The Fan Studies Network

CFP: Virtual/Physical Fan Spaces for Special Edition of the Journal of Fandom Studies

As proven by the popularity of this year’s San Diego Comic Con, fan spaces are increasingly important culturally and financially. Media creators and producers have come to acknowledge the significance of their fans and the need to communicate with them, particularly through social media. Fans, however, also insist upon their own self-contained spaces where they can share their opinions and observations, as well as their transformative works, metatexual analyses, and cosplay. These spaces exist both physically (as, for example, fan run or commercial conventions, fan meet ups, and pilgrimage sites) and virtually through social media platforms such as Tumblr, twitter, and Archive of our Own.

Papers on virtual and physical fan spaces are being sought for a proposed Special Edition of the Journal of Fandom Studies. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

-creating or delineating fan spaces
-fan shrines or pilgrimage sites
-for-profit conventions such as San Diego Comic Con, Wizard World, or any run by Creation
-fan run conventions such as Otakon, 221bCon, or GallifreyOne
-policing and harassment in fan spaces
-virtual fan spaces including Tumblr, twitter, Archive of our Own, and fanfiction.net
-fan spaces functioning as or failing to function as “safe spaces”
-cosplay and crossplay
-authenticity of mediated and live fan spaces
-language of fan spaces
-theorizing fan spaces
-differences/similarities between virtual and physical fan spaces

Priority will be given to papers that go beyond introductory level treatment of their topics. In order to round out our existing selection of papers, priority will also be given to those focusing on the physical side of fan spaces. We are especially interested in articles dealing with conventions.

Abstract submissions should be sent to elizabeth.j.nielsen@gmail.com by 1 November 2015 and should include the author’s CV, a short biography (100-150 words), and their abstract (250-500 words).

Articles will be due 1 March 2016. For more information on the Journal of Fandom Studies, check out http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=213/view,page=0/

Call for papers

Moomin collection

The Moomins, created by Tove Jansson, have delighted and enlightened adults and children for generations, and have been translated into several languages. In all, nine books were published , together with five picture books and a comic strip, between 1945 and 1993. The Moomins have since been the basis for numerous television series, films and even a theme park called Moomin World in Naantali, Finland.

At the centennial anniversary of their creator’s birth, a new film has been released and more of Jansson’s works are now being translated from Swedish into various other languages, including, finally, her work for older readers. This has put the Moomins back on the map, and created a second ‘Moomin boom’, which is, in itself, worthy of analysis. Her works have often been regarded in terms of potential autobiographical readings – an approach perhaps encouraged by Jansson’s much-famed ‘island’ lifestyle – but the time is ripe for revaluations and reconsiderations. This collection therefore seeks to extend the work already done in the field, and to take into consideration as many of the different variations, and incarnations, of the Moomins as it is possible to cover in a book-length study, it aims to have an open focus, and to begin conversations about The Moomins, their roles, impact and influences as children’s characters, and their status as ambassadors of a greener, more bohemian, lifestyle.

I am seeking contributions of 5000 words and envisage that the collection will comprise entries on the books, comic strips, theatre productions, TV series (Soviet & Japanese) and film, and even the theme park. At present I do not have a publisher for this book but will be approaching Palgrave, Bloomsbury et al once I have some more contributors and potential chapter abstracts to submit. Themes might include (but are not limited to):

Ecological elements

Philosophical aspects

Gender

Narrative structure

Grief and loss

Legacy (commercialisation)

If you would like to contribute, please send an abstract of not more than 500 words by October 30th 2015 to Dr Nicola Allen at: N.allen2@wlv.ac.uk

Call for submissions: An edited collection on the work of Joni Mitchell.

Editor: Dr. Ruth Charnock [University of Lincoln, UK].

Joni Mitchell is widely recognised as an innovative, influential, much-loved and much-imitated artist. From her debut album Song to a Seagull to her most recent Shine, Mitchell’s music: her tunings, her lyrics, her scope have drawn critical and popular acclaim. And yet, scholarly attention to her work has been relatively limited. This edited collection will attend to Mitchell as a figure worthy of sustained critical thought and appreciation, with a major publisher having already expressed interest.

Essay proposals that mix personal with critical, historical, musicological, or cultural-studies analyses are welcome. Topics may include but are not limited to:
• Considerations of the relationship between Mitchell’s visual art and her music.
• Politics and political activism in Mitchell’s music [for example: Mitchell as reluctant feminist, Mitchell’s ecocriticism].
• Race in Mitchell’s work.
• Low affect in Mitchell’s work [disappointment, boredom, ennui, alienation].
• High affect in Mitchell’s work [joy, desire, excitement, enchantment].
• Commodification, stardom, the market and fame.
• Cover versions and reworkings.
• Mitchell’s milieu.
• The politics of space and travel in Mitchell’s work.
• Mitchell in popular culture.
• Mitchell’s histories.
• Queer Mitchell.

Please send 350-500 word chapter proposals to Dr Ruth Charnock by 30th September, 2015.
If your essay is selected for the collection, a first draft of 5,000-6,000 words will be due on 1st February, 2016.

Please direct all enquiries to Dr Ruth Charnock: rcharnock@lincoln.ac.uk

Court and Spark Symposium with Malka Marom Q&A at the University of Lincoln, July 3rd, 2015