[ecrea] Call for Proposals: "Queer Media" in Teaching Media Quarterly 3(2): Winter 2014

"Queer
Media" in Teaching
Media
Quarterly
3(2):
Winter 2014

Call
for Proposals: Deadline Jan. 5, 2015

In
recent years, a number of television shows have had central characters
who are queer, such as Mitchell and Cameron on ABC’s Modern
Family,
Emily on ABC Family’s Pretty
Little Liars,
Lauren and Amy on MTV’s Faking
It,
and Kurt, Blaine and Unique on Fox’s Glee.
In addition, recent attention has been paid to straight showrunners’
creation of queer characters, like Jill Soloway of Amazon’s Transparent
and
Jenji Kohan of Netflix’s Orange
is the New Black.
Out gay and lesbian showrunners are also garnering popular attention,
such as Ryan Murphy, Peter Paige, Marlene King, Caroline Dries, and
Carter Covington. Although the recent attention paid to queerness has
scholarly appeal, there are still few teaching resources available for
talking about queer television. Recent attention paid to televised
queerness is not new, but is instead a continuation of the trend
started in the 1990s that marked the increase of gay and lesbian
visibility with the emergence of a queer market. Representations of
queerness are abundant and significant for how we understand questions
of identity, made more complex by the intersecting notions of class,
race, gender, and nation, among others. With more niche media spaces
available than years past, including LGBTQ-themed film festivals,
television channels such as LOGO and Here TV, and diverse modes of
distribution and consumption, such as streaming sites and web series,
queer characters, actors, showrunners and producers have claimed a
notable space in the entertainment industry. At the same time, the US
has seen landmark shifts in cultural attitudes and (particular) legal
rights for queer people.

Teaching
Media Quarterly seeks
materials to be used in the classroom that critically investigate the
intersection of queerness and television. Queerness
is defined broadly here. It includes groups like transgender, bisexual,
two-spirit, intersex, questioning and marginalized groups distinct from
mainstream heteronormative culture. Particularly,
we are interested in lessons that address the following:

*

How
do questions of race, class, gender, sexuality, place, and national
identity emerge in media narratives that center queer identities?
*

What
is the relationship between queer lives as seen in media, and politics?
*

How
do representations of queer lives in media speak to struggles over
competing political, economic, and media imperatives?
*

How
has convergence shifted distribution, industry practices, and/or
reception of queerness in media?
*

How
have queer media from the past shaped and informed today’s queer media?
*

How
do the tensions between mainstream LGBT identities and queer identities
manifest in media?
*

How
do identity discourses and claims to authenticity play a role in the
celebrity buzz surrounding queer shows?



Teaching
Media Quarterly Submission
Guidelines & Review Policy

Teaching
Media Quarterly seeks innovative assignments and lessons that can be
used to critically engage with the topic of queer media for use in
undergraduate classrooms. All submissions must include: 1) a title, 2)
an overview and comprehensive rationale (using accessible language
explain the purpose of the assignment(s) and define key terms) (250-500
words), 3) a general timeline, 4) a detailed lesson plan and assignment
instructions, 5) teaching materials (handouts, rubrics, discussion
prompts, viewing guides, etc.), 6) a full bibliography of readings,
links, and/or media examples, and 7) a short biography (100-150 words).

Please
email all submissions in ONE Microsoft Word document to

(teachingmedia.contact /at/ gmail.com).

SUBMISSION
DEADLINE: January 5, 2015

Submissions
will be reviewed by each member of the editorial board. Editors will
make acceptance decisions based on their vision for the issue and an
assessment of contributions. It is the goal of Teaching Media Quarterly
to notify submitters of the editors' decisions within two weeks of
submission receipt.

Teaching
Media Quarterly is dedicated to circulating practical and timely
approaches to media concepts and topics from a variety of disciplinary
and methodological perspectives. Our goal is to promote collaborative
exchange of undergraduate teaching resources between media educators at
higher education institutions. As we hope for continuing discussions
and exchange as well as contributions to Teaching Media Quarterly we
encourage you to visit our website at
http://www.teachingmedia.org/

Best,

Teaching
Media Quarterly editorial board

L.
Elias

J.
Hamilton

E.
D. Hristova

R.
Jurisz

H.
Zimmerman

University
of Minnesota



--
Heidi Zimmerman
Critical Media Studies
Department of Communication Studies
University of Minnesota

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