The Fan Studies Network

My Little Pony: A Transcultural Phenomenon

Saturday 28 June 2014

University of Brighton – Grand Parade

The recent popularity of ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’ has reignited interest in this well-known franchise of children’s culture. Remaining strongly associated with a series of toys aimed at young female consumers, the reimagined show has attracted positive praise for its style, stories, and characterisation, critical discussion of the constructions of femininity the series promotes, and – unprecedented for an animated series primarily aimed at girls – a large and dedicated adult male fan base. MLPFIM raises a range of issues relating to contemporary children’s television, the blurring of entertainment and advertising, transformations across long-running media franchises, the politics of pink culture, adult appropriation of children’s media, fandom and its relationship with the culture industries.

This one day conference seeks to place the 30 year long ‘My Little Pony’ series within critical, cultural and creative contexts, exploring the brand from a multi-disciplinary range of perspectives. 300 word abstracts are invited, which might include but not be limited by the following perspectives:

• twenty first century children’s media, film and television
• ancillary products and merchandise
• transformations across MLP generations
• the political economy of media franchises
• animation history
• fandom and critical engagements with pleasure
• feminist approaches to children’s toy and television industries
• identity politics of gender, race, class, sexuality and national identity
• nostalgia and autobiography
• collections and collecting
• queer ponies
• authorship
• fantasy and mythology
• convergence culture
• the ethics of children’s media
• popular culture and cultural value
• anthropomorphosis and animal studies
• subcultures

Please send abstracts and enquiries to Ewan Kirkland at e.kirkland@brighton.ac.uk. Deadline 28 May 2014.

http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/research/research-conferences/my-little-pony

Centre for Law, Society and Popular Culture

Westminster Law School

The politics and law of Doctor Who

Symposium Announcement and First Call for Papers 

Friday 5^th September 2014

University of Westminster

Doctor Who is the BBC’s longest-running drama television series and the world’s longest-running science fiction series.  The massive public attention devoted to the show’s 50^th anniversary and to its choice of new lead actor confirms that the programme merits serious academic attention.  Politics, law and constitutional questions often feature prominently in Doctor Who stories, whether in the form of the Time Lords’ guardianship of the universe, the Doctor’s encounters with British Prime Ministers, or the array of governance arrangements in Dalek society.   The show’s politics is also an adventure through time, from the internationalising moralism of the Barry Letts-Terrance Dicks years, the dark satire of Andrew Cartmel’s period as script editor and the egalitarianism of the Russell T. Davies era.  Yet the politics and law of Doctor Who have yet to be the subject of wide-ranging scholarship.  Proposals for 20 minute papers are therefore invited for a symposium on 5^thSeptember 2014, to be held in the University of Westminster’s historic Regent Street building just metres away from BBC headquarters.  Possible subjects for papers might include, but are by no means limited to:

• Doctor Who’s ideology
• The Doctor’s political morality
• Comparison of politics of Doctor Who with politics of other science fiction
• The merits/demerits of Harriet Jones as Prime Minister
• Doctor Who and devolution
• Portrayals of British sovereigns in Doctor Who
• Doctor Who’s politics of class, gender and sexuality
• Fan responses to “political” Doctor Who stories
• International law, intergalactic law and non-interference
• Globalisation and corporate domination
• Satire in Doctor Who
• Politics and law in audio adventures, comic books and novels
• War crimes and genocide
• The politics of UNIT and Torchwood
• The will of villains to secure power
• Political history and political nostalgia in Doctor Who
• Doctor Who’s construction of British national identity

Abstracts should be 250 words in length, and should be accompanied by a 100-word biography of the author.  Abstracts should be sent to nicold@wmin.ac.uk – deadline for receipt of abstracts 17 January 2014.

In June 2014, Brazil will host the 20th Football World Cup. Since it takes place every four years, this planetary mega event is a valuable tool to gauge the assertion of national and local identities. It is also a good opportunity for supporters to stir – or moderate – dissent, thus playing a buffer role between the national team and the political community. The ULB research group on sport is organising an international and interdisciplinary conference in Social Science to better understand the issues relating to “football fans and their support to national teams”. The question of “football fandom” has been the subject of numerous studies in Social Science, especially regarding topics such as the politicisation of football passions (Bromberger, 1995; Cano, 2001), identification (Smith, 2002; Giulianotti & Armstrong, 1997; Lestrelin, 2012), social integration or relation to violence (Alabarces, 2003; Dunning, 1982). However, most of these studies deal with football fandom through the prism of local teams, while issues raised by supporterism at a national level have been addressed only minimally.

These issues are nonetheless numerous: Who supports the national team? What relationships do they maintain with other groups of supporters (domestic or foreign)? How are their different levels of adherence and commitment articulated and prioritised? What are the time frames and areas of national supporterism? To what extent do they contribute to the consolidation of a national identity? Etc. …
Moreover, the study of national supporterism in football opens the door for comparative studies and encourages disciplinary exchanges (history, sociology, anthropology, political science)

The ULB research center CEVIPOL will hold an international conference on these topics.

Deadline for submission: November 15, 2013 The people having sent their proposal will be informed about the outcome of the selection process.

Working languages: English and French

Please send your proposal with the title of the presentation, a 1500-character (including spaces) summary, and a brief biographical statement to : jmdewael@ulb.ac.be

Appel à contribution – Colloque International

«Le supportérisme des équipes nationales de football» / 5-6 MAI 2014 – BRUXELLES

En juin 2014, le Brésil accueillera la vingtième Coupe du monde de football. Tous les quatre ans, cet événement planétaire est une formidable caisse de résonnance pour l’affirmation des identités nationales, voire locales. C’est également l’occasion pour les supporters d’attiser – ou de résorber – des dissensus, et donc de jouer un rôle-tampon entre l’équipe nationale et la communauté politique. Le groupe de recherche sur le sport de l’ULB, organise un colloque international et pluridisciplinaire en sciences sociales afin de mieux saisir les enjeux du « supportérisme des équipes nationales de football ». La question du « supportérisme » dans le football a déjà fait l’objet de nombreux travaux en sciences sociales, notamment en ce qui concerne la politisation des passions sportives (Bromberger 1995, Cano 2001), les logiques identitaires (Smith 2002, Giulianotti & Armstrong, 1997; Lestrelin, 2012), les processus d’intégration sociale ou encore le rapport à la violence (Alabarces 2003; Dunnings, 1995). Mais la grande majorité de ces travaux questionnent le supportérisme au prisme des clubs de footballs. Au niveau des équipes nationales, les enjeux soulevés par le supportérisme n’ont été que très peu traités.

Les problématiques sont pourtant nombreuses : Qui sont les supporters des équipes nationales? Quelles relations entretiennent-ils avec les autres groupes de supporters (nationaux et étrangers)? Comment articulent-ils et hiérarchisent-ils leurs différents niveaux d’engagement ? Quelles sont les temporalités et les espaces du supportérisme national? Dans quelle mesure les supporters contribuent-ils à cimenter un sentiment d’appartenance nationale? Etc.
L’étude du supportérisme national dans le football ouvre par ailleurs la porte à des travaux comparatifs et à de stimulants échanges disciplinaires (histoire, sociologie, anthropologie, science politique, etc.).

Le CEVIPOL de l’Université libre de Bruxelles organisera une conférence sur ce sujet.

Date limite d’envoi des propositions : 15 novembre 2013 Les personnes ayant soumis une proposition seront tenues informées des résultats de la procédure de sélection.

Langues de travail : français et anglais.

Proposition avec le titre de la présentation, un résumé de 1.500 signes et une brève présentation biographique à envoyer à : jmdewael@ulb.ac.be

‘Sex and the City Ten Years On: Landmark Television and its Legacy’

Conference at the University of Roehampton, London, Friday April 4 2014
Abstract deadline – November 17 2013

2014 will mark ten years since the final episode of Sex and the City (HBO 1998-2004) was broadcast. ‘Sex and the City Ten Years On: Landmark Television and its Legacy’ will mark this anniversary by revisiting the lasting influence of the series, its cultural circulation today, its relationship with subsequent series and impact on the medium of television. Topics for papers may include, but are not limited to:

–       SATC in translation and transnational contexts
–       SATC in syndication and the contexts of HBO/cable v network television
–       SATC and adaptation (newspaper column to ‘novel’ to TV series to film)
–       The reception of, and controversies surrounding, the SATC movies
–       Television and postfeminism
–       Fashion television
–       Television and authorship
–       The relationship between SATC and subsequent women-centred series (eg The L Word; Desperate Housewives; Mistresses; Girls)
–       Television and stardom
–       Queer television
–       TV and genre/generic hybridity
–       Magazine and newspaper journalism and popular television
–       Reception, fandom and anti-fandom
–       Recontextualising SATC in the recession
–       Television and consumerism
–       Television and taboo
–       Women and comedy
–       Television, NYC and representations of urban space

Any enquiries, and abstracts of approx. 300 words with a brief biog, should be sent to Deborah Jermyn at d.jermyn@roehampton.ac.uk<mailto:d.jermyn@roehampton.ac.uk>  by November 17th.

** Call for Papers for the 5th Edinburgh International Film Audience Conference (EIFAC), 27th – 28th March 2014, Edinburgh **

Edinburgh International Film Audience Conference (EIFAC) returns in 2014 with a new conference team but still upholding its predecessors’  focus on exciting audience research taking place within academic film studies and within the film industry. The two-day conference will shine the spotlight on film cultures and film audiences by showcasing an expanding pool of scholarship, which moves away from classical textual modes of research to include empirical fieldwork. The event will debate how different methodologies and perspectives can help further our understanding of the most important people in the world of film – the audience. There is a lot to be learned from other subject areas, therefore, this year sees the call for papers reach out to non-film disciplines by encouraging scholars in television and game studies to share their empirical research.The conference has been praised for creating an arena where new and experienced researchers in academia can come together to share their enthusiasm for audience research in a friendly and supportive environment. Whilst the conference may well appeal primarily to academics, it invites contribution from those working in the film industries (production, distribution, exhibition, policy-making).

** Papers **
All papers should be concerned with empirical research on screen audiences. We are particularly interested in papers that explore the following issues/themes, however, we also welcome papers on other interesting topics:

– The challenges facing the empirical researcher
– Film festival audiences and communities
– Statistical literacy in empirical research
– Researching child and youth audiences
– Rethinking cinephilia, developing audience taxonomies
– Contemporary cinema audiences
– Film, fandom and merchandise
– Cult film and cult audiences
– Digital and online film cultures
– Transnational film audiences
– Film exhibition and the construction of audience
– Film policy and audiences
– Exhibition and/or consumption of short film
– Empirical research methods in television studies
– Empirical research methods in game studies
– Work in Progress

We continue to offer a showcase for work in progress. This is a great opportunity for Masters and PhD students to share research they are working on and receive helpful feedback from their peers. This work will be displayed in our social area throughout the conference in either printed poster or electronic poster format (a short PowerPoint slide show or similar multimedia format).

THE CFP DEADLINE IS: 5pm on Friday 29th November 2013

** Submitting Abstracts **
Paper proposals should include title, abstract, 3-5 key bibliographical references, and the name/s of the presenter/s and institutional affiliation/s, which collectively should be no more than 300 words. We also ask potential presenters to include a short biography (maximum 100 words).  Work in progress proposals should include title, short abstract, 2 key bibliographical references, and the name of the presenter and institutional affiliation, which should collectively be no more than 200 words. We also ask work in progress presenters to include a short biography (maximum 50 words).

Abstracts should be submitted as virus-free Word or rtf attachments to Ana Moraes (abstracts@filmaudiencesconference.co.uk) no later than 5pm on Friday 29th November 2013.  Please note the category you are submitting for in the email subject line (‘Paper Proposal’ or ‘Work in Progress Proposal’). External referees will review abstracts and all contributors will be notified of the outcome by early January 2014. Abstracts that are longer than prescribed will not be considered.

We differ from many other conferences by providing delegates with copies of all papers. Therefore, we require papers all papers in advance of the conference by 5pm on Friday 14th March 2014. If you are unable to commit to this date, we ask that you do not submit an abstract. Further details of the final paper submission process will be sent to successful presenters.

For more information visit: http://www.filmaudiencesconference.co.uk
A printable version of the CfP is available here: http://www.filmaudiencesconference.co.uk/images/eifac2014_cfp.pdf
Abstracts to be submitted to: abstracts@filmaudiencesconference.co.uk

The politics and law of Doctor Who

 Symposium Announcement and First Call for Papers

 Friday 5^th September 2014

University of Westminster

Doctor Who is the BBC’s longest-running drama television series and the world’s longest-running science fiction series.  The massive public attention devoted to the show’s 50^th anniversary and to its choice of new lead actor confirms that the programme merits serious academic attention.  Politics, law and constitutional questions often feature prominently in Doctor Who stories, whether in the form of the Time Lords’ guardianship of the universe, the Doctor’s encounters with British Prime Ministers, or the array of governance arrangements in Dalek society.   The show’s politics is also an adventure through time, from the internationalising moralism of the Barry Letts-Terrance Dicks years, the dark satire of Andrew Cartmel’s period as script editor and the egalitarianism of the Russell T. Davies era.  Yet the politics and law of Doctor Who have yet to be the subject of wide-ranging scholarship.  Proposals for 20 minute papers are therefore invited for a symposium on 5^th September 2014, to be held in the University of Westminster’s historic Regent Street building just metres away from BBC headquarters.  Possible subjects for papers might include, but are by no means limited to:

• Doctor Who’s ideology
• The Doctor’s political morality
• Comparison of politics of Doctor Who with politics of other science fiction
• The merits/demerits of Harriet Jones as Prime Minister
• Doctor Who and devolution
• Portrayals of British sovereigns in Doctor Who
• Doctor Who’s politics of class, gender and sexuality
• Fan responses to “political” Doctor Who stories
• International law, intergalactic law and non-interference
• Globalisation and corporate domination
• Satire in Doctor Who
• Politics and law in audio adventures, comic books and novels
• War crimes and genocide
• The politics of UNIT and Torchwood
• The will of villains to secure power
• Political history and political nostalgia in Doctor Who
• Doctor Who’s construction of British national identity

Abstracts should be 250 words in length, and should be accompanied by a 100-word biography of the author.  Abstracts should be sent to nicold@wmin.ac.uk – deadline for receipt of abstracts 17 January 2014.