[ecrea] Call for Chapters: "RuPaul's Drag Race"

Call for Chapters -- “RuPaul’s Drag Race”: Shifting the Visibility of
Drag Culture and the Boundaries of Reality TV

Abstract Deadline: 30 November 2015

Accepted Chapters Due: 1 February 2016

/Please circulate/

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” (RPDR), the reality/competition-based TV program in
which drag queens vie to become “America’s next drag superstar,” will
soon be entering its eighth season. Since its debut in 2009, RPDR has
transformed the visibility of drag culture in the US and
internationally. Once relegated to gay subculture, drag now forms an
integral aspect of LGBT experience and identity, due in part to RPDR’s
success. RPDR has also helped elevate drag to a profession and art form,
no longer the exclusive purview of the gay club scene. Concurrently,
RPDR’s success connects with shifting public conceptions of gender and
sexuality, both in the US and internationally. Not only has RPDR helped
to dispel conflating drag with transvestitism or “cross-dressing,” it
also follows a growing dialogue about the visibility and acceptance of
gender fluidity and nonconformity.

As a media text, RPDR plays with reality/competition TV in significant
ways. While the program parodies the tropes and narratives that
predictably characterize the genre, RPDR also invokes its essential
elements of confrontation, challenge, victory and defeat. As host and
producer, RuPaul Charles also unabashedly uses RPDR as a platform for
promoting his music and line of footwear, as well as other commercial
products for which RuPaul has acted as spokesperson. Additionally,
through both the program’s judges and sponsors, RPDR makes no attempts
to conceal the links between drag culture and consumerism in a manner
that contrasts the cunning product placement in most reality TV.

We are interested in contributions that not only address the textual,
production and audience/reception dimensions of the program, but that
also situate drag culture, gender non-conformity and performativity in a
broader social, cultural and political landscape. In particular, we
invite contributions that look at RPDR and drag culture from an
international, that is, a non-US, perspective. We are open to various
methodological and theoretical approaches to the topic. Contributions
that fall outside of more traditional academic approaches are also
welcomed. We have initial interest from a publisher.

For consideration, please submit an abstract (up to 750 words) outlining
the theoretical, methodological and/or empirical contributions of your
work to the volume. Please also submit a brief 150-word biographical
note on the author(s). The deadline for submitting abstracts is 30
November 2015. Upon acceptance, full chapters should be no more than
8,000 words in length (including references), and are due 1 February 2016.

Abstracts should be sent to both Dr. Niall Brennan
((niallpbrennan /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(niallpbrennan /at/ gmail.com)>) and Dr. David
Gudelunas ((dgudelunas /at/ fairfield.edu) <mailto:(dgudelunas /at/ fairfield.edu)>).




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