[ecrea] Call for chapter proposals: Indian Animated Media

Proposals are invited for chapters in a new edited collection on the 
topic of ‘Indian Animated Media and Culture.’

Indian animation has transformed dramatically over the last twenty-five 
years. No longer a cottage industry or government-funded communication 
enterprise, a diverse globally-engaged production sector has emerged. 
Large Indian studios have built global reputations securing animation 
and visual effects production contracts, while other artists and firms 
have made strides in original content for local television and film 
festival audiences. While outsourcing still represents a majority of 
entertainment output, work-for-hire contracts have slowly given way to 
co-production. International brands have also set up shop in India, from 
multinational distributors like Disney XD or AT&T’s Cartoon Network, to 
producers like Technicolor and Ubisoft. In striking contrast to these 
developments, artisanal and even explicitly non-commercial animation 
continues to be produced, and in some cases thrive.

There are also persistent challenges. Industry growth has rarely met 
predicted targets. The domestic animated features many thought would 
drive expansion have largely failed to materialize, as outsourcing to 
other Asian nations has increased television competition as well. 
Bankruptcies at both local and international firms have shaken investors 
while a not-yet-united animation community has struggled to secure 
policy recognition apart from the dominant Hindi-language cinema and 
Information Technology (IT) sectors. However, taking an expanded view of 
animation to incorporate related areas - visual effects, games, comics, 
fine art, educational, and industrial visualization - shows both a more 
complex and optimistic picture - from growing Indian investment in 
global visual effects to children’s animation workshops in rural 
Adivasi communities.

Both the successes and challenges of Indian animation have largely 
escaped attention from audiences, critics, and scholars alike. While a 
growing body of scholarship draws global critical attention to the 
cultural practice of Indian - and especially Hindi - cinema, animation 
remains for the most part missing from these accounts. This volume aims 
to fill this glaring gap by addressing a range of expanded animation 
practices in India, as well as their social, economic, and political 
impacts.


Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

  * Case studies of diverse active and historical animators in cultural
    context
  * Regional industry clusters: relationships with live-action cinemas
  * Television animation: from Doordarshan to multinational networks
  * Animation, Information Technology (IT), and global visual effects
  * Globalization: the 1991 New Economic Policy, outsourcing, and
    co-production
  * Government animation: Films Division and the Cartoon Film Unit
  * Education and training: from Clair Weeks, Charles and Ray Eames and
    the National Institute of Design (NID) to the Media and
    Entertainment Skills Council (MESC)
  * Fine art, documentary, and avant-garde animation
  * Animation and the sacred
  * Adivasi animation: animation by, for, and about indigenous communities
  * Animation and emerging media: Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR)
  * Women in animation, animation and identity: from caste to LGBTQ rights
  * Applied/Industrial animation
  * India and her neighbors/the South Asian diaspora
  * The status of animation studies itself in India

Proposals for chapters (7000-8000 words) in this edited collection 
should include a chapter title, a brief abstract (400 words), and 
academic biography (100 words). These should be sent to the editor Dr. 
Timothy Jones ((jonest /at/ rmu.edu)) before 25th January 2019.



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