Summer Call for Curators
In Media Res

In Media Res is currently seeking theme-week curators for the period of July 5, 2010 through September 17, 2010. Please forward this CFC to anyone you think might be interested in taking part.

In Media Res, a website devoted to experimenting in collaborative, multi-modal online forms of scholarship, asks contributors to curate a 30-second to 3-minute clip accompanied by a 300 to 350-word impressionistic provocation. Descriptions of the planned theme-weeks included below are meant as a guide only—individual contributors have wide berth for their own creativity and interests.

July 5-9 Sports and Media: The World Cup, Wimbledon, baseball, and the 100-year anniversary of the Jack Johnson v. Jim Jeffries fight all occur at the beginning of July. Topics could include sports events listed above, other national and international sporting events, sports culture and journalism, gender in sports, sports fans, etc.

July 12-16 Summer TV Season: We encourage submissions on a range of topics about Summer TV including, but not limited to, a discussion of an individual summer show or event (made for TV movies, miniseries, etc.); a look at historical moments in the development of the summer television season; the network adoption of a summer season; or the use of marketing and branding with summer programming.

August 2-6 Lady Gaga's gender/queerness. Leading up to her performance at Lollapalooza, consider Lady Gaga's media performances and popularity with attention to her gendered and/or queer style or aesthetic. Topics could include: Filming the femme fatale; (s)experimental avant-garde styles; queer monstrosity; feminist figurations for embodied media forms or formats; strange mediations drawing "gay gays" to Gaga; etc.

August 9-13 Action Films: To correspond with the upcoming release of Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables (8/13/2010), address the current state of the action film and its displays of masculinity. Examples of topics might include: hardbody nostalgia (political, cultural, etc.); presentations of the body; contemporary action genres; global circulation of action films; technology; bodies, action sequences, and CGI; and stardom in contemporary Hollywood.

August 16-20 Wrestling: To coincide with the WWE's (World Wrestling Entertainment) annual SummerSlam pay-per-view event, address the contemporary landscape and state of professional wrestling. Examples of topics range from: an assessment of the wrestling industry that is dominated by Vince McMahon's WWE; an evaluation of the genre, including changes over time, region, and promoter/company; wrestling audiences; and the role of professional wrestling in contemporary culture.

August 23-27 Regulation: Address a recent regulatory or policy debate, such as the Comcast-NBCU merger, network neutrality, the Future of Media Initiative, etc. Examples of a video prompt might include a clip of news coverage, a video by an activist group, a comic commentary, and clips of protestors, etc.

August 30- Sept 3 Children's Culture: In anticipation of the new school year, consider the current state of children's culture, including either children's media (film, TV, games, and web-based texts) or media representations of children. Topics may include Hollywood's summer film releases, the current state of children's television such as the products of Disney or the Children's Television Workshop, marketing materials from the "back to school" season, or the economics of children's media more broadly.

Sept 6-10 Dragon*Con: We are looking for a variety of topics relating to Dragon*Con - one of the largest science fiction and fantasy conventions in the United States. Examples of potential topics include acts of fan-production/fandom (fan films, fan fiction, costume creation, prop creation, collecting licensed and fan-produced merchandise, etc.); role-playing; fan clubs; star studies/the fetish of the celebrity; the globalization of media; genre hybridity; etc.

Sept 13-17 Film Festivals: As the Toronto International Film Festival completes this week, we invite contributions about this and other film festivals. Possible topics include defining film festival studies or the film canon, the film festival and nationalism, the festival and transnational flows, cinephilia, the audience, or the festival and the archive, among others.

Propose a future theme week or submit for an open call week: We welcome suggestions for future theme weeks. You may also submit on a topic of your choice for an open call week.

All correspondence can be sent to the editors of In Media Res at inmediares.gsu@gmail.com. Be sure to include the name of the theme week you would like to be involved with in the subject line of the email. Proposals need not be any longer than a sentence or a general idea. Additional guidelines will be provided upon receipt of your proposal. If you are proposing a future theme week or wish to submit for an open call week, please note this in the subject line as well.

If you have not yet had the opportunity to check out IMR, please do so at:
http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/imr/.