[UPDATE] Essay Collection Studying the Film "Mean Girls"

full name / name of organization: 
Rice University, English Department
contact email: 

[UPDATE] Also accepting first-drafts and detailed abstracts by September 1st.

Get in loser, we're calling for papers.

Mean Girls was released in 2004, and it launched its stars' careers and entertained people from every generation. Ever since, girls are all the rage in movies and television shows. From Mean Girls and Bridesmaids, to "New Girl," "Girls,"Two Broke Girls" and countless other films and shows about girls, one thing about girls is clear: they're fetch, they're grool, and they're in.

We are calling for work to include in a collection of essays that discusses and explores the way the topic of Mean Girls reflects, instructs, and entertains, what audiences it addresses, and what it might say about contemporary culture. Who's mean enough, who's girl enough, who's watching to figure it all out? But don't let us stop you there. Mean Girls is rife with topics that have yet to be explored academically. Essays could treat any aspect of Mean Girls; view it as film text or genre, as a cultural icon, as part of girl culture, as a new twist to the high school movie genre, or potentially explain what secrets Gretchen Weiner's hair really is hiding.

If any of this sounds as appetizing as a Caltine Bar, go ahead and send us an essay. It's kind of like making a confession...except we tell everybody about it afterwards. 6000-8000 words by Monday, September 1st to meangirlscfp@gmail.com. Go ahead. You can do it. Because you're not a regular writer, you're a cool writer.

Rice University's John Breen, Doha Aboul-Fotouh, and Mya Wilkes are the editors of this collection and will be happy to respond to questions at meangirlscfp@gmail.com.