[Commlist] CFP: Edited Collection on HBO's The White Lotus

*Call for essay proposals due August 23, 2024*

**

*Proposed Collection Title:*Neoliberal Entanglements in/The White Lotus/

*Overview:*

The social satire/White Lotus/was an instant success upon its release of 
Season 1 in 2021. Set against the backdrop of high-end resort tourism, 
the show focuses on a group of affluent Americans vacationing at 
the/White Lotus/resort in Maui, Hawai’i (Season 1) and Sicily, Italy 
(Season 2). It entertains and ambivalently satirizes issues such as 
political correctness and performative wokeness and what they reveal 
about associations of wealth and status in American society. The show 
elucidates how, in the current culture, emotions become work, 
interpersonal relationships become transactions, and the self becomes a 
commodity, leading to various forms of consumption.

We invite submissions to an edited collection analyzing how HBO’s hit 
show engages with the inequalities of the current world. This collection 
will examine how/White Lotus/engages with dominant ideologies such as 
neoliberalism or postfeminism through a cultural studies lens. The 
collection has drawn interest from a major academic publisher.

Possible topics could include:

  * Race and indigeneity, colonialism, neo-colonialism, cultural
    appropriation
  * Emotional labor, service work, sex work, capitalism
  * Postfeminism, Neoliberal Feminism, Popular Feminism
  * Tourism studies/all-inclusive resorts/zero-dollar tourism
  * Environmental studies
  * Narrative studies and genre analysis such as whodunit, dark comedy,
    social satire…etc.
  * Cultural reception, social media consumption of the show
  * Celebrity culture/studies, like Jennifer Coolidge as Queer icon
  * Media representations of family and/or romantic/sexual relationships
  * Social capital and wealth inequality, globalization, international
    capitalism, post-neoliberalism
  * Affect studies
  * COVID-era media construction
  * Historical approaches, like Mike White as writer/director
  * Ethical approaches/the role of media in social change
  * Identity politics surrounding, race, class, gender, sexuality, age,
    disability, and/or other identities

Submission Instructions: Please submit 300-500 word abstracts with a CV 
(towhitelotus.entanglements /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(whitelotus.entanglements /at/ gmail.com)>. Final essays should be 
6000-8000 words, including bibliographies, notes, etc., and should 
follow the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition, Notes and Bibliography 
System).

*Deadline for Essay Proposals*: August 23, 2024

Anticipated Deadline for Completed Essays: March 2025

Brief Editor Bios:

Erin Casey-Williams, PhD, teaches about reading, writing, and 
communication through popular culture texts as an Associate Professor of 
English at Nichols College, in Dudley MA. She has published on zombies 
in/Get Out/and intersectionality in/The Dark Knight/, and is currently 
working on a poetry collection.

Christine Haskill, PhD, is an Associate Professor and the Chair of 
General Education at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State 
University in Grand Rapids, MI. Christine teaches courses in cultural 
studies, gender studies, and literature. In their scholarship, they 
analyze how identity is represented in pop culture texts, literature, 
and the Gothic genre, particularly around issues of gender and class.

Catrin Weimbs earned her PhD in Cultural Studies/American Literature 
from the University of Bonn, Germany. She currently serves as an adjunct 
faculty member at Nichols College in Dudley, Massachusetts, where she 
instructs undergraduate courses in writing, reading, and communication. 
Her academic interests span a range of topics including the influence of 
Big Tech on society, nostalgia in American culture, portrayals of 
working women in popular media, the cultural dynamics of suburban 
America, and foundational courses in gender and diversity studies.

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