Call for Papers/Proposals: AX Anime and Manga Studies Symposium, Los Angeles, CA (July 1-4 2016)

February 9, 2016 by

Call for Papers/Proposals: AX Anime and Manga Studies Symposium
Los Angeles, CA (July 1-4)

anime-expo.org/academic-program
animemangastudies.wordpress.com/symposium
Submission deadline: April 15, 2016

The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, the parent organization of Anime Expo (AX), the largest anime convention in the U.S., is inviting proposals for plenary addresses, presentations, and panel discussions for the 2016 AX Anime and Manga Studies Symposium. The Symposium will be held from July 1 to July, 2016 at the Los Angeles Convention Center (Los Angeles, California) as the Academic Program track of this year’s Anime Expo.
Japanese animation (anime) and comics (manga) are unique forms of visual culture that attract and inspire audiences around the world. The AX Anime and Manga Studies Symposium serves as the premier site for presenting and sharing research on a wide range of topics related to the creation, production, distribution, and worldwide reception of anime/manga, their history, relationships with other media, and the experiences and practices of anime and manga fans.
The Symposium’s goal is to bring together a diverse, international group of scholars, and facilitate the development of anime/manga studies as a defined academic field. As an integral part of Anime Expo, and open to all attendees, it also introduces general audiences to the methods, practices and tools of academic research into popular culture and fosters a dialogue between academics and fans. Participants in the Symposium will be able to join a celebration and appreciation of Japanese popular culture and interact directly with the convention’s attendees. Inherently interdisciplinary, it is open to approaches from different fields, and welcomes a wide range of speakers. Early-career scholars, graduate students, undergraduates, and independent researchers/industry professionals are especially encouraged to submit proposals!
These can take the form of a longer plenary address (45-60 minutes), an individual presentation, or a round-table panel discussion. Because of the Symposium’s broad educational mission, speakers are urged to consider subjects, topics and approaches that will be of interest to general, non-specialist audiences and do not require significant theory backgrounds or familiarity with particular subjects.

Some potential areas/topics the proposals can address include:
• Genres, genre conventions and subversions, franchises, adaptations and interpretations of Japanese and non-Japanese literature and other media, cross-media adaptations (such as anime/manga into video games and stage plays), the increasing prominence of remakes and reimaginings.
• Professional and amateur translation of anime and manga, censorship/self-censorship, translation of “non-speech” elements such as signs, writing, particular fonts, etc.
• Depictions of gender and sexuality, and the role of gender in the production and consumption of anime/manga.
• Fan service and objectification, the male and female gaze, the interplay of male and female creators, producers, and audiences.
• Responses to current social and political issues, such as marginalized communities, crime, terrorism and international conflict, relations between Japan and other countries, the 3.11 Tohoku Disaster and its effects on Japanese society.
• The growing influence of Western media and Western markets on anime/manga. The effects of streaming, crowdfunding, direct involvement by Western producers. The impact of Japanese visual culture on animation and comics outside Japan.
• Fan cultures, activities, practices and experiences – clubs, conventions, cosplay, fansites, fansubbing, anime music videos – in Japan, the U.S., and around the world.
• Potentials for anime/manga as platforms for social change and the political identities of anime/manga fans.
This year, the symposium is particularly interested in exploring questions related to:
The economics of anime and manga:
• The roles of particular creators and other individuals
• Entrepreneurial and business models
• The state of the anime/manga industry in Japan, in the U.S., and around the world
• Industry trends and future projections
Teaching about Japanese animation/Japanese comics at the secondary and post-secondary level
• Developing lesson plans
• Selecting themes and titles to feature
• Interacting with different types of students
• Integrating anime and manga into other classes
• Responding to Common Core Standards

If you are interested in participating in the 2016 AX Anime and Manga Studies Symposium, please submit the title of your proposed talk or panel, an abstract (300 words maximum) and your CV to Mikhail Koulikov, mkoulikov@gmail.com.
Deadline for submissions: April 15, 2016.
Selected speakers may be offered complimentary admission to Anime Expo 2016.

For additional details about the AX Anime and Manga Studies Symposium, including the previous years’ schedules and lists of speakers, please visit https://animemangastudies.wordpress.com/symposium

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CFP: Eating the Rude: Hannibal Lecter and the Fannibals, Criminals, and Legacy of America’s Favorite Cannibal

February 8, 2016 by

Call for Papers

Eating the Rude: Hannibal Lecter and the Fannibals, Criminals, and Legacy of America’s Favorite Cannibal

Contact: hannibalscholars@gmail.com

Editors: Kyle Moody, Ph.D. and Nicholas Yanes, Ph.D.
Publisher: McFarland Press

Deadline for Abstracts: March 18, 2016

Description of the Book:

When Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon was released in 1981, the literary community quickly became enraptured by its cannibal antagonist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Popular interest in “Hannibal the Cannibal” would only increase with the release of 1988’s The Silence of the Lambs and the 1991 movie adaptation starring Anthony Hopkins as Lecter. After several sequels were produced live action adaptations of Harris’ Hannibal books were stopped until 2013, when NBC took a chance and approved of a Hannibal Lecter TV series to be created by Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller.

Loosely defined as a prequel, the series Hannibal focused on Dr. Hannibal Lecter’s relationship with FBI Special Investigator Will Graham. With unique visualizations, off-kilter music, character reimaginings that changed race and gender, food culture, and several story arcs that addressed LGBTQ themes in a specific and idiosyncratic manner, Hannibal was a critically acclaimed show that is begging to be analyzed by scholars of all types.

Expectations for Proposals and Essays:
Ideal proposals focusing on any aspect of Hannibal texts from any period will contain a clear thesis, an abstract which is two to three paragraphs long and a list of potential sources. Essays need to be MLA formatted – parenthetical citations, not footnotes. And it is up to the author(s) to get permission to reprint copyrighted material. Though this should go without saying, we will not accept work that is plagiarized or that has been published elsewhere.

Proposed Topics:

1. Challenging the Canonical – Adaptation, Interpretation, and Re-Imaginings: Producing Hannibal, Race and Gender Bending

From adapting the books for television in the shadow of a movie franchise, to the multiple gender and race changes in the series, Hannibal pushed the limits of what people expect from a show based on a book series. Essays on this topic will examine issues of adaptation, interpretation, and re-imagining in the context of Hannibal.

2. Food for Thought for a Cannibal: The Food Culture of Hannibal

Focusing on a cannibal, a primary focus of the show was the presentation of food – whether it was human meat or not. With a sophisticated approach to food, Hannibal provides a fascinating presentation of food culture. Essays on this topic will look use food studies to examine Hannibal’s approach to cooking and his perspective of humans as food.

3. LGBTQ: The Depiction of the Queer in Hannibal’s World

In addition to characters being re-imagined as a different sexual orientation, the show’s two main male characters develop a relationship that evolves from heterosexual to possibly homosexual. As such, essays on this topic would examine the Hannibal/Will dynamic and their ancillary relationships in terms of Queer theory/analysis.

4. Diagnosing a Killer in a Lethal World – What is Hannibal and the other Killers

Unlike many shows centered on serial killers, Hannibal is deeply committed to a psychological deconstruction of Hannibal and all of the other killers that appear in the show. Other programs illustrate binary models of good and evil, but Hannibal illustrates its characters with an empathetic model that allows the audience to see inside of the character. What’s more, almost every brutal action on the show that is performed by a killer is seen in flashback as being performed by Will Graham, which illustrates both his tenuous grasp on sanity and the real horror of the actions taking place. Essays will discuss how this work shifts the paradigm of most shows focused around serial killer violence, which in turn showcases how Hannibal was a show that didn’t focus on justice but rather a psychological lack.

Hannibal also has a wide variety of imaginative killers. Essays on these characters will examine their literary and real world inspirations, while also discussing their symbolic role in the show as extensions of the main characters.

5. Fannibals – Hannibal’s Hungry Fan culture

The fans of Hannibal were unlike the core market for Harris’s novels and previous adaptations due to the proliferation of social media during the production and dissemination of Fuller’s vision. From 2013 to 2015, Hannibal’s core fanbase was heavily involved in remediating texts. Fuller and his writing team would also pay attention to the fan reactions to the show, and would also engage with them on social media.

Essays on this topic will examine Hannibal’s fandom and its relationship to the show, along with differences from fandom surrounding previous texts and adaptations.

6. Sights and Sounds of Hannibal’s dream world – the Fashion and Styles in Hannibal

The initial reaction to Hannibal as a serialized television program could be best described as lackluster because it was expected that the show would likely fall into the broadcast, wide-ranging CSI model. However, the show quickly illustrated a preference for the psychological aspects of serial killers and mentally ill psychopaths, and nowhere was this more explicit than the beautiful dreamscapes created by the production designers. Each venture into the hallucinogenic dreamscapes provided a window into the minds of the killers, as well as the greater damage that his empathy with murderers had on Will Graham’s mind. Essays on this topic will examine how the series was visualized, both in terms of episodic considerations and series-long visual conventions.

Additionally, the sartorial choices on Hannibal were unique considering the network model. The show illustrated Hannibal the character as a perfectly composed beast, right down to his clothing choices and immaculate presentation. When the show trekked to Europe for the beginning of its third season, the lush presentation was reflected in the clothing choices of its characters to show their evolution. For example, Dr. Alana Bloom evolved from wearing more appropriate federal government apparel to clothes that approximated the cold glamour of Hannibal Lecter. Essays on these topics will examine Hannibal’s world building in terms of character design, set design, storytelling, visual motifs, and other forms of universe creation.

7. Your Own Brilliant Idea?

If you have an idea for this collection that we haven’t suggested, feel free to send it to us for feedback. We are always open to new ideas.

Contact Information:

For more specific information for proposed topics please contact the editors at: hannibalscholars@gmail.com

Author Information:
Kyle Moody
Assistant Professor of Communications Media
Fitchburg State University

Nicholas Yanes, PhD

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CFP: Transgressive Textualities: A Postgraduate Symposium Department of English, University of Malta, 20–21 May 2016

February 1, 2016 by

Transgressive Textualities: A Postgraduate Symposium
Department of English, University of Malta
20–21 May 2016

Call for Papers
https://www.facebook.com/events/907457572630392/
http://www.um.edu.mt/events/tt2016

[T]he Text cannot stop (for example, at a library shelf); its constitutive moment is traversal….
– Roland Barthes

[L]iterature seemed to me, in a confused way, to be the institution which allows one to say everything, in every way.
– Jacques Derrida

[I]n London the most interesting literary activity is happening outside the book.
– Tom McCarthy

Language is transgressive. Any act of comprehension is in effect the demonstration of a dissatisfaction with the bounds of the mere graphic inscription or sound of words. To render sense we ‛transgress’ beyond the marks on the page, beyond the auditory phenomenon. An experience of the limit is, then, right at the (transgressively dispersed) heart of language.

Literary language multiplies and amplifies this originary transgression. It foregrounds and celebrates the potentially radically unstable metaphoricity of language that not only cannot be contained within limits, but is most what it is at the point of traversal through and beyond limits. Literary language, animated by what Wallace Stevens called ‛the intricate evasions of as’, is, it might be said, nothing if not transgressively exorbitant.

The ubiquitous word ‛text’ perhaps most starkly articulates this dual limit-and-transgression nature of language. On the one hand text is the material existence of language, but on the other it is simply that which is readable, and can only be experienced as a production, as an activity that happens beyond the page. The material text is simply the occasion of this transgression.

But literature is changing and we might now ask what new or alternative forms of material instantiation of the readable now invite transgression towards signification? Is the site of the limit
experience of the literary still predominantly the printed text, or is the literary migrating elsewhere, in the ultimate act of self-transgression, to be hosted and facilitated by new and emerging forms of textuality? Where, it might be asked, do we find transgressive textualities today?

And then there are the perennial forms of transgression associated with literature, whatever the context of its manifestation – the ways in which literature can challenge social and institutional structures, cultural and moral conventions and, indeed, law itself. Provocative and controversial, literature has always been something of an outlaw discourse, saying the unsayable, thinking the unthinkable….

This interdisciplinary Symposium is interested in exploring transgressive textualities through their various forms and manifestations, including literature and literary theory, language, cultural criticism, film, digital art, digital video games, performance, the internet, philosophy and other approaches.

Papers may discuss, but need not be limited to, issues like the following:
Taboo and censorship
Literature and protest
Intertextuality
Posthumanism
Transgression and subjectivity
Electronic literature
Body as a site of transgression
Multimedia adaptations of the literary
Queer literature
Fan fiction / fandom
Translation
Power, discourse and radical politics
Participatory culture
Appropriation of language
Violence and psychosis
Humour and horror
The carnivalesque
Apocalypse fiction
Transgressive philosophies and philosophies of transgression
Transgressive art and the art of transgression

Proposals of around 300 words, accompanied by a short biographical note not exceeding 100 words, should be emailed to transgressivetextualities2016@um.edu.mt by 18th April 2016. The organisers are planning to publish selected Symposium papers in the postgraduate journal Antae (https://antaejournal.com).

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CFP: Fantasies of Contemporary Culture, Cardiff University, UK, 23 May 2016

February 1, 2016 by

Fantasies of Contemporary Culture
Cardiff University, 23 May 2016
Call for Papers

Keynote speakers:
Dr. Mark Bould (UWE Bristol)
Dr. Catherine Butler (Cardiff University)

From the record-breaking sales of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, both in print and on film, to the phenomenal success of various forms of hyperreal ‘reality television’, contemporary Western culture seems singularly obsessed by the spectacular and the fantastic. This desire to experience other(ed) realities is also evidenced by the continued popularity of neo-historical literature and period drama, the domination of Hollywood cinema by superhero movies, and by the apocalyptic and dystopian imagery that abounds across genres and target audiences. With a long critical and cultural history, conceptualised by scholars as diverse as Tzvetan Todorov, Farah Mendlesohn, John Clute, Brian Attebery, Fredric Jameson, Lucie Armitt, and Darko Suvin, fantasy has arguably become the dominant mode of popular storytelling, supplanting the narrative realism of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Rather than attempting to define fantasy, horror, weird, or science fiction as distinct genres, we wish to take up Katheryn Hume’s expansive definition of fantasy as anti-mimetic, or as ‘any departure from consensus reality’ (Fantasy and Mimesis, 1984, p. 21), in order to engage with the broader artistic motivation to question the limits of the real. This symposium, then, will explore the political and cultural functions of such fantasies. To what extent does the impulse to create fantasy art comment back upon this ‘consensus reality’, and to what extent does it represent a separate reality? How might the fantastical characters and environments that populate our contemporary cultural landscape be informed by the experience of twenty-first-century metropolitan life, and how do such texts (in)form that experience in return?

Roger Schlobin claims that the ‘key to the fantastic is how its universes work, which is sometimes where they are, but is always why and how they are’ (‘Rituals’ Footprints Ankle-Deep in Stone’, 2000, p. 161). With this claim in mind, we invite submissions from any discipline that address the relationship between current cultural, social and political dialogues and fantasy texts – specifically ones that interrogate dominant structures of power, normativity and ideology. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the relationship between fantasy texts and contemporary culture through the lens of:

• Theories of fantasy
• Ideology and world building
• Ecological fantasies
• Escapism
• Cognitive mapping
• Utopian/dystopian vision
• Categories of monstrosity and perfection
• The humanities (fantasies, futures)
• Capitalist critique
• Genre studies/border crossings
• Age studies (childhood fantasy versus adult fantasy)
• Gender studies
• Alternate histories and retrofuturism
• Postcolonial fantasy (incl. Welsh)
• Nationalism and politics
• Inequality and race relations

We welcome paper and panel proposals from postgraduate students, independent researchers, affiliated scholars, writers, and artists from any background or career phase. Paper proposals must be between 200-300 words; panel proposals should be between 400-500 words. Please send abstracts, including your name and e-mail, institutional affiliation (if any), and a short biography (100 words maximum), to Dr Tom Harman (HarmanTL@cardiff.ac.uk) and Megen de Bruin-Molé (DeBruinMJ@cardiff.ac.uk) by 21 March 2016.

The programme will include coffee/tea breaks, lunch, and a wine reception. This will be covered in the registration fee (£10 for students and part-time staff, £20 for salaried staff). For more information and updates, please visit the symposium website at http://culturalfantasies.wordpress.com.

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CFP: Sex, Subversion and Bodily Boundaries: The Darker Side of Slash Fan Fiction

January 14, 2016 by

Sex, Subversion and Bodily Boundaries: The Darker Side of Slash Fan Fiction

Proposals are invited for essays exploring the depiction of (and engagement with) non-normative eroticism within online slash and femslash fan fiction – primarily work which is generated from media including but not limited to: role-playing video games, webcomics, TV episodes and series, comics and graphic novels, novels and short stories, and films. Proposals are also welcome for essays exploring the unique deictic nature of slash fan fiction as an ongoing dialogue between canon, text and audience. Particular interest will be given to papers exploring how digital accessibility has contributed to its popularity as a genre, and the cultural impacts generated by the popularity of made-to-order fan fiction commissions, such as kinkmemes, Shipping Olympics, Kink Bingo, fic requests etc.

Following the publication of Hellekson and Busse’s groundbreaking edited collection Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet (2006), academic interest in slash fiction has continued to document the evolution and development of the genre as a whole. It is generally proposed that slash fiction enjoys a simultaneous intertextual function – partly a subversive cultural dialogue and partly an unapologetically playful approach to literary convention – but a function which is ultimately more complex and nuanced than a traditional incorporation/resistance paradigm would suggest.

A particularly popular theory implies that slash fiction functions primarily as a displaced form of idealised sexual fantasy. That is, one in which even explicit sexual content and a subversion of non-normative gender, power and desire paradigms must be metaphorically understood as a desire for an egalitarian form of romance: a love between equals, free from the restrictions of hierarchical gender roles. However, academic exploration of more explicitly unlovely slash fiction – works which do not adhere as neatly to the idealised egalitarian romance theory, but still retain the same popularity as their more salubrious counterparts – is limited.

This collection aims to engage directly and explicitly with some of slash fiction’s less gentle aspects in order to explore the following question: in a text which not only deliberately creates but maintains unstable, unequal and ungentle paradigms, can the same critical frameworks that depict slash fiction as a valorised form of egalitarian romance still be applied? If a text refuses to moving towards the gradual equality and intimacy inherent within Romantic convention, can the ending only be an unhappy one?

This collection of essays aims to supplement existing fan academia with a small insight into what is an underrepresented but no less prolific or popular facet of slash fiction. With this is mind, proposals are invited for essays of c.7000 words exploring the following in erotic slash fiction:

· The exploration, portrayal and reception of BDSM encounters and relationships.

· The portrayal of cisgender characters which challenge heteronormative patterns of behaviour, either by non-compliance or by excessive performativity. Particular interest in the dynamics generated by two ‘butch’ characters in sexual scenes and how violence is used to regulate and code ‘unacceptable’ behaviours and desires.

· Xenofetishism and the treatment of alternative bodily configurations such as external breeding, A/B/O dynamics, hermaphroditic characters in slash fiction.

· Fame and infamy within fan writing; the perks and perils of having a reputation for pushing the boundaries.

· The treatment of trans* characters, non-binary gender, genderqueer and genderfluid characters in overtly sexual situations – both in canon and in fan texts.

· The portrayal of abusive behaviours, rape scenes and toxic relationships and the appeal of the themes.

· The extent to which consent is coded and established (or not) within dub-con texts.

· The treatment of and audience response to taboo relationships – incest, guardian/ward, underage characters and exploited characters.

· Discussions and debates within fan communities regarding explicitly non-normative sexuality within slash fiction as a whole, particularly in regard to participation in kinkmemes, Shipping Olympics, Kink Bingo, fic requests etc.

· Non-monogamy and non-monogamous characters and relationships, non-normative femininity/masculinity and any explorations thereof.

These lists are far from complete and should be taken only as a starting point, rather than definitive.
Generally speaking, texts under discussion should have been produced, published and released within the last twenty years, although if a text beyond this timeframe is particularly significant this can be discussed – please do get in touch with your ideas.
Once selected, the table of contents and abstracts will be submitted to McFarland and Co. Publishing, who have expressed an interest. Final inclusion in the published volume will be subject to peer review.

Please send proposals of 500 words plus a short biography to ashtonspacey@gmail.com by 11th March 2016.

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CFP: Console-ing Passions

December 10, 2015 by

CALL FOR PAPERS — DEADLINE JANUARY 30, 2016

CONSOLE-ING PASSIONS

International Conference on Television, Video, Audio, New Media, and Feminism

June 16-18, 2016
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana

Console-ing Passions was founded in 1989 by a group of feminist media scholars and artists looking to create a space to present work and foster scholarship on issues of television, culture, and identity, with an emphasis on gender and sexuality.  The first Console-ing Passions conference was held at the University of Iowa in 1992.  Since then, Console-ing Passions has expanded to become not only the most important conference for scholars studying gender in television but also among the top conferences for scholars of media generally.

The 2016 Conference Organizing Committee invites proposals for individual papers, pre-constituted panels, and pre-constituted forums that consider television, video, audio, or new media alongside gender, sexuality, race, or other intersected components of identity.  We also welcome proposals for video, audio, or new media creative works related to gender and other modes of identity.

Possible paper, panel, and forum topics include:

●      media production and industries

●      media audiences and fans

●      textual analysis and criticism

●      media theory

●      feminist, queer, and critical race theory

●      media history

●      neoliberalism and the economy

●      transmedia and convergence culture

●      globalism and transnational cultural flows

●      theories of post-television

●      social media and the Internet

●      music and sound studies

●      gaming and virtual worlds

●      social movements and media activism

●      politics and gender

●      religion and media

●      youth culture and media

Submission Guidelines

The deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM (US Eastern Daylight Time) on Saturday, January 30, 2016.

Please submit your proposal here:  https://console-ingpassions.submittable.com/submit

Proposers may propose only one paper or creative project, and only one CP Forum.  Attendees may present only one paper or creative project, and may participate in only one CP Forum.

Individual Papers: Individuals submitting paper proposals should provide an abstract of 250 words, a short bio, and contact information.  Co-authored papers are acceptable. 

Panels: Panel coordinators should submit a 250-word rationale for the pre-constituted panel as a whole.  Coordinators should submit a 250-word abstract, a short bio, and contact information for each panel participant. Panels should include 3-4 papers.  Co-authored papers are acceptable.  Panels that include a diversity of panelist affiliations and experience levels are strongly encouraged. 

CP Forums: Building upon the success of discussion-based roundtables at Flow and other conferences, we invite proposals for a limited number of pre-constituted roundtables that focus either on scholarly topics in the field or matters of professional interest.  We are especially interested in roundtables that are likely to engage wide participation by conference attendees, and which reflect our field’s diversity of cultural identities, institutions, methodologies, and professional rank or employment status.  Proposals should be submitted by a convener, who will propose a question (<100 words) and solicit brief (<250 words) responses from 5-7 respondents.  Proposals should also include a brief bio and contact information for the convener and each participant.  If the proposal is accepted, each participant will write a response to the question of no more than 600 words, which must be submitted to the conference organizers 2 weeks prior to the conference.  Those papers will be circulated to all attendees and will form the basis of a public discussion during the CP Forum sessions. Roundtable participants’ remarks at the conference should be brief in order to create substantive discussion with attendees.

Creative Works: We invite proposals for video, audio, or new media screenings or exhibits.  Proposals should consist of a 350-word abstract (including the length and format of the work), a short bio of the producer/director, and contact information.  If the work is viewable online, please submit a URL.

Please direct any questions about the conference and the submission process to:cpatnd2016@gmail.com.

Visit our website http://www.console-ingpassions.org/conf-nd/ for updates about events, schedules, travel information, and more.

Conference Organizers: Christine Becker, Michael Kackman, Mary Celeste Kearney, Susan Ohmer, and Pamela Robertson Wojcik / Department of Film, Television, & Theatre / University of Notre Dame.

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The Fan Studies Network Conference 2016

December 9, 2015 by

THE FAN STUDIES NETWORK CONFERENCE 2016

25-26th June 2016
University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

FSN2016

Keynote Speaker:
Professor Henry Jenkins (University of Southern California, USA).

The fourth annual Fan Studies Network Conference is returning to the University of East Anglia for a two-day programme in June 2016. The conference will continue FSN’s proud tradition of offering an enthusiastic space for interdisciplinary researchers at all levels to connect, share resources, and further develop their research ideas. In addition to panel presentations, the two days will feature social events, speed geeking, and workshop discussions.

We are delighted to welcome Professor Henry Jenkins as the keynote speaker for FSN2016. Jenkins’ work has proved extremely influential in the field: He is the author/editor of thirteen books on various aspects of media and popular culture, including Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide; Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture, and one of the key texts of the first wave of fan studies, Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture.

Registration is open here:
http://store.uea.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&deptid=9&catid=4&prodid=41

And the conference programme can be found here:

FSN 2016 draft Programme v2

Please send any enquires about the conference to: fsnconference@gmail.com

You can join the discussion about the event on Twitter using #FSN2016, or visit http://www.fanstudies.org.

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CFP: A Celebration of Star Trek, DePaul University, Chicago, USA, 7 May 2016

December 8, 2015 by

Now accepting submissions and ideas for the fourth annual Pop Culture Colloquium at DePaul University in Chicago!

The Media and Cinema Studies program, along with the College of Computing and Digital Media, the English Department, and the Department of American Studies at DePaul University is hosting a one-day celebratory colloquium in honor the fiftieth anniversary of Star Trek on Saturday, May 07, from 9am-6pm. This event will feature roundtable discussions from scholars and fans of Star Trek, speaking about the cultural impact of the show, as well as analyzing aspects of the episodes. The even will also feature keynote speaker Brannon Braga (executive producer, writer, and director of multiple episodes and films), screenings, screenwriting workshops, a costume contest, and more.

The audience for this event is both graduate and undergraduate students, both fans and scholars, and the focus should be on informed and enlightening discussion rather than formal academic papers. “A Celebration of Star Trek” will take place on DePaul’s Loop campus.

If you’re interested in speaking on a round table, please send a 200 word abstract of your topic and a CV or resume to Paul Booth (pbooth@depaul.edu) by Mar 01. Please aim your abstracts for a more general audience and for a discussion rather than a paper presentation. For more information, please check out the website http://www.mcsdepaul.com/a-celebration-of-star-trek.html and sign up for updates on Facebook (search “A Celebration of Star Trek”). We hope that you will be able to join in the discussion and celebration!

A Celebration of Star Trek (DePaul University, 07 May)

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Call for Expressions of Interest: Musical Fan Communities: Connected Across Borders

November 18, 2015 by

Musical Fan Communities: Connected Across Borders

Call for Expressions of Interest

Principal investigator: Dr. Laura MacDonald (University of Portsmouth)

Co-investigator: Dr. Jonathan Evans (University of Portsmouth)

After a successful research day in May 2015 and a presentation at the Fan Studies Network conference in June 2015, we are now preparing a bid for the AHRC Research Networking Scheme. This funding would support research events in the UK and abroad, and lead to a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal. In order to submit as compelling a bid as possible, we would like to confirm the ongoing interest of our initial participants and recruit additional participants. With this in mind, we are soliciting expressions of interest, outlining projects and areas of interest that would benefit from development in an international, interdisciplinary network.

Our ongoing research investigates how film and theatrical musicals are received and remediated by fans in other cultures where other languages are spoken. Our wider questions include: How do fans of musicals deal with language difference? What sort of fan organised activity is there in relation to musicals? Our focus, therefore, is on how fans translate, literally and metaphorically, foreign musicals for themselves and their peers: both in the form of lyric translation and subtitling, but also in the form of reviews and commentary. Through an analysis of evidence of fan activities such as subtitling, YouTube performances and comments, amateur performances, fans’ international travel to sites of musical theatre performance, and online forum discussions, we will argue that the communal activity of theatre going serves as a basis for a gift culture that focuses on sharing and giving others access to foreign texts. Drawing on close readings of these materials and theories of audiovisual translation, consumption and fandom, we will suggest fan practices play a significant role in the musical’s success as a global genre and in creating communal, non-national spaces based around shared affective experience.

Network participants will be working in musical theatre, theatre, film, media, European, Asian, and/or American studies. They may also be engaged in digital humanities projects, or employed in industries relevant to this research. The fans, the stakeholders in this network’s investigations, will also be involved in research events.

Interested participants are ask to respond by 30 November 2015 to both Laura MacDonald (laura.macdonald@port.ac.uk) and Jonathan Evans (jonathan.evans@port.ac.uk) with an abstract or outline of no more than 250 words indicating a project or area of research that would benefit from development through this network, keeping in mind the focus on fan practices in response to stage and screen musicals in languages and cultures other than those of the musical’s origins.

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Call for Papers: Sex and Sexualities in Popular Culture: Feminist Perspectives, Networking Knowledge, the journal of the MeCCSA-PGN

November 16, 2015 by

Call for Papers: Sex and Sexualities in Popular Culture: Feminist Perspectives

A special-themed issue of Networking Knowledge, the journal of the MeCCSA-PGN

Edited by Milena Popova and Bethan Jones

Deadline for abstracts: 30th December 2015

Popular culture, as can be seen through the GamerGate controversy for one example, has a profound impact on feminist issues and discourses. Representations of sex and sexualities influence public opinion and individual attitudes and perceptions. Discussions – in both media and academia – are continuing to take place about the impact of Fifty Shades, sexism and misogyny in computer game and comic book fandom, the sexualisation of girls and the sexual desires of both young and adult women. Moral panics abound surrounding Fifty Shades and the “irrational” behaviour of One Direction fans, while LGBTQIA+ identities and sexualities are often represented tokenistically at best. Creative practitioners can easily come under fire for poor representations of sex and sexualities, as evidenced most recently by the reception of Joss Whedon’s treatment of Black Widow in The Avengers: Age of Ultron; equally they can be celebrated for their efforts, as was the case with Bioware’s inclusion of a consent negotiation scene in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Following a successful one-day symposium on this theme in November 2015, we invite proposals for a special issue of Networking Knowledge – the Journal of the MeCCSA PGN. As with the symposium, we wish to open up debates and explore the nuances of sex and sexualities within popular culture. To that end, possible topics include but are not limited to:

• Representations of women’s desire and sexualities in popular culture

•Non-cis- and heteronormative sexualities in popular culture, especially beyond “gay and lesbian”

•Representations of sex work

•Infertility and sexual dysfunction

•Sexual intersections: race, disability, religion, class and socioeconomic status, gender

•Sex and sexualities in gaming

•Sexual pleasure in popular culture

•Invisibility: (a)sexualities unrepresented

•Sex, sexualities and social media

•Sex and sexualities in fan and transformative works

Please send 300 word abstracts for papers of 5,000 to 6,000 words, along with a short author biography, by 30th December 2015. Please email these to guest editors milena2.popova@live.uwe.ac.uk and bethanvjones@hotmail.com. If you have questions about Networking Knowledge in general, please contact the Journal Editor, Simon Dawes at simondawes0@gmail.com. Final, selected, articles will be due by the end of March 2016.

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