The Fan Studies Network

Call for Contributors:
Undead in the West II: They Just Keep Coming (collected essays)

Deadline for Abstracts – June 15 2012; Accepted Essays – December 1, 2012.

We are seeking proposals for a chapter focused on fandom for a scholarly volume on Undead Westerns. This chapter might be on a single production or text, such as The Walking Dead, or on fandom across productions, texts, or media (including comics, graphic novels, literature, gaming, film and television) and could take as its focus a wide range of topics, such as fan fiction, fan art, fan editing, cosplay, Undead Western fan culture at HorrorCons, ComicCons, etc..

One of the aims of this volume is to demonstrate the diversity of ways in which zombies, vampires, mummies, and ghosts have lumbered, crept, shambled, and swooped into the Western from other genres. This sub-genre, while largely a post-1990 phenomenon, traces it roots to much deeper hybrid traditions of Westerns and horror or science fiction, and yet, also shows ties to the recent Western renaissance.

This volume, a companion to our forthcoming Undead in the West: Vampires, Zombies, Mummies and Ghosts on the Cinematic Frontier (Scarecrow Press, September 2012), will focus on the blending of the Western genre and the undead in media other than film: comics, graphic novels, gaming, new media, and literature, both adult and juvenile, in addition to its segment on fandom.

Proposals on Undead Western fan culture should be analytical, as well as descriptive, making use of, and situating their discussions in, the growing body of scholarly work on fans and fan culture, but should remain accessible and engaging.

Please send your 500-word abstract to both co-editors, Cindy Miller (cynthia_miller@emerson.edu) and Bow Van Riper (bvanriper@bellsouth.net).

Publication timetable:

June 15, 2012 – Deadline for Abstracts
July 15, 2012 – Notification of Acceptance Decisions
Dec. 1, 2012 – Chapter Drafts Due
March 15, 2013 – Chapter Revisions Due
April 15, 2013 – Final Revisions Due
May 1, 2013 – Delivery to Publisher

Acceptance will be contingent upon the contributors’ ability to meet these deadlines, and to deliver professional-quality work.

This entry was posted on June 6, 2012 at 1:20 pm and is filed under CFP, Publications. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.