The Fan Studies Network

​CALL FOR CHAPTERS:

Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling
Edited by Sean A. Guynes and Dan Hassler-Forest

We seek chapter proposals for a volume titled Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling, which aims to provide an account of the history of the franchise, its transmedia storytelling and world-building strategies, and the consumer practices that have engaged with, contributed to, and sometimes also challenged the development of the Star Wars franchise. We aim to have the collection in print by 2017, the year that marks the 40th anniversary of the first Star Wars film’s release. In those forty years, its narrative, its characters, and its fictional universe have gone far beyond the original film and have spread rapidly across multiple media—including television, books, games, comics, toys, fashion, and theme parks—to become the most lucrative franchise in the current media landscape, recently valued by Forbes at roughly $10 billion (Damodaran 2016).

A key goal of this project is to highlight the role and influence of Star Wars in pushing the boundaries of transmedia storytelling by making world-building a cornerstone of media franchises since the late 1970s. The chapters in this collection will ultimately demonstrate that Star Wars laid the foundations for the forms of convergence culture that rule the media industries today. As a commercial entertainment property and meaningful platform for audience participation, Star Wars created lifelong fans (and consumers) by continuing to develop characters and plots beyond the original text and by spreading that storyworld across as many media platforms as possible.

While there is much to be said about recent installments in the franchise, we discourage submissions that focusexclusively on Star Wars texts produced since the sale to Disney in 2012. Priority will be given to those submissions that demonstrate an ability to engage with the breadth of Star Wars media and fan activity, including (but not limited to) digital and analog games, novels, comics, televisions shows, tie-in merchandise, fanfic, and Star Wars events, places, and gatherings (conventions, exhibitions, shows, theme parks, performances, etc.); or that bring new approaches from transmedia and franchise studies to old topics. Chapters solicited from invited authors, for example, already propose a broad range of topics, including transmedia worldbuilding in comics and novels surrounding the original trilogy; the limits and criteria that define the limits of “A Star Wars Story”; transmedia erasure and the Holiday Special; and theStar Wars collectible card game.

Submissions might consider, but are certainly not restricted to, some of the following topics:

• Children’s media, kidification, and Star Wars
• Star Wars and/on television
• Star Wars video games
• Transmedia “metaseries,” e.g. Dark Empire
• Star Wars comics and graphic novels
• (Un)Adaptation and Dark Horse’s The Star Wars (2013-2014)
• Licensing, intellectual property, and canon
• Star Wars “Legends” imprint of novels and comics
• Children’s literature, YA literature, andStar Wars novels
• Star Wars and fandom, cosplay, fanfic, consumption practices, collecting
• Generational shifts in Star Wars fandom and creators as consumers
• Gender, race, and sexuality in Star Wars(especially where readings of lesser known characters, novels, comics are forwarded)
• Genre flexibility across Star Wars media
• Star Wars action figures and world-building through play
• Star Wars (tabletop) role-playing games
• Star Wars merchandising, franchising, and branding
• Mash-up/remix culture and Star Wars
• Music in and across Star Wars media

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the editors about the suitability of your topic for the collection.

Submissions should include a provisional title, a 200-word abstract, and a 100-word biographical note. Abstract submissions are due by October 1, 2016.

Please send submissions simultaneously to both editors, Sean A. Guynes (guynesse@msu.edu) and Dan Hassler-Forest (d.a.hassler-forest@uu.nl), with the subject line “SURNAME Star Wars Transmedia Book.”

Drafts will be due February 5, 2017, with a quick turnaround for editing and revisions so as to publish by Autumn 2017 before the 40th anniversary year ends.

LOCATING IMAGINATION: POPULAR CULTURE, TOURISM, AND BELONGING

APRIL 5-7 2017

ERASMUS UNIVERSITY ROTTERDAM 

Keynote Speakers:

David Morley

David Crouch

Marie-Laure Ryan

When the small Dutch seaside village of Urk was announced as a filming location for superstar director Christopher Nolan’s historical drama
Dunkirk, featuring One Direction star Harry Styles and other big names, it was unsurprising that reports of fans traveling in hopes of catching a glimpse of the production followed. Indeed, it would have been more surprising if they hadn’t. Visiting places connected to media is increasingly mainstream – from searching for film locations of popular TV shows to taking part in literary walking tours to traveling around summer music festivals. Popular culture sets the touristic identity of regions, while fan conventions and festivals draw increasing numbers (and prices) year after year. These developments, and others like them, point to a growing interest in bridging the gap between reality and imagination through physicality, intertwining them in new ways.

They also illustrate new ways in which place, and its role in creating a sense of identity and belonging, matters in a globalized and digital world in which popular culture plays an integral role.

This conference brings together these disparate threads and explores the ways in which popular culture and tourism interact in the contemporary media age. This is reflected in the keynote speakers: Professor David Morley of Goldsmiths University, author of many influential works of media theory, including The Nationwide Audience (1980) and Media, Modernity, and Technology: the Geography of the New (2007); Professor David Crouch, Professor Emeritus in Cultural Geography and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Derby, author of
Flirting with Space: Journeys and Creativity (2010) and editor of  The Media and the Tourist Imagination (2005); and Dr. Marie-Laure Ryan, author of Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media
(2000) and Narrating Space/Spatializing Narrative: Where Narrative Theory and Geography Meet (2016, with Kenneth Foote and Maoz Azaryahu).

We seek to bring together scholars across disciplines, including, but not limited to, media studies, literary studies, popular music studies, ethnomusicology, cultural geography, fan studies, and tourism studies and management, who work at the intersections of (popular) culture, place, and tourism. We invite papers that address all themes around this subject, such as:

fan pilgrimages

place identity and popular culture

contemporary literary tourism

music tourism

·        historical media tourism

·        themed and simulated spaces

·        music festivals

·        video-game-inspired tourism

·        media and fan conventions

·        transmedia marketing and tourism

·        place and storytelling

·        media tourism in the media

The conference will be held at Erasmus University Rotterdam, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Recently chosen as one of the “best places to visit” by Lonely Planet and the New York Times, Rotterdam is a vibrant and cosmopolitan city featuring cutting-edge architecture, an innovative dining scene, and top-class art museums. The conference is organized by the ‘Locating Imagination’ research group of prof. dr. Stijn Reijnders, Leonieke Bolderman, Nicky van Es, and Abby Waysdorf, and sponsored by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and Culture (ERMeCC).

Please send abstracts of max. 300 words and a short biographical statement (max. 50 words) to conference@locatingimagination.com before November 1^st, 2016.

​POPULAR CULTURE ASSOCIATION

FAN CULTURE AND THEORY

APRIL 12-15 2017, SAN DIEGO

CALL FOR PAPERS

DEADLINE: OCTOBER 1, 2016
Proposals for both panels and individual papers are now being accepted for all aspects of Fan Culture and Theory, including, but not limited to, the following areas:

•Fan Fiction

•Fan/Creator interaction

•Race, Gender and Sexuality in Fandom

•Music Fandom

•Reality Television Fandom

•The Internet and Fandom – Live Journal, IMDB and beyond

•Fan Communities

•Fan Media Production – icons, fanvids,  fan art and filk.

•Fans as Critics

•Fan videos

•Fan crafts

•Fan pilgrimages
For more information on the conference go here:

https://conference.pcaaca.org/
To submit a proposal go here:

https://conference.pcaaca.org/node/add/presentation
Please send  queries  to:

Katherine Larsen

The George Washington University

Ames Hall 223

2100 Foxhall Road NW

Washington D.C. 20007

(202) 242 5090

klarsen@gwu.edu

​When Star Trek debuted on NBC on September 8, 1966, there was little indication that its longevity across multiple platforms (films, series, books) would rival that of series such as Doctor Who, or that the series (and its fans) would become fixtures of popular culture, objects of academic study, and an outsized influence on science fiction.

 
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the hit franchise, and celebrations of its cultural impact have been as varied as the show’s own incarnations.
 
To celebrate this momentous anniversary, PopMatters seeks submissions about Star Trek, including: the television series, from The Original Series (TOS) to the highly anticipated 2017 new installment; the films, both the originals and the J.J. Abrams reboot; and ancillary materials such as novelizations, comic books, videogames, etc.
 
We welcome any approach to the franchise, though possible topics may include:
 
Identity: How has Star Trek’s representation of gender, race, and/or sexuality changed over time? In what ways has the franchise been progressive/regressive in matters of representation? Is it possible to read Star Trek queerly?
 
Technology: What role has Star Trek played in spurring technological innovation, especially regarding mid-century space exploration? Has the franchise changed the relationship between pop culture and science?
 
Culture: What role have alien languages (such as Klingon) played in the show and its wider cultural impact? How has Star Trek impacted fashion over the years? How has meme culture, or any other subcultures, appropriated Star Trek?
 
Fandom: What role does the Star Trek fandom play in the production of ancillary content like comics, novelizations, and video games? How do the disputes between the ‘original’ fans and the ‘reboot’ fans affect the Star Trek franchise? What role does unofficial material play in Star Trek ownership?
 
Remakes, Reboots and Continuity: What responsibility, if any, do the reboots have to the original franchise’s fan base? What role do original cast cameos play in maintaining continuity between the early films and the later ones? Does the idea of “canon” or “canonicity” hold any sway given Star Trek’s multiple iterations? How do initial critical reactions compare with modern expectations and experiences?
 
Influence: How has Star Trek influenced science fiction film and television more generally? Does the series have descendants, responses, opposites? What have been the show’s own influences? Are there novels or mythologies that have contributed to the franchise’s main themes?
 
Politics: In what ways does the franchise invite comparisons between its fictional content and potential real-world analogues? Is Star Trek inherently political? Does it encourage a rethinking of the division between political art and entertainment media?
 
Other areas of interest may include: Disability, age, special effects, and comparable productions (Roddenberry and Andromeda, Abrams and Star Wars, for example).
 
Deadline for Features pitches: August 12th, 2016
 
Deadline for final, polished articles: September 9th, 2016
 
For television, please submit your pitches and features to PopMatters’ editor Erin Giannini; for film, please submit your pitches and features to Carl Wilson and Desirae Embree using the PopMatters / Submittable interface: https://popmatters.submittable.com/submit
 
Be sure to identify your article as StarTrek50 in the header.

Send inquiries or questions to: filmsubmissions@popmatters.com

​Call for Submissions for an anthology volume: Fantastic Fan Cultures and the Sacred
They ways in which people pursue religion has changed in America and the West. Traditional, institutional religions are in decline, and even among those who claim “None” as their identity, an individualized spirituality of seeking is growing in popularity. As a part of this quest, the sacred often comes in seemingly nonreligious forms. Gary Laderman, a scholar of religion asks in light of this situation:
“So what if the sacred is not only, or even primarily, tied to theology or religious identity labels like more, less, and not religious? We might see how religious practices and commitments emanate from unlikely sources today…”

One of those unlike sources of the sacred is fantastic fan cultures. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres are incredibly popular and have become multimillion dollar facets of the entertainment industry. But there is more here than meets the eye. Fantastic fandom has also spawned subcultures that include sacred aspects.
Fantastic Fan Cultures and the Sacred will be an edited anthology that explores the sacred aspects of fantastic fandom.  Its content will be academically informed, but accessible to average readers so that it appeals not only to scholars wanting to learn more about pop culture and religion, but also to average fans who will expand their understanding of their fandom and culture.
Possible topics for this volume include but are not limited to:
•         Buffyverse fandom and other genre “cult fandoms”

•         Collecting and sacred relics – Of special interest is Guillermo del Toro’s and Bleak House, and his connection of this to his unique form of primal spirituality:  “I’m not a collector. I’m a religious man.”

•         Convention participation as religious pilgrimage

•         Cosplay as immersion in sacred narrative and identity

•         Fantasy and science fiction conventions as Transformational Festivals (akin to Burning Man Festival)

•         Horror conventions as worlds “of gods and monsters”

•         Pop culture phrases as sacred wisdom teachings

•         Science fiction, fantasy, and horror as sacred narratives and mythology

•         Star Trek fandom as secular civil religion/spirituality
This volume will be edited by John Morehead. Morehead is the proprietor of TheoFantastique.com  He has contributed to various online and print publications including Cinefantastique Online, the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, and Extrapolation. In addition, he is the co-editor of The Undead and Theology, Joss Whedon and Religion, and the editor of The Supernatural Cinema of Guillermo del Toro.
Those interested in being a part of this volume are encouraged to send a 300 word proposal and your curriculum vitae by email. Both should be in MSWord or PDF format. The deadline for submission is September 2, 2016. Materials and questions should be sent to John Morehead at johnwmorehead@msn.com

Australian fans have access to a wide array of popular culture content from around the world, developing relationships with these products that are as rich as fans from other parts of the globe. Until recently access to media products is limited by temporal
and spatial distance from countries of origin. Yet, at the same time practices from diaspora communities to preserve cultural identity introduces a multitude of global media content to a wider Australian audience. Australian fans thus engage with a mixture
of ‘conventional’ and ‘niche’ media products that places them both within the margins and in the mainstream.  While there may be parallels between Australia and other nations with multicultural communities, the geographical location, history and cultural mix
of Australian society give rise to unique contexts shaping the consumption and practices of Australian fans.
 

We thus ask the question: What makes the Australian fan experience unique? What influence does geo-political location have on the consumption and appropriation of popular culture in the Australian context? What impact does Australian multicultural society
have on exposure and access to popular culture? What drives Australian fan interaction with global popular culture, and how does this interaction intersect with narratives of ‘Australian-ness’ in local and globalised contexts?

This book seeks to explore the specific and unique experience of being fans living and Australia.

We seek authors to contribute critical chapters for an edited volume to be submitted to University of Iowa Press. Topics include but are not limited to:

• Online fandom
• Offline fandom (including convention attendance, fan-celebrity interaction etc)
• Fan perceptions of celebrity brands/identities/public persona
• Fan fiction
• Cosplay culture
• Anime culture
• Manga culture
• Subcultures of fandom
• Transcultural fan practices (e.g. fan Subbers)
• World cinema fandom
• Cult cinema fandom
• Comic book fandom
• Distribution practices including Fast tracked television, Streaming services and Netflix
• Fandom and national identity

Please email 300 word abstracts and your
CV to both Celia Lam and Jackie Raphael by
August 31 2016. Proposals should be for original chapters that have not been previously published (including conference proceedings), and are not under consideration from other journals or edited collections.

Dr. Celia Lam is Lecturer in Media and Communications, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney (celia.lam@nd.edu.au)

Dr. Jackie Raphael is Lecturer in Design, School of Design and Art, Curtin University (J.Raphael@curtin.edu.au)

Adventures in Shondaland: Identity Politics and the Power of Representation

Editors:          Rachel Alicia Griffin, Ph.D., University of Utah

                        Michaela D.E. Meyer, Ph.D., Christopher Newport University

At this time, we have 12 confirmed and drafted chapters for our collection. Due to unforeseen circumstances, a few spaces have become available
for additional chapters. As described in our original call below, our collection is framed by three sections pertaining to Shondaland: (1) Industry, (2) Text, and (3) Audience. To compliment the strong chapters we currently have in each section, we are specifically
seeking out proposals that address:

Identity Politics (especially ability, religion, and/or nationality)

Audiences (reactions, interpretations, engagement, communication and relationships with Rhimes herself and/or Shondaland actors,
e.g., Jesse Williams via Twitter and BET)

Private Practice

The Catch

Social justice and activism

Social media activism

Proposals are due by Monday August 1^st 2016 and accepted proposals will be notified
soon after. The anticipated deadline for full chapter drafts ismid to late fall, so authors who are able to make their chapter a priority in the near future or who have projects already in progress are likely the best fit for this call. Please follow
the guidelines below outlined in our original call for proposal requirements, and send proposals to
rachelag@siu.edu by
Monday August 1^st 2016 with “SHONDALAND” in the subject line.

ORIGINAL CALL: 

Communication approaches to the study of television tend to be constrained by arbitrary divisions between text, audience, and production, and thus,
we often limit our engagement with the interrelationship between textual representation (rhetorical approaches), audience interpretation (cultural studies approaches), and production strategies (industry perspectives). Building upon recent works that blur
the distinctions between text, audience, and production (e.g., Holmes, 2004; Meyer, 2007; Watts & Orbe, 2002; H. Wood, 2005) to further theorize the communicative function of television, communication scholarship needs to integrate its approach to contemporary
television studies.

This edited collection aims to bridge these divides by focusing on the television legacy of Shonda Rhimes. Rhimes is the creator and/or producer
of Grey’s Anatomy (2005-), Private Practice (2007-2013), Scandal
(2012-), How to Get Away with Murder (2014-), and, most recently, The Catch (2015-2016 season pilot debut). Her narratives capture large audiences in coveted primetime slots and continue to be highly economically successful. As the most powerful
Black woman in the history of network television, Rhimes’ primetime network influence via ABC shapes the landscape of how we understand television representation, interpretation, and production in the 21^st century. Simultaneously, as an influential
public figure, her success, candor, humility, and intentionality significantly shapes discussions of identity/ies and diversity in current network television. Further indicative of Rhimes’ presence/audibility/visibility/influence in public discourse, @shondarimes
boasts 961K followers, and her tweets often address identity politics and the power of representation. This influence is not limited to Rhimes herself, as the fans, actors, and writers working with/following Rhimes also contribute heavily to our public understanding
of what is at stake in current television narrative and practices.

Our goal in this collection is to offer a complex reading of “Shondaland” by interrogating: representation, audience responses to Rhimes’ narratives/public
discourse, and larger industry issues such as casting and the emergence of new media technologies.

We are currently seeking proposals to augment our collection that address the following topics:

Complex textual readings of any of Rhimes’ narratives (listed above).

Audience-centered approaches to Rhimes’ work such as focus groups, interviews, autoethnography, or analysis of fan discussion/response to particular narratives/storylines/characters.

Cultural critique of industry norms and practices that influence Rhimes’ work such as representation, casting, writing, and/or industry scandal (e.g., Washington/Knight scandal
on Grey’s, the use of Rhimes as an “all encompassing” spokesperson for diversity on television, etc.).

We are
especially interested in proposals that embrace audience-centered approaches, critique industry practices and political economy, and analyze identity politics that include a focus on ability, age, transgender and gender queer identity, nationality, religion,
and racial and ethnic identities beyond the Black/White binary.

Proposals should operate theoretically and methodologically from critical approaches to the study of television.
Via a 500-750 word abstract, each proposal should make clear: (1) the chapter’s purpose framed in relation to the call,
(2) how the chapter is theoretically/conceptually and methodologically anchored,
(3) the chapter’s primary text(s)/trajectory for analysis/argument, (4)
the scholarly conversations the chapter is contributing to, and (5) the provocative questions raised and/or addressed by the chapter. Proposals should also include a bibliography of at least 15 working sources for the chapter proposed, as well as
a brief biography for each author (150 words or less). Proposals are limited to a 1500 word maximum (not counting the bibliography and bios).

Overall, for our planning purposes, each abstract should include an explicit indication of the chapter’s focus
on text and/or audience and/or production. Although we embrace the distinctions between text, audience, and production, we also see these as fluid and simply need to know which elements will be emphasized in the chapter.

Inquiries about the call or this project can be directed to either of the editors: Rachel Alicia Griffin (rachelag@siu.edu)
or Michaela D.E. Meyer (mmeyer@cnu.edu ).Please
include “SHONDALAND” in the subject line of all correspondence with the editors.