The Fan Studies Network

Expanding Universes. Exploring Transmedial & Transfictional Ways of World-Building
23rd-25th September 2016,
Kraków (Poland)

Thinking of storyworlds as representations that transcend media
not only expands the scope of narratology beyond its “native” territory of language-based narrative […] but also provides a much-needed center of convergence and point of comparison to media studies.
M.-L. Ryan & Jan Noël Thon

OVERVIEW
It is no doubt that with the dynamic evolution of fantastic narratives a world-centered model of storytelling has started to proliferate, changing the way one can interact with fictional representations of worlds in literature, movies, video games, comic books, any other media. A growing interest in media-conscious world-building, both amongst scholars and fans, clearly shows that the future of narrative and media studies lays not with monomedial, but transmedial studies—especially when no-one seems to question cross-overs, retellings, remediations, or any other narrative devices so common in contemporary storytelling. From Star Wars Expanded Universe/Legends top-down and bottom-up transfictional storytelling or transmedial campaign for The Hunger Games the movie to multimodal storytelling in Doug Dorst’s “S” or Bioshock: Infinite”—we all engage in a plethora of ways of world-making, and what transmedial narratology needs nowadays to do, is to analyze these storyworlds in their variety without imposing any paradigmatic world-building model for creators to follow. Consequently, organizers of the conference will welcome presentations or full panel proposals covering:

 key and emerging concepts in transmedia studies and transmedial narratology;
 theoretical discrepancies between transmediality, multimodality, and transfictionality;
 theory, history, and philosophy of world-building in literature and other media;
 top-down and bottom-up world-building and storytelling;
 ways of inhabiting fictional/virtual worlds: immersion, interactivity, and beyond;
 franchises and franchised universes: their expansion and narrative potential;
 fan & fandom studies with an emphasis on participatory authorship in shared universes, entertainment
supersystems, and more;
 means of narrative/economical control (i.e. canon, moderated/curated content, licencing etc.) in massive
world-building enterprises;
 psychological and philosophical contexts of world creation;
 case studies of transmediality, transfictionality, and world-building across media (MCU, Game of Thrones,
StarCitizen, Star Wars, DC Universe, and many more);

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Confirmed conference keynote speaker is a prominent narrative theorist, Marie-Laure Ryan, author of the
most important books in possible worlds theory, hypertextuality, transmedia storytelling, transfictionality & multimodality,
immersion theory, and narrative studies, such as Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence, and Narrative
Theory (1991), Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media
(2001), Avatars of Story (2006), or (co-edited), Narrative Across Media: The Languages of Storytelling (2004)
and Storyworlds Across Media. Toward Media-Conscious Narratology (2015).

REGISTRATION, SUBMISSIONS & FEES
The conference language is English. To register for the conference, one should sent in editable format (.doc,
.docx.) 600-words abstracts featuring (1) the title of presentation, (2) a concise bio-note, (3) current affiliation,
and (4) all necessary contact information (official email address & phone number) at transmedialstudies@gmail.com
by June 30th
2016. Successful applicants will be notified within two weeks after the deadline.
Attendees are also encouraged to send us full panel proposals composed of (1) abstracts from a minimum
number of 4 delegates, (2) up to 600 words description of the pa-nel, (3) a suggested title of the panel and, most
importantly, (4) email addresses of all delegates included in the proposed panel.
The conference fee of 100€ will cover conference materials, catering and all other essentials, but does not
include accommodation.

MORE INFO
Further details regarding the venue, suggested accommodation and transportation will be continuously
updated at the website transmedialstudies.wordpress.com. Organisers do welcome all questions and requests
at transmedialstudies@gmail.com.
The conference will be followed by a peer-reviewed monograph, published by Facta Ficta Research Centre
and licenced under Creative Commons 4.0 as an ebook stored in a globally accessible repository (CeON Center
for Open Science) and / or in peer-reviewed special editions of renowned scholarly journals.
We look forward to seeing you in Kraków!

THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Ksenia Olkusz, PhD (Facta Ficta Research Centre in Kraków)
Piotr Kubiński, PhD (University of Warsaw)
Krzysztof M. Maj (Jagiellonian University, Facta Ficta Research Centre in Kraków) – project co-ordinator
Sven Dwulecki (Eberhard Karls University Tübingen)

For the past three years, the Nine Worlds convention hosted an academic conference. We ran a combination of solely academic sessions, as well as placing academic speakers on panels and tracks in a more casual manner – details of last year’s sessions on the Academia and History tracks are still available on the Nine Worlds website. This year, we’re looking for content in a similar vein for the new Academia and Humanities content area, which has an even broader remit than previous years’ Academia track.

With that in mind, we’re inviting submissions for papers and suggested panels, as well as volunteers to talk on pre-organised panels. All areas of study surrounding ‘geek media’ are accepted – from video games to classic fantasy, and we welcome submissions from anyone who is a current student or has graduated with a degree in a field related to their topic. Talks will be ideally 20-30 minutes in length, and the standard panel time is 1 hour.

Nine Worlds will take place August 12th-14th 2016 at Novotel London West. Tickets are available for purchase, and they will grant you access to the whole convention – not just the academic content.

Suggested areas of submission include:

Video Games and their impact/role within wider culture
Board, Social and Role-playing Games
Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature
Diversity and representation in geek culture
‘Geek’ film and TV
Comics
Fanfiction
Research as a fannish practice
History and its relation to geek media/culture
Science and its relation to geek media/culture
Religion and philosophy and their relation to geek media/culture
Please ensure your paper/panel is suited to non-academics. Ideally, you may assume the audience has full knowledge of primary sources, but little secondary, so please take this into consideration. We intend to each session be accessible and understandable to those outside of the usual academic groups. In addition, please take note of our anti-harassment policy.

Please send a title, a 300 word abstract, your name and affiliation (the university you are currently at or most recently graduated from) to humanities-academia@nineworlds.co.uk.
The deadline for submissions is April 30th, 2016. This deadline is for abstracts/submissions to be a panellist only.

Registration will be completed through the purchase of a ticket to the convention as a whole. Accommodation should be booked separately by individual participants. All profits from the conference/convention will go to charity. Please do email if you have questions or concerns about finance, as we do have a limited budget available to assist those otherwise unable to attend.
Nine Worlds deliberately tries to promote parity of race, sexual orientation, genders and creeds as a part of its programming remit. We aim to follow this in our selection of panellists, and would also be interested in including papers or panels that address these issues. However, we are aware that some people do not want to discuss these as direct topics, and wish to be sensitive to this, so you will only be asked to speak on topics that you offer to.

Thank you,
Claire Wilkinson & Tony Keen
Academia and Humanities Content Group Organizers

Screen Studies and the School of Culture and Communication, The Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne

hannifeast@gmail.com
November 29-30, 2016
https://feastingonhannibal.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/call-for-papers/

Keynote Speaker: Associate Professor Jane Stadler, The University of Queensland

Hannibal ‘the Cannibal’ Lecter is one of contemporary popular culture’s most prominent and recognisable models of monstrosity. Initially conceived in the 1981-2006 novel series by Thomas Harris, Hannibal exists at the centre of a sprawling franchise that includes the critically acclaimed film, The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991), and most recently Bryan Fuller’s television series Hannibal (2013-2015). The diverse texts that constitute the Hannibal franchise demonstrate the fertile potential of the Hannibal mythology to extend and develop across multiple media, and the complexity of Hannibal himself as a boundary-defying figure of modern monstrosity and the senses. At the centre of Hannibal’s monstrosity is a breakdown of the boundaries between high and low art, the mythic and the everyday, and refinement and savagery. Accordingly, critical interest in the Hannibal franchise has focused on Hannibal’s embodiment of the boundary transgressions central to scholarly understandings of monstrosity.

Critical analyses of the books and films have been both profound and widespread across various disciplines. More recently, Fuller’s Hannibal has not only redefined what came before, but has inspired, extended and renewed interest in this seminal figure. The “Feasting on Hannibal” conference aims to push the boundaries of previous conceptualizations of the Hannibal series, while reflecting on how the television show has reframed the culture of Hannibal. This conference looks to the future of the franchise as a continually developing and mutating mythology, welcoming papers that examine Hannibal across any of his multiple incarnations, but especially considering how Hannibal mythology has been reformulated and extended since Fuller’s television series.

Screen Studies and the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne invite you to submit abstract proposals for an interdisciplinary conference feast that turns the tables on Hannibal Lecter, offering Hannibal up for a meal of multiple courses and scholarly cuisines.

Topics might include, but are not limited to:

Hannibal’s influence on screen culture
Hannibal as embodiment of contemporary monstrosity
Hannibal and the sensorium
Hannibal as mythology
Aesthetics and affect in Hannibal
Hannibal as a franchise property
Hannibal, seriality and transmedia storytelling
Self-reflexivity and intertextuality
Hannibal and adaptation
Hannibal and genre
High-concept television
High art and elite tastes
The aesthetics of violence
Hannibal and fandom
The culture of food in Hannibal
Cannibalism, food and body horror
Representations of animality and the post human in Hannibal
Criminal monstrosity and moral panic
Depictions of psychology and emotions
The development of gender and sexuality in the Hannibal mythology
The music of Hannibal and Hannibal’s music

Submit queries and abstracts of no more than 300 words length, as well as a short bio, before 15th of May to hannifeast@gmail.com.

Organised by: Dr Jessica Balanzategui, Naja Later, and Tara Lomax, The University of Melbourne

Call for Papers:

FAN STUDIES

2016 Midwest Popular Culture Association Conference

Thursday-Sunday, October 6-9, 2016

Chicago, IL

Hilton Chicago/Rosemont O’Hare

Deadline: April 30, 2016

Submissions.mpcaaca.org

Topics can include, but are not limited to fan fiction, multi-media fan production, fan communities, fandom of individual media texts, sports fandom, or the future of fandom. Case studies are also welcome.

Please upload 250 word abstract proposals on any aspect of Fan Studies to the Fan Studies area,http://submissions.mpcaaca.org/.

More information about the conference can be found at http://www.mpcaaca.org/

Please note the availability of graduate student travel grants: http://mpcaaca.org/conference/travel-grants/.

Please include name, affiliation, and e-mail address with the 250 word abstract. Also, please indicate in your submission whether your presentation will require an LCD Projector and/or Audio hookup.

Any questions? Please email Katie Wilson at KateMarieWilson@gmail.com

Fan Fiction and Ancient Scribal Cultures
EABS annual meeting, Leuven, Belgium, July 17-20

Chairs

Sonja Ammann, Humboldt University Berlin (sonja.ammann@hu-berlin.de).

Mette Bundvad, University of Copenhagen (mbu@teol.ku.dk).

Frauke Uhlenbruch (f.uhlenbruch@gmail.com).

Programme

This unit brings together scholars and practitioners to investigate scribal culture in biblical and para-biblical literatures in comparison and contrast with the practice of writing fan fiction.

Writers of fan fiction are well-versed in specific canons, for example a book or TV series. They engage with their canons in depth and create literature either set in the same fictional world as their canonical material or featuring the same characters. The material produced by fans, known as fan fiction, is a way of engaging with perceived canonical material that is intuitive and emotional, and can also be subversive. This research unit investigates possible intersections of fans’ ways of creating material based on a canon and (post-) biblical interpreters’ or redactors’ ways of compiling commentary or supplementary material on biblical canons in antiquity. The unit invites constructive and critical engagement with discontinuities (as well as continuities). For example, fan fiction is a contemporary phenomenon whose increased visibility is due to the Internet; put more generally, production and distribution is based on infrastructure different from ancient writings; therefore one may also expect different power relations and institutional contexts.

Fan fiction can be compared to the practices of groups of interpreters who have impacted the Bible and biblical interpretation in significant ways. This comparison can raise and answer questions about group identity, power, subversion, and impact of derivative works upon the canon. Fan fiction as a heuristic model allows us to study historical responses to antique corpora of texts, expressions of identities couched in derivative works, subversive manipulations of a canonical status quo, and emotional reactions to a canonical work.

Call for Papers 2016

This research group uses fan fiction as an interpretative model to study ancient texts, especially biblical and parabiblical texts from the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the pseudepigrapha, the New Testament, the Christian apocrypha, and Rabbinic literature.
At the 2016 conference in Leuven, we invite papers that use expressions of identity in contemporary fan fiction to investigate questions related to authorship and identity in ancient texts. Possible topics include, for example, strategies of constructing or concealing authorship (pseudepigraphy/anonymity), or scholarly assumptions about authors/creators based on the drift of a canon-related work. We also welcome papers that explore expressions of gendered identities, and how gendered expectations affect practices of writing and interpretation. We encourage participants to make their contributions in an interdisciplinary environment and we welcome papers concerned with methodology of the study of fan fiction, fans, and scribal culture.

Click here (https://eabs.net/ocs/index.php/annualmeeting/2016/login) to submit an abstract.

CALL FOR PAPERS
Superhero Identities Symposium
Venue: Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) – Melbourne, Australia – 8-9 December 2016

Keynote Speaker: Professor Henry Jenkins – University of Southern California

It is hard to imagine a time when superheroes have been more pervasive in popular culture. As one of our most beloved folkloric traditions these costume-clad adventurers have become a means to negotiate and articulate identities in response to fictional heroes. Superhero identities range from those that symbolise a nation, to web communities that use cosplay to challenge gender roles, and the people of a city coming together under the banner of a caped crusader. This symposium will examine the many intersections between superheroes and identity. From big screen heroes to lesser-known comic book vigilantes and real-life costumed heroes, the symposium will include papers that consider superheroes across all eras and media platforms

We are inviting submissions for individual research papers of 20 minutes as well as pre-formed panels. Proposal topics might include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

Super-Activism
One of the central tenets of the superhero story is the transition of unassuming civilians into costume-clad heroes. This narrative is not confined to the comic book page as the people of San Francisco demonstrated when they came together to realise the adventures of Batkid. Proposals are invited that consider how superheroes have become icons of activism and community engagement.

National and Regional Identities
Comic books are often considered an American form, and the medium’s most popular character, the superhero, did much to affirm that link with dozens of star-spangled heroes created during the industry’s Golden Age. However, the superhero has been reimagined in a range of contexts to respond to local cultures, politics, and traditions. Papers that consider how superheroes engage with national and regional identities are welcome.

Secret Identities
The masquerade and imaginative possibilities of superheroes, coupled with their high concept settings, have allowed these characters to engage with issues and interests that were often difficult to tackle in more “grounded” stories. Papers that consider how superheroes address topics such as gender, sexuality, and ethnicity are invited.

Audiences, Fans, and Superheroes
Whether it is t-shirts adorned with a familiar logo or convention cosplay and fan fiction, superheroes compel participation. We encourage papers that examine the range of this engagement from casual movie audiences to avid consumers.

Supervillains
The supervillain is often understood as the hero’s dark double. This symposium welcomes papers that consider the identities of the supervillains, and their relationship to the above topics.

The Superhero Identities symposium is organised by the Superheroes & Me research team – Angela Ndalianis (University of Melbourne), Liam Burke (Swinburne University of Technology), Elizabeth MacFarlane (University of Melbourne), Wendy Haslem (University of Melbourne), and Ian Gordon (National University of Singapore) – and supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).
Proposals of 250-300 words for individual presentations or full panels, as well as any queries, should be sent to wburke@swin.edu.au by June 24, 2016, along with a 150-word bio.

Call for Papers: Journal of Fandom Studies, Queerbaiting special issue.

Fans use the term ‘queerbaiting’ to account for a television tactic whereby producers deliberately insert homoerotic subtext between characters in order to capture a queer viewership, yet never actualise this subtext on screen. It is near exclusively deemed by fans as an exploitative tactic that is harmful to queer viewers; one that teases queer representations, then shuts down opportunities for validation with ‘no homo’ jokes in text and denial of the existence of any subtext in commentary. It has thus attained decidedly negative connotations in its usage by fans and a degree of cultural currency in the popular sphere, the hashtag #Queerbaiting an increasingly popular device on Twitter for shaming such tactics, for example. Cult series such as Supernatural and Sherlock are among the most frequently named for queerbaiting their audiences, which given the scholarly interest by fan scholars in these texts, raises important questions for our field. Recently, investigation has begun into some of the questions posed by queerbaiting, such as the activist agenda behind the term’s coinage (Nordin, 2015), its statement on fan-producer interactions (Collier, 2015), textual readings of certain texts that queerbait (Fathallah, 2015), and of how this relatively new term bodes for understandings of particular well-canvassed fan practices, such as slash (Brennan, 2016).

The recent interest by scholars in the various issues associated with queerbaiting make a collection of essays that situate the tactic in terms of the fan studies field timely. Further, a survey of such issues is important in light of the impassioned calls from many fans for such tactics to cease, and for producers to take account of the harm caused by queerbaiting. A key argument being that in ‘baiting’ their audiences, then denying actual representations, queer viewers face invalidation of their experiences (Sheehan, 2015). This is not to discount alternate readings on the practice, such as of the potential queer readings that ‘queerbaiting’ in fact make possible, even plausible (Brennan, 2016).

This special edition of Journal of Fandom Studies aims to take account of why queerbaiting as a concept has gained the appeal it has, and why now. Not only what exactly it means to queerbait, but also the relationship between this term and the current media landscape, in which queer representations are supposedly possible in mainstream texts, yet still denied. Therefore, the issue seeks to take stock of the current state of media representations accused of queerbaiting and of the fannish culture that surrounds the development of this term. Importantly, the edition aims to consider what criticism of certain tactics might mean for longstanding debates within the field, among them: media effects, fan/producer power relations, active/passive consumption, fan production (slash, for example), and identity, to name just a few. As such, submissions are encouraged from across disciplines, with the aim to better understand what queerbaiting means to fans; what harm, if any, it causes them; and how we are to proceed with the study of fandoms that, some argue, are harmful.

Submission Details

Submissions of particular interest are not limited to but may address:

Etymology of the term
What constitutes queerbaiting?
Queerbaiting as fan activism
Good/bad representations of sexuality
Mainstreaming queer representation
Queerbaiting vs homoeroticism
Campaigns to boycott series that queerbait
Queerbaiting vs queer reading
Hoyay, fan service, subtext, ‘no homo’ jokes, and other related terms
Textual readings of particular series that queerbait, such as Supernatural, Sherlock, Merlin, Rizzoli & Isles, Teen Wolf
#Queerbaiting on Twitter
Fan-producer dynamics
Methodologies for studying queerbaiting
Queerbaiting on film (The Avengers, Victor Frankenstein, for example)
Queerbaiting in advertising
Queerbaiting and slash/femslash, ‘correcting’ queerbaiting
Queerbaiting as invalidation of identity
Cast and producer responses to accusations of queerbaiting
Celebrity queerbaiting (James Franco, Nick Jonas, etc.)
Capitalising on queerbaiting (the ‘pink dollar’)
This special edition of Journal of Fandom Studies will be edited by Dr Joseph Brennan.

Please send abstracts of 300 words and a short biographical note to joseph.brennan@sydney.edu.au by June 1, 2016. Completed articles of 6000–9000 words will be due November 1, 2016.

Editorial Information

Edited by: Joseph Brennan (joseph.brennan@sydney.edu.au)

It’s HBO! Life After Legacy (2018) will examine, not HBO’s legacy shows, but its current programming, bringing together an international group of media and cultural studies scholars to offer an in-depth look at issues of race, class, gender, sexuality and power behind HBO’s new and original voices.

Current shows, such as Game of Thrones; Girls; The Leftovers; Silicon Valley; True Detective; The Looking; Ballers; and Vinyl, will be discussed through the lens of sociocultural and political context and the transformation of American television and global society in the 21st century. There exists a range of issues here, driven by HBO’s current content, which are important not only to the shows, but to our understanding of society today.

What is it about Game of Thrones, a series of power, violence and fear, that resonates so deeply with audiences? How is it that True Detective (2014-present), a Nietzsche-influenced crime drama, broke viewing figure records? Why has HBO’s comedy-drama Looking (2014-2015) been celebrated as the most original and progressive depiction of queer characters in the 21st century? What is it about the post-Katrina New Orleans-set mini-series Treme (2010-2013) that has provoked discussion about cultural appropriation, race and class? How did indie comedy series Girls (2012-present) re-define the representation of Baby Boomer predecessors and their millennial successors? Why has post-apocalyptic drama The Leftovers (2014-present) been deemed the most brutal and essential, ‘new kind of religious’ viewing experience on television?

Editors: Victoria McCollum and Giuliana Monteverde

Deadline for Abstracts: March 31, 2016

Publisher: Routledge

It is anticipated that submissions will conform to one of the three book parts:

Part I: Authorship, Gender and Reception
Chapters in this section will focus on authorship, and explore the role of creator from a variety of perspectives. Essays should draw upon current HBO programming to analyse the role of the creator, and their perspective and method, in shaping the terrain of American popular culture and speaking to selected audiences.

PART II: Race, Place, Power and Risk
Chapters in this section will focus on HBO’s current programming’s treatment of gender, race, sexual orientation and class, and on the subsequent power relations employed in representing such important identity positions.

PART III: Consumption, Criticism and Fandom
Chapters in this section will focus on questions of political economy, the new culture industry and the changing critical landscape (YouTube reviews, podcasts, Reddit threads, wikis and Tumblr gifs).

Topics may include (but are not limited to):

Lena Dunham, Girls, and the Artistic Narcissism of Creative Millennials
Pizzolatto’s Flying Solo, Philosophical Meanderings and Existential Nihilism in True Detective
Age, Adaption and Traumedy in Olive Kitteridge
Toxic Masculinity, Golden Eras and Collapsing Economies in Vinyl
Game of Thrones: Medieval Laddism, Rape Culture, and Feminist Fandom
(White Girl) Feminism, Privilege and White-Washing in Girls
Postfeminism, Scathing Satire and Political Humor in Veep
Age, Disability, Class and Corporatization in Getting On
The Rapture, Religion and Complicated Worldviews in The Leftovers
Race, Class and Political Truth in Storm-Damaged Treme
Geeks, Freaks, Feminism and Capitalism: Satirizing the Tech World in Silicon Valley
‘The Rock’, American Dreams and Racial Nightmares in Ballers
Queer Naturalism and Petitions For Change in Looking

Submission Guidelines: Abstracts/Proposals (250 words) with a 50-word biography due: March 31, 2016. Notifications made by: April 10, 2016. Accepted and completed papers (5000-6000 words with references in Harvard format) due: April 1, 2017.

Please send inquiries and abstracts to editors:
Victoria McCollum and Giuliana Monteverde at: hbobook@gmail.com

http://popculturestudies.blog.com/2016/02/27/call-for-paper/