fan studies and fandom

As a sport, basketball follows a certain set of rules and conventions which serve as a framework for players, coaches, and teams to play the sport. By their very nature, these rules are meritocratic which means that all participants are equal on the court, play by the same rules, and the only relevant (read as: game deciding) factors are effort, skill, and fortune. Such a perspective on basketball and sports leads certain fans and observers to statements such as “politics should be kept out of sports”.

The call for papers for the next issue of the Australasian Journal of Popular Culture (Issue 11.1-2), on the general theme of 'narrative and identity', is now open.

Article submissions on any aspect of the theme are encouraged. The Issue's Editors particulalry invite articles on the following topics:

- self-representation on social media
- representations of disability and neurodiversity in popular culture
- re-inventions of genre and viewership/readership in popular culture
- alternative realities and modes of storytelling in (video) games
- online fandoms and identity
- popular icons

Call for Submissions

Here for the Right Reasons: The Bachelor at Twenty

On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the premiere of The Bachelor (March 22, 2002), we seek submissions of abstracts for articles for a Contemporaries cluster devoted to the franchise. Since its premiere, the show has spawned a legion of spinoffs (The Bachelorette, Bachelor Pad, Bachelor in Paradise, Winter Games) as well as imitators and fictionalizations (Love Island, FBOY Island, UnREAL). The franchise also comprises a prodigious fanbase known as Bachelor Nation that encompasses a cottage industry of influencers, podcasters, and recappers.

This edited collection seeks to examine the intersections between two significant media systems: stardom and the franchise. It will explore the convergences, tensions and inter-dependences that star-driven texts and franchise cultures have constantly negotiated within the entertainment industry, on a global, historical and multiplatform scale. It aims to analyse franchise sites and strategies as significant nexus where an understanding of stars is created, managed and interpreted, and to analyse the place and value of the star to media franchise production.

Call For Interest

Chapters on Guerrilla Games Horizon series

Please distribute widely

This call is to assess interest in scholarly contributions for an edited volume on the

Horizon franchise. Released in February 2022 Horizon Forbidden West became an immediate

best-seller and with Zero Dawn is now part of one of PlayStation’s strongest new intellectual

properties.

This call is to assess whether there would be enough scholars interested to doing a chapter for an

edited volume on the franchise. Attention to the games, comics, board game, marketing, and all

We are delighted to announce that the Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya at the Universitat de València and the Institut Interuniversitari de Llengües Modernes Aplicades de la Comunitat Valenciana (IULMA) will be hosting, on the 19th-21st of October 2022 in Valencia, Spain, the II International Conference on Discourses of Fictional (Digital) TV Series.

This second edition will focus on the representations of Gender and Social Inequality in fictional DTVS narratives and discourses.

• Deadline for proposals: 30 June 2022
• Notification of Acceptance: by 15 July 2022
• Deadline for chapters: 15 December 2022

Audiovisual content has expanded into new ways of production, distribution, and screening enabled by the evolution of technology and the advent of new media. Apart from giving new life to older audiovisual works by making them accessible to the wide public through an alternative way of consumption, streaming platforms are producing original content that is meant to be consumed exclusively via online means.

We invite manuscripts of scholarly articles (4000-6000 words) on any of the following: Bram Stoker, the novel Dracula, the historical Dracula, the vampire in folklore, fiction, film, popular culture, and related topics.
Submissions should be sent electronically (as an e-mail attachment in .docx). Please indicate the title of your submission in the subject line of your e-mail.
Please follow MLA style.
Contributors are responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions and ensuring observance of copyright.
Manuscripts will be peer-reviewed independently by at least two scholars in the field.
Copyright for published articles remains with the author.

Newsies, both as a film in 1992 and a Broadway show in 2012, has been a sleeper hit for all of its existence. Disney wrote the film off as a failure when it took roughly $15 million to make and only grossed $2.8 million – and yet, the film found a wide, willing, and devoted audience through VHS rentals and Disney Channel showings. The Newsies Broadway show was originally intended to be a licensed adaptation for high schools and colleges - and yet, the built-in audience was so eager for a Broadway adaptation that Disney Theatrical Productions decided to make the gamble.

The global pandemic and long periods of self-quarantine shifted everything from work habits, to school, to media consumption, and more.

For example, the game Animal Crossing: New Horizons brought families together and even provided a supportive space for on-line memorial services.

Zoom parties became a new way of coming together, as did streaming watch parties.

Call for Submissions

Multiverse Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention

Event Date & Location: October 14-October 16, 2022, Westin Atlanta Perimeter North, 7 Concourse Parkway in Sandy Springs
Deadline for Submissions: June 30, 2022
Name of Organization: Multiverse Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention
Organization Website: https://www.multiversecon.org
Contact Email: Rhonda Jackson Joseph, Learn@Multiversecon.org

CONVENTION THEME:

Multiverse Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention

Event Date & Location: October 15-17, 2021, Westin Atlanta Perimeter North

Deadline for Submissions: June 30, 2021

Name of Organization: Multiverse Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention

Organization Website: https://www.multiversecon.org

Contact Email: Rhonda Jackson Joseph,Learn@Multiversecon.org

CONVENTION THEME:

Call for Papers: Ghostbusters – A Companion

PAMLA's Comics and Graphic Narratives panel seeks papers dealing with comics and other graphic narratives for it's annual in-person conference, which will convene at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) between Friday, November 11 and Sunday, November 13, 2022. 

All papers dealing with comics and graphic narratives will be considered. Papers utilizing media specific analysis, and papers with a strong connection to this year's theme ("Geographies of the Fantastic and Quotidian") are highly encouraged. A visual component to the paper/presentation is also encouraged.