The Fan Studies Network: About Us

Formed in March 2012, the Fan Studies Network was created with the idea of cultivating a friendly space in which scholars of fandom could easily forge connections with other academics in the field, and discuss the latest topics within fan studies. Having attracted close to 300 members, the network is already fostering a sense of community and engendering fruitful debate.

 

During May 2013 an exciting special issue of Participations journal will be published, featuring work from members of the Network.

 

The network was co-founded and is co-chaired by Lucy Bennett and Tom Phillips.

 

The network board members are Bertha Chin, Bethan Jones, Richard McCulloch and Rebecca Williams. To contact any of us directly, please consult the “Who We Are” page on this blog.

You can also find us on Twitter at @FanStudies, on the discussion list at http://jiscmail.ac.uk/fanstudies and on the Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/507241072647146/

CFP: Intensities SI- Transmedia Relationships Between Film/Television and Board Games

CFP: Intensities SI- Transmedia Relationships Between Film/Television and Board Games

The term ‘transmedia storytelling’ has become a common one in media and cultural studies in recent years. Described by Henry Jenkins as stories told across multiple media, transmedia storytelling is not just an adaptation from one medium to another. Rather,

In the ideal form of TS, each medium does what it does best — so that a story might be introduced in a film, expanded through television, novels, and comics, and its world might be explored and experienced through game play. Each franchise entry needs to be self-contained enough to enable autonomous consumption. That is, you don’t need to have seen the film to enjoy the game and vice-versa. (Jenkins, 2003: online)

Video-games are among the media most frequently cited in discussions of transmedia storytelling, and academic analysis of video-games is many and varied. In this special issue, however, we turn our analysis to board games, and ask how they can be examined through the model of transmedia storytelling; what processes of adaptation are at work in turning a board game into a film or vice versa; and how do these adaptations or transmedia stories affect the ways in which the different texts are read and understood.

With this in mind, the journal Intensities will be producing a special issue based on these concerns, with the aim of bringing together contributors from a range of academic disciplines.  We hope to include papers which offer a wide range of perspectives on the processes of adapting board games to screen and vice versa, from analyses of the games themselves, to the responses of audiences to the screen adaptations, to the roles the games play in furthering fans’ interactions with the text(s).

We are currently accepting proposals of approximately 300 words in length, focusing on any element of the transmedia relationships and adaptive processes that occur between film/television and board games.  The available topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• How adaptation theory is either applicable or needs rethinking based on the nature of the media.
• Comparative case studies between film/television texts that have been adapted from board games and games that have their source in film/television texts.
• How the adaptive processes from film/television to board games and vice versa are inherently different or similar.
• Historical research into the production or industrial development of film/television texts or board games based on previously existing properties from the other medium.
• The promotion and marketing of such adaptations and how they were directed to appeal to the general public.
• The industrial logic and socioeconomic conditions which have deemed such texts as potentially profitable.

Please include a short bio of approximately 150 words, and state whether you believe your proposal is suited to a full paper of approximately 7,000 words, or a short paper of approximately 1,500 words.   All proposals should be sent to bethanvjones@hotmail.com andwickscripts@hotmail.com, to be received no later than 10 June 2013.

CFP Collection: The Films of Dario Argento

Cited as an important influence to filmmakers from Quentin Tarantino to Gaspar Noé, Italian director Dario Argento occupies a curious position in film history. With a career spanning more than 40 years, in which he’s made more than 20 films, Argento has attracted relatively little critical attention in the academy. With the only sustained (English-language) book-length consideration of the director’s work being first released more than 20 years ago, this collection seeks to explore Argento’s films through a range of analytical and methodological approaches, and to offer new perspectives on the director’s body of work. In compiling a variety of international critical and scholarly voices, the collection hopes to provide a rigorous consideration of Argento’s work and to consider his wider cultural significance as a director.

Please note that this collection has been contracted with Wallflower Press (imprint of Columbia University Press) and a number of submissions have already been accepted.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

- Visual style and aesthetics
- Argento as auteur
- Film sound and Argento’s work
- The city and urban space in Argento’s films
- The body/corporeality in Argento’s films
- Issues of gender and sexuality
- Issues of genre and style
- New readings of violence in Argento’s work
- Cult film status and fandom
- Argento as influence
- Little considered Argento films (such as the most recent films)

Please submit a proposal of 300 – 400 words, along with a brief (50 word) bio attached. Accepted essays will be between 6,000 – 7,000 words, with full drafts due 30th November, 2013.

Send your proposal (as a Microsoft word attachment) by Friday 14th June 2013 to:
Alexia Kannas (RMIT Melbourne, Australia)
Email: alexia.kannas@rmit.edu.au

CFP: Slayage Special Issue: Critical Reflections on The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Edited by Kristopher Woofter and Jasie Stokes

Joss Whedon’s and Drew Goddard’s recent horror film, The Cabin in the Woods (2012, produced 2010), was released to general critical praise, but left many fans and scholar-fans divided regarding the film’s love-hate relationship with the genre, its framing of the horror audience as both savvy and deluded, and its simultaneous celebration and ridicule of horror conventions.  

Trading on character types of the 1980s Slasher film, but decidedly not a Slasher film in any other way, Cabin left many viewers wondering how to place the film: Is it a deconstruction of a horror genre in a state of crisis? A fraught film, caught between the sensibilities of a “visionary” Whedon and the horror fanboy approach of Goddard? Is it a satire? A comedy? Or is it, as Whedon has intimated in several interviews, an ethical interrogation of horror’s ostensible turn to “torture porn,” a contested term in scholarship identifying a trend of spectacle horror in films as diverse as Mel Gibson’s splatter-prone The Last Temptation of Christ(2004), Eli Roth’s interesting hybrid, Hostel (2005), and recent French philosophical horror film, Martyrs (2008)?

Regardless of how successful one gauges The Cabin in the Woods as critique, Whedon and Goddard have created their film as a commentary on the state of the horror genre specifically, and horror artistry, reception, and viewership more generally. If the film is an act of horror criticism, then it is largely in line with the most popular critical concepts applied to horror since the 1970s—that of Carol Clover’s trend-setting (and over-applied) work on the “final girl,” and of feminist criticism of the male “gaze” initiated by Laura Mulvey and then debated in the work of Linda Williams, Carol Clover, Cynthia Freeland, and others.

This special issue of Slayage hopes to generate discussion around The Cabin in the Woods within a number of contexts: historical, cultural, commercial, artistic, generic, thematic, theoretical. We especially encourage essays that take on The Cabin in the Woods’s own theoretical pretensions—around the cinematic gaze, media saturation, surveillance, horror fandom, horror genre conventions, other genre conventions, horror viewership, monsters and monstrosity, corporatized media, the Hollywood “dream machine,” and so on. Illuminating comparisons to recent trends in horror in cinema and on television (not necessarily related to Whedon’s or Goddard’s other work), as well as to specific films from any era of horror, are most welcome.

Please send a proposal of not more than 250 words to Jasie Stokes (jasiestokes@gmail.com) and Kristopher Woofter (hauntologist@gmail.com) by Friday, 7 June, 2013. Begin your email subject line with the following “tag”: [Cabin].

We will notify you within a week after the deadline if your proposal is accepted. Please note that if your proposal is accepted, a first draft of your essay will be expected by no later than Friday, 30 August, 2013.

 

Call for Papers: Intensities – The Journal of Cult Media – Historical Approaches to Cult TV

Intensities – The Journal of Cult Media has relaunched and is currently accepting submissions for issue six.

Issue 6 Historical Approaches to Cult TV

This issue seeks submissions examining TV shows that have acquired cult status at a historical distance – both established cult shows (The Avengers, The Prisoner, the ‘classic’ series of Doctor Who) and those that have received less (or possibly even no) critical attention. In addition, the papers will locate those shows historically, either by drawing on archive materials or suggesting new cultural, historical or institutional contexts in which they might be understood.

Submissions should be sent to intensities@brunel.ac.uk. They should be between 6000 and 8000 words, referenced Harvard style and sent as a word document – a 200 word abstract should be sent as a separate document.

For more information see http://intensitiescultmedia.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/current-call-for-papers-issue-6-historical-approaches-to-cult-tv/

Call for Papers: Kick it! The Anthropology of European Football, Vienna, 25/26 October 2013

Call for Papers:

Kick it! The Anthropology of European Football

Vienna, 25/26 October 2013

Football is one of the most well-loved and most widely shared expressions of popular culture. But why does football have a social role that stretches way beyond the stadium? The international conference “The Anthropology of European Football” seeks to understand football’s impact on everyday lives and identity dynamics in Europe. Thereby, the football phenomenon is not only perceived as being related to class relations and subculture, but at the same time as a symbolic domain that produces social identities at various levels.

Therefore, we would welcome proposals for papers on any of the following research strands, but by no means confined to these areas:

• How are supporter and fan identities created in the everyday practices of football fan culture?

• How do globalisation, commercialisation, and migration exert an influence on football fan culture?

• What impact do Europeanisation and the increasing mobility of both supporters and players have on the self-perception of football fans?

• How is the “Other” created among fans? How are exclusion and inclusion practices enacted, narrated and reproduced?

• What cleavages and loyalties cross-cut European football, such as East vs. West and North vs. South, class, gender or politics?

Keynote lectures: Dr. Cornel Sandvoss (University of Surrey, UK) and Dr. Hani Zubida (The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Israel).

We invite papers from researchers at all stages of their career. We especially encourage applicants whose research is based on ethnographic fieldwork or those with an anthropological background.

Proposals should include an abstract of 300 words, the author’s institutional affiliation, contact details and a short biography (all on one page). The submission deadline is 10 May 2013. Successful applicants will be notified by the end of June, with registration for the conference being opened after that date. Selected papers will be published as part of a special issue of an academic journal or an edited volume.

The event is part of the interdisciplinary European research project FREE – Football Research in an Enlarged Europe (www.free-project.eu) funded by the European Commission’s 7th European Framework Programme for Research (FP7). The conference is organised within the scope of the anthropological research strand of the project by the Department of European Ethnology at the University of Vienna in collaboration with the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology at the Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań. Please contact the local conference organisers if you require further information as to this conference, or the research network generally: Alexandra Schwell (alexandra.schwell@univie.ac.at) and Nina Szogs (nina.szogs@univie.ac.at).

FREE consists of nine collaborating universities:
ESSCA School of Management, Københavns Universitet, Loughborough University, Middle East Technical University, Universität Stuttgart, Universität Wien, Universitat de València, Université de Franche-Comté, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza

Please feel FREE to submit your proposal by 10 May 2013
to free@univie.ac.at.
FREE – Football Research in an Enlarged Europe is an FP7 project funded under Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities

CFP A Collection of Essays on Christopher Nolan

Over the past fifteen years, writer, producer and director Christopher Nolan has emerged from the margins of independent British cinema to become one of the most commercially successful directors in Hollywood. In particular Nolan has earned a reputation as a director able to extend the boundaries of mainstream film production. From his debut feature Following (1998) to The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Nolan’s films remain thematically and stylistically consistent while also demonstrating a continued evolution and innovation in terms of visual style, storytelling and technology, both artistically and within an industrial context.

Bringing together academic work from a range of disciplines, this proposed collection seeks to explore Nolan’s filmmaking, including his visual, narrative and thematic preoccupations, from a variety of perspectives and using a range of analytical and methodological approaches. These might include textual analysis, reception studies, film theory and criticism, narrative theory, psychoanalysis, philosophy and other methods in cultural studies. The collection has received very strong ‘in principle’ interest from Wallflower Press (now an imprint of Columbia University Press).

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
• Adaptation
• The analysis of individual films
• Archetypes
• Auteurship
• The body
• The carnivalesque
• The city
• Cult film and fandom
• Gender, race, class and sexuality
• Genre and style
• The hero’s journey
• Iconography
• Media convergence
• Morality
• Narrative
• Philosophy
• The postmodern
• Post 9/11
• Psychoanalysis
• The soundscape
• Technology
• Trauma
• Visual style and aesthetics

Please submit a proposal of approximately 300 words. Each proposal should include a 50 word bio. Accepted essays will be approximately 6,000-7,000 words. Send your 300-word proposal (as an attachment in Word) by Friday 28th June 2013 to both:

Jacqueline Furby, Ph.D.
Southampton Solent University
East Park Terrace
Southampton, Hampshire
S014 OYN / United Kingdom
Email: jaqueline.furby@solent.ac.uk

and

Stuart Joy, MA
Southampton Solent University
East Park Terrace
Southampton, Hampshire
S014 OYN / United Kingdom
Email: stuart.joy@solent.ac.uk

CFP: Fan Studies, 2013 Midwest Popular Culture Association Conference, St Louis, MO. October 11-13, 2013

St. Louis Union Station Hotel, A Doubletree by Hilton
Deadline: April 30, 2012
Submissions.mpcaaca.org

Topics can include, but are not limited to fan fiction, multi-media fan production, fan communities, fandom of individual media texts, sports fandom, or the future of fandom. Case studies are also welcome.
Please upload 250 word abstract proposals on any aspect of Fan Studies to the Fan Studies area, http://submissions.mpcaaca.org/.
Any questions? Please email Paul Booth at pbooth@depaul.edu,
More information about the conference can be found at http://www.mpcaaca.org/
Please note the availability of graduate student travel grants: http://mpcaaca.org/conference/travel-grants/.

Please include name, affiliation, and e-mail address with the 250 word abstract. Also, please indicate in your submission whether your presentation will require an LCD Projector.

CFP: ‘Branding TV: Transmedia to the Rescue!’, Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA-PGN

CALL FOR PAPERS: Branding TV: Transmedia to the Rescue! special-themed edition of Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA-PGN

Guest Editor: Benjamin W. L. Derhy (University of East Anglia / Université Paris Ouest)Journal Editor: Matthew Freeman (University of Nottingham)Deadline for Abstracts: 10 June 2013

The television world is changing: as films and programmes become brands on their own – derivable in a variety of ways – and as technology has evolved so much that even the concept of narrative has been affected, marketing strategies have changed forever.

Transmedia storytelling is ‘a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience’ (Jenkins, 2006, 95-6). Though both a challenge and an opportunity for conventional industry production methods, it represents a marketing goldmine. Indeed, the rise of transmedia platforms – offering the possibility to create websites, mobile games, alternative reality games, interactive exhibitions, e-books, e-comics, webseries, etc. – and the increasing involvement of the audience have provided marketers with a whole new range of possibilities to boost both brand recognition and profits: rather than selling the show to networks, they now sell the story directly to consumers.

Rather than ‘reducing’ Transmedia storytelling to the augmenting effect it has had on the concept of narrative as a result of its ability to create an immersive environment, this special issue seeks to discuss the wide range of economic perspectives available to a Film/Television brand due to this very same immersive environment. The transmedia phenomenon has, so far, mostly been approached from an either textual or participatory perspective, but rarely so from a multidisciplinary perspective encompassing the marketing aspect. Providing insight on this topic through contributions from researchers in media, communications and cultural studies, but also in marketing, would enrich our collective understanding of Transmedia storytelling thanks to complementary viewpoints, in the hope of offering a more holistic approach.
Branding TV: Transmedia to the Rescue! welcomes articles from postgraduates and early career researchers of 5,000 to 6,000 words.
Areas of interest include (but are not limited to):·        

The textual and creative impact on Transmedia strategies·        
The technological, creative or financial limits of Transmedia strategies·        
The relationship of Transmedia storytelling with promotional and branding strategies·        
The differences between Transmedia branding and franchising·        
Study cases or historical examples of Transmedia strategies·        
The relationships between marketers and screenwriters and other practitioners·        
The cultural impact of such strategies to society·        
The relationships between marketers and participatory cultures·        
The reception of such practices by fan communities·        
Future developments of Transmedia practices

Please send abstracts (up to 300 words) along with a 50 word biography by June 10, 2013 to Benjamin W. L. Derhy (B.Derhy-kurtz@uea.ac.uk) and Matthew Freeman (aaxmaf@nottingham.ac.uk). Articles are due on October 15, 2013. Feel free to contact the editors for further information.

Registration Now Open: Sherlock Holmes: Past and Present 21-22 June 2013 Institute of English Studies, Senate House, University of London

Conference webpage: http://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/ies-events/conferences/SherlockHolmes

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SherlockHolmesPastAndPresent

This conference offers a serious opportunity to bring together academics, enthusiasts, creative practitioners and popular writers in a shared discussion about the cultural legacy of Sherlock Holmes. The Strand Magazine and the Sherlock Holmes stories contribute one of the most enduring paradigms for the production and consumption of popular culture in the twentieth- and the twenty-first centuries. The stories precipitated a burgeoning fan culture including various kinds of participation, wiki and crowd-sourcing, fan-fiction, virtual realities and role-play gaming. All of these had existed before but they were solidified, magnified and united by Sherlockians and Holmesians in entirely new ways and on scales never seen before. All popular culture phenomena that followed (from Lord of the Rings to Twilight via Star Trek) shared its viral pattern. This conference aims to unpick the historical intricacies of Holmesian fandom as well as offering a wide variety of perspectives upon its newest manifestations. This conference invites adaptors of and scholars on Holmes, late-Victorian writing, and popular culture internationally to contribute to this scholarly conversation. Our aims are to celebrate Conan Doyle’s achievement, to explore the reasons behind Holmes’ enduring popularity across different cultures and geographical spaces, and to investigate new directions in Holmes’ afterlife. This conference will precede Holmes’ 160th birthday in 2014 and launch a new volume of essays on Holmes co-edited by Dr. Jonathan Cranfield and Tom Ue, and form part of the larger celebrations in London and internationally.

This conference is generously supported by Blackwell’s Charing Cross Road; Intellect Books; MX Publishing; UCL Arts and Humanities, including the Faculty Institute of Graduate Studies; UCL English; UCL European Institute; and UCL Public Engagement Unit.  We thank Owen Jollands for contributing all of the artwork; Carol Bowen, Stephen Cadywold, Anita Garfoot, and James Phillips from UCL English for their administrative help; Jon Millington from the Institute of English Studies in the School of Advanced Study at the University of London for his; Laura Cream from UCL Public Engagement Unit; and Karen Attar for putting together the Conan Doyle display at Senate House Library.  We are grateful to David Grylls, Douglas Kerr, John Mullan, and the conference participants for their contributions.