of History, Bradley University at johnw@bradley.edu.
Contact Info:
Professor John A. Williams
Department of History
Bradley University
Peoria, IL 61625 USA
(309) 677-3182
Contact Email:
johnw@bradley.edu
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74697/call-submissions-new-anthology-european-film-1990
Announcement published by John Williams on Friday, July 10, 2015
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
August 20, 2015
Subject Fields:
Communication, European History / Studies, Film and Film History, Fine Arts, French History / Studies, German History / Studies, Modern European History / Studies
I am putting together an anthology of new research on European film since 1990. The book is intended for classroom use in both contemporary European history and film courses. The work needs to be genuinely cross-disciplinary, emphasizing relationships between social change, popular political culture, and cinematic representation; and the language needs to be straightforward (i.e. jargon-free) and accessible to both advanced undergraduates and the general reading public. Chapters might focus either on a specific film as exemplary of broader developments or on a wider selection of films viewed from a thematic perspective.
If you are interested in contributing chapters that meet these criteria to the project, please send your CV and a proposal of between 300 and 500 words by August 20, 2015 to John Williams, Department of History, Bradley University at johnw@bradley.edu.
Contact Info:
Professor John A. Williams
Department of History
Bradley University
Peoria, IL 61625 USA
(309) 677-3182
Contact Email:
johnw@bradley.edu
CFP Footprints of Orpheus: Cult, Topoi, and Character in Medieval and Early Modern Britain (9/30/15; NeMLA 2016)
Footprints of Orpheus: Cult, Topoi, and Character in Medieval and Early Modern Britain--A NeMLA 2016 Panel
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/75274/footprints-orpheus-cult-topoi-and-character-medieval-and-early
Announcement published by David Pecan on Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Type:
Conference
Date:
March 17, 2016 to March 20, 2016
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Medieval and Byzantine History / Studies, Modern European History / Studies, Literature
Footprints of Orpheus: Cult, Topoi, and Character in Medieval and Early Modern Britain
As scholars of Medieval and Early Modern culture, what can we learn from considerations of the Orphic presence in the literature of Britain? The idea and image of Orpheus, in folk narrative, cultural analogue, literary motif, emblem, symbol, and foundational myth, has influenced and inspired the British literary tradition since its very beginning, and as such offers opportunities for close readings of influence and innovation of the prototype. Drawn from Celtic, Classical, Scandinavian, and Continental source material, Orpheus and Orphic analogues have enabled the development and characterization of poetic progenitors, bardic personae, narrative performativity, and tales of the poet as hero, within and without patterns of social cohesion and divergence. Additionally, manifestations of Orpheus have informed notions of the authoritative “voice” of poetic text, links between creation and ownership of literary artifacts, the idea of the “author” as “tradition,” and the interface of performativity and the literary marketplace. Hosted by Professor David Pecan of SUNY Nassau, this NeMLA 2016 panel invites papers from interested faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars.
Please submit proposals via the NeMLA website: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp and access Session # 15726 or search term Orpheus. The deadline for abstract submission is September 30th, 2016.
Northeast Modern Language Association
47th Annual Convention
Hartford, Connecticut
March 17-20, 2016
Hosted by the University of Connecticut
Contact Email:
david.pecan@ncc.edu
URL:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/75274/footprints-orpheus-cult-topoi-and-character-medieval-and-early
Announcement published by David Pecan on Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Type:
Conference
Date:
March 17, 2016 to March 20, 2016
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Medieval and Byzantine History / Studies, Modern European History / Studies, Literature
Footprints of Orpheus: Cult, Topoi, and Character in Medieval and Early Modern Britain
As scholars of Medieval and Early Modern culture, what can we learn from considerations of the Orphic presence in the literature of Britain? The idea and image of Orpheus, in folk narrative, cultural analogue, literary motif, emblem, symbol, and foundational myth, has influenced and inspired the British literary tradition since its very beginning, and as such offers opportunities for close readings of influence and innovation of the prototype. Drawn from Celtic, Classical, Scandinavian, and Continental source material, Orpheus and Orphic analogues have enabled the development and characterization of poetic progenitors, bardic personae, narrative performativity, and tales of the poet as hero, within and without patterns of social cohesion and divergence. Additionally, manifestations of Orpheus have informed notions of the authoritative “voice” of poetic text, links between creation and ownership of literary artifacts, the idea of the “author” as “tradition,” and the interface of performativity and the literary marketplace. Hosted by Professor David Pecan of SUNY Nassau, this NeMLA 2016 panel invites papers from interested faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars.
Please submit proposals via the NeMLA website: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp and access Session # 15726 or search term Orpheus. The deadline for abstract submission is September 30th, 2016.
Northeast Modern Language Association
47th Annual Convention
Hartford, Connecticut
March 17-20, 2016
Hosted by the University of Connecticut
Contact Email:
david.pecan@ncc.edu
URL:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp
CFP Video Games, Culture, & Justice (10/1/15)
CFP: Video Games, Culture, & Justice
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74784/cfp-video-games-culture-justice
Announcement published by Kishonna Gray on Friday, July 10, 2015
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
July 11, 2015 to October 1, 2015
Subject Fields:
Communication, Contemporary History, Cultural History / Studies, Digital Humanities, Demographic History / Studies, History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Library and Information Science
Call for Papers: Video Games, Culture, & Justice
The purpose of this edited volume is to propel game studies towards a more responsive existence in the area of social justice. The text will attempt to move beyond the descriptive level of analysis of what and begin engaging the why, highlighting the structural and institutional factors perpetuating inequalities that permeate gaming culture and extend into a myriad of institutions. The public outcry associated with GamerGate has put 'why' at the forefront of game studies. GamerGaters, who gained media attention through their misogynist and racist attacks on women gamers and developers, even tried to justify their campaign as an attempt to restore the ethics needed in video game journalism. This attack directed at 'social justice warriors' brought the hidden reality of harassment, cyberbullying, sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other injustices to light. These attacks are part and parcel of gaming culture; challenges to the lack of diversity or the gross stereotypes are often met with demonization and rhetorical violence directed at those who merely seek to help gaming reach its fullest potential. Yet, in these struggles, we must move beyond individual acts of prejudice, discrimination, and microaggressions to examine the structural and institutional factors that allow them to exist. We must look at how the daily practices sustain what Mark Anthony Neal calls "micro-nooses" and lived reality of violence on and offline.
Amid this culture of violence, the gaming industry has embraced the rhetoric of diversity and inclusion. In response to protests, game developers have incorporated statements asserting their commitment to producing diverse games and building an industry no longer dominated by white men. Given the post-racial rhetorical turn of the last six years, it is important to push conversations about gaming and gamers beyond diversity, to expose the disconnect between rhetorics of multiculturalism and the struggle for justice and equity. It is important to highlight the contradiction between ideals of inclusion espoused within the video game industry and society as a whole and the persistence of injustices within the structural and institutional context in which they may have developed. This compilation not only seeks to answer these questions but also to produce work that intervenes in the culture of violence and inequity from which these works emanate from inside and outside of academia.
Traditionally, academic public discourses concerned with criminal justice focused on issues pertaining to crime and legal justice; within game studies, there has an effort to examine criminogenic effects of violent video games on the streets. We must move beyond this simple construction of justice and video games. This interdisciplinary text defines justice broadly, but in terms to speak to the struggle of racial, gender, and social justice. Moving beyond abstract principles, the collection focuses on the stakes playing out in virtual reality, demonstrating the ways that struggles for justice online, in the policy booth, in the court house, in our schools, in legislatures and in streets must be waged online.
As such, this collection seeks a broader range of critical perspectives on justice issues within gaming culture seeking whether gaming culture can foster critical consciousness, aid in participatory democracy, and effect social change. It will give voice to the silenced and marginalized, offering counter narratives to those post-racial and post-gendered fantasies that so often obscure the violent context of production and consumption. In offering this framework, this volume will be grounded in the concrete situations of marginalized members within gaming culture.
Early career scholars, game industry personnel, gaming activists, graduate students, and others are invited to submit work addressing the connected themes of Video Games, Culture, & Justice. Suggested essay topics may include (but are not limited to):
· Representation and Identity in Video Games
· Examining the complex nature of intersections
· Marginalized identities within gaming culture
· Developing culturally responsive games
· Activism within video games
· Power and anonymity
· Negative experiences in multiplayer settings
· Applying social justice theories to gaming
· Militarization and video games
· Cyberbullying, online harassment, and other virtual violence
· Policing game communities
· Swatting and blurring boundaries of virtual and physical spaces
· Online disinhibition, anonymity, and trolling
· The impact of serious games and games for change
· Hacking inequalities (sexism, racism, heterosexism, ableism, etc)
· Solutions to eliminate bias
· Hypermasculinity in tech culture
· Methodological successes and challenges
· Genre, representation, and social justice
· Gaming interfaces as social praxis
· The graphical arms race: hyperreality, phenotype, and identity
Please submit abstracts (500 word max) along with a short bio and your CV/resume to gamesculturejustice@gmail.com by September 15th, 2015. Authors will be notified by October 5th, 2015 if their proposals have been accepted for the prospectus. Final essays should be within the range of 4000 – 6000 words, submitted as a Word or Rich Text Format. Notifications to submit full essays will occur shortly after abstracts are submitted and they will be due December 28th, 2015. For more information please contact the co-editors at gamesculturejustice@gmail.com.
Deadline for Abstracts: September 15th, 2015
Full Essays Due: December 28th, 2015
André Brock (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan. His research interests include digital and online performances of race and culture, African American technoculture, and critical cultural informatics. Follow him on Twitter @DocDre.
Kishonna L. Gray (Ph.D., Arizona State University) is the Director of the Critical Gaming Lab at Eastern Kentucky University as well as faculty in the School of Justice Studies, African/African-American Studies, & Women & Gender Studies. Her work broadly intersects identity and new media although she has a particular focus on gaming. Her most recent book, Race, Gender, & Deviance in Xbox Live, provides a much-needed theoretical framework for examining deviant behavior and deviant bodies within that virtual gaming community. Her work can be found at www.kishonnagray.com and at www.criticalgaminglab.com. Follow her on Twitter @DrGrayThaPhx and @CriticalGameLab.
David J. Leonard (Ph.D., University of California – Berkeley) is Associate Professor and chair in the Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies at Washington State University, Pullman. He regularly writes about issues of race, gender, inequality, and popular culture. His work has appeared in a number of academic journals and anthologies. His works can be found at http://www.drdavidjleonard.com. Follow him on Twitter @drdavidjleonard.
Contact Info:
For more information please contact the co-editors at gamesculturejustice@gmail.com
André Brock (University of Michigan), Co-Editor
Kishonna L Gray (Eastern Kentucky University), Co-Editor
David J Leonard (Washington State University), Co-Editor
Contact Email:
gamesculturejustice@gmail.com
URL:
http://www.criticalgaminglab.com/cfp-video-games-culture--justice.html
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74784/cfp-video-games-culture-justice
Announcement published by Kishonna Gray on Friday, July 10, 2015
Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
July 11, 2015 to October 1, 2015
Subject Fields:
Communication, Contemporary History, Cultural History / Studies, Digital Humanities, Demographic History / Studies, History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Library and Information Science
Call for Papers: Video Games, Culture, & Justice
The purpose of this edited volume is to propel game studies towards a more responsive existence in the area of social justice. The text will attempt to move beyond the descriptive level of analysis of what and begin engaging the why, highlighting the structural and institutional factors perpetuating inequalities that permeate gaming culture and extend into a myriad of institutions. The public outcry associated with GamerGate has put 'why' at the forefront of game studies. GamerGaters, who gained media attention through their misogynist and racist attacks on women gamers and developers, even tried to justify their campaign as an attempt to restore the ethics needed in video game journalism. This attack directed at 'social justice warriors' brought the hidden reality of harassment, cyberbullying, sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other injustices to light. These attacks are part and parcel of gaming culture; challenges to the lack of diversity or the gross stereotypes are often met with demonization and rhetorical violence directed at those who merely seek to help gaming reach its fullest potential. Yet, in these struggles, we must move beyond individual acts of prejudice, discrimination, and microaggressions to examine the structural and institutional factors that allow them to exist. We must look at how the daily practices sustain what Mark Anthony Neal calls "micro-nooses" and lived reality of violence on and offline.
Amid this culture of violence, the gaming industry has embraced the rhetoric of diversity and inclusion. In response to protests, game developers have incorporated statements asserting their commitment to producing diverse games and building an industry no longer dominated by white men. Given the post-racial rhetorical turn of the last six years, it is important to push conversations about gaming and gamers beyond diversity, to expose the disconnect between rhetorics of multiculturalism and the struggle for justice and equity. It is important to highlight the contradiction between ideals of inclusion espoused within the video game industry and society as a whole and the persistence of injustices within the structural and institutional context in which they may have developed. This compilation not only seeks to answer these questions but also to produce work that intervenes in the culture of violence and inequity from which these works emanate from inside and outside of academia.
Traditionally, academic public discourses concerned with criminal justice focused on issues pertaining to crime and legal justice; within game studies, there has an effort to examine criminogenic effects of violent video games on the streets. We must move beyond this simple construction of justice and video games. This interdisciplinary text defines justice broadly, but in terms to speak to the struggle of racial, gender, and social justice. Moving beyond abstract principles, the collection focuses on the stakes playing out in virtual reality, demonstrating the ways that struggles for justice online, in the policy booth, in the court house, in our schools, in legislatures and in streets must be waged online.
As such, this collection seeks a broader range of critical perspectives on justice issues within gaming culture seeking whether gaming culture can foster critical consciousness, aid in participatory democracy, and effect social change. It will give voice to the silenced and marginalized, offering counter narratives to those post-racial and post-gendered fantasies that so often obscure the violent context of production and consumption. In offering this framework, this volume will be grounded in the concrete situations of marginalized members within gaming culture.
Early career scholars, game industry personnel, gaming activists, graduate students, and others are invited to submit work addressing the connected themes of Video Games, Culture, & Justice. Suggested essay topics may include (but are not limited to):
· Representation and Identity in Video Games
· Examining the complex nature of intersections
· Marginalized identities within gaming culture
· Developing culturally responsive games
· Activism within video games
· Power and anonymity
· Negative experiences in multiplayer settings
· Applying social justice theories to gaming
· Militarization and video games
· Cyberbullying, online harassment, and other virtual violence
· Policing game communities
· Swatting and blurring boundaries of virtual and physical spaces
· Online disinhibition, anonymity, and trolling
· The impact of serious games and games for change
· Hacking inequalities (sexism, racism, heterosexism, ableism, etc)
· Solutions to eliminate bias
· Hypermasculinity in tech culture
· Methodological successes and challenges
· Genre, representation, and social justice
· Gaming interfaces as social praxis
· The graphical arms race: hyperreality, phenotype, and identity
Please submit abstracts (500 word max) along with a short bio and your CV/resume to gamesculturejustice@gmail.com by September 15th, 2015. Authors will be notified by October 5th, 2015 if their proposals have been accepted for the prospectus. Final essays should be within the range of 4000 – 6000 words, submitted as a Word or Rich Text Format. Notifications to submit full essays will occur shortly after abstracts are submitted and they will be due December 28th, 2015. For more information please contact the co-editors at gamesculturejustice@gmail.com.
Deadline for Abstracts: September 15th, 2015
Full Essays Due: December 28th, 2015
André Brock (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan. His research interests include digital and online performances of race and culture, African American technoculture, and critical cultural informatics. Follow him on Twitter @DocDre.
Kishonna L. Gray (Ph.D., Arizona State University) is the Director of the Critical Gaming Lab at Eastern Kentucky University as well as faculty in the School of Justice Studies, African/African-American Studies, & Women & Gender Studies. Her work broadly intersects identity and new media although she has a particular focus on gaming. Her most recent book, Race, Gender, & Deviance in Xbox Live, provides a much-needed theoretical framework for examining deviant behavior and deviant bodies within that virtual gaming community. Her work can be found at www.kishonnagray.com and at www.criticalgaminglab.com. Follow her on Twitter @DrGrayThaPhx and @CriticalGameLab.
David J. Leonard (Ph.D., University of California – Berkeley) is Associate Professor and chair in the Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies at Washington State University, Pullman. He regularly writes about issues of race, gender, inequality, and popular culture. His work has appeared in a number of academic journals and anthologies. His works can be found at http://www.drdavidjleonard.com. Follow him on Twitter @drdavidjleonard.
Contact Info:
For more information please contact the co-editors at gamesculturejustice@gmail.com
André Brock (University of Michigan), Co-Editor
Kishonna L Gray (Eastern Kentucky University), Co-Editor
David J Leonard (Washington State University), Co-Editor
Contact Email:
gamesculturejustice@gmail.com
URL:
http://www.criticalgaminglab.com/cfp-video-games-culture--justice.html
CFP Southern Studies Conference (10/15/15; Alabama 2/5-6/16)
Southern Studies Conference
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/75401/southern-studies-conference
Announcement published by John Havard on Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Type: Conference
Date: October 15, 2015
Location: Alabama, United States
Subject Fields: African American History / Studies, American History / Studies
Now in its eighth year, the AUM Southern Studies Conference invites panel and paper proposals on any aspect of Southern literature. The conference will be held 5-6 February 2016. Topics may include but are not limited to:
--Southern food studies
--Slavery and the American South; slave narratives
--Civil War narratives
--Civil Rights narratives; explorations of race and conflict
--Southern religion and literature
--Ecocriticism and the landscape of Southern writing
--Regionalist writers of the American South
--Explorations of the Southern worker
--The plantation novel
--Changing conceptions of Southern aristocracy in literature
--Southern women writers
--Southern travel writing
--Southern children’s literature
--Cross-cultural exchanges between the South and other geographic areas
--Native American literature of the South
--Stories of immigration / migration and border-crossings
--Contemporary reconceptions of "The South"
--Contemporary literacy and writing programs of the American South
--Studies of works by canonical Southern authors such as Twain, Welty, and Faulkner
--Studies of works by lesser-known Southern writers
This two-day conference includes two keynote presentations. One will be given by Dr. Trudier Harris, a renowned scholar of African-American literature from the University of Alabama. The other will be given by Dr. Kenneth W. Noe, a distinguished Civil War historian from Auburn University. Registrants to the conference will also be able to enjoy a variety of peer-reviewed panels and exhibits on southern topics representing all of the liberal arts disciplines.
Proposals can be emailed to southernstudies@aum.edu and should include a 250-word abstract and a brief CV. The deadline is 15 October 2015. Proposals will be refereed by established scholars in each discipline. For more information, please visit the conference website:
http://www.liberalarts.aum.edu/southern-studies-conference
or contact
John C. Havard
Assistant Professor of English
Auburn University at Montgomery
jhavard@aum.edu
Contact Info:
John C. Havard
Assistant Professor of English
Auburn University at Montgomery
jhavard@aum.edu
Contact Email:
jhavard@aum.edu
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/75401/southern-studies-conference
Announcement published by John Havard on Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Type: Conference
Date: October 15, 2015
Location: Alabama, United States
Subject Fields: African American History / Studies, American History / Studies
Now in its eighth year, the AUM Southern Studies Conference invites panel and paper proposals on any aspect of Southern literature. The conference will be held 5-6 February 2016. Topics may include but are not limited to:
--Southern food studies
--Slavery and the American South; slave narratives
--Civil War narratives
--Civil Rights narratives; explorations of race and conflict
--Southern religion and literature
--Ecocriticism and the landscape of Southern writing
--Regionalist writers of the American South
--Explorations of the Southern worker
--The plantation novel
--Changing conceptions of Southern aristocracy in literature
--Southern women writers
--Southern travel writing
--Southern children’s literature
--Cross-cultural exchanges between the South and other geographic areas
--Native American literature of the South
--Stories of immigration / migration and border-crossings
--Contemporary reconceptions of "The South"
--Contemporary literacy and writing programs of the American South
--Studies of works by canonical Southern authors such as Twain, Welty, and Faulkner
--Studies of works by lesser-known Southern writers
This two-day conference includes two keynote presentations. One will be given by Dr. Trudier Harris, a renowned scholar of African-American literature from the University of Alabama. The other will be given by Dr. Kenneth W. Noe, a distinguished Civil War historian from Auburn University. Registrants to the conference will also be able to enjoy a variety of peer-reviewed panels and exhibits on southern topics representing all of the liberal arts disciplines.
Proposals can be emailed to southernstudies@aum.edu and should include a 250-word abstract and a brief CV. The deadline is 15 October 2015. Proposals will be refereed by established scholars in each discipline. For more information, please visit the conference website:
http://www.liberalarts.aum.edu/southern-studies-conference
or contact
John C. Havard
Assistant Professor of English
Auburn University at Montgomery
jhavard@aum.edu
Contact Info:
John C. Havard
Assistant Professor of English
Auburn University at Montgomery
jhavard@aum.edu
Contact Email:
jhavard@aum.edu
CFP Mater Dolorosa: The Representation of the Blessed Mary in Literature and Art (7/31/15)
Call for Book Chapters. Mater Dolorosa: The Representation of the Blessed Mary in Literature and Art
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74980/call-book-chapters-mater-dolorosa-representation-blessed-mary
Announcement published by Elena Shabliy on Monday, July 13, 2015
Type: Call for Publications
Date: July 11, 2015 to July 31, 2015
Location: United States
Subject Fields:
Ancient History, Art and Art History, European History / Studies, Medieval and Byzantine History / Studies, Modern European History / Studies, Religious Studies and Theology
In today’s complex world religious discourse is especially crucial, considering that secularism is expanding around the globe. We seek contributions on the representation of the Virgin Mary in World Literature and Art. Comparative approaches are always welcome. Religious and cultural literacy is important for domestic and international politics, the practice of peace, harmony, justice, and social prosperity. Thus, this edited volume will help diminish religious illiteracy. Universitas Press has agreed to publish this edited volume. Contributions are welcome from scholars in various disciplines in the humanities. Please send your proposals, along with your CV by July 31, 2015, to Elena Shabliy eshabliy@tulane.edu.
July 31, 2015: Proposal Submission Deadline
Contact Info:
Elena Shabliy, an Interdisciplinary Scholar, Tulane University eshabliy@tulane.edu
Contact Email:
eshabliy@tulane.edu
URL:
http://universitaspress.com/
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74980/call-book-chapters-mater-dolorosa-representation-blessed-mary
Announcement published by Elena Shabliy on Monday, July 13, 2015
Type: Call for Publications
Date: July 11, 2015 to July 31, 2015
Location: United States
Subject Fields:
Ancient History, Art and Art History, European History / Studies, Medieval and Byzantine History / Studies, Modern European History / Studies, Religious Studies and Theology
In today’s complex world religious discourse is especially crucial, considering that secularism is expanding around the globe. We seek contributions on the representation of the Virgin Mary in World Literature and Art. Comparative approaches are always welcome. Religious and cultural literacy is important for domestic and international politics, the practice of peace, harmony, justice, and social prosperity. Thus, this edited volume will help diminish religious illiteracy. Universitas Press has agreed to publish this edited volume. Contributions are welcome from scholars in various disciplines in the humanities. Please send your proposals, along with your CV by July 31, 2015, to Elena Shabliy eshabliy@tulane.edu.
July 31, 2015: Proposal Submission Deadline
Contact Info:
Elena Shabliy, an Interdisciplinary Scholar, Tulane University eshabliy@tulane.edu
Contact Email:
eshabliy@tulane.edu
URL:
http://universitaspress.com/
CFP Children and Media (7/20/15; SCMS 2016)
CFP: SCMS 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia - Panel on Children and Media, Disney, Nickelodeon, Gender, Girls etc.
https://networks.h-net.org/node/14467/discussions/74776/cfp-scms-2016-atlanta-georgia-panel-children-and-media-disney
Discussion published by Christina Hodel on Friday, July 10, 2015
Children, Teens and Everyone In-between: Youth Media
This panel is intended to explore representations of childhood/children on screen. The panel is currently broadly conceived and is open to submissions relating to other aspects of children’s media although topics relating to girls and gender are highly encouraged.
Some possible suggestions for topics are below, but again, please apply if anything related to children and media (and especially gender) is part of your thesis.
· Disney, Nickelodeon and other producers of children’s media content
· Child gender and sexuality issues
· Race, Culture, Class and Children
· Children and relationships
· Advocating for children
· The dark side of childhood/children
· Child perpetrators and victims of violence on screen
· The status of children’s films and/or family films in terms of genre
· The commercial and/or aesthetic aspects of children’s media
· The reception of children’s media
· Participatory video or child-led cinema
· The liminality of childhood and its relation to questions of nationhood on screen
· Aspects of film and television that teach us about current constructions of childhood
· How films/television resist/undermine contemporary constructions of childhood
· How media helps us better understand the role of children in a given societal context
· How media shed light on the relationship between children/adults
· Depictions of childhood understood as metaphors for specific cultural phenomena
· Societal anxieties embedded in media featuring children
· Explanations of how ideas regarding childhood have affected movies and television
Proposals should be sent to Christina (hodel@ku.edu) and consist of a 250 word abstract, a list of three keywords, and a brief biographical statement listing your title, the name of your college or university, and your areas of research.
Deadline to submit is July 20, 2015.
Decisions will be communicated by July 25, 2015.
https://networks.h-net.org/node/14467/discussions/74776/cfp-scms-2016-atlanta-georgia-panel-children-and-media-disney
Discussion published by Christina Hodel on Friday, July 10, 2015
Children, Teens and Everyone In-between: Youth Media
This panel is intended to explore representations of childhood/children on screen. The panel is currently broadly conceived and is open to submissions relating to other aspects of children’s media although topics relating to girls and gender are highly encouraged.
Some possible suggestions for topics are below, but again, please apply if anything related to children and media (and especially gender) is part of your thesis.
· Disney, Nickelodeon and other producers of children’s media content
· Child gender and sexuality issues
· Race, Culture, Class and Children
· Children and relationships
· Advocating for children
· The dark side of childhood/children
· Child perpetrators and victims of violence on screen
· The status of children’s films and/or family films in terms of genre
· The commercial and/or aesthetic aspects of children’s media
· The reception of children’s media
· Participatory video or child-led cinema
· The liminality of childhood and its relation to questions of nationhood on screen
· Aspects of film and television that teach us about current constructions of childhood
· How films/television resist/undermine contemporary constructions of childhood
· How media helps us better understand the role of children in a given societal context
· How media shed light on the relationship between children/adults
· Depictions of childhood understood as metaphors for specific cultural phenomena
· Societal anxieties embedded in media featuring children
· Explanations of how ideas regarding childhood have affected movies and television
Proposals should be sent to Christina (hodel@ku.edu) and consist of a 250 word abstract, a list of three keywords, and a brief biographical statement listing your title, the name of your college or university, and your areas of research.
Deadline to submit is July 20, 2015.
Decisions will be communicated by July 25, 2015.
CFP Tarot/Divination Area (10/1/15; PCA/ACA 2016)
CFP: Tarot/Divination at the 2016 PCA/ACA conference
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/75067/cfp-tarotdivination-2016-pcaaca-conference
Discussion published by Emily Auger on Thursday, July 16, 2015
It's time to submit proposals for the Tarot and Other Methods of Divination area at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) conference in Seattle March 21-25 (Monday through Friday), 2016. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to,
a) any aspect of the traditional or innovative uses of Tarot, astrology, cartomancy, I Ching, numerology, runes, tarot, tasseomancy, etc., such as counseling, fortune-telling, and gaming, etc.
b) the history and analysis of any of these practices, including relevant individuals, organizations, objects, texts, etc.
c) the history and analysis of representations of any of these practices in comics, drama, film, graphic novels, literature, television, etc.
All participants should be prepared to present their work as scholarly research and/or for the benefit of an interested audience of academics.
Submissions should be made to the conference website and should include an abstract or proposal (100-250 words), a short biography (100-150 words), and CV.
Deadline: The conference submission website closes Oct. 1, 2015.
Queries welcome.
Emily E. Auger, PhD
PCA/ACA Conference website: http://pcaaca.org/
Personal website with faq page for the area: http://emilyeauger.weebly.com/cfp-tarot--divination-at-the-pcaaca-conference.html
Email: augeremily@gmail.com
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/75067/cfp-tarotdivination-2016-pcaaca-conference
Discussion published by Emily Auger on Thursday, July 16, 2015
It's time to submit proposals for the Tarot and Other Methods of Divination area at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) conference in Seattle March 21-25 (Monday through Friday), 2016. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to,
a) any aspect of the traditional or innovative uses of Tarot, astrology, cartomancy, I Ching, numerology, runes, tarot, tasseomancy, etc., such as counseling, fortune-telling, and gaming, etc.
b) the history and analysis of any of these practices, including relevant individuals, organizations, objects, texts, etc.
c) the history and analysis of representations of any of these practices in comics, drama, film, graphic novels, literature, television, etc.
All participants should be prepared to present their work as scholarly research and/or for the benefit of an interested audience of academics.
Submissions should be made to the conference website and should include an abstract or proposal (100-250 words), a short biography (100-150 words), and CV.
Deadline: The conference submission website closes Oct. 1, 2015.
Queries welcome.
Emily E. Auger, PhD
PCA/ACA Conference website: http://pcaaca.org/
Personal website with faq page for the area: http://emilyeauger.weebly.com/cfp-tarot--divination-at-the-pcaaca-conference.html
Email: augeremily@gmail.com
CFP Failed Adaptations from Page to Screen (9/30/16; NeMLA 2016)
"Ruined!" On Failed Adaptations from Page to Screen | NeMLA 2016 (Abstract Submission Deadline: September 30, 2015)
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/75907/ruined-failed-adaptations-page-screen-nemla-2016-abstract
Announcement published by Derek McGrath on Monday, July 20, 2015
Type: Call for Papers
Date: June 30, 2015 to September 30, 2015
Location: Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields: Film and Film History, Literature
This session will explore adaptations that fail in some way. Among our goals, we would like to identify what could be productive about failed adaptations. How do such failures identify what not to do, and can an adaptation that fails to be faithful to its source material still produce a valuable, worthwhile text? We are particularly interested in proposals that look at the adaptation of older artistic and literary forms in online and/or interactive content.
Submit abstracts (300 words maximum) by September 30, 2015, to Session ID#15658 at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15658
An adaptation from page to screen is fraught with tension due to potentially conflicting goals: on the one hand, adhering to its source material, and on the other hand, attempting to make something new. Adaptation can be imagined as an argument between the creator of the original text and the creator of its adaptation, hilariously - and perhaps accurately - represented by Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep’s characters cursing each other in the appropriately titled film Adaptation.
This session will explore adaptations that fail in some way. Among our goals, we would like to identify what could be productive about failed adaptations. How do such failures identify what not to do? And can an adaptation that fails to be faithful to its source material still produce a valuable, worthwhile text?
Potential topics will include not only those adaptations that diverge so drastically from the plot, characterization, and setting of the original story but also the formal differences. How does the screen fail to adapt more covert aspects present in narration? How is the fantastic reduced to the realistic in image, performance, and setting? Which ekphrastic challenges did the creators fail to adapt moving between media?
In Spring 2016, the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) will meet in Hartford, Connecticut, for its 47th Annual Convention. Every year, this event affords NeMLA’s principal opportunity to carry on a tradition of lively research and pedagogical exchange in language and literature.
Please join us for this convention, which will feature approximately 400 sessions, dynamic speakers, and cultural events. Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA session; however, panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar). Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable.
Full information regarding the 2016 Call for Papers may be found on NeMLA's website: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp
Contact Info:
Emily Lauer (SUNY Suffolk County Community College), lauere@sunysuffolk.edu
Derek McGrath (SUNY Stony Brook), derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com
Contact Email:
lauere@sunysuffolk.edu
URL:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15658
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/75907/ruined-failed-adaptations-page-screen-nemla-2016-abstract
Announcement published by Derek McGrath on Monday, July 20, 2015
Type: Call for Papers
Date: June 30, 2015 to September 30, 2015
Location: Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields: Film and Film History, Literature
This session will explore adaptations that fail in some way. Among our goals, we would like to identify what could be productive about failed adaptations. How do such failures identify what not to do, and can an adaptation that fails to be faithful to its source material still produce a valuable, worthwhile text? We are particularly interested in proposals that look at the adaptation of older artistic and literary forms in online and/or interactive content.
Submit abstracts (300 words maximum) by September 30, 2015, to Session ID#15658 at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15658
An adaptation from page to screen is fraught with tension due to potentially conflicting goals: on the one hand, adhering to its source material, and on the other hand, attempting to make something new. Adaptation can be imagined as an argument between the creator of the original text and the creator of its adaptation, hilariously - and perhaps accurately - represented by Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep’s characters cursing each other in the appropriately titled film Adaptation.
This session will explore adaptations that fail in some way. Among our goals, we would like to identify what could be productive about failed adaptations. How do such failures identify what not to do? And can an adaptation that fails to be faithful to its source material still produce a valuable, worthwhile text?
Potential topics will include not only those adaptations that diverge so drastically from the plot, characterization, and setting of the original story but also the formal differences. How does the screen fail to adapt more covert aspects present in narration? How is the fantastic reduced to the realistic in image, performance, and setting? Which ekphrastic challenges did the creators fail to adapt moving between media?
In Spring 2016, the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) will meet in Hartford, Connecticut, for its 47th Annual Convention. Every year, this event affords NeMLA’s principal opportunity to carry on a tradition of lively research and pedagogical exchange in language and literature.
Please join us for this convention, which will feature approximately 400 sessions, dynamic speakers, and cultural events. Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA session; however, panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar). Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable.
Full information regarding the 2016 Call for Papers may be found on NeMLA's website: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp
Contact Info:
Emily Lauer (SUNY Suffolk County Community College), lauere@sunysuffolk.edu
Derek McGrath (SUNY Stony Brook), derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com
Contact Email:
lauere@sunysuffolk.edu
URL:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15658
CFP Cultural Encounters during Global War, 1914-1918: Traces, Spaces, Legacies Conference (9/14/15; London 1/21-23/16)
This sounds interesting:
Cultural Encounters during Global War, 1914-1918: Traces, Spaces, Legacies
Announcement published by Daniel Steinbach on Friday, July 17, 2015
Type: Call for Papers
Date: September 14, 2015
Location: United Kingdom
Subject Fields:
British History / Studies, American History / Studies, Communication, Eastern Europe History / Studies, European History / Studies, French History / Studies, German History / Studies, Languages, Cultural History / Studies, Italian History / Studies, Military History, Modern European History / Studies, Nationalism History / Studies, Psychology, Russian or Soviet History / Studies, Social History / Studies, Sociology, Spanish and Portuguese History / Studies, World History / Studies
Call for Papers for an interdisciplinary conference on Cultural Encounters during Global War, 1914-1918:
Traces, Spaces, Legacies
Date: 21 – 23 January 2016
Place: London, United Kingdom
Convenors: Dr Santanu Das, King’s College London
Prof Andreas Gestrich, German Historical Institute
Dr Daniel Steinbach, King’s College London
The First World War resulted in an unprecedented range of encounters between peoples from different ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds. Soldiers from across the globe travelled to different theatres of war – Europe, the Middle East, East Africa, Egypt, Gallipoli – where they not only encountered fellow-soldiers and non-combatants with different languages, religions or customs, but also interacted with friendly or belligerent civilians. Between 1914 and 1918, on French soil alone, there were over 1 million Asian and African men, both soldiers and non-combatants, in addition to soldiers from Australia, New Zealand and North America.
Europe would never be the same again not just in terms of the war’s wreckage but in terms of people, ethnicities and cultures that were encountered, manipulated, studied, befriended. These encounters not only affected the individuals involved, but left deep traces in the literature, arts and culture of the times.
Simultaneously, a different kind of ‘cultural encounter’ was being engineered within Europe: the belligerent states were each trying to win over the neutral nations by funding cultural institutions and trying to influence artists, writers and opinion makers throughout the war. Neutral countries, particularly Sweden and Switzerland, became hubs for the activities of anti-colonial revolutionaries from Asia and North Africa. Furthermore, belligerent countries carried out intensive propaganda in Europe as well as in the colonies to ensure either imperial loyalty or to mobilize anti-colonial feelings and actions.
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to investigate the different kinds of encounters, exchanges and entanglements happening during wartime. What particular pressures did the conditions of war put on such encounters? What is the relationship between ‘forced encounters’ (as in camps for POW or civilian internees), ‘voluntary’ encounters (as in towns, markets, billets) and the state-sponsored ideologically motivated ‘indirect’ encounters (in the neutral countries)? Does encounter always involve exchange? What were the structures of power and how did they navigate the prevalent ideologies of race? How did the encounters and exchanges occur across linguistic, national, religious, ethnic and social barriers, and what were their post-war legacies in terms of social, cultural, artistic and literary memory for Europe? Papers which pay attention to encounters or exchanges which involve colonials and neutrals – which is still a largely under-researched area – are particularly welcome.
The conference aims to overcome the dominant national and geographical approaches to the First World War and seeks to investigate moments and processes of cultural encounters, exchange, porosity and (mis-)understanding from different disciplinary perspectives, including history, geography, literature, anthropology, cultural, area, visual and gender studies. We would like to invite papers on the following themes, but are also open other aspects of cultural exchange during the First World War:
Accommodation will be provided for speakers for the duration of the conference and speakers’ travel expenses will be reimbursed within reason.
Proposals from scholars at any stage in their career are invited and papers with an interdisciplinary approach are particularly welcome.
Participants should send abstracts of up to 300 words for a 20-25 minute paper, a short biography, and any enquiries to daniel.steinbach@kcl.ac.uk by 14 September 2015.
Contact Info:
Dr Daniel Steinbach
King's College London
Virgina Woolf Building
22 Kingsway
London WC2B 6LE
Contact Email:
daniel.steinbach@kcl.ac.uk
URL:
http://www.cegcproject.eu/activities-events/cegc-events-conferences-and-workshops/
Cultural Encounters during Global War, 1914-1918: Traces, Spaces, Legacies
Announcement published by Daniel Steinbach on Friday, July 17, 2015
Type: Call for Papers
Date: September 14, 2015
Location: United Kingdom
Subject Fields:
British History / Studies, American History / Studies, Communication, Eastern Europe History / Studies, European History / Studies, French History / Studies, German History / Studies, Languages, Cultural History / Studies, Italian History / Studies, Military History, Modern European History / Studies, Nationalism History / Studies, Psychology, Russian or Soviet History / Studies, Social History / Studies, Sociology, Spanish and Portuguese History / Studies, World History / Studies
Call for Papers for an interdisciplinary conference on Cultural Encounters during Global War, 1914-1918:
Traces, Spaces, Legacies
Date: 21 – 23 January 2016
Place: London, United Kingdom
Convenors: Dr Santanu Das, King’s College London
Prof Andreas Gestrich, German Historical Institute
Dr Daniel Steinbach, King’s College London
The First World War resulted in an unprecedented range of encounters between peoples from different ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds. Soldiers from across the globe travelled to different theatres of war – Europe, the Middle East, East Africa, Egypt, Gallipoli – where they not only encountered fellow-soldiers and non-combatants with different languages, religions or customs, but also interacted with friendly or belligerent civilians. Between 1914 and 1918, on French soil alone, there were over 1 million Asian and African men, both soldiers and non-combatants, in addition to soldiers from Australia, New Zealand and North America.
Europe would never be the same again not just in terms of the war’s wreckage but in terms of people, ethnicities and cultures that were encountered, manipulated, studied, befriended. These encounters not only affected the individuals involved, but left deep traces in the literature, arts and culture of the times.
Simultaneously, a different kind of ‘cultural encounter’ was being engineered within Europe: the belligerent states were each trying to win over the neutral nations by funding cultural institutions and trying to influence artists, writers and opinion makers throughout the war. Neutral countries, particularly Sweden and Switzerland, became hubs for the activities of anti-colonial revolutionaries from Asia and North Africa. Furthermore, belligerent countries carried out intensive propaganda in Europe as well as in the colonies to ensure either imperial loyalty or to mobilize anti-colonial feelings and actions.
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to investigate the different kinds of encounters, exchanges and entanglements happening during wartime. What particular pressures did the conditions of war put on such encounters? What is the relationship between ‘forced encounters’ (as in camps for POW or civilian internees), ‘voluntary’ encounters (as in towns, markets, billets) and the state-sponsored ideologically motivated ‘indirect’ encounters (in the neutral countries)? Does encounter always involve exchange? What were the structures of power and how did they navigate the prevalent ideologies of race? How did the encounters and exchanges occur across linguistic, national, religious, ethnic and social barriers, and what were their post-war legacies in terms of social, cultural, artistic and literary memory for Europe? Papers which pay attention to encounters or exchanges which involve colonials and neutrals – which is still a largely under-researched area – are particularly welcome.
The conference aims to overcome the dominant national and geographical approaches to the First World War and seeks to investigate moments and processes of cultural encounters, exchange, porosity and (mis-)understanding from different disciplinary perspectives, including history, geography, literature, anthropology, cultural, area, visual and gender studies. We would like to invite papers on the following themes, but are also open other aspects of cultural exchange during the First World War:
- Spaces of cultural encounters and exchange (e.g. ships, trenches, camps, billets, hospitals)
- Cultural encounters and/or exchange among soldiers at the front and between soldiers and civilians
- Occupation, captivity, deportation and cultural exchange
- Medium of cultural exchange (e.g. newspapers, letters, journals, films)
- Propaganda and cultural exchange
- Contemporary public and private reaction to and reflection on cultural exchange
- Intellectual, literary and artistic exchanges and networks during the war
- Transnational movements (Pan-Asianism, Pan-Africanism, Pan-Islamism) and anti-colonial networks
- Impact of the cultural exchanges and their post-war legacies
Accommodation will be provided for speakers for the duration of the conference and speakers’ travel expenses will be reimbursed within reason.
Proposals from scholars at any stage in their career are invited and papers with an interdisciplinary approach are particularly welcome.
Participants should send abstracts of up to 300 words for a 20-25 minute paper, a short biography, and any enquiries to daniel.steinbach@kcl.ac.uk by 14 September 2015.
Contact Info:
Dr Daniel Steinbach
King's College London
Virgina Woolf Building
22 Kingsway
London WC2B 6LE
Contact Email:
daniel.steinbach@kcl.ac.uk
URL:
http://www.cegcproject.eu/activities-events/cegc-events-conferences-and-workshops/
CFP Doctor Who and History (9/1/15)
Another call from the SFRA-L:
Call for Chapter Proposals: Doctor Who and History
Deadline: 1 September 2015 (contributors will be notified within two weeks of the deadline)
When Sydney Newman created a new family-orientated show for the BBC back in early 1963, he envisioned it as being, in John Reith’s terms, to “educate, inform and entertain”, one in which all stories “were to be based on scientific and historical facts as we knew them at that time”. It was no coincidence therefore that consequently the Doctor took on board the TARDIS a science teacher and a history teacher to learn from and share in his travels. “How wonderful,” Newman would later recall, “if today’s humans could find themselves on the shores of England seeing and getting mixed up with Caesar’s army in 54 BC, landing to take over the country; be in Rome burning as Nero fiddles; get involved in Europe’s tragic 30 years war, etc.” There would be no bug-eyed monsters, Newman warned, and the Doctor was not allowed to interfere in history, only to observe.
Over fifty years later, Doctor Who has itself become part of the cultural history of Britain, and its many stories across television, audio plays and books – whether set in the past or populated with the inevitable bug-eyed-monsters – have engaged directly and indirectly with important contemporary and historical issues, characters and events.
We invite contributions for an edited volume that focuses on Doctor Who and History: A Cultural Perspective. While there have been many publications recently celebrating the show’s longevity, or those reflecting on the programme as a product of the BBC as British institution, this volume focuses specifically on the topic of history. This publication promotes a scholarly and interdisciplinary approach to Doctor Who, exploring how the programme reflects on and contributes to notions of history.
Doctor Who engages with history in multifarious ways and can therefore reveal much about how history is practised, produced, consumed and remediated. Chapter proposals may therefore seek to explore Doctor Who from a diverse range of academic approaches (e.g. media studies; reception theory; fan studies; education) and should draw on and identify appropriate historiographical methods and debates. It is envisaged that the collection will speak both to the programme and to history as a subject area.
Your contribution may focus on the classic series, the reboot (or both), the Big Finish audios, original novels, or fan fiction.
That said, your contribution might focus on some aspect of
Topics already under consideration include the depiction of Nero and the early Roman Empire in 1965’s The Romans, imagery of the Holocaust, focalisation techniques in lost story Marco Polo, and an investigation into the cultural practices and social sign-posting in The Awakening.
Proposals/abstracts should be 300-350 words in length and sent as a Word file. Accepted proposals will be developed into 5000-8000 word essays (including notes and references). Please send your abstract (and all correspondence) to Carey Fleiner, University of Winchester (carey.fleiner@winchester.ac.uk) James A. Jordan, University of Southampton (J.A.Jordan@soton.ac.uk) and Dene October, University of Arts London (d.october@lcc.arts.ac.uk).
See https://doctorwhoandhistory.wordpress.com/. for details.
--
Dr Lincoln Geraghty FHEA, FRSA
Reader in Popular Media Cultures
School of Media and Performing Arts
University of Portsmouth
Call for Chapter Proposals: Doctor Who and History
Deadline: 1 September 2015 (contributors will be notified within two weeks of the deadline)
When Sydney Newman created a new family-orientated show for the BBC back in early 1963, he envisioned it as being, in John Reith’s terms, to “educate, inform and entertain”, one in which all stories “were to be based on scientific and historical facts as we knew them at that time”. It was no coincidence therefore that consequently the Doctor took on board the TARDIS a science teacher and a history teacher to learn from and share in his travels. “How wonderful,” Newman would later recall, “if today’s humans could find themselves on the shores of England seeing and getting mixed up with Caesar’s army in 54 BC, landing to take over the country; be in Rome burning as Nero fiddles; get involved in Europe’s tragic 30 years war, etc.” There would be no bug-eyed monsters, Newman warned, and the Doctor was not allowed to interfere in history, only to observe.
Over fifty years later, Doctor Who has itself become part of the cultural history of Britain, and its many stories across television, audio plays and books – whether set in the past or populated with the inevitable bug-eyed-monsters – have engaged directly and indirectly with important contemporary and historical issues, characters and events.
We invite contributions for an edited volume that focuses on Doctor Who and History: A Cultural Perspective. While there have been many publications recently celebrating the show’s longevity, or those reflecting on the programme as a product of the BBC as British institution, this volume focuses specifically on the topic of history. This publication promotes a scholarly and interdisciplinary approach to Doctor Who, exploring how the programme reflects on and contributes to notions of history.
Doctor Who engages with history in multifarious ways and can therefore reveal much about how history is practised, produced, consumed and remediated. Chapter proposals may therefore seek to explore Doctor Who from a diverse range of academic approaches (e.g. media studies; reception theory; fan studies; education) and should draw on and identify appropriate historiographical methods and debates. It is envisaged that the collection will speak both to the programme and to history as a subject area.
Your contribution may focus on the classic series, the reboot (or both), the Big Finish audios, original novels, or fan fiction.
That said, your contribution might focus on some aspect of
- Reflections in the programme of particular social and political eras and events
- How the show engages with historical cultural icons
- How the show expresses a continuing dialogue with literature, folklore, and mythology
- Tensions between academic and ‘public history’, between history from above and below
- How changing approaches to history and alterations in understanding of historical fact have impacted upon the show
- Non-canonical historical travels or themes
- The interaction of media and technologies in how they inform the practice of history in the programme
- Developments in the Doctor’s strict policy of non-intervention – or not
- Case studies of the ‘pure historicals’/pseudo historicals/celebrity historicals
Topics already under consideration include the depiction of Nero and the early Roman Empire in 1965’s The Romans, imagery of the Holocaust, focalisation techniques in lost story Marco Polo, and an investigation into the cultural practices and social sign-posting in The Awakening.
Proposals/abstracts should be 300-350 words in length and sent as a Word file. Accepted proposals will be developed into 5000-8000 word essays (including notes and references). Please send your abstract (and all correspondence) to Carey Fleiner, University of Winchester (carey.fleiner@winchester.ac.uk) James A. Jordan, University of Southampton (J.A.Jordan@soton.ac.uk) and Dene October, University of Arts London (d.october@lcc.arts.ac.uk).
See https://doctorwhoandhistory.wordpress.com/. for details.
--
Dr Lincoln Geraghty FHEA, FRSA
Reader in Popular Media Cultures
School of Media and Performing Arts
University of Portsmouth
CFP Crank up the Resolution: Cyberpunk in Visual/Virtual Media (abstract by 8/1/15)
A reminder from the SFRA Listserv:
Call for Contributions
Crank up the Resolution: Cyberpunk in Visual/Virtual Media
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)
Contributions are invited for a critical anthology focusing on cyberpunk beyond its literary dimension, its presentation in visual/virtual media, and its ongoing relevance in the 21st century.
Cyberpunk, that immensely popular form of 1980s science fiction (SF), was shaped by the innovative and highly stylized literary works of writers such as William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, and Lewis Shiner, to name a few. Gibson’s debut novel Neuromancer is the ur-text of cyberpunk, and as the opening line quoted above reveals, it is a genre that relied strongly on visual motifs for its brushed-chrome literary splendor. The cyberpunk imaginary is richly saturated with computer-generated worlds, video games, music videos, simulated stimuli, consensual hallucinations, and many other technologies that highlight the visual and/or the virtual. As a result, the importance of the visual/virtual component readily translated cyberpunk into contemporaneous film, television, and video games, such as Blade Runner (1982), Tron (1982), Videodrome (1983), Max Headroom (1985; 1987), Wasteland (1987), Akira (1988), and so forth.
It is in no small part due to this visual/virtual form that cyberpunk survived many pronouncements of its demise over the years and decades that followed its initial popularity. Cyberpunk has evolved beyond the original cadre of eighties-era authors and undergone transformations in successive waves with increasingly varied thematic and political interests and goals; in other words, as Thomas Foster remarks in The Souls of Cyberfolk, cyberpunk “didn’t so much die as experience a sea change into a more generalized cultural formation.”
Visual and virtual embodiments of cyberpunk have continued to resonate well into the new millennium, in media as varied as film, television, video games, comic books/graphic novels, and art (photography, painting, design, fashion, etc.); yet, monographs and anthologies tend to focus overwhelmingly on literary cyberpunk with little attention paid to its visual/virtual offspring. Crank up the Resolution: Cyberpunk in Visual/Virtual Media seeks to redress this oversight by focusing on the ‘sea changes’ of cyberpunk in visual/virtual media, including (but not limited to) the following:
Cyberpunk in Film and Television
· Aeon Flux
· Akira
· Almost Human
· Avalon
· Blade Runner
· Dollhouse
· Elysium
· Gamer
· Ghost in the Shell
· Hackers
· Hardwired
· Johnny Mnemonic
· Lawnmower Man
· RoboCop
· Sleep Dealer
· Strange Days
· TekWar
· Terminator
· The Matrix
· Total Recall
· Tron
· Ultraviolet
· Videodrome
· Virtuosity
Cyberpunk in Video Games
· Beneath a Steel Sky
· Cyberpunk 2077
· Cypher
· Deus Ex
· Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
· Fear Effect
· Metal Gear Solid
· Neocron
· Remember Me
· Shadowrun
· Shin Megami Tensei
· Syndicate
· System Shock
· Wasteland
· Watch Dogs
Cyberpunk in Comic Books/Graphic Novels
· Transmetropolitan
· The Resistance
· Hard Boiled
· Heavy Liquid
· Singularity 7
· Channel Zero
· Hard Drive
· Ballistic
· Doktor Sleepless
· The Surrogates
Cyberpunk in art/photography/design/fashion/advertisement
The visual/virtual in Cyberpunk-derived genres
Theoretical approaches to visual/virtual cyberpunk
Aesthetics of visual/virtual cyberpunk
Crank up the Resolution: Cyberpunk in Visual/Virtual Media seeks to highlight visual and virtual forms of cyberpunk with outstanding academic scholarship and new critical approaches in an anthology that can be readily accessible to academics, scholars, teachers, and students alike. 1-2 page abstracts (Word or RTF) and brief biographies are invited by August 1st, 2015.
The projected timeline for the anthology is: Abstracts due by August 1st , 2015; participants notified by Sep 1st 2015; finished papers due Jan 1st , 2016; revisions in spring 2016; publication in fall 2016 (pending publisher timelines).
Submissions and queries can be sent to the editors Graham J. Murphy (Seneca College, Toronto, Canada) and Lars Schmeink (Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research, Hamburg, Germany) via email. Regular mail addresses will be provided upon request.
Graham J. Murphy: gjamurphy@gmail.com
Lars Schmeink: lars@wortraub.com
Call for Contributions
Crank up the Resolution: Cyberpunk in Visual/Virtual Media
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)
Contributions are invited for a critical anthology focusing on cyberpunk beyond its literary dimension, its presentation in visual/virtual media, and its ongoing relevance in the 21st century.
Cyberpunk, that immensely popular form of 1980s science fiction (SF), was shaped by the innovative and highly stylized literary works of writers such as William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, and Lewis Shiner, to name a few. Gibson’s debut novel Neuromancer is the ur-text of cyberpunk, and as the opening line quoted above reveals, it is a genre that relied strongly on visual motifs for its brushed-chrome literary splendor. The cyberpunk imaginary is richly saturated with computer-generated worlds, video games, music videos, simulated stimuli, consensual hallucinations, and many other technologies that highlight the visual and/or the virtual. As a result, the importance of the visual/virtual component readily translated cyberpunk into contemporaneous film, television, and video games, such as Blade Runner (1982), Tron (1982), Videodrome (1983), Max Headroom (1985; 1987), Wasteland (1987), Akira (1988), and so forth.
It is in no small part due to this visual/virtual form that cyberpunk survived many pronouncements of its demise over the years and decades that followed its initial popularity. Cyberpunk has evolved beyond the original cadre of eighties-era authors and undergone transformations in successive waves with increasingly varied thematic and political interests and goals; in other words, as Thomas Foster remarks in The Souls of Cyberfolk, cyberpunk “didn’t so much die as experience a sea change into a more generalized cultural formation.”
Visual and virtual embodiments of cyberpunk have continued to resonate well into the new millennium, in media as varied as film, television, video games, comic books/graphic novels, and art (photography, painting, design, fashion, etc.); yet, monographs and anthologies tend to focus overwhelmingly on literary cyberpunk with little attention paid to its visual/virtual offspring. Crank up the Resolution: Cyberpunk in Visual/Virtual Media seeks to redress this oversight by focusing on the ‘sea changes’ of cyberpunk in visual/virtual media, including (but not limited to) the following:
Cyberpunk in Film and Television
· Aeon Flux
· Akira
· Almost Human
· Avalon
· Blade Runner
· Dollhouse
· Elysium
· Gamer
· Ghost in the Shell
· Hackers
· Hardwired
· Johnny Mnemonic
· Lawnmower Man
· RoboCop
· Sleep Dealer
· Strange Days
· TekWar
· Terminator
· The Matrix
· Total Recall
· Tron
· Ultraviolet
· Videodrome
· Virtuosity
Cyberpunk in Video Games
· Beneath a Steel Sky
· Cyberpunk 2077
· Cypher
· Deus Ex
· Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
· Fear Effect
· Metal Gear Solid
· Neocron
· Remember Me
· Shadowrun
· Shin Megami Tensei
· Syndicate
· System Shock
· Wasteland
· Watch Dogs
Cyberpunk in Comic Books/Graphic Novels
· Transmetropolitan
· The Resistance
· Hard Boiled
· Heavy Liquid
· Singularity 7
· Channel Zero
· Hard Drive
· Ballistic
· Doktor Sleepless
· The Surrogates
Cyberpunk in art/photography/design/fashion/advertisement
The visual/virtual in Cyberpunk-derived genres
Theoretical approaches to visual/virtual cyberpunk
Aesthetics of visual/virtual cyberpunk
Crank up the Resolution: Cyberpunk in Visual/Virtual Media seeks to highlight visual and virtual forms of cyberpunk with outstanding academic scholarship and new critical approaches in an anthology that can be readily accessible to academics, scholars, teachers, and students alike. 1-2 page abstracts (Word or RTF) and brief biographies are invited by August 1st, 2015.
The projected timeline for the anthology is: Abstracts due by August 1st , 2015; participants notified by Sep 1st 2015; finished papers due Jan 1st , 2016; revisions in spring 2016; publication in fall 2016 (pending publisher timelines).
Submissions and queries can be sent to the editors Graham J. Murphy (Seneca College, Toronto, Canada) and Lars Schmeink (Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research, Hamburg, Germany) via email. Regular mail addresses will be provided upon request.
Graham J. Murphy: gjamurphy@gmail.com
Lars Schmeink: lars@wortraub.com
CFP ICFA (10/31/15; Orlando, FL 3/16-20/16)
CfP: ICFA 37 – Wonder Tales
Posted on July 17, 2015 by Public Information Officer
http://www.fantastic-arts.org/2015/cfp-icfa-37-wonder-tales/
Please join us for ICFA 37, March 16-20, 2016, when our theme will be Wonder Tales.
Folklorists often use this term to refer to the stories commonly known as “fairy tales” due to the genre’s emphasis on the marvelous and its invocation of wonder, but what is wonder and where can it be found? Many events, characters, or objects generate a response of wonder—transformations and resurrections—but wonder also may be generated in technological advances and from the “sense of wonder” in science fiction. Papers might explore wonder tales and their modern incarnations, readers’ responses of wonder to fantastic texts, uses of wonder within fantastic texts, how wonder is invoked across media and genres, and the relationship between wondering (marveling) and wondering (questioning).
We welcome papers on the work of our guests: Guest of Honor Terri Windling, Guest of Honor Holly Black, and Guest Scholar Cristina Bacchilega. We also welcome proposals for individual papers and for academic sessions and panels on any aspect of the fantastic in any media.
The deadline for proposals is October 31, 2015. We encourage work from institutionally affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, and graduate students.
Join us in Orlando in 2016. We will add your intellectual and creative distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile.
For more information on the IAFA and its conference, the ICFA, see http://www.fantastic-arts.org/.
To submit a proposal, go to http://www.fantastic-arts.org/icfa-submissions/
Download the CfP for ICFA 37 from Dropbox @ https://www.dropbox.com/s/6uleynif1wijh2z/IAFA37-CfP-2.docx?dl=0
Posted on July 17, 2015 by Public Information Officer
http://www.fantastic-arts.org/2015/cfp-icfa-37-wonder-tales/
Please join us for ICFA 37, March 16-20, 2016, when our theme will be Wonder Tales.
Folklorists often use this term to refer to the stories commonly known as “fairy tales” due to the genre’s emphasis on the marvelous and its invocation of wonder, but what is wonder and where can it be found? Many events, characters, or objects generate a response of wonder—transformations and resurrections—but wonder also may be generated in technological advances and from the “sense of wonder” in science fiction. Papers might explore wonder tales and their modern incarnations, readers’ responses of wonder to fantastic texts, uses of wonder within fantastic texts, how wonder is invoked across media and genres, and the relationship between wondering (marveling) and wondering (questioning).
We welcome papers on the work of our guests: Guest of Honor Terri Windling, Guest of Honor Holly Black, and Guest Scholar Cristina Bacchilega. We also welcome proposals for individual papers and for academic sessions and panels on any aspect of the fantastic in any media.
The deadline for proposals is October 31, 2015. We encourage work from institutionally affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, and graduate students.
Join us in Orlando in 2016. We will add your intellectual and creative distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile.
For more information on the IAFA and its conference, the ICFA, see http://www.fantastic-arts.org/.
To submit a proposal, go to http://www.fantastic-arts.org/icfa-submissions/
Download the CfP for ICFA 37 from Dropbox @ https://www.dropbox.com/s/6uleynif1wijh2z/IAFA37-CfP-2.docx?dl=0
Friday, July 10, 2015
CFP SFFTV Special Issue on Mad Max franchise (2/1/16)
SFFTV CFP: Special Issue on Mad Max franchise
full name / name of organization: Dan Hassler-Forest
contact email: dhasslerforest@gmail.com
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/62589
Science Fiction Film and Television seeks submissions for a special issue on the Mad Max franchise.
Guest editor: Dan Hassler-Forest
The original MAD MAX (1979) was a hard-edged low-budget exploitation film with sf elements, frantically put together in twelve weeks by a small crew working in and around Melbourne on a $325,000 budget. Its worldwide success led to two incrementally more ambitious sequels that expanded the first film’s dystopian vision significantly: MAD MAX 2 (aka THE ROAD WARRIOR) in 1982, and Hollywood behemoth MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME in 1985. The film trilogy became hugely influential in its depiction of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the sequels in particular establishing a visual style that soon became a default for visual representations of punk dystopias in film, television, comic books, video games, and music videos. At the same time, a wide range of comics, novels and novelizations, and video games expanded the films’ storyworld significantly.
When the fourth film in the franchise was released to much acclaim three decades after the original trilogy ended, it proved to be neither prequel, sequel, nor reboot. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD instead revived the franchise as a variation on established themes, full of references to earlier films, but without a clear chronological relationship to its precursors. The film’s gender politics, ideology, and aesthetics have been widely debated, and new films and transmedia expansions are once again being prepared.
SFFTV invites fresh approaches to Mad Max as a sf entertainment franchise and transnational cultural phenomenon, with possible emphases on:
* politics and ideology
* fossil fuel and peak oil in sf
* post-apocalyptic narratives
* franchising and transmedia world-building
* sequels, spin-offs, and novelizations
* ecological disaster sf
* transnational cinema
* exploitation cinema and cult film
* materiality and sf: film vs. digital cinema
* transnational celebrity: Mel Gibson, Tina Turner, Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron
* representations of race and ethnicity
* gender politics and queer theory
* sf literature influences
* music video aesthetics
* “the indie blockbuster”: independent cinema in post-classical Hollywood
* representations of children and childhood
* George Miller and auteur theory
* MAD MAX and transnational exploitation cinema
* MAD MAX 2 and queer theory
* MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME and 1980s corporate synergy
* MAD MAX: FURY ROAD and digital cinema
Articles of 6,000-9,000 words should be formatted using MLA style and according to the submission guidelines available on our website. Submissions should be made via our online system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com:80/lup-sfftv. Articles not selected for the special issue will be considered for future issues of SFFTV.
Any questions should be directed to the editors, Dan Hassler-Forest (dhasslerforest@gmail.com), Mark Bould (mark.bould@gmail.com), Sherryl Vint (sherryl.vint@gmail.com), and Gerry Canavan (gerrycanavan@gmail.com).
The deadline for submissions is February 1, 2016, with anticipated publication in spring 2017.
By web submission at 06/17/2015 - 20:51
full name / name of organization: Dan Hassler-Forest
contact email: dhasslerforest@gmail.com
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/62589
Science Fiction Film and Television seeks submissions for a special issue on the Mad Max franchise.
Guest editor: Dan Hassler-Forest
The original MAD MAX (1979) was a hard-edged low-budget exploitation film with sf elements, frantically put together in twelve weeks by a small crew working in and around Melbourne on a $325,000 budget. Its worldwide success led to two incrementally more ambitious sequels that expanded the first film’s dystopian vision significantly: MAD MAX 2 (aka THE ROAD WARRIOR) in 1982, and Hollywood behemoth MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME in 1985. The film trilogy became hugely influential in its depiction of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the sequels in particular establishing a visual style that soon became a default for visual representations of punk dystopias in film, television, comic books, video games, and music videos. At the same time, a wide range of comics, novels and novelizations, and video games expanded the films’ storyworld significantly.
When the fourth film in the franchise was released to much acclaim three decades after the original trilogy ended, it proved to be neither prequel, sequel, nor reboot. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD instead revived the franchise as a variation on established themes, full of references to earlier films, but without a clear chronological relationship to its precursors. The film’s gender politics, ideology, and aesthetics have been widely debated, and new films and transmedia expansions are once again being prepared.
SFFTV invites fresh approaches to Mad Max as a sf entertainment franchise and transnational cultural phenomenon, with possible emphases on:
* politics and ideology
* fossil fuel and peak oil in sf
* post-apocalyptic narratives
* franchising and transmedia world-building
* sequels, spin-offs, and novelizations
* ecological disaster sf
* transnational cinema
* exploitation cinema and cult film
* materiality and sf: film vs. digital cinema
* transnational celebrity: Mel Gibson, Tina Turner, Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron
* representations of race and ethnicity
* gender politics and queer theory
* sf literature influences
* music video aesthetics
* “the indie blockbuster”: independent cinema in post-classical Hollywood
* representations of children and childhood
* George Miller and auteur theory
* MAD MAX and transnational exploitation cinema
* MAD MAX 2 and queer theory
* MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME and 1980s corporate synergy
* MAD MAX: FURY ROAD and digital cinema
Articles of 6,000-9,000 words should be formatted using MLA style and according to the submission guidelines available on our website. Submissions should be made via our online system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com:80/lup-sfftv. Articles not selected for the special issue will be considered for future issues of SFFTV.
Any questions should be directed to the editors, Dan Hassler-Forest (dhasslerforest@gmail.com), Mark Bould (mark.bould@gmail.com), Sherryl Vint (sherryl.vint@gmail.com), and Gerry Canavan (gerrycanavan@gmail.com).
The deadline for submissions is February 1, 2016, with anticipated publication in spring 2017.
By web submission at 06/17/2015 - 20:51
CFP Researching New York (7/19/15; Albany, NY 11/19-20/15)
Also of potential interest:
Researching New York: An annual conference on all aspects of New York State History
Announcement published by Susan McCormick on Friday, July 10, 2015
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74951/researching-new-york-annual-conference-all-aspects-new-york-state
Type: Call for Papers
Date: July 19, 2015
Location: United States
Subject Fields: American History / Studies, Cultural History / Studies, Local History, Rural History / Studies, Social History / Studies, Sociology, Urban History / Studies
RESEARCHING NEW YORK 2015
Communities of New York
November 19 & 20, 2015
University at Albany, SUNY
A reminder that the deadline for this year's Researching New York Conference Call for Papers is approaching. As always, we seek proposals on all aspects of New York State History. For 2015, we also encourage proposals that explore the diverse communities of NY-their histories and how they are gathered, preserved, and presented-whether asking "what is a community?" or exploring the experiences of specific communities. Often defined by geography or physical location, communities may also include, or transcend, shared cultural, political, religious, ethnic, racial or gender identities or experiences. From the earliest Natve Americans of New York to the virtual communities of today; how they have evolved, worked together, or challenged each other has profoundly shaped New York history. Whether as notable historic actors or everyday citizens, how individuals have navigated, often multiple, communities has influenced their accomplishments as well. We ask how do these understandings shape our understanding of New York history, not only in telling the stories of the past, but also helping to engage with diverse communities today.
See submission guidelines on conference website. This annual conference brings together historians, archivists, public historians, graduate students, museum curators, documentarians, and more to share their work on New York State history.
Contact Info:
Susan McCormick, Conference Chair
History Dept. Social Science 144
University at Albany, SUNY
Albany, NY 12222
518-442-5431
Contact Email:
smccormick@albany.edu
URL:
http://www.nystatehistory.org
Researching New York: An annual conference on all aspects of New York State History
Announcement published by Susan McCormick on Friday, July 10, 2015
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74951/researching-new-york-annual-conference-all-aspects-new-york-state
Type: Call for Papers
Date: July 19, 2015
Location: United States
Subject Fields: American History / Studies, Cultural History / Studies, Local History, Rural History / Studies, Social History / Studies, Sociology, Urban History / Studies
RESEARCHING NEW YORK 2015
Communities of New York
November 19 & 20, 2015
University at Albany, SUNY
A reminder that the deadline for this year's Researching New York Conference Call for Papers is approaching. As always, we seek proposals on all aspects of New York State History. For 2015, we also encourage proposals that explore the diverse communities of NY-their histories and how they are gathered, preserved, and presented-whether asking "what is a community?" or exploring the experiences of specific communities. Often defined by geography or physical location, communities may also include, or transcend, shared cultural, political, religious, ethnic, racial or gender identities or experiences. From the earliest Natve Americans of New York to the virtual communities of today; how they have evolved, worked together, or challenged each other has profoundly shaped New York history. Whether as notable historic actors or everyday citizens, how individuals have navigated, often multiple, communities has influenced their accomplishments as well. We ask how do these understandings shape our understanding of New York history, not only in telling the stories of the past, but also helping to engage with diverse communities today.
See submission guidelines on conference website. This annual conference brings together historians, archivists, public historians, graduate students, museum curators, documentarians, and more to share their work on New York State history.
Contact Info:
Susan McCormick, Conference Chair
History Dept. Social Science 144
University at Albany, SUNY
Albany, NY 12222
518-442-5431
Contact Email:
smccormick@albany.edu
URL:
http://www.nystatehistory.org
CFP Lesbian Literature and Aesthetic Diversity in the 20th Century (9/30/15)
Three calls for the night.
Of potential interest:
Call for Contributions: Lesbian Literature and Aesthetic Diversity in the 20th Century
Announcement published by Julie R. Enszer on Friday, July 10, 2015
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74794/call-contributions-lesbian-literature-and-aesthetic-diversity
Type: Call for Papers
Date: September 30, 2015
Location: United States
Subject Fields: Communication, Humanities, Intellectual History, Languages, Literature, Psychology, Rhetoric, Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Please share with your networks!
Call for Contributions
When We Were Modern: Lesbian Literature and Aesthetic Diversity in the 20th Century
Collection edited by Jaime Harker and Julie R. Enszer
How do we locate lesbian writers and lesbian characters in popular, middlebrow, and highbrow fiction in the 20th century? What meanings can we make of lesbian identities and lesbian communities from this fiction across the century?
Considering lesbian writers and lesbian characters across the 20th century challenges the narrative of the closet that emerges in 1970 and continues today. The apparent massive coming out in the 1970s and 1980s was in relationship to a closet that was constructed simultaneously. In the 1950s, Elizabeth Bishop did not live like she was in the closet. During the 1910s and 1920s, Amy Lowell was not in the closet. In 1946, when Jo Sinclair won the Harper & Brothers Prize for her novel, The Wasteland, the lesbian character central to the novel was not excised, nor was she in the closet.
When We Were Modern: Lesbian Literature and Aesthetic Diversity in the 20th Century will explore how literature by lesbians with open lesbian characters circulated widely. The political and material realities for lesbians during the 20th century, including the openness of the 20s and 30s for lesbians and the constriction of the 50s and early 60s, are still largely unmapped for lesbians and lesbian literature. And the influence of those lesbians on writers of the 70s and beyond has also not been investigated; what happens when we read more contemporary lesbian writers as part of an ongoing, diverse lesbian tradition? This anthology will begin to construct a new genealogy of lesbian literary traditions in the 20th century.
Exploring the historical, biographical, and material aspects of lesbian literature and aesthetic diversity, the editors invite proposals for contributions by September 30th with full papers by January 30th. Email proposals to Jaime Harker, jlharker@olemiss.edu, and Julie R. Enszer, JulieREnszer@gmail.com.
While we are in discussion with editors, this collection is not yet under contract.
Contact Info:
Julie R. Enszer, JulieREnszer@gmail.com
Of potential interest:
Call for Contributions: Lesbian Literature and Aesthetic Diversity in the 20th Century
Announcement published by Julie R. Enszer on Friday, July 10, 2015
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74794/call-contributions-lesbian-literature-and-aesthetic-diversity
Type: Call for Papers
Date: September 30, 2015
Location: United States
Subject Fields: Communication, Humanities, Intellectual History, Languages, Literature, Psychology, Rhetoric, Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Please share with your networks!
Call for Contributions
When We Were Modern: Lesbian Literature and Aesthetic Diversity in the 20th Century
Collection edited by Jaime Harker and Julie R. Enszer
How do we locate lesbian writers and lesbian characters in popular, middlebrow, and highbrow fiction in the 20th century? What meanings can we make of lesbian identities and lesbian communities from this fiction across the century?
Considering lesbian writers and lesbian characters across the 20th century challenges the narrative of the closet that emerges in 1970 and continues today. The apparent massive coming out in the 1970s and 1980s was in relationship to a closet that was constructed simultaneously. In the 1950s, Elizabeth Bishop did not live like she was in the closet. During the 1910s and 1920s, Amy Lowell was not in the closet. In 1946, when Jo Sinclair won the Harper & Brothers Prize for her novel, The Wasteland, the lesbian character central to the novel was not excised, nor was she in the closet.
When We Were Modern: Lesbian Literature and Aesthetic Diversity in the 20th Century will explore how literature by lesbians with open lesbian characters circulated widely. The political and material realities for lesbians during the 20th century, including the openness of the 20s and 30s for lesbians and the constriction of the 50s and early 60s, are still largely unmapped for lesbians and lesbian literature. And the influence of those lesbians on writers of the 70s and beyond has also not been investigated; what happens when we read more contemporary lesbian writers as part of an ongoing, diverse lesbian tradition? This anthology will begin to construct a new genealogy of lesbian literary traditions in the 20th century.
Exploring the historical, biographical, and material aspects of lesbian literature and aesthetic diversity, the editors invite proposals for contributions by September 30th with full papers by January 30th. Email proposals to Jaime Harker, jlharker@olemiss.edu, and Julie R. Enszer, JulieREnszer@gmail.com.
While we are in discussion with editors, this collection is not yet under contract.
Contact Info:
Julie R. Enszer, JulieREnszer@gmail.com
More Monsters Update
Many thanks to those who have submitted monster-themed proposals this far. Five more days to the deadline.
(Also, my apologies for the odd formatting of the calls on the blog. I had not realized that Blogger did not accept my use of creative fonts. I will be more boring going forward.)
(Also, my apologies for the odd formatting of the calls on the blog. I had not realized that Blogger did not accept my use of creative fonts. I will be more boring going forward.)
Thursday, July 2, 2015
CFP More Monsters for NEPCA (7/15/15)
REVISED FINAL CALL FOR
PAPERS
MORE MONSTERS
FOR THE EIGHTH-ANNIVERSARY SESSIONS
OF THE
SCIENCE FICTION,
Fantasy,
HORROR, AND LEGEND AREA
Online at NEPCA Fantastic: http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com
2015 Conference of The Northeast Popular
Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)
Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire
Friday 30 October and Saturday 31 October 2015
Proposals no later than by 15 July 2015
Formed in 2008, the Science
Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area celebrates its eighth anniversary in 2015,
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 science fiction, fantasy, fairy tale, gothic, horror, legends,
and mythology) 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 to Halloween,
were have assembled several panels related to monsters and the monstrous, but
we now seek additional proposals to round out these sessions.
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 submit a
biographical sketch and paper abstract (each of 500 words) to both
the Program Chair AND to the Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area
Chair at the following addresses (please note “NEPCA Fantastic Proposal 2015”
in your subject line):
Kraig Larkin
Program Chair
Kraig.Larkin@colby-sawyer.edu
Michael A. Torregrossa
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and
Legend Area Chair
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/.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Thoughts on The Martian
I recently read Andy Weir's The Martian (originally published in 2011 and re-released in 2014). It was a quick read and offered an interesting premise detailing the life of an astronaut stranded on Mars. The astronaut was a likable fellow, though one wonders how believable his story of survival is. Also, he has a lot of bad luck--signaled conveniently by a shift to third-person narration--just when things look hopeful. It is not the worst science fiction book I have read, but I also cannot buy into the hype and say it is among the best. Perhaps the upcoming film will alter my feelings on the story.
Further details about the book can be found online at the publisher's website at http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/234102/the-martian-movie-tie-in-by-andy-weir/paperback#.
The Kraken and Its World
Further details about the book can be found at the publisher's website at http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/114260/kraken-by-china-mieville/paperback#.
Area History Updated
I finally updated the area history page to include the complete details from last year's sessions. Full information at http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com/p/the-history-of-science-fiction-fantasy.html.
Michael A Torregrossa
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area Chair
Michael A Torregrossa
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area Chair
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