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Call For Papers - Edited Collection
 
Cylons in America:
Critical Studies of Battlestar Galactica

Edited by C. W. Marshall and Tiffany Potter
(University of British Columbia)

Proposals are invited for an edited collection of original essays that examine BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, an award-winning science fiction television series presently in its third season. Since its debut as a 2003 miniseries, the current incarnation of BSG has created an intellectually challenging and explicitly political engagement with the values and ideologies of contemporary American society.

The volume will be published by Continuum
<http://www.continuumbooks.com>.
The editors seek contributors who will examine BSG from a variety of critical, theoretical, and cultural perspectives. This collection will be aimed at both academic readers and an educated general audience. We seek essays that are both scholarly and engaging.

BSG depicts the remnants of the human race fleeing across space from a robotic enemy, the Cylons. The refugee fleet, protected by a single warship, is searching for a lost colony that settled on the legendary planet 'Earth.' Originally a television series in the 1970s, the present series maintains the mythic sense established with the earlier quest narrative, but adds elements of 'hard' science fiction and an aggressive engagement with post-9/11 American politics.

The following is a list of topics that contributors might explore, though we invite proposals from any disciplinary perspective, on any aspect of the series and its reception:

-the Cylons as a race, as technology, as sexualized beings, and Cylon/human interaction
-the presentation of religion, allusion to the Book of Mormon and the Bible, syncretism, scriptural authority, and the role of religion in a secular state
-representations of science, technology, and scientific ethics
-issues of hierarchy and hegemony
-issues of colonialism, nation, and patriotism
-sex and gender identity
-representations of identity: masculinity, femininity, mixed ethnicities and hybridity
-examination of topical issues such as genetic testing, state obligations to the poor, the authority of the presidency, penal policy and rehabilitation, reproductive technologies, public perceptions of science and the military, and the motivations for terrorism
-visions, prophecy, and the psychological imagination
-allusion to classical mythology
-use of music, editing, and special effects
-embodiment of genre, and the use of science fiction convention
-adaptation of elements from the original 1978 series
-the relationship of specific episodes to larger story arcs, and how the episodic structure creates an evolving sense of canon
-comics, action figures, card games, and other para-literary representations
-intersections between the commercial interests of producers, the artistic agendas of creators, the enthusiasms of the developing fan base, and the economic pressures of serial television

Please send a 500-word abstract or completed essay (4,000-6,000 words), plus a brief biographical statement (or c.v.), as e-mail attachments (in Word or as a Rich Text File) to both of the editors:
 
Tiffany Potter (tpotter_at_interchange.ubc.ca)
C.W. Marshall (toph_at_interchange.ubc.ca)
 
Deadline for abstract submission: January 29, 2007.

If your proposal is chosen for consideration, you will have until June 2007 for final submission, in order to allow full consideration of Season Three.

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Received on Fri Nov 10 2006 - 18:14:53 EST