The Women in Supernatural: Critical Essays

Under consideration with McFarland & Company

Editors:

Susan Nylander, Barstow College

Mandy Taylor, California State University, San Bernardino

Project Overview 

Editors Nylander and Taylor seek original essays for an edited collection exploring the women of the television show Supernatural through a variety of lenses and perspectives. These perspectives include but are not limited to gender roles, specific female character studies, the female fan gaze, LGBTQ+ issues, Wayward Sisters, postcolonial, feminist, and class. We also welcome explorations of the work of the women behind the camera: writers, directors, and showrunners, etc. 

Our goal is to bring the women of Supernatural into the forefront, not only giving them the attention they deserve, but also potentially highlighting lingering issues of representation in television and media. 

Chapters in the proposed collection can focus on one or more of the following categories as related to the series:

• Specific female characters, writers, directors, showrunners

• Fan studies/Fan labor 

• Actors’ charitable work (Stands campaigns, etc.)

• Portrayal and treatment of women in the series

• Usefulness/Use to/In opposition to the boys

• Power struggles/hierarchy/Patriarchy 

• Gender studies/Roles

• Domesticity 

• Virgin/Whore Binary

• Women as hunters

• Women’s roles in mythology/myth making

• Other perspectives on the women of Supernatural will also be considered. 

Editors Nylander and Taylor previously published a collection Death in Supernatural: Critical Essays with McFarland & Company in 2019.

Abstract Due Dates 

Preference will be given to abstracts received on or before June 30, 2022. Abstracts should be no longer than 500 words and should include a 1-2 page CV. 

Final manuscripts of 6,000-8,000 words should be submitted in MLA style (8th edition) by February 28, 2023. 

Send abstracts and questions to Susan and Mandy at womeninsupernatural@gmail.com