[Commlist] Call for Submissions: Porn and Its Uses, Synoptique 9.2

*Call for Submissions: Porn and Its Uses*
*Special Issue of/Synoptique: An Online Journal of Film and Moving Image 
Studies/**//*
*apologies for cross posting*

French version on _synoptique.ca <http://synoptique.ca/>_

/Synoptique /is inviting submissions for an upcoming special issue 
entitled “Porn and Its Uses.” Responding to the genre’s marginal status 
in the academy and beyond, this special issue seeks to explore how 
pornography can be (re)framed as useful—pedagogically, politically, 
aesthetically, and libidinally. Broadly framed, this may refer to 
pornography as both a difficult object of interest and as a method for 
critically analyzing the most pressing questions in our current moment.
Pioneering explorations of the genre within academia have treated 
pornography as a vibrant cinematic institution (Lesage, “Women and 
Pornography,” 1981), an oppositional grass-roots practice (Waugh, “Men’s 
Pornography, Gay vs. Straight,” 1985) and an instrument to gauge the 
organization of pleasure and control (Linda Williams,/Hard Core/, 1989). 
In 1996, an issue of/Jump Cut /dedicated a special section to the study 
of pornography. This seminal publication, edited by Chuck Kleinhans, 
curated articles, conference reports and even a sample syllabus in order 
to reframe the genre as a tool for analyzing issues of censorship, 
national cultures, gender and race. This issue of/Synoptique /seeks to 
recapture that intellectual impulse in the wake of recent academic 
forays that have placed pornography in the context of labour (Heather 
Berg), affect (Susanna Paasonen) and critical race studies (Mireille 
Miller-Young), among others.
The theme of this special issue cheekily gestures towards the 
serviceability of the genre beyond (but certainly not excluding) the 
happy ending broadly associated with porn. The titular “uses” of 
pornography expand on a key intervention from Haidee Wasson and Charles 
Acland’s introduction to/Useful Cinema /to ask how porn, broadly 
defined, maintains the “ability to transform unlikely spaces, convey 
ideas, convince individuals, and produce subjects in the service of 
public and private aims” (Acland and Wasson 2011, 2). As porn studies 
proliferates across numerous monographs and edited collections, 
university curricula, international conferences, podcasts, a dedicated 
scholarly journal and more, we are interested in porn’s usefulness while 
at the same time complicating and questioning the impetus to 
instrumentalize knowledge. How do we continue to shape a field that 
embraces knowledge traditionally deemed intellectually and morally 
suspect while responding to the porn industry’s political and economic 
stakes?
Under this broad inquiry, and abiding by the journal’s mandate to 
challenge traditional paradigms in media scholarship and publication, we 
are inviting scholars and practitioners alike to submit academic and 
creative pieces that testify to porn’s usefulness. In order for the 
journal to include the widest spectrum of voices possible, including 
those implicated in the industry, the editorial team will, under 
request, publish material anonymously or pseudonymously.
We are inviting submissions from scholars of all disciplines, on topics 
such as (but not limited to):

  * pornography as visual, textual, and auditory genres
  * historical approaches to pornography
  * porn studies as academic field: methods, frameworks, ethics
  * porn and/as pedagogy, in and out of the classroom
  * porn studies and postcolonial and/or critical race theory
  * porn as site of feminist, queer and trans interventions
  * archives and material cultures of pornography
  * pornification and the mainstreaming of pornography
  * porn in the context of celebrity studies
  * pornography’s audiences and fan cultures
  * pornography's digital cultures and economies
  * porn and sex work in legislative contexts
  * anti-pornography discourses

Essays submitted for peer review should be approximately 5,500-7,500 
words and must conform to the Chicago author-date style (17th ed.). All 
images must be accompanied by photo credits and captions.

We also warmly invite submissions to the review section, including 
conference or exhibition reports, book reviews, film festival reports, 
thought pieces and interviews related to the aforementioned topics. All 
non-peer reviewed articles should be a maximum of 2,500 words and 
include a bibliography following Chicago author-date style (17th ed.).

Creative works and interventions in the forms of digital video, still 
imagery, creative writing, and other multimedia forms are also welcome. 
These works will be hosted or embedded on the Synoptique website, and/or 
otherwise linked to in the PDF version of the journal. Please do not 
hesitate to contact us should you have any questions regarding your 
submission ideas for the non-peer reviewed section.

All submissions may be written in either French or English.

Please submit completed essays or reports to the Editorial Collective 
((editor.synoptique /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(editor.synoptique /at/ gmail.com)>_) _and 
the issue guest editors Rebecca Holt ((reba.s.holt /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(reba.s.holt /at/ gmail.com)>), Darshana Sreedhar Mini ((mini /at/ usc.edu) 
<mailto:(mini /at/ usc.edu)>), and Nikola Stepić ((nikola.stepic /at/ concordia.ca) 
<mailto:(nikola.stepic /at/ concordia.ca)>) by April 30th. We will send 
notifications of acceptance by May 31st.

/Synoptique: An Online Journal of Film and Moving Image Studies/
www.synoptique.ca <http://www.synoptique.ca/>
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