The Fan Studies Network

CFP: 

The call for papers for the “V Congreso Internacional Latina de Comuncación Social” is now open. We would like to invite you to send your proposals for the session on Fandom Generated Content that will take place the 4th of December in Tenerife (Spain).
In the contemporary media landscape, the figure of the fan as a new communicative agent is becoming more prominent. In an age marked by the web 2.0, the hybridization of forms and contents, and the technological convergence, the fan is an active player who participates, creates and collaborates in the construction of any type of media content.
Through a multidisciplinary approach to Fandom Studies, this session aims to explore the discursive production of this collective of people from different perspectives of Communication Studies as a framework. We would like to answer questions such as: What is the role of fans in the commercial communication of brands? In which ways can the fandom of a particular fictional work contribute to the expansion of the original text? What types of works and sources are used by fans in order to construct their own messages?

We would like to receive contributions on these and any other topics related to contents generated by fans. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is the 31st October, 2013. If you are interested, please send a 300-word abstract with your name and university affiliation to jlozano@uloyola.es.
For more information, please visit the website of the congress:  http://www.revistalatinacs.org/13SLCS/2013_convocatoria_5_congreso.html#512

POPULAR CULTURE ASSOCIATION/FAN CULTURE CFP

National conference, Chicago, 16-19 April 2014

http://pcaaca.org

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

•Fan Communities

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

•Fans as Critics

•Fan videos

•Fan crafts

•Fan pilgrimages

•Sports Fandom

•Cosplay

Please submit abstracts of 100-250 words with relevant audio/visual requests online.  Click here (http://pcaaca.org/national-conference-2/instructions-for-the-submission-database/) for instructions for doing so.

All Proposals & Abstracts Must Be Submitted Through The PCA Database. 
Please submit a proposal to only one area at a time.

Exceptions and rules

Panel proposals should include one abstract of 200 words describing the panel,
accompanied by the abstracts (250 words) of the individual papers that comprise the panel.  Graduate students are encouraged to submit proposals.

Please send all inquires to:

Katherine Larsen
The George Washington University
Ames Hall 223
2100 Foxhall Road NW
Washington D.C. 20007
(202) 242 5090
klarsen@gwu.edu

CFP: The Adventures of Tintin (symposium)

Abstracts are now being accepted for a symposium on “The Adventures of Tintin” at University College London on 10 January 2014 in celebration of Tintin’s 85th birthday. Proposed essay topics should creatively engage with the critical, philosophical, cultural, or social issues explored in the Tintin universe. All presentations will be considered for publication in a book of proceedings.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Tintin and Hergé
• Tintin and comic book history
• Tintin and detective fiction
• Tintin and the adventure story
• Tintin in translation
• Censorship of Tintin
• Tintin’s spinoffs
• Tintin in adaptations
• Tintin in films
• Tintin fan culture
• Tintin and geography
• Tintin and travel
• Tintin as cultural phenomenon
• Travel and colonialism
• Treatment of race in Tintin
• Snowy as sidekick
• Animal welfare
• EcoTintin
• Tintin and gender
• Tintin and masculinity; homosocial relations
• Tintin in criticism

Submission Guidelines:

1. Submission deadline for abstracts (400 words) and a short biography (150 words) for your 20-minute presentation: 31 October 2013.
2. Please do not send documents as attachments.

Kindly submit abstracts to the organizers at tintinat85@outlook.com

                                      Proposals Due: November 1, 2013 

Submit 250-word paper or full panel (title & 250-wd abstract for each panelist) proposals at: http://conference2014.southwestpca.org

Database opens July 1

 Submit in category Science Fiction & Fantasy—Doctor Who

 Questions: Erin Giannini (egiannini37@gmail.com) 

For more details on the conference, please visit the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association: http://southwestpca.org or follow us on Facebook & Twitter at www.facebook.com/facebook.com/southwestsff  or @southwestsff

More about the SF&F Area:

With an average of 70+ presenters annually, The Science Fiction and Fantasy Area of the Southwest and Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association is one of the most dynamic and well attended areas at the conference. Numerous book and article publications have originated from our panels.

 The Area was founded in 1995 by Prof. Richard Tuerk of the Texas A&M University-Commerce (formerly East Texas State University) and author of Oz in Perspective (McFarland, 2007). The Area is currently chaired by Ximena Gallardo C. of the City University of New York-LaGuardia and co-author of Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley (Continuum: 2004); Rikk Mulligan of Longwood University, author of “Zombie Apocalypse: Plague and the End of the World in Popular Culture” (End of Days, McFarland 2009); Tamy Burnett of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, co-editor of The Literary Angel (McFarland, 2010); Brian Cowlishaw of Northeastern State University, author of “No Future Shock Here: The Jetsons, Happy Tech, and the Patriarchy” (The Galaxy is Rated G, McFarland: 2011); Erin Giannini, independent scholar, who has presented and published work on series such as Dollhouse, Supernatural, and Mystery Science Theater 3000; and Susan Fanetti, Associate Professor at California State University Sacramento.

CFP: Stardom and Fandom, SW PACA (11/1/13; 2/19-22/14)

The Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association (http://southwestpca.org) invites paper or panel proposals on any aspect of stardom or fandom for their annual Conference, February 19 – 22, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico. This is a great conference for fan studies scholars, grad students, and researchers from other disciplines doing related research to share their thoughts and inspire each other. All topics will be considered, although we especially encourage proposals on:

The reciprocal relationship between stars and fans

Impact of celebrity and fame on identity construction, reconstruction and sense of self

The impact of social media on celebrity/fan interaction

Children and stardom (Little Rascals to Toddlers and Tiaras)

Celebrity/fame addiction as cultural change

The intersection of stardom and fandom in virtual and physical spaces

Celebrity and the construction of persona

Pedagogical approaches to teaching stardom and fandom

Straddling the stardom/fandom line: big name fans, bloggers and aca-fans

Anti-fans and ‘haters’

Fan shame

Gendered constructions of stars and fans

Studies of individual celebrities and their fans

Studies focused on specific fandoms

Historical studies of fandom and fan/celebrity interaction

If you have an idea that is not listed, please suggest the new topic. We encourage submissions from multiple perspectives and disciplines. Come join us – we always have a blast!

Submit 250 word paper proposals – or proposals for full panels – to: http://conference2014.southwestpca.org/ . Choose the area “Special Topics – Stardom and Fandom.”
Proposal submission deadline: November 1, 2013.

Questions? Contact Lynn Zubernis, lzubernis@wcupa.edu

CONFERENCE: CULT CINEMA AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE

An AHRC Global Cult Cinema in the Age of Convergence Network Conference Aberystwyth University, UK, Tuesday 15^th – Wednesday 16^th April 2014

Keynote speaker: Professor Barbara Klinger, Indiana University, USA

While academic study of cult cinema can be traced back to the 1980s, there has recently been a surge of scholarly interest in – alongside an increasing popular awareness of – the field. In particular, the advent and development of digital networks has led to an increasing awareness of a variety of cult followings and access to unprecedented cult films from around the world. Research addressing the changes wrought by increased digitization and global connectivity has, however, been relatively scant, as have sustained attempts to discuss and debate these issues. The aim of this conference (organised in association with the AHRC Global Cult Cinema in the Age of Convergence Network) is to bring together scholars to engage in a sustained dialogue addressing the role of technologies in different areas of cult film culture. Whilst technological change is the main theme of the conference, we welcome submissions that place such change within broader socio-historical contexts, and which reflect on the changing nature of cult cinema in relation to a range of technological developments, and the extent to which digital connectivity impacts upon understandings of cult film.

Possible topics could include:

• Exhibiting cult: How changing technologies have impacted upon the ways in which films are screened/viewed and how this has led to new cultist patterns.
• Promoting cult: New modes of marketing and promotion and how these can facilitate cult reputations.
• Transmedia cult: How altered boundaries between distinct media have led to increasing cross-media content and the extent to which these feed into cult promotion, exhibition and reception.
• Funding: How the web has enabled new forms of funding films, such as Kickstarter, and the implications for this on cultism.
• Informal and formal distribution cultures: New modes of distributing films (such as streaming services), incorporating ‘informal’ networks of file traders and bootleggers, etc.
• Digital Aesthetics: Have cult films made with digital technologies instituted new aesthetic avenues?
• Cult Criticism: The importance of ezines, blogs and similar platforms for cult criticism.
• Fandom: Changing patterns of cult fandom in relation to emerging technologies and platforms.
• Social Media and Cult: The importance of social media to cult film research.
• Public and Private spaces: how have technological developments contributed to the spaces in which cult films are consumed, and how have relations between private/public been reconfigured?
• Techno-cults: Analyses of representations of technology within particular cult films.
• Residual cultism: The role of residual media, or ‘old technologies’ in cultism: for example, fans dedicated to collecting video tapes.
• Historical case studies: Cult films/figures and historical uses of technologies (e.g. William Castle and Percepto and Emergo; 3D and cult, etc.)

Proposals for individual papers or pre-constituted panels should be sent to jamie.sexton@northumbria.ac.uk, kte@aber.ac.uk andmjh35@aber.ac.uk by 12^th December 2013.  Proposals should be sent in a word document email attachment, and include the paper title, abstract (350 words), along with the name of the presenter and their institutional affiliation. Panel organizers are asked to submit panel proposals including a panel title, a short description of the panel (150 words) and information on each paper following the guidelines listed above. Panels should consist of three speakers with a maximum of 20 minutes speaking time each.

With best wishes,

Jamie Sexton, Matt Hills and Kate Egan

We are inviting abstracts for papers to be presented at a conference on the Cold War and Entertainment Television, to be held at the University of Paris 8, on June 5-7, 2014.

An essential dimension of the Cold War took place in the realm of ideas and culture. A great deal of work, for example, has been done on cinema, especially with regard to the United States although other nations, both East and West, have received increasing attention.  But with certain noteworthy exceptions (primarily in the areas of science fiction and espionage series) relatively little has been done on this subject in relation to television. Yet, television was a technology and popular cultural form that emerged during the Cold War.

This project hopes to rectify that absence by providing a forum for examining the impact of the Cold War on entertainment television. We intend to underline the comparative aspect by studying programs from both blocs – without forgetting, of course, the outsize impact of American television
We would welcome submissions that treat a variety of regions and genres, including (but not limited to) the following topics:

·         Analyses of the reflection of the Cold War in particular genres

·         A close reading of particular episodes or series

·         The presentation of the “other side,” both its elites and the lives of ordinary citizens

·         Depictions of social class and ideologies in Cold War entertainment television

·         The uses of race and gender in depictions of the “other side” or in celebrations of one’s own side

·         Exporting television series to other cultures

·         How audiences received and used a variety of Cold War television series

·         The space race, the military industrial complex, the national security state, and nuclear weapons in Cold War television

·         Cold War discourses in children’s television

·         The impact of censorship, whether official or self-imposed

·         Commercials, public service announcements, documentaries, and Cold War subtexts

·         Changes in Cold War discourses in entertainment television through 1991

The languages of the conference will be English and French, and we anticipate that the conference proceedings will be published in English.

Please email a 250-word proposal, a one-page c.v., and contact information to Prof. Lori Maguire at coldwartv@gmail.com by Sept. 15, 2013.

Notification of accepted proposals will be made by Oct. 15, 2013.

Email inquiries are preferred, especially over the summer, to coldwartv@gmail.com

Organizing committee: Prof. Lori MAGUIRE (Département d’Etudes des Pays Anglophones, Université de Paris 8, St. Denis, France); Dr. Janice LIEDL (Dept. of History, Laurentian University, Canada); Dr. Joseph DAROWSKI (Dept. of English, Brigham Young University Idaho); Dr. Nancy REAGIN (Dept. of Women’s and Gender Studies, Pace University, New York); Dr; André FILLER (Département d’Etudes Slaves, Université de Paris 8, St Denis, France) ; Prof. Cécile VAISSIÉ (Département de Russe, Université de Rennes II, France)

The CFP and other details can also be found in English and French here:

http://www.ea-anglais.univ-paris8.fr/spip.php?article1231