Month: September 2017

Fandom Report for Sep 28 2017: Punch Nazis, Not Dinosaurs

Unless they’re Nazi dinosaurs or dinosaur Nazis–then punch them.

Check back later today for a review of Star Trek Discovery–and it’s failure to do for this time period what previous iterations did for those eras.

And check in tomorrow for a review of DuckTales–specifically, what they’re doing with Gyro and GizmoDuck.

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CFP: “Strong Female Characters: Subversive Femininity in Literature and Popular Media” (Northeast MLA, April 2018, Pittsburgh), Submission Deadline 9/30/17

Below is a call for papers by my colleague, Mary Ellen Iatropoulos. “Strong Female Characters: Subversive Femininity in Literature and Popular Media” seeks abstracts that draw parallels between 19th-century literature and 21st-century popular media representations of subversive femininity. Successful papers will describe what critical insights such a comparison yields, as well as what conclusions for modern audiences such analysis reveals.

The CFP summary is below, and you may read the full CFP and submit abstracts online with a free NeMLA CFP List account at this link by September 30, 2017: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/16962

Please email me (derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com) or tweet at Mary Ellen (@metamare) or me (@dereksmcgrath) with any questions.

Image layout by Mary Ellen Iatropoulos

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CFP: “Of Superpowers and Privilege: Diversity in Superhero Narratives” (Northeast MLA, April 2018, Pittsburgh), Submission Deadline 9/30/17

I had shared calls for papers related to comics for the April 2018 convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA), with abstracts due September 30, 2017. I have updated that list to include this CFP by my colleague, Mary Ellen Iatropoulos.

“Of Superpowers and Privilege: Diversity in Superhero Narratives” emerges partially as a response to comics publishers, in particular Marvel, facing criticism for whitewashing of adaptations such as Doctor Strange and Iron Fist, even blaming “diversity” for slumping comics sales. Fans’ backlash to such failure to increase diversity, even to blame diversity, demonstrates that, for all the repetition of the word “diversity,” its ideals are far from its implementation.

The CFP summary is below, and you may read the full CFP and submit abstracts online by September 30, 2017, with a free NeMLA CFP List account at this ink: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/16965

Please email me (derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com) or tweet at Mary Ellen (@metamare) or me (@dereksmcgrath) with any questions.

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CFP: Comics sessions at the Northeast MLA in Pittsburgh (Deadline: September 30, 2017)

Updated September 18, 2017

Each year, the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) organizes numerous sessions on topics related to the research and teaching of comics, graphic novels, and other visual texts. The 49th annual convention will take place April 12 to 15, 2018, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and abstracts are due online by September 30, 2017.

Below is a list of some sessions related to comics. Each link takes you directly to the web page to submit your abstracts. To submit, you will need a free NeMLA CFP List account at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/CFP.

For questions about specific sessions, please click the session’s link below for the session’s chairs. For general questions about submitting abstracts or the 49th annual convention, please email support@nemla.org.