fan studies and fandom

Although Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman wanted his show to be educational and avoid so-called “bug-eyed monsters,” the popularity of the Daleks in the second serial ensured that it would be better known for scaring kids into hiding behind the sofa.  Adaptable as the science-fiction program is to fit a variety of other genres (e.g. the Western, screwball comedy, romance, period drama), horror dominates its cultural memory and ongoing practice.  While there have been some critical essays over the years examining this aspect of the show, no book has been devoted to a more sustained examination of the generic work of horror in Doctor Who.  This edited collection will remedy that absence.

Dear All,

My Colleagues and I at the University of East Anglia are putting together a special edition of Loading… journal on the Kingdom Hearts franchise as a transmedia phenomenon. The issue is based on an expansion of papers we gave at a panel at the DiGRA conference at Ritsumeikan university in Kyoto last year. But we are looking for additional articles to complement those we already have in order to attempt to address as wide a group of topics as possible through the lens of this important franchise. Our ambition is that this could become an important repository of research and theorising on this game series and the topic of transmedia production and fandom.

I’ll paste the CFP below but the link is here also:

Third Stone Journal is accepting submissions of art, music, creative writing, short films, scholarship, digital content, and more on Afrofuturism, African-futurism, and the Black fantastic as explored both inside and outside of the borders of the United States. The call is for the Spring 2021 publication. The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2020. For inquiries, please contact the editorial staff of Third Stone Journal at 3rdstonejournal@gmail.com. Note that all work should be submitted via the submission portal at https://scholarworks.rit.edu/thirdstone/.

Please visit https://www.unlv.edu/english/popular-culture-review for full submission guidelines. Email Associate Editor Dr. Amy M. Green at popularculturerevieweditor@gmail.com with questions.

Submissions wanted for Popular Culture Review’s forthcoming Special Issue.

Open Call for Papers, Issue 5.2 Winter 2020

CFP: Celebrity Studies Special Edition, “CHILDREN AND CELEBRITIES.” Deadline: August 7, 2020.

The entertainment industries create the most widely circulated popular images of children and childhood, and yet the role of children in celebrity studies warrants further study. As John Mercer and Jane O’Connor (2017) point out, the intersection between Childhood Studies and Celebrity Studies has been gaining traction in recent years, highlighting a tension between the dominant discourses of innocence surrounding children, and the highly competitive commercial imperatives of celebrity culture.

 Call for Papers

Fan Studies Network North America Virtual Conference 2020

October 13-17, 2020

For this year, we have decided to host the virtual-only Fan Studies Network North America over five days in October to encourage participation and access, and to limit Zoom mental overload. The conference will combine synchronous and asynchronous conversations. Rather than traditional papers, we will have virtual workshops, salons, and posters.

Roll for Initiative: Writing Dungeons & Dragons

            We seek submissions in the genres of the essay (creative nonfiction or critical/theoretical), poetry, and the interview for an anthology that will take a literary perspective to examine all aspects of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).

We would like to invite you to submit abstracts to the panel Gaming Across Borders: Cross-cultural Analysis of Video Game Play and Narrative, to be held at the 52nd Annual Northeast MLA Conference in Philadelphia, PA on March 11-14, 2021. Please contact Ted Harrison with any questions at tdh70@georgetown.edu.

We are pleased to announce our next essay-writing competition. The award is open to all post-graduate research students and to all early career researchers (up to five years after the completion of your PhD) who have yet to find a full-time or tenured position. The prize is guaranteed publication in Foundation (summer 2021).

Sport and the Power to Inspire Change: A Global Virtual Symposium

with Danny Crates, Phil Davies, Derek Peaple and Karl Spracklen

Tuesday 21st July 2020 - Wednesday 22nd July 2020

‘Sport’, as Mandela famously observed, ‘has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.’

Introducing Whatever

Call for Papers for a proposed edited collection tentatively titled “Idols: Pop Culture Icons as Brand Ambassadors for Fashion and Cosmetics in China” to be edited by Amanda Sikarskie, Ph.D., University of Michigan.

In China, popular culture idols are vital to the luxury fashion and cosmetics industry as brand ambassadors. This volume hopes to fill a critical gap in the English-language literature on this subject, bringing together authors from China, the United States, and around the world.

Fans demonstrate a broad interest in the past, both of their objects of fandom and their own communities. They collect, catalog, preserve, restore, and publicly display historical artifacts and information in their own archives and museums. They study archival materials and collections, interview witnesses, and read historical scholarship, developing historical narratives and theses. Their research materializes in the form of analog and digital nonfiction media such as print and online publications, documentaries, podcasts, video tutorials, and pedagogical initiatives. Through their work, fans historicize their own fandom and tie it into broader historical questions, connecting to issues like heritage, gender, and the nation.