The Fan Studies Network

Inside the World of Harry Potter is a proposed interdisciplinary, multi-contributer volume born of the robust field of Harry Potter Studies and the community of collaborators that exists within the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association.

This proposed volume will cover a range of topics within the works of J.K. Rowling. The Harry Potter series is such a rich text for analysis, particularly of social issues that can be extrapolated to real-world, non-fictional settings. The scholarship being produced surrounding the Harry Potter series is phenomenal.

As such, this call for chapters invites interested scholars to submit papers and/or proposals for publication consideration in this edited volume.

Contributions should use the works of JK Rowling (the Harry Potter series, or companion works such as The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, or Quidditch Through the Ages) to address a social or political issue, such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, societal structure, age, muggle vs. wizard relations, technology, religion, and so forth. Work using paratexts, such as Pottermore, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Potter Puppet Pals, and the like will be accepted as well. All themes will be considered as related to the overall direction of the volume. In addition, work related to fan practices, or application to real-world issues are always welcome.

Proposals from any academic discipline will be considered. Emerging and early career scholars are especially encouraged to submit. Final papers should be no longer than 30 pages, including references, and should be scholarly in nature yet accessible in language and tone.

For consideration, please submit an abstract/proposal of no more than 500 words to Dr. Christopher Bell, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, at cbell3 uccs.edu. Abstracts/proposals should be sent as Word Document attachments, and should include the author(s)’s name, affiliation, title and email contact information. Abstracts/proposals should be submitted no later than May 1, 2017. Final papers will be due September 1, 2017.

Special Issue: Fan Cultures and Cinephilia in Southeast Asian
Transmedia Contexts

Issue Editors: Wikanda Promkhuntong (wikanda.pro@mahidol.ac.th)
and Bertha Chin (bchin@swinburne.edu.my)

Responding to the shifting focus from audiences as consumers to their role
as cultural producers aided by various technological developments, fan studies have gained significant attention as a sub-field in media and film studies in the early 1990s. Despite extensive works that have shed light on fan practices surrounding Western
cultural products, limited accounts have paid attention to transcultural exchanges and fans within a specific regional context. Lori Morimoto and Bertha Chin’s work that put forward a theory of transcultural fandom (2013) points to the need to expand ways
of exploring fandom by engaging with alternative models of fan practices across different geographical contexts. This special issue seeks to extend further the discussion on fandom within a small but vibrant region of Southeast Asia, as well as Southeast Asia
in relation to other parts of the world.

Existing literature on cultural studies have begun to explore
how fans in different Southeast Asian countries have embraced and appropriated popular cultures, particularly pop music and television series from Japan and South Korea. Meanwhile, festival films from Southeast Asia have been discussed as part of the renewed
attention on global cinema and cinephilia studies. To address various practices within the increasingly transmedia cultures in the region, this special issue highlights the crossover between fans, cinephiles and other committed audience groups. Therefore,
we welcome a wide range of papers that seek to explore fans of various cultural products within the Southeast Asian context (i.e. film, music, television drama, video-game, animation and other transmedia content) and fans of different personalities (i.e. film
director, producer, star, idol, celebrity). Possible papers can focus on fan activities, as well as textual, aesthetics and performative aspects of fans/cinephiles.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

• Fan vids/mashups/tributes/video essays and transformative works
  in relation to Southeast Asian transmedia context
• Fan re-enactments and performances in Southeast Asian context
• Fan meet-ups, fan clubs, cons and festivals in Southeast Asia
• Fan tourism/cinephile pilgrimage in Southeast Asia
• Crowd and fan funding in Southeast Asia context
• Fan subtitling and other activities as part of distribution
  networks in Southeast Asia
• The relationship between fans and producers/filmmakers/stars/idols
  within Southeast Asia
• Anti-fans and conflicts within Southeast Asian transmedia cultures
• Fan activism in Southeast Asian context

Submission details
can be found at
http://www.plarideljournal.org/information-for-authors/

Submissions are to be e-mailed to the Issue Editors and the
Managing Editor in MS Word format without any identifying information such as author(s) name and institutional affiliations. Authors should also submit a separate title page with the manuscript title, author name(s), institutional affiliation and contact information
for the corresponding author.

Deadline: 05 May 2017