CFP Romancing the Posthuman (Special Issue of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies; 11/30/2025)

CfP "Romancing the Posthuman" - Special Issue of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies

deadline for submissions:
November 30, 2025

full name / name of organization:
Journal of Popular Romance Studies

contact email:
j.e.m.hoorenman@uu.nl

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/10/06/cfp-romancing-the-posthuman-special-issue-of-the-journal-of-popular-romance-studies

The Journal of Popular Romance Studies is calling for papers for its Special Issue “Romancing the Posthuman” focusing on romance, critical love studies and posthumanism.

The posthuman is many things: the cyborg, the monster, the zombie, shapeshifters, and vampires (Herbrechter 2018: 94; McLennon 2017). Primarily, though, it is a challenge to Cartesian and humanist understandings of the human both as an independently agentic, biologically uniform being and as a privileged category: male, white, able. As a state of being, the posthuman changes how we define humanity and its relationship to the planet and its other species (Braidotti 2013: 1-2). Critical posthumanism thus interrogates default binaries (such as organic/inorganic, human/animal etc.) and established hierarchies, and deconstructs the categories that make racial, gender, ethnic, sexual, and species othering possible: the ‘human’, ‘sub-human,’ ‘inhuman,’ and ‘non-human.’ Posthumanism thus offers a critical lens through which we can conceptualize human embeddedness in technoscientific naturecultures, past, current and future embodiments, and alternative conceptions of what it means to be human.

Inevitably, posthumanism has fully embraced science fiction literature and, to a lesser extent, fantasy, horror and Gothic literature, seeing affinities between the posthuman and futuristic imaginings of the human, the zombie and the vampire. But as Falkenhayner (2020: 10) explains, the posthuman is no longer the other that troubles but the similar: “[a]s fictions, posthuman similars appear as desire and as a danger […] Analyses of posthuman fictions reflect their respective contemporary imaginaries of inclusion and exclusion into conceptions of self and other, of similarity and difference, equality and hybridity.” Popular romance is therefore a perfect candidate for the exploration of posthuman imaginaries: for example, little attention has yet been paid to the figure of the posthuman in love and in romance, to critical posthumanism as an approach to popular romance and critical love studies, or what Pettman (2017: 8) terms creaturely love: “to rejoice in the miraculous singularity of the being that one is with.” Love, romance, desire and eroticism offer a uniquely productive vantage point from which to approach the posthuman. Popular romance, as Kamblé (2023: 2) argues, maintains a consistent investment in “seeking the truth of [the] unknown, suppressed, fragmented, or embattled self” of the heroine. How is that self re-configured within the posthuman condition? If, as Roach (2016: 175) posits, “the romance story is a reparation fantasy of the end of patriarchy” that affirms its belief in the power of erotic faith within the sacred guarantee of a HEA, what do such fantasies look like away from “the blood, earth, and origin of the classical social contract” (Braidotti 2011: 104). What alternative human and non-human embodiments does romance offer or foreclose?

There are many more questions to explore at the intersection of critical love/ popular romance studies and posthumanism, and to that effect, the special issue of JPRS “Romancing the Posthuman” is interested in creating, for the first time, a dedicated academic space for that work. With this special issue, we invite popular romance scholars and scholars of posthumanism to engage with the posthuman in their reading of romance and to bring posthuman theory to bear on popular romance texts.

Topics of interest may include but are not limited to:

• Representations/cultural expressions of love in a posthuman world
• Technologically mediated love in global popular culture
• Creaturely love, humanimality and interspecies intimacies
• The posthuman in and/or a posthumanist reading of paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, dystopian, post-apocalyptic, steampunk and speculative popular romance
• Posthuman love, sexuality and desire
• Alternative imaginings of human subjectivities, embodiments and love
• Transhumanist and/or tranimacy fantasies in romantic media
• Critical posthumanist and new materialist understandings of love, romance and kinship
• The mediation of these cultural/theoretical considerations in a variety of media, including but not limited to: genre fiction, literary texts, autobiography/memoir, screen media, music, performing arts, or in the teaching of these media/texts.

We are inviting submissions for the Special Issue of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies: “Romancing the Posthuman.” The Special Issue is jointly edited by Hanna Hoorenman and Evvie Valliou. Please submit abstracts in MS Word of no more than 300 words and bios of no more than 100 words to j.e.m.hoorenman@uu.nl and e.k.valiou@sheffield.ac.uk by 31 October 2025. See also https://www.jprstudies.org/submissions/special-issue-call-for-papers/.

*** Note: Deadline extended to 30 November 2025 ***

Suggested bibliography:

Braidotti, Rosi. Nomadic Theory: The Portable Rosi Braidotti. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.

—-. The Posthuman. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2013.

Christmas, A.J. “Augmented Intimacies: Posthuman Love Stories in Contemporary Science Fiction.” PhD Dissertation Leeds University, 2013.

Falkenhayner, N. “The Ship Who Sang: Feminism, the Posthuman, and Similarity.” Open Library of Humanities, 6(2): 21 (2020), pp. 1–24.

Herbrechter, Stephan. “Critical Posthumanism.” In Posthuman Glossary, edited by Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova. Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.

Kamblé, Jayashree, Eric Murphy Selinger, and Hsu-Ming Teo, eds. The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction. Routledge, 2021.

Kamblé, Jayashree. Creating Identity: The Popular Romance Heroine’s Journey to Selfhood and Self-Presentation. Indiana University Press, 2023.

MacCormack, Patricia. “Posthuman Sexuality.” In Posthuman Glossary, edited by Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova. Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.

McLennon, Leigh. “Contemporary Vampire Genre Fiction: Ethical Feeding and the Posthuman Vampire in Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance.” PhD Dissertation. University of Melbourne, 2017.

Ostalska, Katarzyna. “Dystopias in the Realm of Popular Culture: Introducing Elements of Posthuman and Postfeminist Discourse to the Mass Audience Female Readership in Cecelia Ahern’s Roar (2018).” Text Matters, no. 11 (2021): 204–21.

Pettman, Dominic. Creaturely Love: How Desire Makes Us More and Less than Human. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

Roach, Catherine M. Happily Ever After: The Romance Story in Popular Culture. Indiana University Press, 2016.


Last updated October 13, 2025

CFP I’m Already Dead: Essays on The CW’s iZombie and Vertigo’s iZOMBIE (Extended) (8/30/2018)

I’m Already Dead: Essays on The CW’s iZombie and Vertigo’s iZOMBIE (Extended)
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/06/14/i%E2%80%99m-already-dead-essays-on-the-cw%E2%80%99s-izombie-and-vertigo%E2%80%99s-izombie-extended

deadline for submissions:
August 30, 2018

full name / name of organization:
Weber State University

contact email:
izombiecollection@gmail.com



I’m Already Dead: Essays on The CW’s iZombie and Vertigo’s iZOMBIE

Editors

Ashley Szanter, Weber State University

Jessica K. Richards, Weber State University



Project Overview

Editors Szanter and Richards seek original essays for an edited collection on Rob Thomas’s television series iZombie as well as the show’s graphic novel source material, Roberson and Allred’s iZOMBIE. Currently under contract with McFarland Publishing, we’re requesting supplemental essays to a working collection. This particular series has begun to overhaul modern constructions of the zombie in popular culture and media. While scholarship on the television zombie is not in short supply, particularly in regards to AMC’s The Walking Dead, we believe this particular show and comic series speak to a growing trend in zombie culture whereby the zombie “passes” as human—fully assimilating into normalized society. The collection aims to explore how this new, “improved” zombie altered popular notions of the zombie monster and brought in a new group of viewers who may shy away from the blood and gore tradition of other popular zombie narratives. As each season of the series begins to take a more traditional approach to zombie narratives, we want to focus this collection on how the show tackles current power and political structures as well as asking questions about globalization and nationhood. With CW announcing that the final season will air in January, we’re looking for essays that address the entirety of the show.

Chapters we’re looking for in this collection can focus on one or more of the following categories:

• Explorations of how these two narratives construct gender—particularly in regards to femininity and masculinity. Are the rules for gender performance different for male/female zombies as opposed to male/female humans?
• Essays that explicitly address the graphic novel series iZOMBIE with a focus on character development across the narrative.
• Analyze the use of hackneyed stereotypes, especially in the television show, as the consumption of brains often leads the zombies to exhibit deeply stereotypical, sometimes racist, behaviors.
• Examinations of the place/function of romance in the show and/or comic. Relationships function as a central part of the television show in particular. How do the complications of zombie life influence or impede relationships between humans/humans, humans/zombies, zombies/zombies?
• The CW’s iZombie as the result of genre exhaustion for both the traditional zombie genre as well as the paranormal romance genre. iZombie’s network is known for attractive characters/actors and a strong inclusion of romance and sexuality. Have we taken zombies and paranormal romance as far as they can go without expanding the new ZomRomCom to include heartthrob zombies?
• Address iZombie or iZOMBIE and intersectionality. Of particular interest to the editors are non-binary gender and sexuality, feminism, race, “passing,” and non-traditional/deconstructed families or relationships.

Abstract Due Dates

Preference will be given to abstracts received before August 30, 2018. Abstracts should be no longer than 350 words and be accompanied by a current CV.

Contact us and send abstracts to Ashley and Jessica at izombiecollection@gmail.com. 

CFP Edited Collection on Young Adult Gothic Fiction (7/16/2018)

Edited Collection on Young Adult Gothic Fiction
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/05/22/edited-collection-on-young-adult-gothic-fiction

deadline for submissions: July 16, 2018

full name / name of organization: Dr Michelle Smith and Dr Kristine Moruzi

contact email: Michelle.Smith@monash.edu



Call for Papers: Edited Collection on Young Adult Gothic Fiction

The twenty-first century has seen a marked increase in the Gothic themes of liminality, monstrosity, transgression, romance, and sexuality in fiction for young adults. While Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series (2005-2008) is the most well-known example of Gothic young adult fiction, it is part of a growing corpus of hundreds of novels published in the genre since the turn of the millennium. During this period, the Gothic itself has simultaneously undergone a transformation. The Gothic monster is increasingly presented sympathetically, especially through narration and focalisation from the “monster’s” perspective. In YA Gothic, the crossing of boundaries that is typical of the Gothic is often motivated by a heterosexual romance plot in which the human or monstrous female protagonist desires a boy who is not her “type”. In addition, as the Gothic works to define what it means to be human, particularly in relation to gender, race, and identity, contemporary shifts and flashpoints in identity politics are also being negotiated under the metaphoric cloak of monstrosity.

Yet the Gothic also operates within young adult fiction to enable discussions about fears and anxieties in relation to a variety of contemporary concerns, including environmentalism, human rights, and alienation. Catherine Spooner suggests that the Gothic takes the form of a series of revivals. In the proposed collection we seek to explain what the current Gothic revival in YA fiction signifies and call for papers engaging with any aspect of Gothic fiction published for young adults since 2000.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• The Gothic and the posthuman
• The paranormal romance
• The monstrous feminine
• The adolescent body
• The evolution of canonical monsters including the vampire, the werewolf, the witch
• Postfeminism and the Gothic
• The Gothic and race
• Gothic spaces
• Gothic historical fiction

The editors are currently preparing a proposal for a university press Gothic series, in which the publisher has already expressed preliminary interest.

Please submit abstracts of up to 300 words and a biographical note of up to 150 words to both Dr Kristine Moruzi (kristine.moruzi@deakin.edu.au) and Dr Michelle Smith (michelle.smith@monash.edu) by 16 July 2018.

Full papers of 6000 words will be due by 1 December 2018.