Saturday, August 13, 2016
Finding Neverland
Friday, August 12, 2016
CFP Damsels in Redress: Women in Contemporary Fairy-Tale Reimaginings Conference (11/1/2016; Belfast 4/7-8/2017)
One more post for the night:
Damsels in Redress: Women in Contemporary Fairy-Tale Reimaginings
Dates: Friday 7th April and Saturday 8th April 2017
Keynote Speakers: Professor Diane Purkiss (University of Oxford); Dr Amy Davis (University of Hull)
With the ever-growing profusion of fairy-tale reimaginings across literature, film, television, theatre, and other artistic forms, a continuing concern among critics today is the portrayal of women. How do these reimaginings represent women’s roles? To what extent do they redress portrayals that have been considered problematic from a feminist standpoint in traditional tales? To what extent do they perpetuate those portrayals? What constitutes a feminist reimagining? How have the fairy-tale heroine, the witch, the (step)mother, the (step)sister, and the fairy godmother evolved since the dawn of second-wave feminism?
This conference aims to foster interdisciplinary scholarship by bringing together a range of ideas about the representation of women in contemporary reimaginings of traditional fairy tales, such as those from the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault. We welcome proposals that explore this representation from a variety of perspectives and fields of study, including but not limited to literature, film, television, theatre, gender, feminist, and queer studies. We also welcome creative exploration on the theme of the fairy tale and how this theme can be interpreted with regard to women.
Topics might include but are not limited to:
Please submit a title and an abstract of no more than 250 words, and a bionote of up to 50 words, to damselsinredress2017@gmail
The Facebook event can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/949101051853840/.
CfP: Damsels in Redress: Women in Contemporary Fairy-Tale Reimaginings, Queen’s University Belfast
http://www.fantastic-arts.org/2016/cfp-damsels-in-redress-women-in-contemporary-fairy-tale-reimaginings-queens-university-belfast/
Call for papers for a conference at Queen’s University Belfast:Damsels in Redress: Women in Contemporary Fairy-Tale Reimaginings
Dates: Friday 7th April and Saturday 8th April 2017
Keynote Speakers: Professor Diane Purkiss (University of Oxford); Dr Amy Davis (University of Hull)
With the ever-growing profusion of fairy-tale reimaginings across literature, film, television, theatre, and other artistic forms, a continuing concern among critics today is the portrayal of women. How do these reimaginings represent women’s roles? To what extent do they redress portrayals that have been considered problematic from a feminist standpoint in traditional tales? To what extent do they perpetuate those portrayals? What constitutes a feminist reimagining? How have the fairy-tale heroine, the witch, the (step)mother, the (step)sister, and the fairy godmother evolved since the dawn of second-wave feminism?
This conference aims to foster interdisciplinary scholarship by bringing together a range of ideas about the representation of women in contemporary reimaginings of traditional fairy tales, such as those from the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault. We welcome proposals that explore this representation from a variety of perspectives and fields of study, including but not limited to literature, film, television, theatre, gender, feminist, and queer studies. We also welcome creative exploration on the theme of the fairy tale and how this theme can be interpreted with regard to women.
Topics might include but are not limited to:
- Feminist revision
- Subversive female characters
- The witch figure
- Women in Disney adaptations
- Physical depictions of women
- Mother/daughter relationships
- Sexuality and gender
- LGBTQI relations
- Marriage and Prince Charming
- Voice and agency
Please submit a title and an abstract of no more than 250 words, and a bionote of up to 50 words, to damselsinredress2017@gmail
The Facebook event can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/949101051853840/.
CFP ICFA 2017 (proposals 10/31/2016)
Too bad not everyone's spring break is the week of the conference:
CfP: International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts 38, “Fantastic Epics”
http://www.fantastic-arts.org/2016/cfp-international-conference-for-the-fantastic-in-the-arts-38-fantastic-epics/
CfP: International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts 38, “Fantastic Epics”Please join us for ICFA 38, March 22-26, 2017, when our theme will be “Fantastic Epics.” We welcome papers on the work of: Guest of Honor Steven Erikson (World Fantasy and Locus Award nominee), Guest of Honor N.K. Jemisin (Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominee, Locus Award winner), and Guest Scholar Edward James (Pilgrim, Hugo, British Science Fiction Association, and Eaton Award winner).
The hero(ine)’s tale is as old as storytelling itself. We trace our way from Gilgamesh to current practitioners of the art through routes that lead to – and beyond – other kingdoms, including those of Malazan and the cities of Gujaareh, Sky, and Shadow. Papers may tread the paths of Thomas the Unbeliever, Bren Cameron, Sundiata Keita, and Boudica, or follow a dark road through Gondor, Camelot, or any valley of shadow. We can find the Epic in the hall of Heorot and in the rooms of Schaherazade. Examinations of modern epics might include the American west, the Marvel Universe, or the world of Miyazaki. A journey, a quest, an awakening – all these and more are part of Fantastic Epics.
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, 2016. We encourage work from institutionally affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, and graduate students.
For more information on the IAFA and its conference, the ICFA, or to download a PDF version of this CfP, see http://www.fantastic-arts.org/. To submit a proposal, go to http://www.fantastic-arts.org/icfa-submissions/.
The submission portal opens on September 1st and closes on October 31st.
To contact the Division Heads for help with submissions, go to http://www.fantastic-arts.org/annual-conference/division-heads.
CfP Fantastika Journal, First Special Edition Issue (9/15/2016)
CfP: Fantastika Journal, First Special Edition Issue
http://www.fantastic-arts.org/2016/cfp-fantastika-journal-first-special-edition-issue/
FANTASTIKA JOURNAL
CALL FOR PAPERS FOR FIRST SPECIAL EDITION ISSUE
“Fantastika” – a term appropriated from a range of Slavonic languages
by John Clute – embraces the genres of fantasy, science fiction, and
horror, but can also include alternative histories, gothic, steampunk,
young adult dystopian fiction, or any other radically imaginative
narrative space. The goal of Fantastika Journal is to bring
together academics and researchers who share an interest in this diverse
range of fields with the aim of opening up new dialogues, productive
controversies and collaborations. We invite discussion of all mediums
and disciplines which concern the Fantastika genres.
The first issue aims to explore and evaluate current research into Fantastika. As well as cataloguing and challenging established critical stances and recent developments, we are looking for approaches which embrace the self-reflexivity latent in the study of speculative and fantastical texts. It is our position that to ask questions about and within Fantastika studies is also to ask ‘what is Fantastika?’ – that to read or identify Fantastika as Fantastika is to probe and strengthen our own hermeneutics.
Research topics and questions which relate to our theme include, but are not limited to, the following:
We invite articles of 5,000 – 7,000 length. Please submit articles in doc or docx format to editors@fantastikajournal.com by 15th September 2016 along with a 300 word abstract and short bionote in separate documents. Articles should be in accordance the MLA Style Manual.
Submissions should be made under the subject line “First Special Edition.” Please note that all articles published with Fantastika Journal will undergo peer-review before publication.
http://www.fantastikajournal.com/1st-special-edition-issue.html
The first issue aims to explore and evaluate current research into Fantastika. As well as cataloguing and challenging established critical stances and recent developments, we are looking for approaches which embrace the self-reflexivity latent in the study of speculative and fantastical texts. It is our position that to ask questions about and within Fantastika studies is also to ask ‘what is Fantastika?’ – that to read or identify Fantastika as Fantastika is to probe and strengthen our own hermeneutics.
Research topics and questions which relate to our theme include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Parameters: the relation between genres and fields. What constitutes genre, and what is its relation to Fantastika? How significant are ideas of genre to Fantastika?
- Critical categories and taxonomies. What is the value of constructing new terminologies to encapsulate given affects, fields, intersections or modes? What is the relative worth of an umbrella term or category as opposed to a discrete one, and vice-versa?
- Fantastika and history. What is the relationship between attempts at definition, hermeneutics or critical reading and the fluctuating field of history? How can historical contexts and studies constitute a lens through which new critical methods and perspectives become available?
- Liminality and ‘ownership’. Why do distinct fields of study attempt to incorporate or ‘possess’ certain texts, authors and subgenres under their banners? What is the significance of fields of study which could be considered modes rather than genres? How does reading a text within or against a generic or modal definition change, enhance, or determine the reading? What is the relationship between the umbrella term and the specific texts that might be studied under it, especially when considering close textual analysis?
- Developments and trajectories. What is (or could be) the meaning of Fantastika – both as a set of literatures and discourses and as a collective categorisation – in academia today? What are the most important trends and developments in the study of Fantastika and how do they relate to the shifting position of academia in the 21st century?
We invite articles of 5,000 – 7,000 length. Please submit articles in doc or docx format to editors@fantastikajournal.com by 15th September 2016 along with a 300 word abstract and short bionote in separate documents. Articles should be in accordance the MLA Style Manual.
Submissions should be made under the subject line “First Special Edition.” Please note that all articles published with Fantastika Journal will undergo peer-review before publication.
http://www.fantastikajournal.com/1st-special-edition-issue.html
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Catching Up with B5
Babylon 5 was a popular television science fiction fiction series during the 1990s and seems all but forgotten today, but the staff at B5books.com have been actively courting fans
with a slew of series-related books and videos. The latest video is
titled CNN Documents Babylon 5 (2016) and features interviews and behind-the-scenes footage from the CNN vaults. Full details on the product can be accessed at the B5books.com website at http://b5books.com/cnn-documents-babylon-5/.Disc one features interviews with cast members conducted at the starts of seasons one and two in winter 1993-94 and fall 1994. These are the most valuable features of the set with comments by Claudia Christian, Jerry Doyle, Michael O'Hare, and Bruce Boxleitner as they began their tenure on the station. These pieces are particular interesting for revealing what each actor saw as the appeal of the series while in production. A final interview is included from summer 1998 with guest star Shari Belafonte on her role in the telefilm Babylon 5: Thirdspace. All the interviews are supplemented by footnotes from B5books.com staff.
Disc two offers a series of behind-the-scenes videos on the making of four episodes from the series. There is not much that held my interest here, though some fans might enjoy being on set and seeing how things worked. The pieces are from the episodes--"By Any Means Necessary," "Legacies," "A Distant Star," and the penultimate "Objects at Rest"--being shot on the same days the interviews from disc one were conducted. All four videos include optional audio commentary by B5books.com staff.
Disc three is a limited issue and includes present-day commentary by Christian and Doyle as they watch their interviews from disc one and the videos from disc two. Overall, it is an interesting look back at the phenomenon that was Babylon 5.
Catching Up with RoboCop
The recent film RoboCop (2014) is a interesting reboot of the popular franchise and offers a more contemporary re-imagining of the hero's origins within contemporary debates of morality. The creators of RoboCop, the chief executive and employees of OmniCorp view the cybernetically-enhanced Alex Murphy as a pawn in their schemes to overturn legislation prohibiting the company's robot soldiers from being engaged in law enforcement and military situations in the United States and fail, repeatedly, to see the power of the man in the machine. Ultimately, it is the heart of RoboCop that prevails and brings about the demise of OmniCorp's plans.
Catching Up with The Martian
Catching up on some movie watching this week.
First up, The Martian:
The Martian is based on Andy Weir's 2011 novel set in the mid 2030s and recounting the struggles undergone by astronaut Mark Watney as he attempts to survive after having been left behind after an aborted attempt to explore Mars. The plot of the film is essentially the same as the novel; however, while the film does try to preserve some sense of his perspective, we do lose much of Watney's signature voice in the re-telling. The pacing of the first third of the film seems consistent with the novel, but the second third jumps ahead seven months and fails to depict the most heroic feats undertaken by Watney in his attempts to escape the Red Planet. The final section of the film serves as an epilogue illustrating the lives of Watney and his crew mates following his rescue. Despite these issues, the film succeeds in bringing the novel to life. We see and hear (rather than just imagine) events, and, through these visual and audio stimulation, come to a better appreciation of Watney's experience. In addition, through scenes on Earth, we get a greater sense of how hard NASA and the JPL are working to rescue their astronaut, and, perhaps more importantly, the images of how the common men and women across the globe are affected by Watney's trials forge a deeper connection between the film and its audience.
First up, The Martian:
The Martian is based on Andy Weir's 2011 novel set in the mid 2030s and recounting the struggles undergone by astronaut Mark Watney as he attempts to survive after having been left behind after an aborted attempt to explore Mars. The plot of the film is essentially the same as the novel; however, while the film does try to preserve some sense of his perspective, we do lose much of Watney's signature voice in the re-telling. The pacing of the first third of the film seems consistent with the novel, but the second third jumps ahead seven months and fails to depict the most heroic feats undertaken by Watney in his attempts to escape the Red Planet. The final section of the film serves as an epilogue illustrating the lives of Watney and his crew mates following his rescue. Despite these issues, the film succeeds in bringing the novel to life. We see and hear (rather than just imagine) events, and, through these visual and audio stimulation, come to a better appreciation of Watney's experience. In addition, through scenes on Earth, we get a greater sense of how hard NASA and the JPL are working to rescue their astronaut, and, perhaps more importantly, the images of how the common men and women across the globe are affected by Watney's trials forge a deeper connection between the film and its audience.
Monday, April 18, 2016
CFP MAPACA Conference 2016 (6/30/16; Atlantic City 11/3-5/16)
Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA) -- 27th Annual Conference – Atlantic City, NJ – Nov. 3-5, 2016
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/67278
full name / name of organization:
Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA)
contact email:
mapaca@mapaca.net
Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA)
26th Annual Conference
November 3-5, 2016
Atlantic City, NJ – Tropicana Hotel
Call for papers:
Proposals are welcome on all aspects of popular and American culture for inclusion in the 2016 Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association conference in Atlantic City, NJ. Single papers, panels, roundtables, and alternative formats are welcome.
Proposals should take the form of 300-word abstracts, and may only be submitted to one appropriate area. The deadline for submission is Thursday, June 30, 2016.
For a list of areas and area chair contact information, visit mapaca.net/areas. General questions can be directed to mapaca at mapaca dot net.
MAPACA’s membership is comprised of college and university faculty, independent scholars and artists, and graduate and undergraduate students. MAPACA is an inclusive professional organization dedicated to the study of popular and American culture in all their multi-disciplinary manifestations. It is a regional division of the Popular Culture and American Culture Association, which, in the words of Popular Culture Association founder Ray Browne, is a “multi-disciplinary association interested in new approaches to the expressions, mass media and all other phenomena of everyday life.”
For more info, visit mapaca.net.
Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA)
P.O. Box 25033
Philadelphia, PA 19147-0033
mapaca@mapaca.net
twitter.com/mapacanet
facebook.com/mapacanet
By web submission at 04/14/2016 - 15:46
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/67278
full name / name of organization:
Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA)
contact email:
mapaca@mapaca.net
Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA)
26th Annual Conference
November 3-5, 2016
Atlantic City, NJ – Tropicana Hotel
Call for papers:
Proposals are welcome on all aspects of popular and American culture for inclusion in the 2016 Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association conference in Atlantic City, NJ. Single papers, panels, roundtables, and alternative formats are welcome.
Proposals should take the form of 300-word abstracts, and may only be submitted to one appropriate area. The deadline for submission is Thursday, June 30, 2016.
For a list of areas and area chair contact information, visit mapaca.net/areas. General questions can be directed to mapaca at mapaca dot net.
MAPACA’s membership is comprised of college and university faculty, independent scholars and artists, and graduate and undergraduate students. MAPACA is an inclusive professional organization dedicated to the study of popular and American culture in all their multi-disciplinary manifestations. It is a regional division of the Popular Culture and American Culture Association, which, in the words of Popular Culture Association founder Ray Browne, is a “multi-disciplinary association interested in new approaches to the expressions, mass media and all other phenomena of everyday life.”
For more info, visit mapaca.net.
Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA)
P.O. Box 25033
Philadelphia, PA 19147-0033
mapaca@mapaca.net
twitter.com/mapacanet
facebook.com/mapacanet
By web submission at 04/14/2016 - 15:46
CFP Making History: Biographical Imperatives in Constructing “Robin Hood” (2 sessions)
CFP: Making History: Biographical Imperatives in Constructing “Robin Hood”
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/67274
full name / name of organization:
Lorraine K. Stock / International Association for Robin Hood Studies
contact email:
lstock@uh.edu
Lorraine K. Stock is soliciting abstracts for SEMA 2016 and Kalamazoo 2017. Please note the deadlines, as the SEMA one is soon. While the Kalamazoo deadline for abstracts is in September, Lorraine would appreciate abstracts sooner than later so that she can better plan for Kalamazoo 2017 as session proposals are due to the Congress in mid-June.
CFP: Making History: Biographical Imperatives in Constructing “Robin Hood”
SEMA 2016, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, October 6-8, 2016
AND
51st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 11-14, 2017
Robin Hood (hereafter RH), his outlaw comrades, and antagonists sprang ex nihilo from the greenwood and urban centers of Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire in such late medieval ballads as RH and the Monk, RH and the Potter, The Gest, and RH and Guy of Gisborne. Presuming audience familiarity with RH’s biography and the origins of his outlawry, these early texts narrated RH’s adventures in medias res, without supplying background about or the origins of the outlaw. Langland’s casual reference to the “Rimes of Robyn Hode” in Piers Plowman (1377) attests medieval familiarity with RH’s real or fictional identity. Already by the 15th century, Andrew of Wyntoun, Walter Bower, and John of Fordun chronicled (therefore historicized) RH’s exploits. 16th-century writers further summarized or augmented RH’s growing collective biography. Citing an “auncient pamphlet,” in 1569 Richard Grafton historicized his elevation of RH from yeomanry to an earldom. Anthony Munday’s 1598 plays, The Downfall … and the Death of Robert Earl of Huntington, extended the growing “biography” of RH: situating him in Richard I’s Plantagenet court; endorsing his earldom; and affiancing him to noble Matilda Fitzwater/Maid Marian, absent in the medieval ballads. The creation of anonymous 17th and 18th-century broadside ballads and chapbooks supplied backstory for the outlaw’s “history.” Bishop Percy combined ballads from Samuel Pepys’ 1723 collection with the Percy Folio’s texts (including RH ballads) in his 1765 oft-reissued Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. Capping this biographical imperative, antiquarian Joseph Ritson published his 1795 (and oft-reissued) 2-volume Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads…To Which are Prefixed Historical Anecdotes of His Life. Ritson’s Preface, a 10-page “Life” of RH, is documented by 104 pp. of “Notes and Illustrations” supporting his construction of RH’s personal history. Subsequent iterations of RH’s biography adopted and adapted Ritson’s paradigm.
Rather than solicit documentation attesting the historical existence of an actual outlaw who was (or supplied the model for) the figure now recognized as “RH,” this session about biography/historiography and RH invites 15-20 minute papers investigating various manifestations of this enduring imperative to adapt, augment, or change the “history” or constructed “biography” of RH in any media including (but not limited to): medieval and post-medieval literary texts and chronicles; modern historiography (Rodney Hilton, Maurice Keen, etc.); post-medieval poetry, plays, fiction; opera; films; television; print and film documentaries. Final paper length depends on the number of apt abstracts.
For those interested in submitting an abstract for the 55th Annual Southeastern Medieval Association (SEMA) Conference, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, October 6-8, 2016, send 1-page abstracts before May 16 to Lorraine K. Stock, University of Houston: lstock@uh.edu
For those interested in submitting an abstract for the 51st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 11-14, 2017, send 1-page abstracts before September 10 to Lorraine K. Stock, University of Houston: lstock@uh.edu
By web submission at 04/14/2016 - 15:12
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/67274
full name / name of organization:
Lorraine K. Stock / International Association for Robin Hood Studies
contact email:
lstock@uh.edu
Lorraine K. Stock is soliciting abstracts for SEMA 2016 and Kalamazoo 2017. Please note the deadlines, as the SEMA one is soon. While the Kalamazoo deadline for abstracts is in September, Lorraine would appreciate abstracts sooner than later so that she can better plan for Kalamazoo 2017 as session proposals are due to the Congress in mid-June.
CFP: Making History: Biographical Imperatives in Constructing “Robin Hood”
SEMA 2016, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, October 6-8, 2016
AND
51st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 11-14, 2017
Robin Hood (hereafter RH), his outlaw comrades, and antagonists sprang ex nihilo from the greenwood and urban centers of Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire in such late medieval ballads as RH and the Monk, RH and the Potter, The Gest, and RH and Guy of Gisborne. Presuming audience familiarity with RH’s biography and the origins of his outlawry, these early texts narrated RH’s adventures in medias res, without supplying background about or the origins of the outlaw. Langland’s casual reference to the “Rimes of Robyn Hode” in Piers Plowman (1377) attests medieval familiarity with RH’s real or fictional identity. Already by the 15th century, Andrew of Wyntoun, Walter Bower, and John of Fordun chronicled (therefore historicized) RH’s exploits. 16th-century writers further summarized or augmented RH’s growing collective biography. Citing an “auncient pamphlet,” in 1569 Richard Grafton historicized his elevation of RH from yeomanry to an earldom. Anthony Munday’s 1598 plays, The Downfall … and the Death of Robert Earl of Huntington, extended the growing “biography” of RH: situating him in Richard I’s Plantagenet court; endorsing his earldom; and affiancing him to noble Matilda Fitzwater/Maid Marian, absent in the medieval ballads. The creation of anonymous 17th and 18th-century broadside ballads and chapbooks supplied backstory for the outlaw’s “history.” Bishop Percy combined ballads from Samuel Pepys’ 1723 collection with the Percy Folio’s texts (including RH ballads) in his 1765 oft-reissued Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. Capping this biographical imperative, antiquarian Joseph Ritson published his 1795 (and oft-reissued) 2-volume Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads…To Which are Prefixed Historical Anecdotes of His Life. Ritson’s Preface, a 10-page “Life” of RH, is documented by 104 pp. of “Notes and Illustrations” supporting his construction of RH’s personal history. Subsequent iterations of RH’s biography adopted and adapted Ritson’s paradigm.
Rather than solicit documentation attesting the historical existence of an actual outlaw who was (or supplied the model for) the figure now recognized as “RH,” this session about biography/historiography and RH invites 15-20 minute papers investigating various manifestations of this enduring imperative to adapt, augment, or change the “history” or constructed “biography” of RH in any media including (but not limited to): medieval and post-medieval literary texts and chronicles; modern historiography (Rodney Hilton, Maurice Keen, etc.); post-medieval poetry, plays, fiction; opera; films; television; print and film documentaries. Final paper length depends on the number of apt abstracts.
For those interested in submitting an abstract for the 55th Annual Southeastern Medieval Association (SEMA) Conference, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, October 6-8, 2016, send 1-page abstracts before May 16 to Lorraine K. Stock, University of Houston: lstock@uh.edu
For those interested in submitting an abstract for the 51st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 11-14, 2017, send 1-page abstracts before September 10 to Lorraine K. Stock, University of Houston: lstock@uh.edu
By web submission at 04/14/2016 - 15:12
CFP Frankenstein and the Fantastic (Themed Session) (6/15/16; NEPCA Keene, NH 10/21-22/16)
FRANKENSTEIN AND THE FANTASTIC
CALL FOR PAPERS FOR A THEMED-SESSION OF THE
FANTASTIC (FANTASY, HORROR, AND SCIENCE FICTION) AREA
Visit us at NEPCA Fantastic: http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com
2016 Conference of The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)
Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire
21 and 22 October 2016
Proposals by 15 June 2016
Michael A. Torregrossa
Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair
NEPCAFantastic@gmail.com
Formed in 2008, the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area celebrates its ninth anniversary in 2016, and, this year, we hope to commemorate the 200th-anniversary of the composition of Frankenstein by seeking proposals from scholars of all levels for papers that explore any aspect of Mary Shelley’s novel and its relationship to texts of the ongoing Frankenstein tradition. We are especially interested in papers that explore underrepresented works and media.
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).
Potential presenters should be aware that studies of Frankenstein in popular culture do not exist in a vacuum, and, in pitching their ideas, will be expected to be familiar with previous discussions of the Frankenstein tradition, including Donald F. Glut’s The Frankenstein Catalog (McFarland, 1984) and The Frankenstein Archive (McFarland, 2002) and Susan Tyler Hitchcock’s Frankenstein: A Cultural History (Norton, 2007).
If you are interested in proposing a paper, please address inquiries and send your biography and paper abstract (each of 500 words) to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at nepcafantastic@gmail.com, noting “Frankenstein and the Fantastic Proposal 2016” in your subject line. Do also submit your information, under the “Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area,” on NEPCA’s official Paper Proposal Form accessible from https://nepca.wordpress.com/2016-conference/.
Please submit inquiries and/or proposals for complete panels directly to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at nepcafantastic@gmail.com.
The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) was founded in 1974 as a professional organization for scholars living in New England and New York. It is a community of scholars interested in advancing research and promoting interest in the disciplines of popular and/or American culture. NEPCA’s membership consists of university and college faculty members, emeriti faculty, secondary school teachers, museum specialists, graduate students, independent scholars, and interested members of the general public. NEPCA is an independently funded affiliate of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Membership is open to all interested parties, regardless of profession, rank, or residency. NEPCA holds an annual conference that invites scholars from around the globe to participate. In an effort to keep costs low, it meets on college campuses throughout the region.
Membership in NEPCA is required for participation and annual dues are included in conference registration fees. Further details are available at http://nepca.wordpress.com/membership-information/.
CALL FOR PAPERS FOR A THEMED-SESSION OF THE
FANTASTIC (FANTASY, HORROR, AND SCIENCE FICTION) AREA
Visit us at NEPCA Fantastic: http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com
2016 Conference of The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)
Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire
21 and 22 October 2016
Proposals by 15 June 2016
Michael A. Torregrossa
Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair
NEPCAFantastic@gmail.com
Formed in 2008, the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area celebrates its ninth anniversary in 2016, and, this year, we hope to commemorate the 200th-anniversary of the composition of Frankenstein by seeking proposals from scholars of all levels for papers that explore any aspect of Mary Shelley’s novel and its relationship to texts of the ongoing Frankenstein tradition. We are especially interested in papers that explore underrepresented works and media.
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).
Potential presenters should be aware that studies of Frankenstein in popular culture do not exist in a vacuum, and, in pitching their ideas, will be expected to be familiar with previous discussions of the Frankenstein tradition, including Donald F. Glut’s The Frankenstein Catalog (McFarland, 1984) and The Frankenstein Archive (McFarland, 2002) and Susan Tyler Hitchcock’s Frankenstein: A Cultural History (Norton, 2007).
If you are interested in proposing a paper, please address inquiries and send your biography and paper abstract (each of 500 words) to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at nepcafantastic@gmail.com, noting “Frankenstein and the Fantastic Proposal 2016” in your subject line. Do also submit your information, under the “Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area,” on NEPCA’s official Paper Proposal Form accessible from https://nepca.wordpress.com/2016-conference/.
Please submit inquiries and/or proposals for complete panels directly to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at nepcafantastic@gmail.com.
The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) was founded in 1974 as a professional organization for scholars living in New England and New York. It is a community of scholars interested in advancing research and promoting interest in the disciplines of popular and/or American culture. NEPCA’s membership consists of university and college faculty members, emeriti faculty, secondary school teachers, museum specialists, graduate students, independent scholars, and interested members of the general public. NEPCA is an independently funded affiliate of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Membership is open to all interested parties, regardless of profession, rank, or residency. NEPCA holds an annual conference that invites scholars from around the globe to participate. In an effort to keep costs low, it meets on college campuses throughout the region.
Membership in NEPCA is required for participation and annual dues are included in conference registration fees. Further details are available at http://nepca.wordpress.com/membership-information/.
CFP Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area (6/15/16; NEPCA Keene, NH 10/21-22/16)
SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS
NINTH-ANNIVERSARY SESSIONS OF THE
FANTASTIC FANTASY, HORROR, AND SCIENCE FICTION) AREA
Visit us at NEPCA Fantastic: http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com
2016 Conference of The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)
Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire
21 and 22 October 2016
Proposals by 15 June 2016
Michael A. Torregrossa
Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair
NEPCAFantastic@gmail.com
Formed in 2008, the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area celebrates its ninth anniversary in 2016, and we seek proposals from scholars of all levels for papers that explore any aspect of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic (including, but not limited to, elements of fairy tale, fantasy, gothic, horror, legend, mythology, and science fiction) and how creative artists have altered our preconceptions of these subtraditions by producing innovative works in diverse countries and time periods and for audiences at all levels.
Special topics: Given the proximity of the conference to Halloween, we are always interested in proposals related to monsters and the monstrous, and, in anticipation of the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 2018, we are especially hoping for proposals that address aspects of the Frankenstein tradition and the fantastic.
Please see our website NEPCA Fantastic (http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com) for further details and ideas. Presentations will be limited to 15-20 minutes in length (depending on final panel size).
If you are interested in proposing a paper, please address inquiries and send your biography and paper abstract (each of 500 words) to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at nepcafantastic@gmail.com, noting “NEPCA Fantastic Proposal 2016” in your subject line. Do also submit your information on NEPCA’s official Paper Proposal Form accessible from https://nepca.wordpress.com/2016-conference/.
Please submit inquiries and/or proposals for complete panels directly to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at nepcafantastic@gmail.com.
The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) was founded in 1974 as a professional organization for scholars living in New England and New York. It is a community of scholars interested in advancing research and promoting interest in the disciplines of popular and/or American culture. NEPCA’s membership consists of university and college faculty members, emeriti faculty, secondary school teachers, museum specialists, graduate students, independent scholars, and interested members of the general public. NEPCA is an independently funded affiliate of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Membership is open to all interested parties, regardless of profession, rank, or residency. NEPCA holds an annual conference that invites scholars from around the globe to participate. In an effort to keep costs low, it meets on college campuses throughout the region.
Membership in NEPCA is required for participation and annual dues are included in conference registration fees. Further details are available at http://nepca.wordpress.com/membership-information/.
NINTH-ANNIVERSARY SESSIONS OF THE
FANTASTIC FANTASY, HORROR, AND SCIENCE FICTION) AREA
Visit us at NEPCA Fantastic: http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com
2016 Conference of The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)
Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire
21 and 22 October 2016
Proposals by 15 June 2016
Michael A. Torregrossa
Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair
NEPCAFantastic@gmail.com
Formed in 2008, the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area celebrates its ninth anniversary in 2016, and we seek proposals from scholars of all levels for papers that explore any aspect of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic (including, but not limited to, elements of fairy tale, fantasy, gothic, horror, legend, mythology, and science fiction) and how creative artists have altered our preconceptions of these subtraditions by producing innovative works in diverse countries and time periods and for audiences at all levels.
Special topics: Given the proximity of the conference to Halloween, we are always interested in proposals related to monsters and the monstrous, and, in anticipation of the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 2018, we are especially hoping for proposals that address aspects of the Frankenstein tradition and the fantastic.
Please see our website NEPCA Fantastic (http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com) for further details and ideas. Presentations will be limited to 15-20 minutes in length (depending on final panel size).
If you are interested in proposing a paper, please address inquiries and send your biography and paper abstract (each of 500 words) to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at nepcafantastic@gmail.com, noting “NEPCA Fantastic Proposal 2016” in your subject line. Do also submit your information on NEPCA’s official Paper Proposal Form accessible from https://nepca.wordpress.com/2016-conference/.
Please submit inquiries and/or proposals for complete panels directly to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at nepcafantastic@gmail.com.
The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) was founded in 1974 as a professional organization for scholars living in New England and New York. It is a community of scholars interested in advancing research and promoting interest in the disciplines of popular and/or American culture. NEPCA’s membership consists of university and college faculty members, emeriti faculty, secondary school teachers, museum specialists, graduate students, independent scholars, and interested members of the general public. NEPCA is an independently funded affiliate of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Membership is open to all interested parties, regardless of profession, rank, or residency. NEPCA holds an annual conference that invites scholars from around the globe to participate. In an effort to keep costs low, it meets on college campuses throughout the region.
Membership in NEPCA is required for participation and annual dues are included in conference registration fees. Further details are available at http://nepca.wordpress.com/membership-information/.
Sunday, January 17, 2016
Art of (the New) Planet of the Apes
Another interesting new book from Titan Books. Offers some great insight into the making of the films.Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of Planet of the Apes: The Art of the Films
Matt Hurwitz, Sharon Gosling, and Adam Newell
http://titanbooks.com/rise-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-and-dawn-of-planet-of-the-apes-the-art-of-the-films-7578/
PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9781783291977
Dimensions: 11 15/16” x 10 6/8”
Hardback: 176pp
Publication date: July 8 2014
Illustration detail: Colour photos throughout
Price: $34.95
SYNOPSIS
A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth’s dominant species.
This is the stunning art book for the newest chapters in the legendary science-fiction series, Planet of the Apes™, covering Rise of Planet of the Apes™ and Dawn of Planet of the Apes™.
Produced in close cooperation with the filmmakers, this action-packed treasure trove features a foreword by director Matt Reeves, exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes photos and a wealth of breathtaking production art.
The Art of The Lord of Rings
Now available, an interesting new book of Middle-earth art. Like its predecessor, The Art of the Hobbit, this collection of artwork offers insight into Tolkien's creative process, but it, too, is more for completists than the casual fan.
The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
by J.R.R. Tolkien, Christina Scull, Wayne Hammond
http://www.hmhco.com/shop/books/The-Art-of-The-Lord-of-the-Rings-by-JRR-Tolkien/9780544636347
http://www.hmhco.com/shop/books/The-Art-of-The-Lord-of-the-Rings-by-JRR-Tolkien/9780544636347
ISBN-13/ EAN: 9780544636347
ISBN-10: 0544636341
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 10/13/2015
Price: $40.00
About the Book
J.R.R. Tolkien's complete artwork for his magisterial novel, published on the sixtieth anniversary of The Lord of the Rings
As he wrote The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien’s mental pictures often found expression in drawing, from rough sketches made within the manuscript to more finished illustrations. Only a few of these were meant for publication; most were aids to help Tolkien conceive his complex story and keep it consistent. Many do not illustrate the final text, but represent moments of creation, illuminating Tolkien’s process of writing and design. In addition to pictorial sketches, numerous maps follow the development of the Shire and the larger landscape of Middle-earth, while inscriptions in runes and Elvish script, and "facsimile" leaves from the burned and blood-stained Book of Mazarbul, support Tolkien’s pose as an "editor" or "translator" of ancient records.
The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien collects these drawings, inscriptions, maps, and plans in one deluxe volume. More than 180 images are included, all of them printed in color from high-quality scans and photographs, more than half not previously published. Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, two of the world’s leading Tolkien scholars, have edited the book and provide an expert introduction and comments.
About the Authors
J.R.R. TOLKIEN (1892–1973) is the creator of Middle-earth and author of such classic and extraordinary works of fiction as The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. His books have been translated into more than fifty languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide. Read More
CHRISTINA SCULL is a leading expert on Tolkien and coauthor of the acclaimed The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator,The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, and The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide with Wayne G. Hammond. Read More
WAYNE G. HAMMOND is a leading expert on Tolkien and coauthor of the acclaimed The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator,The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, and The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide with Christina Scull.
Out With the Old, In With the New
Effective, 1 January 2016, the Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Legend Area is now the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area. Proposals devoted strictly to legendary matters (as opposed to adaption of legends in fantastic texts) should be submitted to the Folklore Area Chair.
Michael A. Torregrossa
Area Chair, Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area
Michael A. Torregrossa
Area Chair, Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area
Saturday, November 21, 2015
NEACIS 2015 Session
The Area is proud to sponsor a second session this year at the annual conference of the New England region of the American Conference for Irish Studies. The conference is being held at the University of West Haven on Friday, 20 November, and Saturday, 21 November.
NEACIS
2015 Conference
Saturday,
November 21st: Session 6 (Kaplan 203, 3:45-5:00 PM)
Horrors
of the Irish Imagination: Papers from the Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and
Legend Area of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association
Organized
by Michael A. Torregrossa, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area
Chair
Chair:
Christopher Dowd, University of New Haven
1.
“Francis Crozier and the Mysterious Disappearance of the Franklin Expedition”
Donald
Vescio, Worcester State University
Don Vescio is a faculty member of Department of
English at Worcester State University.
After serving ten years as Worcester State’s Chief Information
Office/Vice President of Information Technologies and two years as Vice
President of Enrollment Management and Marketing, Don now focuses his energies
on teaching undergraduate and graduate students in a variety of
disciplines. His research interests are
in critical theory, narratological analysis, and information design.
2.
“Louis MacNeice’s Bogeymen”
Samuel
Robertson, Suffolk County Community College
Sam Robertson is an Associate Professor of English
at Suffolk County Community College. He received his Ph.D. from New York
University. Though he teaches a wide range of courses, and considers
himself a Generalist, his specialty is twentieth-century Northern Irish
poetry. He has written on such figures as John Hewitt, Louis MacNeice,
Michael Longley, and Derek Mahon. He lives in Brooklyn and enjoys
spending summers in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
3.
“There’s Something Rotten in Denmark Ireland: Irish Zombie Media and the Irish
‘Other’ ”
Kristine
Larsen, Central Connecticut State University
Dr. Kristine Larsen is Professor of Astronomy and
Faculty Coordinator of the Copernican Observatory and Planetarium at Central
Connecticut State University. Her teaching and scholarship focus on the
intersections between science and society, including science education, the
history of science, and scientific motifs in literature, television, and film.
Her research on popular culture has focused on The Walking Dead, Doctor Who,
the Resident Evil series of films, Lost, Harry Potter, Dominion,
and The Last Mimzy, and in particular
the fantasy works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Andrzej Sapkowski. She is
the author of Stephen Hawking: A
Biography and Cosmology 101, and
co-editor of The Mythological Dimensions
of Doctor Who and The Mythological
Dimensions of Neil Gaiman. Her twenty-five year career as a science
educator has been recognized by the 2014 Connecticut Science Center's Petit
Family Foundation Women in Science Leadership Award, the 2013 Walter Scott
Houston award of the North East Region of the Astronomical League, the 2007
Distinguished CCSU Alumni Service Award, and the 2001 CCSU Excellence in
Teaching Award.
4. “Have
the Irish Doomed Civilization?: Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Its Enduring Legacy in the 21st Century”
Michael
A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)
Michael A. Torregrossa is a graduate of the Medieval
Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs). His research
interests include adaptation, Arthuriana, comics and comic art, medievalism,
monsters, and wizards. Michael has presented papers on these topics at
regional, national, and international conferences, and his work has been
published in academic journals and edited collections. Michael is founder of
The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and co-founder,
with Carl James Grindley, of The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular
Culture and the Middle Ages; he also serves as editor for these organizations’
various blogs and moderator of their discussion lists. Besides these
activities, he is currently Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area
Chair for NEPCA, a position he has held since 2009, and organizes sessions for
their annual conference in the fall (and other conferences like this one) and
maintains the area’s blogs.
For more information on the
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area of the Northeast Popular
Culture/American Culture Association please visit our blog at http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com/.
Saturday, November 7, 2015
CFP Ongoing Video Games Studies for the Popular Culture Review
Ongoing Video Games Studies CFP for the Popular Culture Review
Discussion published by Amy Green on Tuesday, September 15, 2015
https://networks.h-net.org/node/GROUP_NID/discussions/83096/ongoing-video-games-studies-cfp-popular-culture-review
The Popular Culture Review is seeking out scholarly articles on video games to be included as part of an ongoing series featured in each issue. While we want to keep the range of topics open, serious consideration of the digital narrative, especially in the form of focused analyses of specific titles or series, are of special interest. Approaches combining the ludological approach with the narratological approach are also of interest. The goal of the journal is to continue to expand upon a growing and serious consideration of gaming as a storytelling platform.
Please submit your articles, as blind attachments, to Dr. Amy M. Green, who is the editor of the gaming section. The PCR accepts electronic submissions only. Please direct them to amy.green@unlv.edu and indicate PCR Gaming Article Submission in your subject line. Please include all author information and the title of the article in the body of your email message.
Additional Information:
The Popular Culture Review is the refereed journal of Far West Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, sponsored by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and is published twice yearly. Members of the FWPCA/FWACA receive each issue as part of membership. Single copies may be purchased for $7.50 by individuals. Yearly subscriptions for institutions and libraries are $25.00. Address correspondence to the editor.
Documentation may be in the form appropriate to the discipline of the author. Otherwise, MLA format is preferred. Quotes and paraphrased passages must be followed by their citations within the text. In accordance with copyright laws, we request that quotations not exceed one-hundred (100) words in length.
The author is responsible for obtaining permissions for illustrations, song lyrics, advertisements, etc., which are to be published with the article.
Authors must be members at time of publication. (Persons who have registered for our conference are automatically members for the year of attendance. Those who have been members for at least two years are exempt.)
Discussion published by Amy Green on Tuesday, September 15, 2015
https://networks.h-net.org/node/GROUP_NID/discussions/83096/ongoing-video-games-studies-cfp-popular-culture-review
The Popular Culture Review is seeking out scholarly articles on video games to be included as part of an ongoing series featured in each issue. While we want to keep the range of topics open, serious consideration of the digital narrative, especially in the form of focused analyses of specific titles or series, are of special interest. Approaches combining the ludological approach with the narratological approach are also of interest. The goal of the journal is to continue to expand upon a growing and serious consideration of gaming as a storytelling platform.
Please submit your articles, as blind attachments, to Dr. Amy M. Green, who is the editor of the gaming section. The PCR accepts electronic submissions only. Please direct them to amy.green@unlv.edu and indicate PCR Gaming Article Submission in your subject line. Please include all author information and the title of the article in the body of your email message.
Additional Information:
The Popular Culture Review is the refereed journal of Far West Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, sponsored by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and is published twice yearly. Members of the FWPCA/FWACA receive each issue as part of membership. Single copies may be purchased for $7.50 by individuals. Yearly subscriptions for institutions and libraries are $25.00. Address correspondence to the editor.
Documentation may be in the form appropriate to the discipline of the author. Otherwise, MLA format is preferred. Quotes and paraphrased passages must be followed by their citations within the text. In accordance with copyright laws, we request that quotations not exceed one-hundred (100) words in length.
The author is responsible for obtaining permissions for illustrations, song lyrics, advertisements, etc., which are to be published with the article.
Authors must be members at time of publication. (Persons who have registered for our conference are automatically members for the year of attendance. Those who have been members for at least two years are exempt.)
Call for Book Proposals in "Sports Icons and Issues in Popular Culture" Series
Of potential interest:
Call for Book Proposals -- R&L "Sports Icons and Issues in Popular Culture"
Discussion published by Bob Batchelor on Tuesday, September 8, 2015
https://networks.h-net.org/node/GROUP_NID/discussions/82290/call-book-proposals-rl-sports-icons-and-issues-popular-culture
Hello, please see the Call for Proposals/Authors below. I would be happy to answer questions at your convenience. This book series is aimed at smart, general readers, so the emphasis is on strong research and writing. I have suggested some topics that I would like to see and those favored by the Senior Editor I work closely with at Rowman & Littlefield. I welcome additional suggestions!
Please contact me at your convenience: Bob Batchelor, cultpopculture@gmail.com
Call for Proposals
Sports Icons and Issues in Popular Culture
A New Book Series from Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Series Editors: Norma Jones and Bob Batchelor
The editors of the Rowman & Littlefield Sports Icons and Issues in Popular Culture Series are currently accepting proposals for volumes focused on sports stars and how they reflect and influence not only their sport, but also broader popular culture. In an age when these sporting icons cross over into everyday lives and popular culture, the time is ripe for assessing, reassessing, and refocusing our gaze on the centrality of these athletes in our the contemporary world.
Rowman & Littlefield Sports Icons and Issues in Popular Culture Series will include single-author, co-author, and edited volumes that address the concerns listed above. The Series editors also hope to receive proposals that add to our current understanding of past and current sports icons as well as rising stars in the sporting world. This new series intends to demonstrate how these sports icons not only reflect and influence fandom issues but also broader audiences in terms of lifestyle such as fashion and music. The audience for this series is smart, general interest readers, so strong writing and research is preferred to academic jargon.
Potential Topics (among the endless possibilities):
Volumes in the series will typically run between 80,000 – 110,000 words, exclusive of notes, bibliography, and index. Authors and editors are responsible for negotiating and securing their own permissions for use of images, illustrations, and other copyrighted material.
Proposals should include:
-- Discussion of the volume’s significance
-- Competitive titles/studies
-- A proposed table of contents,
-- Estimated length (and number of images, if applicable)
-- Projected timeline for completion,
-- A sample chapter/excerpt that demonstrates writing style and voice
-- Author/editor’s CV
For more information, please see the Rowman & Littlefield Publishers guidelines at: https://rowman.com/Page/RLAuthRes
Inquiries and proposals should be directed to both Series editors, Norma Jones at njones39@kent.edu and Bob Batchelor at cultpopculture@gmail.com, or to Rowman & Littlefield’s Associate Editor in Sports, Arts & Literature: Christen Karniski at ckarniski@rowman.com.
About the Editors:
Bob Batchelor is a cultural historian and media studies scholar who has written or edited 27 books, including John Updike: A Critical Biography (2013) and Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014). He is the editor of R & L’s Contemporary American Literature, Great Writers/Great Books, 100 Greatest…, and Cultural History of Television book series. He teaches in the Media, Journalism and Film Department at Miami University.
Norma Jones is a David B. Smith Fellowship recipient and doctoral candidate in the College of Communication and Information at Kent State University. Norma co-edited Aging Heroes: Growing Old in Popular Culture (R&L, 2015). She is the co-editor of two companion volumes on heroines of popular culture (Heroines of Film and Television: Portrayals in Popular Culture, Heroines of Comic Books and Literature: Portrayals in Popular Culture). In addition to contributing to popular press books regarding business and nontraditional student experiences, Norma has authored or co-authored eight chapters/entries in edited volumes such as the American History Thorough American Sports volumes, as well as the Asian and Pacific Islander Americans edition in the Great Lives from History series. She is also an associate editor for The Popular Culture Studies Journal, the official journal of the Midwest Popular Culture / American Culture Association.
Call for Book Proposals -- R&L "Sports Icons and Issues in Popular Culture"
Discussion published by Bob Batchelor on Tuesday, September 8, 2015
https://networks.h-net.org/node/GROUP_NID/discussions/82290/call-book-proposals-rl-sports-icons-and-issues-popular-culture
Hello, please see the Call for Proposals/Authors below. I would be happy to answer questions at your convenience. This book series is aimed at smart, general readers, so the emphasis is on strong research and writing. I have suggested some topics that I would like to see and those favored by the Senior Editor I work closely with at Rowman & Littlefield. I welcome additional suggestions!
Please contact me at your convenience: Bob Batchelor, cultpopculture@gmail.com
Call for Proposals
Sports Icons and Issues in Popular Culture
A New Book Series from Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Series Editors: Norma Jones and Bob Batchelor
The editors of the Rowman & Littlefield Sports Icons and Issues in Popular Culture Series are currently accepting proposals for volumes focused on sports stars and how they reflect and influence not only their sport, but also broader popular culture. In an age when these sporting icons cross over into everyday lives and popular culture, the time is ripe for assessing, reassessing, and refocusing our gaze on the centrality of these athletes in our the contemporary world.
Rowman & Littlefield Sports Icons and Issues in Popular Culture Series will include single-author, co-author, and edited volumes that address the concerns listed above. The Series editors also hope to receive proposals that add to our current understanding of past and current sports icons as well as rising stars in the sporting world. This new series intends to demonstrate how these sports icons not only reflect and influence fandom issues but also broader audiences in terms of lifestyle such as fashion and music. The audience for this series is smart, general interest readers, so strong writing and research is preferred to academic jargon.
Potential Topics (among the endless possibilities):
- Lou Gehrig: An American Life
- Shaun White: Bringing Extreme to the Mainstream
- Arnold Palmer: Golf, Life, and the Modern World
- The Green Jacket: A History of the Masters
- Michael Jordan: Icon
- Sugar Ray Leonard and the Making of the 1980s
- Andre Agassi: An American Sports Icon
- New York: The History of a City’s Love (and Hatred) with Sports
- Gina Carano: Lady Fighter
- LINSANITY! An Asian/American Sports Icon
Volumes in the series will typically run between 80,000 – 110,000 words, exclusive of notes, bibliography, and index. Authors and editors are responsible for negotiating and securing their own permissions for use of images, illustrations, and other copyrighted material.
Proposals should include:
-- Discussion of the volume’s significance
-- Competitive titles/studies
-- A proposed table of contents,
-- Estimated length (and number of images, if applicable)
-- Projected timeline for completion,
-- A sample chapter/excerpt that demonstrates writing style and voice
-- Author/editor’s CV
For more information, please see the Rowman & Littlefield Publishers guidelines at: https://rowman.com/Page/RLAuthRes
Inquiries and proposals should be directed to both Series editors, Norma Jones at njones39@kent.edu and Bob Batchelor at cultpopculture@gmail.com, or to Rowman & Littlefield’s Associate Editor in Sports, Arts & Literature: Christen Karniski at ckarniski@rowman.com.
About the Editors:
Bob Batchelor is a cultural historian and media studies scholar who has written or edited 27 books, including John Updike: A Critical Biography (2013) and Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014). He is the editor of R & L’s Contemporary American Literature, Great Writers/Great Books, 100 Greatest…, and Cultural History of Television book series. He teaches in the Media, Journalism and Film Department at Miami University.
Norma Jones is a David B. Smith Fellowship recipient and doctoral candidate in the College of Communication and Information at Kent State University. Norma co-edited Aging Heroes: Growing Old in Popular Culture (R&L, 2015). She is the co-editor of two companion volumes on heroines of popular culture (Heroines of Film and Television: Portrayals in Popular Culture, Heroines of Comic Books and Literature: Portrayals in Popular Culture). In addition to contributing to popular press books regarding business and nontraditional student experiences, Norma has authored or co-authored eight chapters/entries in edited volumes such as the American History Thorough American Sports volumes, as well as the Asian and Pacific Islander Americans edition in the Great Lives from History series. She is also an associate editor for The Popular Culture Studies Journal, the official journal of the Midwest Popular Culture / American Culture Association.
CFP Colllection on “You’re Not Cool Just Because You Teach with Comics”: Studies on the Integration of Popular Culture in Teaching and Learning About Education (proposals by 1/31/2016)
I don't know the context here, but it seems a worthwhile endeavor:
“You’re Not Cool Just Because You Teach with Comics”: Studies on the Integration of Popular Culture in Teaching and Learning About Education
Call for Chapter Proposals
https://networks.h-net.org/node/GROUP_NID/discussions/83751/call-chapter-proposals
Discussion published by Edward Janak on Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Rationale:
A group of high school history teachers attended the 2015 meeting of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. After each of the first two days, they were enthused and excited to meet a group of like-minded people. However, after one session, one of the teachers walked up looking dejected. When asked what was wrong, he fumbled for words for a moment or two, then finally said “Just because you teach using comic books does NOT make you a cool teacher! And it DEFINITELY doesn’t mean you know what to do with those comics.”
The purpose of this edited volume is to address that frustration. It is intended to serve as a place for teachers and scholars to begin seeking ways in which popular culture has been tapped for research and teaching purposes in effective means around the country. The book will be divided into two parts:
Part I will allow teachers and scholars who perform research using popular culture to provide a discussion on any methodological issue or other related topic;
Part II will allow teachers and scholars who have great success teaching via popular culture to discuss the pedagogy/andragogy they tap.
Submission Areas:
Predicted possible topics for papers include, but are not limited to:
Proposals:
We thus invite educational scholars to submit the following to both of the editors appearing below:
An abstract of 500 words (excluding sources cited) providing an overview of the chapter in its entirety
A list of tentative sources cited/data points; and
Brief (1-2 page) curriculum vitae of each contributor including, when relevant: affiliation/position, publication history, and educational history.
Please note: Graduate students, K-12 teachers and independent scholars are all highly encouraged to submit. When possible, we encourage collaboration with a university faculty member.
Submissions:
If accepted, contributors will be responsible for producing manuscripts that meet the following criteria:
Important Deadlines and Dates:
Editor Information:
All enquiries should be directed to:
Dr. Edward Janak, Chair
Educational Foundations and Leadership
Judith Herb College of Education
University of Toledo
5000-C Gillham Hall, Mail Stop 921
2801 West Bancroft Street
Toledo, OH 43606-3390
Phone: (419) 530-4114
Email: Edward.janak@utoledo.edu
Dr. Ludovic A. Sourdot
Associate Professor, Curriculum & Instruction
Department of Teacher Education
Texas Woman’s University
P.O. Box 425769
Denton, TX 76204-5769
Phone:(940) 898-2216
Email: lsourdot@mail.twu.edu
“You’re Not Cool Just Because You Teach with Comics”: Studies on the Integration of Popular Culture in Teaching and Learning About Education
Call for Chapter Proposals
https://networks.h-net.org/node/GROUP_NID/discussions/83751/call-chapter-proposals
Discussion published by Edward Janak on Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Rationale:
A group of high school history teachers attended the 2015 meeting of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. After each of the first two days, they were enthused and excited to meet a group of like-minded people. However, after one session, one of the teachers walked up looking dejected. When asked what was wrong, he fumbled for words for a moment or two, then finally said “Just because you teach using comic books does NOT make you a cool teacher! And it DEFINITELY doesn’t mean you know what to do with those comics.”
The purpose of this edited volume is to address that frustration. It is intended to serve as a place for teachers and scholars to begin seeking ways in which popular culture has been tapped for research and teaching purposes in effective means around the country. The book will be divided into two parts:
Part I will allow teachers and scholars who perform research using popular culture to provide a discussion on any methodological issue or other related topic;
Part II will allow teachers and scholars who have great success teaching via popular culture to discuss the pedagogy/andragogy they tap.
Submission Areas:
Predicted possible topics for papers include, but are not limited to:
- Reflections/linkages between schooling and popular culture in the United States;
- Theoretical perspectives to using popular culture in education, teaching, or preservice teacher education in the United States;
- Use of popular culture in both formal and informal settings;
- International/multinational/cross-border lenses through which popular culture/popular perception of schooling can be viewed;
- The role of history in education, teaching, or preservice teacher education in the United States and/or re-integrating historical foundations into education;
- Successful use(s) of popular culture in education, teaching, or preservice teacher education in the United States;
- Representation(s) of teaching and/or schooling in popular culture through history;
- How education has impacted/has been impacted by popular culture;
- The impact/emergence of LGBTQ studies in schooling and education;
- Queering any of the represented fields/multidisciplinary approaches to the represented fields (education, schooling, history, archival studies, teaching, preservice teacher education);
- Otherization/de-otherization of immigrants via their representation(s) in popular culture (Hollywood, Television);
- Tapping into (or resisting) popular technology to improve education; and/or
- Exploring the intersections of social media, social identity and education.
Proposals:
We thus invite educational scholars to submit the following to both of the editors appearing below:
An abstract of 500 words (excluding sources cited) providing an overview of the chapter in its entirety
A list of tentative sources cited/data points; and
Brief (1-2 page) curriculum vitae of each contributor including, when relevant: affiliation/position, publication history, and educational history.
Please note: Graduate students, K-12 teachers and independent scholars are all highly encouraged to submit. When possible, we encourage collaboration with a university faculty member.
Submissions:
If accepted, contributors will be responsible for producing manuscripts that meet the following criteria:
- be relevant to the field and further the conversation;
- be a minimum of 5,000 words (20-35 pages) in length;
- follow all formatting and style guidelines from the Chicago Manual of Style;
- contain all original material (not have been previously published); and
- not contain any copyrighted material (images, lengthy passages, etc).
Important Deadlines and Dates:
- Submission of abstracts to editors: January 31, 2016
- Notification of decisions to contributors: April 2016
- Submission of proposal to Lexington Press: May 2016
- Chapter submission to editors: August 2016
- Revision/redraft of chapters from editors: November 2017
- Revision re-submission from contributors: January 2017
- Submission to press: June 1, 2017
- Tentative publication date: November 2017
Editor Information:
All enquiries should be directed to:
Dr. Edward Janak, Chair
Educational Foundations and Leadership
Judith Herb College of Education
University of Toledo
5000-C Gillham Hall, Mail Stop 921
2801 West Bancroft Street
Toledo, OH 43606-3390
Phone: (419) 530-4114
Email: Edward.janak@utoledo.edu
Dr. Ludovic A. Sourdot
Associate Professor, Curriculum & Instruction
Department of Teacher Education
Texas Woman’s University
P.O. Box 425769
Denton, TX 76204-5769
Phone:(940) 898-2216
Email: lsourdot@mail.twu.edu
CFP Essay Collection on The Hobbit in Fiction and Film (abstracts by 12/1/2015)
From H-Film:
https://networks.h-net.org/node/14467/discussions/86662/cfp-essay-collection-hobbit-fiction-and-film-working-title
CFP: Essay Collection on The Hobbit in Fiction and Film (working title) with McFarland publisher
Discussion published by Janice Bogstad on Friday, October 2, 2015
COMPARING JACKSON’S The Hobbit FILMS TO TOLKIEN’s NOVEL: : Text into Film Edited by Dr. Janice M Bogstad
Call for papers for an essay collection -12-15 essays of 6000-8,000 words in length.
The deadline for receipt of an abstract, for consideration, is Dec 1, 2015. Final manuscripts are due March 1, 2016 with encouragement for earlier submission. Contact me to discuss exceptions.
Send Abstracts and address queries to:
Dr. Janice M. Bogstad, Professor bogstajm@uwec.edu 715-836-6032
(McIntyre Library U of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Eau Claire, WI 54702-5010
Manuscripts will be reviewed in a double-blind process by peer reviewers after having been tentatively accepted by the editor.
The collection will consider comparisons between Tolkien’s original Hobbit and the three Jackson films. Of interest are structural parallels and differences, changes in character-focus from the book to the films, and considerations of philosophical differences in the overall message of Tolkien’s original book and Jackson’s films, but other well-supported arguments will also be considered. As with the previously published essay collection, Picturing Tolkien (McFarland 2011), this collection will focus on positive comparisons. Essayists may wish to discuss features of the film that are, in their judgment, less successful, but will be asked to hold condemnation of the cinematic text simply on the basis of its differences from the textual narrative. Authors may decide to focus on the films or the novel but the primary focus is comparative features of both. Contribution to Tolkien scholarship can be articulated with two concepts: its audience is the informed reader, not only the Tolkien, literary or film critic. Its basic framework is in respect of co-measurability, that the books and the films are co-creations with parallel structures that intersect at certain points. Each should be examined and compared as if those comparisons and intersections are significant to understanding contemporary Tolkien studies.
https://networks.h-net.org/node/14467/discussions/86662/cfp-essay-collection-hobbit-fiction-and-film-working-title
CFP: Essay Collection on The Hobbit in Fiction and Film (working title) with McFarland publisher
Discussion published by Janice Bogstad on Friday, October 2, 2015
COMPARING JACKSON’S The Hobbit FILMS TO TOLKIEN’s NOVEL: : Text into Film Edited by Dr. Janice M Bogstad
Call for papers for an essay collection -12-15 essays of 6000-8,000 words in length.
The deadline for receipt of an abstract, for consideration, is Dec 1, 2015. Final manuscripts are due March 1, 2016 with encouragement for earlier submission. Contact me to discuss exceptions.
Send Abstracts and address queries to:
Dr. Janice M. Bogstad, Professor bogstajm@uwec.edu 715-836-6032
(McIntyre Library U of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Eau Claire, WI 54702-5010
Manuscripts will be reviewed in a double-blind process by peer reviewers after having been tentatively accepted by the editor.
The collection will consider comparisons between Tolkien’s original Hobbit and the three Jackson films. Of interest are structural parallels and differences, changes in character-focus from the book to the films, and considerations of philosophical differences in the overall message of Tolkien’s original book and Jackson’s films, but other well-supported arguments will also be considered. As with the previously published essay collection, Picturing Tolkien (McFarland 2011), this collection will focus on positive comparisons. Essayists may wish to discuss features of the film that are, in their judgment, less successful, but will be asked to hold condemnation of the cinematic text simply on the basis of its differences from the textual narrative. Authors may decide to focus on the films or the novel but the primary focus is comparative features of both. Contribution to Tolkien scholarship can be articulated with two concepts: its audience is the informed reader, not only the Tolkien, literary or film critic. Its basic framework is in respect of co-measurability, that the books and the films are co-creations with parallel structures that intersect at certain points. Each should be examined and compared as if those comparisons and intersections are significant to understanding contemporary Tolkien studies.
CFP James Bond: Spectre and the Daniel Craig Era (Spec Issue of The Journal of Popular Film and Television) (8/21/2016)
From H-Film:
https://networks.h-net.org/node/14467/discussions/94136/cfp-special-themed-issue-james-bond-spectre-and-daniel-craig-era
CFP: Special Themed Issue on James Bond: Spectre and the Daniel Craig Era
Discussion published by Lisa Funnell on Friday, November 6, 2015
CFP: Special Themed Issue on James Bond: Spectre and the Daniel Craig Era
The Journal of Popular Film and Television
The release of Spectre (2015), the 24th James Bond film, has been accompanied by much speculation in the critical and popular media about the film. From discussions about casting and characterization to the circulation of photographs of shooting locations to conversations about the style and tone of the new Bond song, Spectre has been a topic of conversation long before the film was released. As the film debuts in various international markets, anticipation and conjecture are steadily being replaced by questions about the current direction of the series and speculation as to whether the franchise even has a future. As Daniel Craig reportedly noted, he would rather “slash his wrists” than play James Bond for a fifth time, just before British critics, as it turns out, celebrated his performance in Spectre.
The Journal of Popular Film and Television will address these questions in a special James Bond themed issue focusing on Spectre (2015) and the other Daniel Craig James Bond films: Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), and Skyfall (2012). This special issue will be edited by Dr. Lisa Funnell (University of Oklahoma) and Dr. Klaus Dodds (Royal Holloway, University of London). We are interested in papers that analyze Spectre and the other Craig era films from a socio-cultural perspective and address topics such as:
Submissions should be 5000 to 7000 words in length (including bibliography and notes), be double spaced in Times New Roman font, and adhere to MLA style. Please include a 100 word abstract and 5-7 key words to facilitate online searches. Send an electronic copy of your submission in .doc or .docx format to Dr. Lisa Funnell lfunnell@ou.edu and Dr. Klaus Dodds K.Dodds@rhul.ac.uk by August 21, 2016.
For more information about the Journal of Popular Film and Television, please see http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=vjpf20#.VjEmsytqmpo
Any inquiries about the special themed issue on James Bond should be directed towards Dr. Lisa Funnell lfunnell@ou.edu or Dr. Klaus Dodds K.Dodds@rhul.ac.uk
Editor Bios:
Lisa Funnell, Ph.D is an Assistant Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Oklahoma. She is the editor of For His Eyes Only: The Women of James Bond (Wallflower 2015) and has published extensively on gender and feminism in James Bond. She is currently writing a book with Klaus Dodds on The Geographies, Genders, and Geopolitics of James Bond (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming)
Klaus Dodds, Ph.D. is Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has written numerous articles on the popular geopolitics of James Bond and other spies/assassins including Jason Bourne. His book with Columbia University Press on International Politics and Film co-written with Sean Carter was published in May 2014.
They recently published “‘The Man with the Midas Touch’: The Haptic Geographies of James Bond's Body” Journal of Popular Film and Television 43(2015): 121-135.
https://networks.h-net.org/node/14467/discussions/94136/cfp-special-themed-issue-james-bond-spectre-and-daniel-craig-era
CFP: Special Themed Issue on James Bond: Spectre and the Daniel Craig Era
Discussion published by Lisa Funnell on Friday, November 6, 2015
CFP: Special Themed Issue on James Bond: Spectre and the Daniel Craig Era
The Journal of Popular Film and Television
The release of Spectre (2015), the 24th James Bond film, has been accompanied by much speculation in the critical and popular media about the film. From discussions about casting and characterization to the circulation of photographs of shooting locations to conversations about the style and tone of the new Bond song, Spectre has been a topic of conversation long before the film was released. As the film debuts in various international markets, anticipation and conjecture are steadily being replaced by questions about the current direction of the series and speculation as to whether the franchise even has a future. As Daniel Craig reportedly noted, he would rather “slash his wrists” than play James Bond for a fifth time, just before British critics, as it turns out, celebrated his performance in Spectre.
The Journal of Popular Film and Television will address these questions in a special James Bond themed issue focusing on Spectre (2015) and the other Daniel Craig James Bond films: Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), and Skyfall (2012). This special issue will be edited by Dr. Lisa Funnell (University of Oklahoma) and Dr. Klaus Dodds (Royal Holloway, University of London). We are interested in papers that analyze Spectre and the other Craig era films from a socio-cultural perspective and address topics such as:
- heroism
- villainy from individual villains to organizations like Quantum and Spectre
- narrative structure, style, and tone
- inclusion, adaptation, and/or absence of traditional Bond elements
- geopolitics and geographies of Bond
- feminism
- social locations such as gender, race, class, sexual orientation, ability, nationality, etc.
- action aesthetics/choreography and the body
- nationality, (post)colonialism, and/or imperialism
- post-9/11 and/or post-7/7 context
- terrorism (domestic, cyber, nuclear, corporate)
- technology and gadgetry (or lack thereof)
Submissions should be 5000 to 7000 words in length (including bibliography and notes), be double spaced in Times New Roman font, and adhere to MLA style. Please include a 100 word abstract and 5-7 key words to facilitate online searches. Send an electronic copy of your submission in .doc or .docx format to Dr. Lisa Funnell lfunnell@ou.edu and Dr. Klaus Dodds K.Dodds@rhul.ac.uk by August 21, 2016.
For more information about the Journal of Popular Film and Television, please see http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=vjpf20#.VjEmsytqmpo
Any inquiries about the special themed issue on James Bond should be directed towards Dr. Lisa Funnell lfunnell@ou.edu or Dr. Klaus Dodds K.Dodds@rhul.ac.uk
Editor Bios:
Lisa Funnell, Ph.D is an Assistant Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Oklahoma. She is the editor of For His Eyes Only: The Women of James Bond (Wallflower 2015) and has published extensively on gender and feminism in James Bond. She is currently writing a book with Klaus Dodds on The Geographies, Genders, and Geopolitics of James Bond (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming)
Klaus Dodds, Ph.D. is Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has written numerous articles on the popular geopolitics of James Bond and other spies/assassins including Jason Bourne. His book with Columbia University Press on International Politics and Film co-written with Sean Carter was published in May 2014.
They recently published “‘The Man with the Midas Touch’: The Haptic Geographies of James Bond's Body” Journal of Popular Film and Television 43(2015): 121-135.
Friday, October 30, 2015
NEPCA Fantastic 2016 First CFP
FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
NINTH-ANNIVERSARY SESSIONS OF THE
SCIENCE FICTION, Fantasy, HORROR, AND LEGEND AREA
Visit us at NEPCA Fantastic: http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com
2016 Conference of The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)
Keene State University in Keene, New Hampshire
29 and 30 October 2016
Proposals by 15 June 2016
Formed in 2008, the Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area celebrates its ninth anniversary in 2016, and we seek proposals from scholars of all levels for papers that explore any aspect of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic (including, but not limited to, elements of 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 of the conference to Halloween, we are always interested in proposals related to monsters and the monstrous, and, in anticipation of the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 2018, we are especially hoping for proposals that address aspects of the Frankenstein tradition and the fantastic.
Please see our website NEPCA Fantastic (http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com) for further details and ideas. Presentations will be limited to 15-20 minutes in length (depending on final panel size).
If you are interested in proposing a paper, a Google document will appear on NEPCA’s Website (https://nepca.wordpress.com/) in November, and you can register using that form. Please send biography 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 2016” in your subject line):
Karen Honeycutt
Program Chair
khoneycutt@keene.edu
Michael A. Torregrossa
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area Chair
NEPCAFantastic@gmail.com
Please submit proposals for complete panels directly to the Program Chair and Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area Chair at the addresses above.
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/.
NINTH-ANNIVERSARY SESSIONS OF THE
SCIENCE FICTION, Fantasy, HORROR, AND LEGEND AREA
Visit us at NEPCA Fantastic: http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com
2016 Conference of The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)
Keene State University in Keene, New Hampshire
29 and 30 October 2016
Proposals by 15 June 2016
Formed in 2008, the Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area celebrates its ninth anniversary in 2016, and we seek proposals from scholars of all levels for papers that explore any aspect of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic (including, but not limited to, elements of 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 of the conference to Halloween, we are always interested in proposals related to monsters and the monstrous, and, in anticipation of the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 2018, we are especially hoping for proposals that address aspects of the Frankenstein tradition and the fantastic.
Please see our website NEPCA Fantastic (http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com) for further details and ideas. Presentations will be limited to 15-20 minutes in length (depending on final panel size).
If you are interested in proposing a paper, a Google document will appear on NEPCA’s Website (https://nepca.wordpress.com/) in November, and you can register using that form. Please send biography 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 2016” in your subject line):
Karen Honeycutt
Program Chair
khoneycutt@keene.edu
Michael A. Torregrossa
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area Chair
NEPCAFantastic@gmail.com
Please submit proposals for complete panels directly to the Program Chair and Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area Chair at the addresses above.
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/.
NEPCA Fantastic 2015 Schedule
Sorry for the delay in posting this:
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area Panels 2015
Michael A. Torregrossa, Area Chair
Current as of 30 October 2015
Complete schedule at https://nepca.wordpress.com/fall-conference/2015-conference-schedule/.
Session I: Friday, October 30, 2:30-4:00 PM
Panel 4: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend I: Making Monsters (Ivey 201)
Chair: June-Ann Greeley (Sacred Heart University)
1. “Imagining Monsters: Contemporary Horror and Cognitive Monstrosity”
Jack Dudley (Mount Saint Mary’s University)
Jack Dudley received his PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013, and he is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he researches and teaches modern and contemporary British and American literature. Jack also works on horror fiction and film, an interest that drew him to our area. He recently taught a much-sought after class on American horror and is also working on a book entitled Modernism and Horror.
2. “Butchering Identity: Depictions of Unconscious Repression within The Midnight Meat Train”
Courtney Peters (Flagler College)
Courtney Peters is a senior at Flagler College and majoring in Media Studies and Advertising. Her main areas of interest are horror cinema and the future of media convergence, and she has recently presented a paper on the allegorical role of post 9/11 horror at PCA South’s 2014 conference. After graduating this winter, she hopes to gain employment with one of the many theme parks in Florida and use her knowledge of media and audience behavior to develop and promote exciting new ways of interactive entertainment.
3. “The Alien Human: Monstrous Humanity in Science Fiction”
Selena Middleton (McMaster University)
Selena Middleton is a PhD candidate in English with the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She is a writer and scholar of science fiction. Selena’s research interests include religion, myth, and ecocriticism, and her dissertation, “Old Myths in the New Anthropocene: Negotiating the Terms of Exile in Ecological Science Fiction,” engages trauma and affect theory to examine the exilic experience in environmental science fiction.
4. “Are They Among Us? The Battle of Los Angeles and UFO Disclosure”
Donald Vescio (Worcester State University)
Don Vescio is a two-year veteran of our area and a faculty member of Department of English at Worcester State University. After serving ten years as Worcester State’s Chief Information Office/Vice President of Information Technologies and two years as Vice President of Enrollment Management and Marketing, Don now focuses his energies on teaching undergraduate and graduate students in a variety of disciplines. His research interests are in critical theory, narratological analysis, and information design.
Session II: Friday, October 30, 4:15-5:45 PM
Panel 9: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, And Legend II: Transforming the Monster (Ivey 109)
Chair: Asher Ellis (Colby-Sawyer College)
1. “C. M. Kornbluth’s Postwar American Vampire at the Dawn of the Atomic Age”
Kristin Bidoshi (Union College)
A two-year veteran of our area, Kristin Bidoshi is Associate Professor of Russian at Union College, where she teaches courses on Russian language, literature and culture. As a researcher, Kristin has conducted fieldwork in Eastern Europe and published on the use of the oral tradition in the works of Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, and Liudimila Petrushevskaia and on the evil eye in Albania. Happily for our area, she also teaches a course on the Vampire as Other in East European and American Culture and shares the continuation of her thought-provoking work on C. M. Kornbluth with us this afternoon.
2. “Invisible Reflections: Queer Erasure and the Monstrous Visibility of Vampires in Comics”
Gabriel Morrison (Rhode Island College)
Gabe Morrison is a graduate student at Rhode Island College studying creative writing, and he currently serves in a faculty position as the writing coach for the Master of Social Work program at Rhode Island College’s School of Social Work as well as a tutor in the college’s writing center. Gabe’s research focuses on graphic narratives, children’s literature and picture books, creative nonfiction, and teaching and tutoring writing. His academic work has focused on the intersection of visual and textual narratives, and, with a studio art minor at the undergraduate level, he frequently incorporates graphic elements into his work in creative writing.
3. “Super Monsters: Frankenstein in the Superhero Genre”
Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar/Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Legend Area Chair)
Michael A. Torregrossa is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs). His research interests include adaptation, Arthuriana, comics and comic art, medievalism, monsters, and wizards. Michael has presented papers on these topics at regional, national, and international conferences, and his work has been published in academic journals and edited collections. Michael is founder of The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and co-founder, with Carl James Grindley, of The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages; he also serves as editor for these organizations’ various blogs and moderator of their discussion lists. Besides these activities, he is currently Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area Chair for NEPCA, a position he has held since 2009, and organizes sessions for their annual conference in the fall and maintains the area’s blogs.
Session III: Saturday, October 31, 8:45-10:15 AM
PANEL 15: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend III: Rethinking Horror (IVEY 109)
Chair: Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar/Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Legend Area Chair)
1. “Where the Wild Things Are: Horror, Atavism, and the Unspeakable”
Christopher McVey
Our first presenter this morning is Christopher McVey. He currently serves as a full-time Lecturer for the Writing Program at Boston University, where he teaches courses in dystopian fiction and film, modernism, the avant-garde, and twentieth-century literature. Christopher’s published work has appeared in the Journal of Modern Literature and Twentieth-Century Literature, and his current book project is entitled Syncretic Cosmopolitanisms: Citizenship and Belonging in Twentieth-Century Literature.
2. “The Boogeyman Catalyst: Transformative Fear in the Gothic and Child-like Power in Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook”
Anna Lockhart (Rutgers University-Camden)
Our next presenter is Anna Lockhart. She is in her second year at Rutgers University-Camden, where she is pursuing a Master’s in English Literature with a concentration in Childhood, Literature and Culture and working as an adjunct professor in writing. Her research interest lies in the relationship that female protagonists have with space and natural vistas. Anna has also previously written and presented a paper on the figure of the female child in Southern Gothic literature
3. “Monstresses: The Representation of the Monstrous Feminine Onscreen”
Dalina Aimee Perdomo (University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez) [WITHDRAWN]
4. “The Fallen Angel of the House: Women and Monsters in Penny Dreadful”
Kavita Mundan Finn (Independent Scholar)
Our final presenter is Kavita Mundan Finn. She just finished a year as Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Southern New Hampshire University. Kavita received her PhD from the University of Oxford in 2010 and published her book, The Last Plantagenet Consorts: Gender, Genre, and Historiography 1440-1627, in June 2012. In addition to queenship and gender studies, her research interests include popular history, medievalism in popular culture, and the intersection between fan studies and early modern literature.
Session IV: Saturday, October 31, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
(Note: The Area has two panels running concurrently this session.)
Panel 20: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend IV: New Ideas on Science Fiction (Ivey 107)
Chair: Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar/Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Legend Area Chair)
1. “Fans of Bronze: Writers of Fan Letters Printed in Doc Savage Magazine, 1933-1949”
October Surprise (Independent Scholar / Rogue Sociology)
Our first presenter is October Surprise. He is a sociologist and now attached to the College of St. Joseph in Rutland, Vermont, as a sociology instructor. October is also currently completing a book, under contract with McFarland, that views fascism and totalitarianism in the interwar period through the lens of the Doc Savage pulp fiction novel series.
2. “Stylometry and the Seldon Crisis: Using Statistics to Categorize Novels in Asimov’s Foundation Universe”
Daniel M. Look (St. Lawrence University)
Our second presenter is Daniel Look. He is an associate professor of mathematics and chair of the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. His research interests lie in Complex Dynamics and Stylometry (the statistical analysis of language.) Recently, Daniel’s research has focused on using stylometry to provide evidence in cases of disputed authorship, especially in the pulps.
3. “Imperial Fictions: Doctor Who, Post-Racial Slavery, and Other Liberal Humanist Fantasies”
Susana Loza (Hampshire College)
Our next presenter is Susana Loza. She is an associate professor of media culture at Hampshire College. Susana teaches courses in cultural studies, critical race theory, film and media studies, popular music, feminist theory, and ethnic studies. She has published a wide range of topics, including Doctor Who, film noir, popular music, steampunk, and vampires, and her current project, Speculative Imperialisms: Monstrosity and Masquerade in Post-Racial Times (forthcoming in 2016 from Lexington Books), explores the resurgence of racial masquerade in science fiction, horror, and fantasy and contemplates the fundamental, albeit changing, role that ethnic simulation plays in American and British cultures in a putatively post-racial and post-colonial era.
4. “Female Warrior Heroes from Athena to Agent Carter”
Cheryl A. Hunter (Southern New Hampshire University)
Our final presenter this morning is Cheryl Hunter. She is currently an adjunct professor at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester and Colby-Sawyer. Cheryl’s background is in philosophy, and her research has focused on the heroic tradition, including a number of conference presentations and a book, published in 2011, entitled Myths and Archetypes in The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.
Session IV: Saturday, October 31, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
(Note: The Area has two panels running concurrently this session.)
Panel 21: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend V: Nature and the Unnatural in the Fantastic (Ivey 109)
Chair: Deborah Wills (Mount Allison University)
1. “ ‘Safe at Last in the Wood outside the Garden’: Classic Animal Fantasy and the Environment”
Amie A. Doughty (SUNY Oneonta)
amie.doughty@oneonta.edu
Amie A. Doughty is Associate Professor and Chair of the English Department at SUNY Oneonta and now a five-time presenter in our area. She teaches courses in linguistics, composition, children’s literature, science fiction, and fantasy. Amie’s primary area of research is children’s and young adult fantasy, and she is author of the books Folktales Retold: A Critical Overview of Stories Updated for Children (2006) and “Throw the book away”: Reading versus Experience in Children’s Fantasy (2013), both published by McFarland. Amie is also the Area Chair of the Children's Literature and Culture area of the National PCA/ACA.
2. “Souls of Creation: Trees in Selected Works of J. R. R. Tolkien”
June-Ann Greeley (Sacred Heart University)
June-Ann Greeley is Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Sacred Heart University. Her research and scholarship focus on women and religion/women’s spirituality; religion and literature, especially in contemporary fiction and fantasy; religious themes in modern art; contemporary expressions of religious life and modern spiritual movements; and comparative spirituality.
3. “What’s the Use?: Man’s Search for Purpose in Bradbury’s Short Stories”
Laura A. Brown (SUNY Potsdam)
Laura A. Brown is an assistant professor at the State University of New York in Potsdam, where she is the program coordinator for Adolescent English Education. Laura is a member of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents and the National Council of Teachers of English and has presented at the council’s annual convention numerous times. She has co-authored two books on young-adult authors and their writings and has been published in both The ALAN Review and the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Laura’s current research is an analysis of Ray Bradbury’s short stories and the Nancy Drew series for unique content and stylistic markers.
4. “Monstrous Machines: Technology, Nature and the Importance of Balance in Andre Norton’s Witch World Novels”
Kathleen Healey (Worcester State University)
Kathleen Healey is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Worcester State University. She holds a PhD in American literature to 1865 and is currently co-editor, with Sharon Yang, of the forthcoming book Gothic Landscapes: Changing Eras, Changing Cultures, Changing Anxieties. Kathleen’s research interests include Gothic literature, environmental literature, and the intersection between literature and the visual arts.
Session V: Saturday, October 31, 1:45-3:15 PM
Panel 27: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend VI: Writing Horror (Ivey 109)
Chair: Amie A. Doughty (SUNY Oneonta)
1. “ ‘We’re Not All Dead Yet’: Humor Amid the Horror in James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein”
Martin F. Norden (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Martin F. Norden teaches film history and screenwriting as a Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has published more than one hundred books, book chapters, journal articles, encyclopedia essays, and reviews, almost all of which have been about film.
2. “Tales from the Encrypted: Decoding the Index in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves”
Deborah Wills (Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick)
Deborah Wills teaches in the English Department at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, where she holds the Charles and Joseph Allison Chair in English Literatures. Her research interests include representations of violence in literature, metaphor and race in news media, and contemporary gothic and horror fiction.
3. “Hunting the Hunters: Lovecraft’s Epistemology and the 21st Century Monster Hunter”
Jonathan Elmore (Savannah State University)
Jonathan Elmore is an Assistant Professor of English and the University Writing Center Director at Savannah State University. He teaches courses in British literature, composition, writing center theory and practice, popular culture, and philosophy. Jonathan’s research interests include composition theory and pedagogy, British modernism, multimodal literacies, and the future of English departments. He has published and presented on a number of writers, including Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, H. P. Lovecraft, Iris Murdoch, Bram Stoker, and H. G. Wells, and his current projects include a book length project for Routledge entitled Engagements with Gothic Horror: From the Gothic Revival to The Walking Dead.
4. “Becoming the Monster: A Jungian Analysis of Monster Erotica and the Acceptance of the Animus through the Shadow”
Saraliza Anzaldua (National Taiwan University)
Saraliza Anzaldua is an American in the master’s degree program of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at National Taiwan University. Her current studies focus on monstrosity, and she is engaged in a research project that argues that there is no monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Saraliza hopes to continue her work on the monstrous in the future, and, after her Mandarian has improved to an academic level, she would like to attempt a cultural study regarding the impact of literary horror in American and Taiwanese society.
Session VI: Saturday, October 31, 3:30-5:00 PM
Panel 37: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend VII: Re-Writing Horror (Cleveland Reading Room)
Chair: Lance Eaton (North Shore Community College)
1. “A Recurring Nightmare: A Teaching Opportunity in Pop Culture”
Joseph Sgammato (SUNY/Westchester Community College)
Joseph Sgammato is a writer and teacher. His background is in both English and Film Studies, and he teaches English and Film at SUNY/Westchester Community College in Valhalla, New York. He is also a Fellow of the CUNY Writers’ Institute in New York City. Joseph writes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. In the last category, his subjects have included film, literature, art, medicine, and memoir, and his work has appeared in the journals Patient Care, Sight and Sound, and The Wordsworth Circle and in the collection The Book of Firsts (Anchor Books, 2010).
2. “Evil that Devours: Modern Re-imaginings of the Wendigo”
Elizabeth J. Nielsen (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)
Elizabeth J. Nielsen is a PhD student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the Department of Communication with a focus on Media Studies/Popular Culture. Her research interests include monsters and the monstrous, gender studies, and fan studies. Her most recent publications include essays on the James Bond film series and the Supernatural television series. Elizabeth will also be guest editing an upcoming edition of the Journal of Fandom Studies dealing with virtual and physical fan spaces, an extension of a panel she organized on the same topic for the Fan Studies track at the national PCA/ACA conference in 2015. She also serves as one of the organizers of the popular Pseudo Society panel at the annual International Congress of Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University.
3. “The Four Texts of World War Z: Unity, Violence, and Transformative Vulnerability”
Eric Boyer (Colby-Sawyer College)
Eric Boyer is an Associate Professor of Political Studies at Colby-Sawyer College. He received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in the department of Political Science. Eric’s research focuses on the intersections of Marxism, pragmatism, and popular culture.
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area Panels 2015
Michael A. Torregrossa, Area Chair
Current as of 30 October 2015
Complete schedule at https://nepca.wordpress.com/fall-conference/2015-conference-schedule/.
Session I: Friday, October 30, 2:30-4:00 PM
Panel 4: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend I: Making Monsters (Ivey 201)
Chair: June-Ann Greeley (Sacred Heart University)
1. “Imagining Monsters: Contemporary Horror and Cognitive Monstrosity”
Jack Dudley (Mount Saint Mary’s University)
Jack Dudley received his PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013, and he is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he researches and teaches modern and contemporary British and American literature. Jack also works on horror fiction and film, an interest that drew him to our area. He recently taught a much-sought after class on American horror and is also working on a book entitled Modernism and Horror.
2. “Butchering Identity: Depictions of Unconscious Repression within The Midnight Meat Train”
Courtney Peters (Flagler College)
Courtney Peters is a senior at Flagler College and majoring in Media Studies and Advertising. Her main areas of interest are horror cinema and the future of media convergence, and she has recently presented a paper on the allegorical role of post 9/11 horror at PCA South’s 2014 conference. After graduating this winter, she hopes to gain employment with one of the many theme parks in Florida and use her knowledge of media and audience behavior to develop and promote exciting new ways of interactive entertainment.
3. “The Alien Human: Monstrous Humanity in Science Fiction”
Selena Middleton (McMaster University)
Selena Middleton is a PhD candidate in English with the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She is a writer and scholar of science fiction. Selena’s research interests include religion, myth, and ecocriticism, and her dissertation, “Old Myths in the New Anthropocene: Negotiating the Terms of Exile in Ecological Science Fiction,” engages trauma and affect theory to examine the exilic experience in environmental science fiction.
4. “Are They Among Us? The Battle of Los Angeles and UFO Disclosure”
Donald Vescio (Worcester State University)
Don Vescio is a two-year veteran of our area and a faculty member of Department of English at Worcester State University. After serving ten years as Worcester State’s Chief Information Office/Vice President of Information Technologies and two years as Vice President of Enrollment Management and Marketing, Don now focuses his energies on teaching undergraduate and graduate students in a variety of disciplines. His research interests are in critical theory, narratological analysis, and information design.
Session II: Friday, October 30, 4:15-5:45 PM
Panel 9: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, And Legend II: Transforming the Monster (Ivey 109)
Chair: Asher Ellis (Colby-Sawyer College)
1. “C. M. Kornbluth’s Postwar American Vampire at the Dawn of the Atomic Age”
Kristin Bidoshi (Union College)
A two-year veteran of our area, Kristin Bidoshi is Associate Professor of Russian at Union College, where she teaches courses on Russian language, literature and culture. As a researcher, Kristin has conducted fieldwork in Eastern Europe and published on the use of the oral tradition in the works of Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, and Liudimila Petrushevskaia and on the evil eye in Albania. Happily for our area, she also teaches a course on the Vampire as Other in East European and American Culture and shares the continuation of her thought-provoking work on C. M. Kornbluth with us this afternoon.
2. “Invisible Reflections: Queer Erasure and the Monstrous Visibility of Vampires in Comics”
Gabriel Morrison (Rhode Island College)
Gabe Morrison is a graduate student at Rhode Island College studying creative writing, and he currently serves in a faculty position as the writing coach for the Master of Social Work program at Rhode Island College’s School of Social Work as well as a tutor in the college’s writing center. Gabe’s research focuses on graphic narratives, children’s literature and picture books, creative nonfiction, and teaching and tutoring writing. His academic work has focused on the intersection of visual and textual narratives, and, with a studio art minor at the undergraduate level, he frequently incorporates graphic elements into his work in creative writing.
3. “Super Monsters: Frankenstein in the Superhero Genre”
Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar/Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Legend Area Chair)
Michael A. Torregrossa is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs). His research interests include adaptation, Arthuriana, comics and comic art, medievalism, monsters, and wizards. Michael has presented papers on these topics at regional, national, and international conferences, and his work has been published in academic journals and edited collections. Michael is founder of The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and co-founder, with Carl James Grindley, of The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages; he also serves as editor for these organizations’ various blogs and moderator of their discussion lists. Besides these activities, he is currently Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area Chair for NEPCA, a position he has held since 2009, and organizes sessions for their annual conference in the fall and maintains the area’s blogs.
Session III: Saturday, October 31, 8:45-10:15 AM
PANEL 15: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend III: Rethinking Horror (IVEY 109)
Chair: Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar/Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Legend Area Chair)
1. “Where the Wild Things Are: Horror, Atavism, and the Unspeakable”
Christopher McVey
Our first presenter this morning is Christopher McVey. He currently serves as a full-time Lecturer for the Writing Program at Boston University, where he teaches courses in dystopian fiction and film, modernism, the avant-garde, and twentieth-century literature. Christopher’s published work has appeared in the Journal of Modern Literature and Twentieth-Century Literature, and his current book project is entitled Syncretic Cosmopolitanisms: Citizenship and Belonging in Twentieth-Century Literature.
2. “The Boogeyman Catalyst: Transformative Fear in the Gothic and Child-like Power in Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook”
Anna Lockhart (Rutgers University-Camden)
Our next presenter is Anna Lockhart. She is in her second year at Rutgers University-Camden, where she is pursuing a Master’s in English Literature with a concentration in Childhood, Literature and Culture and working as an adjunct professor in writing. Her research interest lies in the relationship that female protagonists have with space and natural vistas. Anna has also previously written and presented a paper on the figure of the female child in Southern Gothic literature
3. “Monstresses: The Representation of the Monstrous Feminine Onscreen”
Dalina Aimee Perdomo (University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez) [WITHDRAWN]
4. “The Fallen Angel of the House: Women and Monsters in Penny Dreadful”
Kavita Mundan Finn (Independent Scholar)
Our final presenter is Kavita Mundan Finn. She just finished a year as Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Southern New Hampshire University. Kavita received her PhD from the University of Oxford in 2010 and published her book, The Last Plantagenet Consorts: Gender, Genre, and Historiography 1440-1627, in June 2012. In addition to queenship and gender studies, her research interests include popular history, medievalism in popular culture, and the intersection between fan studies and early modern literature.
Session IV: Saturday, October 31, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
(Note: The Area has two panels running concurrently this session.)
Panel 20: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend IV: New Ideas on Science Fiction (Ivey 107)
Chair: Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar/Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Legend Area Chair)
1. “Fans of Bronze: Writers of Fan Letters Printed in Doc Savage Magazine, 1933-1949”
October Surprise (Independent Scholar / Rogue Sociology)
Our first presenter is October Surprise. He is a sociologist and now attached to the College of St. Joseph in Rutland, Vermont, as a sociology instructor. October is also currently completing a book, under contract with McFarland, that views fascism and totalitarianism in the interwar period through the lens of the Doc Savage pulp fiction novel series.
2. “Stylometry and the Seldon Crisis: Using Statistics to Categorize Novels in Asimov’s Foundation Universe”
Daniel M. Look (St. Lawrence University)
Our second presenter is Daniel Look. He is an associate professor of mathematics and chair of the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. His research interests lie in Complex Dynamics and Stylometry (the statistical analysis of language.) Recently, Daniel’s research has focused on using stylometry to provide evidence in cases of disputed authorship, especially in the pulps.
3. “Imperial Fictions: Doctor Who, Post-Racial Slavery, and Other Liberal Humanist Fantasies”
Susana Loza (Hampshire College)
Our next presenter is Susana Loza. She is an associate professor of media culture at Hampshire College. Susana teaches courses in cultural studies, critical race theory, film and media studies, popular music, feminist theory, and ethnic studies. She has published a wide range of topics, including Doctor Who, film noir, popular music, steampunk, and vampires, and her current project, Speculative Imperialisms: Monstrosity and Masquerade in Post-Racial Times (forthcoming in 2016 from Lexington Books), explores the resurgence of racial masquerade in science fiction, horror, and fantasy and contemplates the fundamental, albeit changing, role that ethnic simulation plays in American and British cultures in a putatively post-racial and post-colonial era.
4. “Female Warrior Heroes from Athena to Agent Carter”
Cheryl A. Hunter (Southern New Hampshire University)
Our final presenter this morning is Cheryl Hunter. She is currently an adjunct professor at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester and Colby-Sawyer. Cheryl’s background is in philosophy, and her research has focused on the heroic tradition, including a number of conference presentations and a book, published in 2011, entitled Myths and Archetypes in The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.
Session IV: Saturday, October 31, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
(Note: The Area has two panels running concurrently this session.)
Panel 21: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend V: Nature and the Unnatural in the Fantastic (Ivey 109)
Chair: Deborah Wills (Mount Allison University)
1. “ ‘Safe at Last in the Wood outside the Garden’: Classic Animal Fantasy and the Environment”
Amie A. Doughty (SUNY Oneonta)
amie.doughty@oneonta.edu
Amie A. Doughty is Associate Professor and Chair of the English Department at SUNY Oneonta and now a five-time presenter in our area. She teaches courses in linguistics, composition, children’s literature, science fiction, and fantasy. Amie’s primary area of research is children’s and young adult fantasy, and she is author of the books Folktales Retold: A Critical Overview of Stories Updated for Children (2006) and “Throw the book away”: Reading versus Experience in Children’s Fantasy (2013), both published by McFarland. Amie is also the Area Chair of the Children's Literature and Culture area of the National PCA/ACA.
2. “Souls of Creation: Trees in Selected Works of J. R. R. Tolkien”
June-Ann Greeley (Sacred Heart University)
June-Ann Greeley is Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Sacred Heart University. Her research and scholarship focus on women and religion/women’s spirituality; religion and literature, especially in contemporary fiction and fantasy; religious themes in modern art; contemporary expressions of religious life and modern spiritual movements; and comparative spirituality.
3. “What’s the Use?: Man’s Search for Purpose in Bradbury’s Short Stories”
Laura A. Brown (SUNY Potsdam)
Laura A. Brown is an assistant professor at the State University of New York in Potsdam, where she is the program coordinator for Adolescent English Education. Laura is a member of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents and the National Council of Teachers of English and has presented at the council’s annual convention numerous times. She has co-authored two books on young-adult authors and their writings and has been published in both The ALAN Review and the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Laura’s current research is an analysis of Ray Bradbury’s short stories and the Nancy Drew series for unique content and stylistic markers.
4. “Monstrous Machines: Technology, Nature and the Importance of Balance in Andre Norton’s Witch World Novels”
Kathleen Healey (Worcester State University)
Kathleen Healey is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Worcester State University. She holds a PhD in American literature to 1865 and is currently co-editor, with Sharon Yang, of the forthcoming book Gothic Landscapes: Changing Eras, Changing Cultures, Changing Anxieties. Kathleen’s research interests include Gothic literature, environmental literature, and the intersection between literature and the visual arts.
Session V: Saturday, October 31, 1:45-3:15 PM
Panel 27: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend VI: Writing Horror (Ivey 109)
Chair: Amie A. Doughty (SUNY Oneonta)
1. “ ‘We’re Not All Dead Yet’: Humor Amid the Horror in James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein”
Martin F. Norden (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Martin F. Norden teaches film history and screenwriting as a Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has published more than one hundred books, book chapters, journal articles, encyclopedia essays, and reviews, almost all of which have been about film.
2. “Tales from the Encrypted: Decoding the Index in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves”
Deborah Wills (Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick)
Deborah Wills teaches in the English Department at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, where she holds the Charles and Joseph Allison Chair in English Literatures. Her research interests include representations of violence in literature, metaphor and race in news media, and contemporary gothic and horror fiction.
3. “Hunting the Hunters: Lovecraft’s Epistemology and the 21st Century Monster Hunter”
Jonathan Elmore (Savannah State University)
Jonathan Elmore is an Assistant Professor of English and the University Writing Center Director at Savannah State University. He teaches courses in British literature, composition, writing center theory and practice, popular culture, and philosophy. Jonathan’s research interests include composition theory and pedagogy, British modernism, multimodal literacies, and the future of English departments. He has published and presented on a number of writers, including Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, H. P. Lovecraft, Iris Murdoch, Bram Stoker, and H. G. Wells, and his current projects include a book length project for Routledge entitled Engagements with Gothic Horror: From the Gothic Revival to The Walking Dead.
4. “Becoming the Monster: A Jungian Analysis of Monster Erotica and the Acceptance of the Animus through the Shadow”
Saraliza Anzaldua (National Taiwan University)
Saraliza Anzaldua is an American in the master’s degree program of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at National Taiwan University. Her current studies focus on monstrosity, and she is engaged in a research project that argues that there is no monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Saraliza hopes to continue her work on the monstrous in the future, and, after her Mandarian has improved to an academic level, she would like to attempt a cultural study regarding the impact of literary horror in American and Taiwanese society.
Session VI: Saturday, October 31, 3:30-5:00 PM
Panel 37: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend VII: Re-Writing Horror (Cleveland Reading Room)
Chair: Lance Eaton (North Shore Community College)
1. “A Recurring Nightmare: A Teaching Opportunity in Pop Culture”
Joseph Sgammato (SUNY/Westchester Community College)
Joseph Sgammato is a writer and teacher. His background is in both English and Film Studies, and he teaches English and Film at SUNY/Westchester Community College in Valhalla, New York. He is also a Fellow of the CUNY Writers’ Institute in New York City. Joseph writes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. In the last category, his subjects have included film, literature, art, medicine, and memoir, and his work has appeared in the journals Patient Care, Sight and Sound, and The Wordsworth Circle and in the collection The Book of Firsts (Anchor Books, 2010).
2. “Evil that Devours: Modern Re-imaginings of the Wendigo”
Elizabeth J. Nielsen (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)
Elizabeth J. Nielsen is a PhD student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the Department of Communication with a focus on Media Studies/Popular Culture. Her research interests include monsters and the monstrous, gender studies, and fan studies. Her most recent publications include essays on the James Bond film series and the Supernatural television series. Elizabeth will also be guest editing an upcoming edition of the Journal of Fandom Studies dealing with virtual and physical fan spaces, an extension of a panel she organized on the same topic for the Fan Studies track at the national PCA/ACA conference in 2015. She also serves as one of the organizers of the popular Pseudo Society panel at the annual International Congress of Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University.
3. “The Four Texts of World War Z: Unity, Violence, and Transformative Vulnerability”
Eric Boyer (Colby-Sawyer College)
Eric Boyer is an Associate Professor of Political Studies at Colby-Sawyer College. He received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in the department of Political Science. Eric’s research focuses on the intersections of Marxism, pragmatism, and popular culture.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
CFP DOOM: From the Personal to the Apocalyptic (1/10/2016; Chambersburg, PA 10/27/2016)
DOOM: From the Personal to the Apocalyptic
Announcement published by Michael Cornelius on Monday, August 31, 2015
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/80239/doom-personal-apocalyptic
Type: Conference
Date: February 27, 2016
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Subject Fields: Film and Film History, Humanities, Popular Culture Studies, History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Religious Studies and Theology
Wilson College Humanities Conference
DOOM: From the Personal to the Apocalyptic
Saturday, February 27, 2016
10:00am-5:00pm
Held in the Brooks Complex of Wilson College
Chambersburg, PA
sponsored by Wilson’s M.A. in Humanities Program
The theme of this year’s Wilson College Orr Forum is concerned with the apocalypse, both in biblical representation and thought as well as more scientific and climactic concern. This Humanities Conference wishes to extend this theme beyond these global concerns to focus on doom. Always impending, doom encapsulates fears for both humanity and the individual. Doom can be personal and communal, practical and rhetorical, quite real or simply hyperbole.
This conference looks to how the various fields represented by the Humanities explore our own relationship to this impending notion that things will not work out as we hope, or, conversely, that things will work out exactly as we fear. How can we use the Humanities to make sense of how we pessimistically perceive/have perceived our future? How can we use what we study to understand more about our own fears for what is about to come, or how we perceive the possibilities of cataclysm, whether individual or global?
Please feel free to interpret the theme of this conference liberally. Our goal is to bring a group of Humanities scholars from around the region together to articulate and celebrate these always intriguing and confounding questions of time, anticipation, endings, fear, and the manner in which our fields seek to understand any point in-between. Thus whether impending or upon us, singular or global, or even just a megalomaniac in a silver mask and a green cape, we hope to use this conference to explore all relevant aspects of doom.
Faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars are invited to submit. Undergraduate students may also submit abstracts, but their submission must be sponsored by a current faculty member at their institution. (For more on this, please contact the conference director.)
To submit a presentation, please send an abstract of approximately 200 words to the email address below.
Send abstracts to:
Dr. Michael G. Cornelius
Program Director, MA in Humanities
Director, Wilson College Humanities Conference
mcornelius@wilson.edu
Submit the abstract as either a .doc or .docx file or simply place it into the text of the email itself.
Individual presentations will last no more than 15 minutes; panels of up to 3 individuals may be submitted as well. Each conference participant may submit only one abstract. Abstracts are due by JANUARY 10, 2016.
The conference is sponsored by Wilson’s M.A. in Humanities program, in conjunction with the Orr Forum 2015-16 Lecture and Performance Series.
Contact Info:
Dr. Michael G. Cornelius
Program Director, MA in Humanities
Director, Wilson College Humanities Conference
Contact Email:
mcornelius@wilson.edu
Announcement published by Michael Cornelius on Monday, August 31, 2015
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/80239/doom-personal-apocalyptic
Type: Conference
Date: February 27, 2016
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Subject Fields: Film and Film History, Humanities, Popular Culture Studies, History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Religious Studies and Theology
Wilson College Humanities Conference
DOOM: From the Personal to the Apocalyptic
Saturday, February 27, 2016
10:00am-5:00pm
Held in the Brooks Complex of Wilson College
Chambersburg, PA
sponsored by Wilson’s M.A. in Humanities Program
The theme of this year’s Wilson College Orr Forum is concerned with the apocalypse, both in biblical representation and thought as well as more scientific and climactic concern. This Humanities Conference wishes to extend this theme beyond these global concerns to focus on doom. Always impending, doom encapsulates fears for both humanity and the individual. Doom can be personal and communal, practical and rhetorical, quite real or simply hyperbole.
This conference looks to how the various fields represented by the Humanities explore our own relationship to this impending notion that things will not work out as we hope, or, conversely, that things will work out exactly as we fear. How can we use the Humanities to make sense of how we pessimistically perceive/have perceived our future? How can we use what we study to understand more about our own fears for what is about to come, or how we perceive the possibilities of cataclysm, whether individual or global?
Please feel free to interpret the theme of this conference liberally. Our goal is to bring a group of Humanities scholars from around the region together to articulate and celebrate these always intriguing and confounding questions of time, anticipation, endings, fear, and the manner in which our fields seek to understand any point in-between. Thus whether impending or upon us, singular or global, or even just a megalomaniac in a silver mask and a green cape, we hope to use this conference to explore all relevant aspects of doom.
Faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars are invited to submit. Undergraduate students may also submit abstracts, but their submission must be sponsored by a current faculty member at their institution. (For more on this, please contact the conference director.)
To submit a presentation, please send an abstract of approximately 200 words to the email address below.
Send abstracts to:
Dr. Michael G. Cornelius
Program Director, MA in Humanities
Director, Wilson College Humanities Conference
mcornelius@wilson.edu
Submit the abstract as either a .doc or .docx file or simply place it into the text of the email itself.
Individual presentations will last no more than 15 minutes; panels of up to 3 individuals may be submitted as well. Each conference participant may submit only one abstract. Abstracts are due by JANUARY 10, 2016.
The conference is sponsored by Wilson’s M.A. in Humanities program, in conjunction with the Orr Forum 2015-16 Lecture and Performance Series.
Contact Info:
Dr. Michael G. Cornelius
Program Director, MA in Humanities
Director, Wilson College Humanities Conference
Contact Email:
mcornelius@wilson.edu
CFP Fictional Maps International Conference (10/30/2015; Poland 1/21-23/2016)
Thanks to IAFA-L for the head's up:
Fictional Maps International Conference 2016 ~ January 21st-23rd, Katowice (Poland)
http://fictionalmaps.org/
Mapping the imaginary has always been a challenge for world-building and storytelling alike. Map of the fictional world subverts the very essence of an actual cartography: it represents a territory that cannot be discovered or traversed in a non-fictional realm and yet it delivers much more than a usual map: a promise of the journey into unknown. An exquisitely quotable phrase coined by J. R. R. Tolkien, who claimed to “start writing with a map and [then] make the story fit” is only reprising what have always been evident to cartographers and creators of imaginary worlds: maps precede territories and are inevitably becoming the most essential part of modern and postmodern storyworlds. Ambrosius Holbein’s woodcut in the first edition of Thomas More’s Utopia, collectors editions map in video games, atlases of fictional universes, animated map routes in online reportages, or even interactive maps outlining the worlds of blockbuster TV shows—these are all indications of a significant shift in contemporary storytelling that looks for creating many and more access points to the fictional storyworld. Hence conference attendees will be asked to submit abstracts of presentations or posters’ descriptions revolving around:
Confirmed keynote speaker:
STEFAN EKMAN (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), author of the book Here Be Dragons. Exploring Fantasy Maps & Settings (Wesleyan UP 2013).
The conference language shall be English. 600-words abstracts of presentations or posters featuring (1) the title of presentation or poster, (2) a concise bio-note, (3) current affiliation, and (4) all necessary contact information should be submitted until October 30th 2015 at fictionalmaps@gmail.com. Notifications on both accepted and rejected submissions shall be sent no sooner than in two weeks from the deadline. Poster presentations will be displayed during the poster session and accompanied by a general discussion with the presenters.
The conference fee will be 150€ (125€ for students) for the full coverage of English editions of printed conference materials and all other essentials. Polish attendees will be kindly asked to transfer the equivalent of the fee in local currency (600 PLN, 400 PLN for students). For more detailed information please follow to “Registration”.
Any further details regarding the venue, accommodation and transportation will be continuously updated at the website http://www.fictionalmaps.org. Organisers are also open to answering all questions and requests at fictionalmaps@gmail.com.
The conference will be followed by a peer-reviewed monograph, published by Facta Ficta Research Centre and licenced under Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 as an ebook stored in a globally accessible repository (CeON Center for Open Science).
We look forward to seeing you in Katowice!
Krzysztof M. Maj
Ksenia Olkusz
on behalf of Organising Committee
Fictional Maps International Conference 2016 ~ January 21st-23rd, Katowice (Poland)
http://fictionalmaps.org/
Mapping the imaginary has always been a challenge for world-building and storytelling alike. Map of the fictional world subverts the very essence of an actual cartography: it represents a territory that cannot be discovered or traversed in a non-fictional realm and yet it delivers much more than a usual map: a promise of the journey into unknown. An exquisitely quotable phrase coined by J. R. R. Tolkien, who claimed to “start writing with a map and [then] make the story fit” is only reprising what have always been evident to cartographers and creators of imaginary worlds: maps precede territories and are inevitably becoming the most essential part of modern and postmodern storyworlds. Ambrosius Holbein’s woodcut in the first edition of Thomas More’s Utopia, collectors editions map in video games, atlases of fictional universes, animated map routes in online reportages, or even interactive maps outlining the worlds of blockbuster TV shows—these are all indications of a significant shift in contemporary storytelling that looks for creating many and more access points to the fictional storyworld. Hence conference attendees will be asked to submit abstracts of presentations or posters’ descriptions revolving around:
- fictional topography and geopotics;
- map theory & theorists;
- the dichotomy of a map and a territory;
- ways of mapping the imaginary;
- fictional cartography (maps, atlases, mini-maps, plans, charts, etc.)
- maps of secondary, imaginary, fictional, possible or impossible worlds;
- relationship between world-building and map-making;
- function of maps: between navigating and augmenting the world;
- navigating the actual and the imaginary: Tim Ingold’s trail-following and wayfaring;
- case studies in literature;
- case studies in video games;
- case studies in movies and TV shows;
- case studies in comic books, graphic novels and other media;
- case studies in transmedia storytelling and transmedial franchises;
- case studies in fictional worlds;
Confirmed keynote speaker:
STEFAN EKMAN (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), author of the book Here Be Dragons. Exploring Fantasy Maps & Settings (Wesleyan UP 2013).
The conference language shall be English. 600-words abstracts of presentations or posters featuring (1) the title of presentation or poster, (2) a concise bio-note, (3) current affiliation, and (4) all necessary contact information should be submitted until October 30th 2015 at fictionalmaps@gmail.com. Notifications on both accepted and rejected submissions shall be sent no sooner than in two weeks from the deadline. Poster presentations will be displayed during the poster session and accompanied by a general discussion with the presenters.
The conference fee will be 150€ (125€ for students) for the full coverage of English editions of printed conference materials and all other essentials. Polish attendees will be kindly asked to transfer the equivalent of the fee in local currency (600 PLN, 400 PLN for students). For more detailed information please follow to “Registration”.
Any further details regarding the venue, accommodation and transportation will be continuously updated at the website http://www.fictionalmaps.org. Organisers are also open to answering all questions and requests at fictionalmaps@gmail.com.
The conference will be followed by a peer-reviewed monograph, published by Facta Ficta Research Centre and licenced under Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 as an ebook stored in a globally accessible repository (CeON Center for Open Science).
We look forward to seeing you in Katowice!
Krzysztof M. Maj
Ksenia Olkusz
on behalf of Organising Committee
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