[Commlist] CFP - European Journal of American Studies

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Publication opportunity – Call for Papers - European Journal of American 
Studies (EJAS)

"Hamilton and the Poetics of America"

For those following the course of its reception since its premiere in 
2015, there is little doubt that Hamilton: An American Musical is not 
just theatre. Rather, it is a cultural phenomenon embedded in America’s 
efforts to make sense of a national selfhood in crisis and an 
increasingly beleaguered image. The way Hamilton has reflected, fed into 
and off these efforts does not have to do only with the musical as 
“self-contained” work of art. Perhaps most importantly, it correlates 
with how the work has been negotiated in the realm of popular culture 
and beyond. Hence the main premise of this issue of the European Journal 
of American Studies: how Hamilton has been talked and written about, the 
remarkable range of response it has attracted within America, and 
throughout America’s geocultural ambit, signposts processes of fathoming 
America’s shifting poetics; that is, the intricate ensemble of 
meaning-making tools and concepts by which the functioning of 
contemporary American culture can be accessed and assessed.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creative genius behind the musical, approached 
Hamilton as a liminal mythic figure, and thus as a cultural text of 
distributed authorship. Hamilton the work can be construed as an 
instantiation of Hamilton the myth, a thread woven in the mythic matrix 
of America’s beginnings. As an instance of reception that has itself 
been generatively received to the point of becoming a cultural 
phenomenon, Hamilton arguably betrays more about the context from which 
it sprang than about the primary mythical material itself. Although it 
gestures back to the past, it also resonantly speaks to its (our) own 
present.

This issue is an attempt at developing a systematic, structured, and 
inclusive platform to accommodate the said discourse in all its 
interdisciplinary complexity. We invite researchers, scholars, and 
artists from within and without the arts and humanities to tease out the 
connections on which Hamilton rests; put forward intersectional readings 
of the many identities and categories of difference compiled in it; 
reflect on its import in terms of aesthetics, ethics, and/or politics; 
interrogate it as a site where rehearsals of social and cultural change 
involving America but also the rest of the world are currently performed.

Possible topics on which to expound include but are not limited to:

● Hamilton revised - Hamilton contested: reception as a source of 
controversy and the generativity of reception (Hamilton as/is Hamilton 
as/is Hamilton...)
● Hamilton as “branching-out” cultural text: interrelated yet partially 
self-directed manifestations of the Hamilton phenomenon
● Hamilton and media/participatory culture; fan action and/or fan engagement
● Viral Hamilton - viral America; the distributed authorship of both
● Hamilton and outreach: #HAM4HAM lottery, subsidized school tickets, 
pre- and post-show events; cross-promotional strategies; distribution 
and communication patterns; philanthropy as legacy
● Trans/Formations of the American Dream in the American Musical
● Hamilton’s place in the musical genre cycle: from Broadway to Hollywood
● Hamilton and cultural hegemony; Broadway challenged (or not?); 
questions of access: availability, pricing and the theatre-going elite
● Hamilton and celebrity culture; backlash and cancel culture
● De/Constructing Miranda’s public image in the U.S. and abroad
● Hamilton and the political: Hamilton vs. Trump and the contexts of the 
2016 and 2020 elections
● Hamilton’s politics: masculinities and femininities; queer casting vs. 
baiting; ethnoracial diversity vs. color baiting; casting choices and 
production ethics
● Hamilton, historicity, intersecting histories; the immigrant’s arrest 
of history
● The aesthetics and/or controversies of Hamilton’s adaptation; Disney + 
and questions of censorship; philosophical and/or aesthetic analysis
● Hamilton’s afterlife: The Hamilton MixTape and musical adaptations; 
domestic and international tours; transmedia storytelling; 
transgenerational appeal; documentaries and other treatments

Please submit your article proposal, including author contact 
information, title, a 300-word abstract, 4-5 keywords, and a short bio 
by 31 July 2021 to: Melenia Arouh ((m.arouh /at/ acg.edu)) and Aikaterini 
Delikonstantinidou ((d.e.aikaterini /at/ gmail.com)).

Decisions on article proposals will be communicated to authors in 
September 2021. The European Journal of American Studies follows a 
double blind review process for all papers.

No payment from the authors will be required.




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