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

***DEADLINE EXTENDED to _June 1__st_***

Call for Submissions: “Porn and Its Uses,” Special Issue of ​Synoptique: 
An Online Journal of Film and Moving Image Studies

Synoptiqueis 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 Cutdedicated 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 Synoptiqueseeks 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 Cinemato 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 or videos submitted for peer review should be approximately 
5,500-7,500 words and must conform to the Chicago author-date style 
(17thed.). All images must be accompanied by photo credits and captions. 
Please ensure any video essays sent for peer-reviewed are anonymized; 
contributors will have the opportunity to edit their names into the 
videos pending positive response for peer reviewers.

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 (17thed.).

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 Synoptiquewebsite, 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 works to the journal editors 
((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)>) or Nikola Stepić((nikola.stepic /at/ concordia.ca) 
<mailto:(nikola.stepic /at/ concordia.ca)>) by June 1st. We will send 
notifications of acceptance by June 30th.

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