cfp.english.upenn.edu

Proposals are invited for essays (5,000 words length) to be included in an edited collection that will explore LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) youth identity within contemporary media, specifically looking at Television, Film, and the Internet (including mobile technologies). A focus will be placed upon cultural, sociological, narrative, media and queer theory approaches.

The reader will primarily explore the potential of contemporary media to enable new life chances, challenging oppressive historical contexts for queers, such as shame, deviance and the other. It will explore a breath of identifications, potentials and readings, specifically focusing on issues such as: representation, commodity, consumption, politics, activism and play.

General topics of interest could include:

Coming out in school:
The challenge of bullying in school:
Affirmation and queering
Youth and romance:
Community and networking:
Apps and mobile content:
Educational school media:
Non-western and transnational queer youth:
Children’s literature and the Media:

Case studies (as a very brief example) could include:

The It Gets Better Project and online anti bullying projects
The ‘Gay Cure’ App, and online Christian Evangelist gay conversion sites
'Glee' (Fox, 2009-) and LGBT Youth Drama on TV
'Sugar Rush' (Channel 4, 2004) and Lesbian youth identity
'The Teletubbies' (BBC, 1997-2004) and childhood challenges of gender
'Beautiful Thing' (Hettie MccDonald, 1996) and Gay youth romance in British Film
'Mysterious Skin' (Gregg Araki, 2004) and queer youth sexuality
'Age 8 and Wanting a Sex Change' (Channel 4, 2009)

Please send abstracts (of 200 words length) and a biography by the 30th of September 2012 to Chris (cpullen@bournemouth.ac.uk). Essays will need to be original texts, and cannot have been published elsewhere – unless you own the copyright, and are free to publish. The ultimate essay will need to be completed by July 2013. If you have any questions please ask.

About the Editor: Christopher Pullen is Senior Lecturer in Media Theory at Bournemouth University, UK. His major works include ‘Gay Identity, New Storytelling and the Media’ (revised edition, Palgrave - 2012), ‘LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media’ (editor, Palgrave - 2012), ‘LGBT Identity and Online New Media’ (co-editor, Routledge -2010) and ‘Documenting Gay Men: Identity and Performance in Reality Television and Documentary Film (McFarland - 2007).