Special issue: Race and Ethnicity in Fandom (Summer 2011)
http://journal.transformativeworks.org/
editor AT transformativeworks.org
SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS
Sarah Gatson (Gatson AT tamu.edu), Sociology, Texas A&M University,
http://sociweb.tamu.edu/faculty.php?faculty_id=12
(Gatson /at/ tamu.edu)
Robin Reid (Robin_Reid AT tamu-commerce.edu), Literature and
Languages, Texas A&M University-Commerce,
http://www.tamu-commerce.edu/litlang/reid.asp?menuName=people&pageName=f
aculty
(Robin_Reid /at/ tamu-commerce.edu)
Please feel free to forward to other listservs, individuals, and to post
online!
DESCRIPTION
_Transformative Works and Cultures_ (TWC), an online-only,
peer-reviewed journal focusing on media and fan studies, broadly
conceived, invites contributions for a special issue on race and
ethnicity to be published in summer 2011.
Academic scholarship on fan cultures and fan productions over the past
few decades has focused primarily on gender as the sole category of
analysis. There has been little published scholarship on fan cultures
and productions that incorporates critical race theory or draws on the
rich array of methodologies that have been developed during the past
century in both activist and academic communities in order to
incorporate analysis of the social constructions of race and
ethnicities in fandoms.
In contrast, fan activism and fan scholarship (at cons, workshops, and
on the Internet) has produced a growing body of work (personal
narratives, essays, carnivals, and in recent months, a press) focusing
on not only analyzing but also confronting hierarchies of race and
ethnicity and their relationship to gender, sexuality, class, and
disability. Submissions by academics, acafans, fan scholars, and fans
are encouraged. In all categories, people of color are especially
encouraged to submit.
Topics might include but are not limited to:
*Online activism and the circulation of critical race theory and women
of color feminisms in fan communities, in particular the relationship
between fan online discourse and other online activist communities.
*Critical analysis of the instantiation and critique of racial
hierarchies in fan communities and the surrounding cultural
productions.
*Racist and antiracist issues in commercial transformative works
(comics, film, mashups, remixes, machinima, etc.), especially
recuperative race readings (e.g., Randall's _The Wind Done Gone,_
Rhys's _Wide Sargasso Sea_).
*Race concerns in source texts (characters of color and their fannish
reception, fandoms for work by authors of color, writing fannish
original characters, etc.) and fannish responses (such as the Carl
Brandon Society, Verb Noire, and other panfannish and professional
projects).
*Intersection of race and ethnicity with gender, sexuality, class, and
ability in fannish contexts in fan works and fan communities
(pre-Internet, Internet, conventions, vids, fan fiction, artwork,
etc.).
SUBMISSIONS
Submit final papers directly to TWC by October 1, 2010. Please visit
TWC's Web site (http://journal.transformativeworks.org/) for complete
submission guidelines. Please contact the guest editors with questions
or inquiries.
ARTICLE TYPES
Theory: Apply a conceptual focus or theoretical frame. Peer review.
5,000-8,000 words.
Praxis: Apply a specific theory to a formation or artifact; explicate
fan practice; perform a detailed reading of a specific text; relate
transformative phenomena to social, literary, technological, and/or
historical frameworks. Peer review. 4,000-7,000 words.
Symposium: Provide insight into developments or debates surrounding
fandom, transformative media, or cultures. Editorial review.
1,500-2,500 words.
