CFP Theorizing Zombiism 4: Fast Zombies/SLO Zombies Conference (1/31/2025; San Luis Obispo, CA 7/18-19/2025)

 

Theorizing Zombiism 4: Fast Zombies/SLO Zombies

deadline for submissions: 

January 31, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Zombie Studies Network

contact email: 

theorizingzombiism@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/11/16/theorizing-zombiism-4-fast-zombiesslo-zombies.

Theorizing Zombiism IV: Fast Zombie/SLO Zombie

 

 DEADLINE EXTENSION

 

California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly)

Department of English

San Luis Obispo (SLO)

California

 

Provisional Date: 18-19 July, 2025

 

 

The Theorizing Zombiism (TZ) conference series is intent on exploring theories of what zombiism as the state of being or becoming zombified was and meant for the modern era. As the zombie figure shifts and mutates, discussions, and debates, have ensued about what constitutes a zombie and what does not. Since the 1932 film White Zombie, the zombie has developed numerous iterations: from the agentless worker to the shambling corpse, to the cannibalistic corpse, to the sentient zombie. This is, of course, an abbreviated list. The TZ4 conference aims to continue exploring the state of zombiism by examining not only what a zombie is but also how the figure functions. Through these two aspects, the Zombie Studies Network calls for papers examining the seemingly ever-shifting parameters of the zombie in both society and academia through all media versions. As discussions of zombies in academia, and in public, tend to be dominated by the cinematic portrayals, the hope for this conference is that other mediums will be explored to expand the scope of understanding of the zombie in comparison to the various spheres of society that engages with and utilizes the zombie. As a continuation from the previous conference as well, the TZ4 conference aims to provide a much-needed platform for the development of international and interdisciplinary relationships between researchers, educators, practitioners and other interested parties. Collaborations between disciplines is also encouraged. Proposals for panels and co-authored papers are also especially encouraged.

 

Abstract deadline: 31 January, 2025

 

Email abstracts to theorizingzombiism@gmail.com

 

Potential topics could be, but are not limited to, the following:

 

Zombie Science

Zombies in Science

Zombies across the disciplines compared to the humanities

Zombies in the news and social media

Short stories and short films

Novels

Comic/Graphic novels

Cosplay and Fancy Dress/Costume

Ecocritical zombiism
Zombies in Popular Culture
Historical/Literary mash-ups
The undead in myth and folklore
Zombies in survival video games
Zombies and consumer capitalism

Zombies and neoliberalism

Zombies and communism
Linguistic perspectives on the undead
Globalization, refugees, and migration
Gender/ethnicity/race and the undead
Nationalism through the zombie narratives
Zombiism and visual culture and art history
Zombie infections as a metaphor for pandemics
Re-evaluating the function of horror in society
Dead digital objects and undead archival objects
Expanding zombie tropes in other forms and fields
Zombie phenomenology/philosophy/psychoanalysis
The science of zombiism/the zombification of science
Legal zombiism: law and legislation that refuses to die
Zombie visuality: motifs unique to the zombie’s visual personality

 

categories

film and television

international conferences

popular culture

science and culture

theory

Last updated January 6, 2025

CFP Dead or Alive: The Future of Zombie Studies (expired 2/15/2024)

Sorry to have missed this:

Dead or Alive: The Future of Zombie Studies Edited Collection

deadline for submissions: February 15, 2024

full name / name of organization: Tim Lanzendörfer and Marlon Lieber

contact email: tlanzend@em.uni-frankfurt.de

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/01/16/dead-or-alive-the-future-of-zombie-studies-edited-collection

Call for Papers for an Edited Collection

Dead or Alive: The Futures of Zombie Studies

Edited by Marlon Lieber and Tim Lanzendörfer

We are inviting abstract submissions for an edited collection entitled Dead or Alive: The Future of Zombie Studies. The proposed volume is intended to situate research into the zombie, and the figure of the zombie itself, in the wake of its apparent decline of cultural currency. If, about a decade or so ago, a large number of commentators could and did claim a “global explosion of zombie mania” (Hubner et al. 2015, 3), things have become noticeably more quiet in the 2020s. We understand this as an occasion to take stock of zombie studies and to think about what it will and can do in the future. In asking about the state of zombie studies, we ask both about the state of zombie studies and of zombie studies: both about the ostensible object and the potential disciplinary formation.

We are looking for essays that the ask the question of what the specific state of studying the zombie as a cultural figure is across media and across disciplines, how it is used now, in what contexts, what it promises for the future, and how it is related to other figures of cultural importance. These essays should go beyond individual readings of zombie fictions, even if they might well be grounded in them, and discuss the ways in which studying this singular figure offers disciplinarily relevant insights. What is the state of the zombie as a cultural figure in the first place, in a globalized cultural space where its appearances range from Korean and Senegalese cinema to Western European and American literature to globally-played videogames?

We are looking for essays that specifically hone in on the question of what it means, and will mean, to think about the work on zombies as zombies studies. These essays should pursue the possibility and desirability of institutional frameworks for the study of zombie, perhaps especially as read against (conservative) political backlash against degree programs with unconventional foci. What kinds of disciplinary locations or transdisciplinary utility exist for zombie studies? How, for that matter, might the “zombie” in “zombie studies” permit us to ask questions about the larger horizon of the danger facing the humanities (who is undead here?)? How are “zombie studies” received in public? What theoretical frameworks exist or need to be produced for zombie studies?

The proposed collection thus will intervene notably both in the presumed field of zombie studies as well as in larger constellations of thinking about the humanities. While considerable work exists reflecting on aspects of this project, the vast majority of discussions of the zombie have reflected on its cultural historical significance and meaning. Actual theoretical interventions have been rare, with a lack up until now of a truly synthetic and encompassing take on zombie studies. The proposed collection will be potentially field defining: it will set out both an agenda and a set of potential avenues forward for zombie studies, even as it critically examines the assumptions under which zombie studies are meaningful.

We are soliciting 350-400 word abstracts (plus a short biographical sketch) by February 15, 2024. We will select contributors by March 1. The currently intended publisher for this collection, if accepted, is Rutgers UP, which has already expressed an interest in seeing a submission. Full contributions should be available no later than September 15, 2024.

Please send abstracts to tlanzend@em.uni-frankfurt.de and / or lieber@em.uni-frankfurt.de.


Last updated January 17, 2024
This CFP has been viewed 461 times.

CFP Special Section: Monstrous New Orleans (6/15/2023; Popular Culture Association South, New Orleans 9/28-30/2023)

Monstrous New Orleans

deadline for submissions:
June 15, 2023

full name / name of organization:
Popular Culture Association South

contact email:
pcavampires@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/05/05/monstrous-new-orleans


New Orleans is known as one of the most haunted cities in the U.S. and as a haven for vampires (thank you, Anne Rice), but there are so many more monsters there than ghosts and vampires. With such a rich tradition of magic and the paranormal, New Orleans dazzles artists and scholars alike, inviting us all into the mysteries. To celebrate the dark depths of the city, PCAS welcomes papers or presentations that explore the monsters and the monstrous that roam the streets and psyches of New Orleans.



To have your proposal/abstract considered for this special session, please submit your proposal/abstract of approximately 250 words to pcavampires@gmail.com



NOTE: In order to be considered for the Special Section: Monstrous New Orleans please follow the instructions above rather than submitting through the PCAS/ ACAS website. Everyone is invited to submit one academic paper and can, in addition, participate in a round-table discussion or creative session. Only those proposals intended for Monstrous New Orleans should be submitted as outlined above; the PCAS/ ACAS website has an online submission form for the General Call.



The conference will be held in New Orleans, Sept. 28-30, 2023.



Last updated May 9, 2023

CFP Southern Gothic Area at PCAS/ACAS 2022 (6/1/2022; New Orleans 10/13-15/2022)

CFP: Southern Gothic Area at PCAS/ACAS 2022

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/03/03/cfp-southern-gothic-area-at-pcasacas-2022

deadline for submissions:
June 1, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Popular Culture/ American Culture Association in the South

contact email:
SouthernGothicPCAS@gmail.com

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: THE SOUTHERN GOTHIC AT PCAS/ ACAS 2022

Submission deadline: June 1, 2022; Notification of acceptance by July 1, 2022



Despite the difficulty in defining what exactly the Southern Gothic is, it nevertheless is one of the most prominent ways the South is represented in media and culture. From Flannery O’Connor to The Originals, Truman Capote to True Detective, and William Faulkner to The Walking Dead, whether categorized as a form, a style, or a genre, the Southern Gothic is bound up with regional cultural anxieties regarding shifting discourses of race, class, gender, sexuality, and geographic identity itself. From its most stereotypical depictions to more nuanced, complex interpretations, the Southern Gothic shapes the wider perception of regional identities in ways that invite our contemporary scholarly engagement.

To this end, the Southern Gothic area of the Popular Culture / American Culture Association in the South (PCAS/ ACAS) invites proposals for individual presentations, roundtable discussions, or full panels of 3-4 papers at the 2022 PCAS/ ACAS Annual Conference, to be held October 13 - 15, 2022 in New Orleans, LA.

Topics might include (but are in no way limited to):

• the Southern Gothic in film, TV, and literature
• adaptation(s) of Southern Gothic literature
• the Southern Gothic in new media (games, podcasts, graphic novels, etc.)
• the emergence of “Southern noir” as a subgenre
• race, class, gender, and/ or sexuality in the Southern Gothic
• Southern true crime as a cultural phenomenon
• documentary and the Southern Gothic
• Global elements of/ approaches to the Southern Gothic
• Southern Gothic tourism
• monsters in the Southern Gothic: vampires, zombies, ghosts, etc.
• mental health narratives in the Southern Gothic
• specificity—or generality—in Southern Gothic geographies
• the Southern Gothic in popular music
• pedagogical approaches to/ uses of the Southern Gothic
• the spectre of history in the Southern Gothic
• sites of intersection between the Southern Gothic and other genres/ modes

PCAS/ ACAS is dedicated to working toward equity, diversity, and inclusion both within our organization and in academia at large. As such, we encourage submissions by underrepresented and marginalized scholars based upon race, gender, sexuality, and employment status (e.g., graduate students and non-tenure track or unaffiliated/independent scholars).



To propose a presentation (of 20 minutes or less) or a roundtable discussion for the Southern Gothic Area, please send the following to Area Chair Stephanie Graves at SouthernGothicPCAS@gmail.com by June 1:
Name of presenter(s), institutional affiliation (if any), & email address for each presenter
Type of submission (individual paper, roundtable, or full panel)
Presentation abstract (250 words or fewer)
Indication if you need access to A/V (not all rooms have A/V available)

Submission deadline is June 1, 2022; notifications of acceptance will be sent by July 1, 2022.



NOTE: In order to be considered for the Southern Gothic Area, please follow the instructions above rather than submitting through the PCAS/ ACAS website.

Everyone is invited to submit one academic paper and can, in addition, participate in a round-table discussion or creative session. Only those proposals intended for the Southern Gothic area should be submitted as outlined above; the PCAS/ ACAS website has an online submission form for the General Call.




Last updated March 8, 2022

CFP Zombie and Pandemic Culture at Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference (11/13/20)

 (This just closed last week. It might still be open, given another area recently posted an extension.)

Zombie and Pandemic Culture at Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference

https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2020/10/12/zombie-and-pandemic-culture-at-southwest-popularamerican-culture-association

 

deadline for submissions: 

November 13, 2020

full name / name of organization: 

Brandon Kempner / Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference

contact email: 

bkempner@nmhu.edu

Call for Papers

Zombie and Pandemic Culture

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

 

42nd Annual Conference, Week of February 22-27, 2021

http://www.southwestpca.org

Submissions Open September 1, 2020

Submission Deadline: November 13, 2020

 

For the 2021 Conference, SWPACA is going virtual! Due to concerns regarding COVID-19, we will be holding our annual conference completely online this year. We hope you will join us for exciting papers, discussions, and the experience you’ve come to expect from Southwest. 

Proposals for papers and panels are now being accepted for the 42nd annual SWPACA conference. One of the nation’s largest interdisciplinary academic conferences, SWPACA offers nearly 70 subject areas, each typically featuring multiple panels. For a full list of subject areas, area descriptions, and Area Chairs, please visit http://southwestpca.org/conference/call-for-papers/

 

The area chair for Zombie and Pandemic Culture seeks paper or panel proposals on any aspect of the zombie and/or pandemics in popular culture and history. The zombie has always been pop culture’s premier allegory for infection and disease. 2020’s unprecedented events have put an even greater spotlight on the zombie’s ability to help us understand and process fears and hopes related to pandemics and uncontrollable societal events. Beyond zombies, however, pandemics and popular culture’s treatment of them—both past and emerging—are more critical than ever for processing cultural anxieties. 

This area is looking for papers that will analyze any way that popular culture has attempted to process disease, infection, pandemics, zombies, or any combination thereof. How do we view zombies differently in light of the past year’s events? Will zombies remain a core allegory for understanding disease? Does the current pandemic change the way we analyze classic zombie films, books, and televisions shows? How will new zombie texts—and other popular art forms—emerge to tackle coronavirus? The zombie has come to represent the chaotic world we live in, and as our world changes, so too will zombies.

 

Some topics to consider: 

• New readings of older zombie texts in light of coronavirus.
• How popular culture is beginning to process the pandemic, whether in film, song, television, video games, etc.
• Specific zombie films: White Zombie, King of the Zombies, Dawn of the Dead, Tombs of the Blind Dead, Dead Alive, Evil Dead, World War Z, Train to Busan…
• Specific books/zombie literature: The Zombie Survival Guide, Zone One, The Girl with all the Gifts, the Newsflesh trilogy, The Reapers are the Angels, Cell…
• Zombie writers’ fiction and non-fiction: Stephen Graham Jones, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Kirkman, Steve Niles, Max Brooks, Matt Mogk, Jovanka Vuckovic, Stephen King…
• Zombie television: The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, Z Nation, iZombie, The Santa Clarita Diet…
• Zombie video games: Resident Evil, Call of Duty: Zombies, The Last of Us, Day Z, Dead Rising…
• Zombie comics (any aspect: history, cultural impact, storytelling, Marvel zombies…)
• Teaching the zombie or pandemics
• The voodoo zombie and the historical roots of the zombie
• What does the rise in the zombie’s popularity tell us about society?
• These are just a few of the topics that could be discussed.

 

All proposals must be submitted through the conference’s database at http://register.southwestpca.org/southwestpca 

For details on using the submission database and on the application process in general, please see the Proposal Submission FAQs and Tips page at http://southwestpca.org/conference/faqs-and-tips/

 

Individual proposals for 15-minute papers must include an abstract of approximately 200-500 words. For information on how to submit a proposal for a roundtable or a multi-paper panel, please view the above FAQs and Tips page.   

SWPACA will offer registration reimbursement awards for the best graduate student papers in a variety of categories. Submissions of accepted, full papers are due January 1, 2021. SWPACA will also offer registration reimbursement awards for select undergraduate and graduate students in place of our traditional travel awards. For more information, visit http://southwestpca.org/conference/graduate-student-awards/. Registration for the conference will be open and available in late fall. Watch your email for details!

 

In addition, please check out the organization’s peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, at http://journaldialogue.org/

If you have any questions about the Zombie and Pandemic Culture area, please contact its Area Chair, Dr. Brandon Kempner, at bkempner@nmhu.edu.   

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

Last updated October 12, 2020

Supernatural Studies Open Calls (Summer/Fall 2020)

An interestng set of calls from the journal Supernatural Studies.

https://www.supernaturalstudies.com/calls-for-papers

Call for Papers, Spring 2021 Special Issue on Disease

Supernatural Studies invites submissions for a special issue, inspired by the current crisis, on supernatural engagements with disease, broadly conceived. We welcome essays that explore this theme through explicitly monstrous tropes, e.g. zombies, vampires, parasitism, haunting, and other uncanny embodiments of sickness and contagion. We also invite investigations of narratives that deploy the supernatural to engage existing cultural “maladies” that infectious diseases routinely expose and exacerbate: e.g., economic precarity, healthcare inequities, media mis/disinformation, science skepticism and denial, environmental challenges, and experiences of alienation. We encourage submissions that explore oral, written, and/or visual texts across time, place, and genre. To be as relevant as possible, this special issue will be published in Spring 2021; for guaranteed consideration, submissions should be sent by 31 October 2020 (since Halloween is canceled anyway).

Supernatural Studies is a peer-reviewed journal that promotes rigorous yet accessible scholarship in the growing field of representations of the supernatural, the speculative, the uncanny, and the weird. The breadth of “the supernatural” as a category creates the potential for interplay among otherwise disparate individual studies that will ideally produce not only new work but also increased dialogue and new directions of scholarly inquiry.

Submissions should be 5,000 to 8,000 words, including notes but excluding Works Cited, and follow the MLA Handbook, 8th ed. (2016); notes should be indicated by superscript Arabic numerals in text and pasted at the end of the article. International submissions should adhere to the conventions of U.S. English spelling, usage, and punctuation. Manuscripts should contain no identifying information, and each submission will undergo blind peer review by at least two readers. Contributors are responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions and ensuring observance of copyright. Submissions should be emailed to supernaturalstudies@gmail.com as an attached Microsoft Word file.

General Call for Papers

Supernatural Studies is a peer-reviewed journal that promotes rigorous yet accessible scholarship in the growing field of representations of the supernatural, the speculative, the uncanny, and the weird. The breadth of “the supernatural” as a category creates the potential for interplay among otherwise disparate individual studies that will ideally produce not only new work but also increased dialogue and new directions of scholarly inquiry. To that end, the editorial board welcomes submissions employing any theoretical perspective or methodological approach and engaging with any period and representations including but not limited to those in literature, film, television, video games, and other cultural texts and artifacts.

Submissions should be 5,000 to 8,000 words, including notes but excluding Works Cited, and follow the MLA Handbook, 8th ed. (2016); notes should be indicated by superscript Arabic numerals in text and pasted at the end of the article. International submissions should adhere to the conventions of U.S. English spelling, usage, and punctuation. Manuscripts should contain no identifying information, and each submission will undergo blind peer review by at least two readers. Contributors are responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions and ensuring observance of copyright. Submissions should be emailed to supernaturalstudies@gmail.com as an attached Microsoft Word file.

Submissions are accepted on a continuous basis, and those accepted for publication will be placed in the earliest possible issue according to publication schedule and needs.

 

CFP Jewish Zombies (2/20/20; Penn State 10/27-28/2020)

A head's up from the MEARCSTAPA list:

Jewish Zombies
Call for Papers
Workshop at the Jewish Studies Program, Penn State University
October 27-28, 2020

The Jewish Studies Program at Penn State University presents an interdisciplinary academic workshop to examine zombies in the context of Jewish history and culture.

Throughout history, Jews have often been depicted as monstrous figures, such as demons and vampires, and Jews themselves have imagined Golems, werewolves, and other fantastic creatures to address predicaments and even answer questions of Jewish thought and experience. Yet zombies, the most persistent monsters of our time, have so far mostly eluded a critical examination from scholars engaging in Jewish Studies. This workshop will explore Jewish characters, images, and perspectives in zombie films, literature, comics, etc. from the early prehistory of the genre to the present; or, conversely, use the zombie or conceptions of the undead or living dead as a category of analysis to address problems of and questions about Jewishness in modern and premodern Jewish writing and thought.

We invite participants to examine the political and cultural linkages between zombie narratives and Jewish histories through various notions of loss and reanimation. Zombie tales present situations in which individuals lose their cognitive abilities and personal memories in the face of a social breakdown, when norms, values, and laws, the very safeguards of human existence, disappear; but they also address possibilities of restoration, revenge, and continuity. We will discuss the zombie in relation to other monstrous representations of Jewish identity, to think on the relationships between dehumanization practices and posthumanism narratives, and explore diverse moments when zombies, both in the past and the present, sink their teeth, metaphorically and not, into Jewish figures, history, and imagination.

Paper proposals should include a title, an abstract (300 words), institutional affiliation, and contact information. Please submit proposals to Kobi Kabalek (kabalek@psu.edu) by February 20, 2020.

CFP ReFocus: The Films of Sam Raimi (12/1/19)

ReFocus: The Films of Sam Raimi
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/06/04/refocus-the-films-of-sam-raimi

deadline for submissions: December 1, 2019
full name / name of organization: University of Edinburgh Press
contact email: kwetmore@lmu.edu


Call for Papers



ReFocus: The Films of Sam Raimi



Sam Raimi was a fan of cinema since his earliest years and before he was ten years old, he was making movies with an 8mm camera. From Within the Woods (1978), the short that led to The Evil Dead (1981) and the ongoing saga of Ash (Bruce Campbell), to such genre-bending and genre-transcending work as The Quick and the Dead (1996), A Simple Plan (1998) and For Love of the Game (1999) to the Spider-Man trilogy (2002, 2004, 2007), which predate the MCU yet set the tone for the films to come, Raimi has demonstrated himself to be a versatile and inventive director, knowledgeable in genre, style, form, and cinema history.



We are currently soliciting abstracts of approximately 100 words for essays to be included in a book-length anthology on Sam Raimi’s cinema to appear in 2021.  As this volume will be the first comprehensive study in English of all of Raimi’s work through Ash vs. Evil Dead, this collection seeks to contextualize, problematize and theorize his entire canon, with a desired focus on his underrepresented films.  Essays may focus on a single film, group of films, themes and topics that pervade his work, his television directing or influence.



Essays accepted and included in the refereed anthology should be approximately 6,000 to 7,000 words referenced in Chicago endnote style.



The Films of Sam Raimi will be a scholarly volume published in the University of Edinburgh’s ReFocus series, examining American film directors.  Series editors are Robert Singer, Gary D. Rhodes, and Frances Smith. ReFocus features a series of contemporary methodological and theoretical approaches to the interdisciplinary analyses and interpretations of the work of these American directors, from the once-famous to the ignored, in direct relationship to American culture --its myths, values, and historical precepts.



Please attach a curriculum vitae and abstract and email by December 1, 2019 to both editors:



Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr.

kwetmore@lmu.edu



Ron Riekki

ronriekki@hotmail.com


Last updated June 5, 2019

CFP An “Other” Zombie Project: Decolonizing the Undead (5/31/2019

An “Other” Zombie Project: Decolonizing the Undead

Discussion published by Elif Sendur on Sunday, March 31, 2019

https://networks.h-net.org/node/14467/discussions/3956077/%E2%80%9Cother%E2%80%9D-zombie-project-decolonizing-undead 


An “Other” Zombie Project: Decolonizing the Undead
Edited by Professor Stephen Shapiro, Giulia Champion and Roxanne Douglas

The editors of this project are interested in developing an interdisciplinary edited collection on perspectives of the zombie figure that focus on non-Anglo-Euro-centric works and theories. We are interested in submissions that re-frame the zombie figure in the humanities and social sciences and/or contest previous understandings of the zombie and its history. These re-framings could be articulated with areas of engagement which include, but are not limited to:

· Contemporary Environmental Issues
· Decolonizing Movements, Silenced Pasts and Historical Amnesia
· (Post-)Colonial Debates
· The Global South and Non-Western Works
· (Post-)Feminism
· Social Justice
· Debates on “Popular Culture” and de-hierarchization of arts and culture
· Literature and Visual Studies
· Disability Studies
· Migration
· Pedagogy and Education

300-500 words chapter abstracts, including 5 to 10 keywords, are due by the 31stMay 2019 and full chapter submissions will due November/December 2019.

The following information should accompany any submission:
· Author’s title, name, affiliation and position
· A brief biography (up to 200 words)
· Permissions for any images used
· Copies of any relevant ethics clearances and disclosure of funding
· An acknowledgement that the work has not been previously published and is not under simultaneous consideration elsewhere

Please direct all submissions and enquiries to g.champion@warwick.ac.uk.

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 Theorizing Zombiism: Toward a Critical Theory Framework Conference (9/1/2018; Dublin 7/25-27/2019)

Theorizing Zombiism: Toward a Critical Theory Framework
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/04/13/theorizing-zombiism-toward-a-critical-theory-framework

deadline for submissions: September 1, 2018

full name / name of organization: University College Dublin, Ireland

contact email: theorizingzombiism@gmail.com



Theorizing Zombiism: Toward a Critical Theory Framework

University College Dublin

UCD Humanities Institute

25-27 July 2019


The rising academic interest in the zombie as an allegory for cultural and social analysis is spanning disciplines including, humanities, anthropology, economics, and political science. The zombie has been used as a metaphor for economic policy, political administrations, and cultural critique through various theoretical frameworks. The zombie has been examined as a metaphor for capitalism, geopolitics, globalism, neo-liberal markets, and even equating Zombiism to restrictive aspects of academia.


The zombie as a cultural figure has its beginnings in allegorical folk tales related to the experience of the Haitian slave. Roger Lockhurst, Zombies: A Cultural History, examines these folk tales concerned with the horrific existence of slavery as told through the enigmatic zombi, which was quickly assimilated into western film and pulp fiction. Early films such as White Zombie, mark the induction of the savage zombies into western culture. George A. Romero transformed the zombie narrative into a survival story reflecting aspects of human society. This long standing tradition of the zombie genre is the basis for the successful series The Walking Dead. However, the rise of popular forms of the Zombie narrative, I, Zombie and the Netflix Original Santa Clarita Diet shifts the focus to the first person experience of the Zombie.


The evolution of the zombie narrative in both culture and academics indicates its adaptability and viability as a distinct framework for critical theory. This conference aims to investigate the possibility of developing a singular theoretical framework to evaluate culture and society through the zombie narrative trope. Contributors are encouraged to provide discipline specific, and interdisciplinary, examinations of the zombie with the purpose of formulating an overall theoretical structure of Zombiism.


Potential Topics both discipline specific and non-discipline specific, but not limited to:

• Nationalism through the zombie narrative films: Rec (Spain), Le Horde (France), Cockneys vs Zombies (England), Dead Meat (Ireland), Ravenous (Canada), etc.
• Zombie phenomenology/philosophy/phsychoanalysis
• Globalization, Refugees, and Migration.
• Pedagogical Zombiism.
• Gender and the Undead.
• Zombies in Popular Culture: Re-evaluating the function of horror in society.
• Expanding Praxis: Evaluating the expanding Zombie trope into other art forms and fields.
• The Zombification of History: Re-telling historical events through Zombiism and other horror tropes (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, etc).
• Undead digital objects and issues of digital curation/Undead archival objects.
• Legal Zombiism: Law and Legislation that refuses to die.
• Ecocritcal Zombiism.
• Science/Science Fiction: The science of Zombiism/The Zombification of science.
• Zombiism and visual culture and art history.

Send abstracts of 300 words for consideration to theorizingzombiism@gmail.com by 1 Sept, 2018.

Website: https://theorizingzombiism.wordpress.com

Conference organizers: Scott Hamilton (UCD), Conor Heffernan (UCD)

Horrors at Hallmark

Hallmark always has great stuff for Halloween, including the following items for this year.


itty bittys® The Walking Dead Plush, Collectors Set of 4 (https://www.hallmark.com/gifts/stuffed-animals/itty-bittys/itty-bittys-the-walking-dead-plush-collectors-set-of-4-1KDD1306.html)

and

itty bittys® Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Jack Skellington and Sally Stuffed Animals, Set of 2 (https://www.hallmark.com/gifts/stuffed-animals/itty-bittys/itty-bittys-tim-burtons-the-nightmare-before-christmas-jack-skellington-and-sally-stuffed-animals-set-of-2-1KDD1366.html)

CFP New Approaches in Zombie Studies (9/30/17; NeMLA 2018)

New Approaches in Zombie Studies
Announcement published by Derek McGrath on Wednesday, August 2, 2017

https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/189362/new-approaches-zombie-studies


Further details at https://dereksmcgrath.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/cfp-new-approaches-in-zombie-studies-northeast-mla-april-2018-pittsburgh-submission-deadline-93017/.


Type: Call for Papers
Date: September 30, 2017
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Subject Fields:

This session looks at zombies, including as they were defined by Night of the Living Dead, filmed in NeMLA’s host city Pittsburgh by local director George Romero.


While the zombie genre risks growing torpid (so to speak), it also has cemented itself as an area of study with easily discernible approaches and themes: zombies as representative of biological contagions, as commentary on mental lethargy in the social media age, as symbolic of neoliberal economics, and more. This panel will explore the following questions: How have zombies changed in recent years, in their composition, narrative format, and metaphorical status? What new insights can be garnered looking to earlier conceptions of the zombie, and conceptions from Haiti and around the world? How have zombies served as commentary on medicine, social media, anti-intellectualism, economics, and society?


Please submit 300-word abstracts, along with a short bio and any audio-visual requests, online before September 30, 2017, at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/16935. Email questions to Derek McGrath, derekmcg@buffalo.edu.


The 49th Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association will meet April 12 to 15, 2018, at Pittsburgh’s historic Omni William Penn. More information is available at http://www.nemla.org.


Contact Info:

Derek McGrath, University at Buffalo
Contact Email: derekmcg@buffalo.edu
URL: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/16935

CFP New Approaches in Zombie Studies (9/30/2017; NeMLA 2018)

New Approaches in Zombie Studies
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2017/08/01/new-approaches-in-zombie-studies

deadline for submissions: September 30, 2017

full name / name of organization: Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

contact email: derekmcg@buffalo.edu


This session looks at zombies, including as they were defined by Night of the Living Dead, filmed in NeMLA’s host city Pittsburgh by local director George Romero.

While the zombie genre risks growing torpid (so to speak), it also has cemented itself as an area of study with easily discernible approaches and themes: zombies as representative of biological contagions, as commentary on mental lethargy in the social media age, as symbolic of neoliberal economics, and more. This panel will explore the following questions: How have zombies changed in recent years, in their composition, narrative format, and metaphorical status? What new insights can be garnered looking to earlier conceptions of the zombie, and conceptions from Haiti and around the world? How have zombies served as commentary on medicine, social media, anti-intellectualism, economics, and society?

Please submit 300-word abstracts, along with a short bio and any audio-visual requests, online before September 30, 2017, at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/16935. Email questions to Derek McGrath, derekmcg@buffalo.edu.

The 49th Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association will meet April 12 to 15, 2018, at Pittsburgh’s historic Omni William Penn. More information is available at http://www.nemla.org.

Last updated August 4, 2017

CFP Playful Undead and Video Games: Critical Analyses of Zombies and Gameplay (1/31/17

Sounds like a great idea; sorry for the late post:


The Playful Undead and Video Games: Critical Analyses of Zombies and Gameplay. Routledge Advances in Game Studies
https://www.cfplist.com/CFP.aspx?CID=10376
Event: 10/31/2017
Abstract: 01/31/2017

Location: Uk & Sweden
Organization: Staffordshire University & University of Gothenburg


The Playful Undead and Video Games: Critical Analyses of Zombies and Gameplay. Routledge Advances in Game Studies

deadline for submissions:
October 31, 2017
full name / name of organization:
steve webley / Staffordshire University UK & Peter Zackariasson/ University of Gothenburg
contact email:
s.j.webley@staffs.ac.uk

The Playful Undead and Video Games: Critical Analyses of Zombies and Gameplay. Routledge Advances in Game Studies

The Playful Undead and Video Games

Critical Analyses of Zombies and Gameplay - abstract due date 31/Jan/2017

please see link below for further details

https://www.academia.edu/30084636/Call_for_chapters_-_The_Playful_Undead...

The zombie has had a glorious evolutionary journey. From its humble beginnings in early cinema, where it was portrayed as a somnambulistic Haitian drone, it has evolved into a diseased cadaverous cannibal that has managed to infect all forms of contemporary media and take centre stage in popular culture. The turbulent decade of the 1960s saw the Haitian zombie reinvented and radically politicized by the independent filmmaker George A. Romero. Over the following decade the zombie became a key component in politicizing the horror genre itself. Once considered as puerile teenage entertainment, horror was to become a serious tool for social commentary. With the growth of consumerism and later Cold War narratives the zombie became an ideological entity in its own right, animating the horror genre as a mythic form of social critique, and creating the ideologically charged post-apocalyptic survival space onto which audiences projected their desires, fantasies, and fears.

Since the early 2000s and the beginnings of the war on terror the zombie has continued to evolve and grow in popularity. Its presence can today be observed across the mediascape, from literature and graphic novels, to film and television series, to art and music, to video games. In fact, it is hard to avoid a video game that somehow includes a zombie. They dominate all gaming markets from app store based mobile and casual games, through indie titles and fan-made mods, to AAA productions. The zombie has become a video game enemy par excellence, appearing in such dedicated franchises as Resident Evil or in hugely popular downloadable content and add-ons to games such as ‘Nazi Zombies mode’ for Call of Duty. Moreover, even games that are not overtly of the zombie apocalypse canon contain both antagonists and protagonists that can effectively be labelled Undead. Titles as diverse as World of Warcraft or the Fallout franchise utilize the zombie and its undead tropes to create deep and meaningful characters and interactive experiences for players to indulge their fantasies.

Building on the cultural fascination with zombies this book will offer different ways to understand the roles of zombies in video games: Johan Huizinga (1938) posited that ‘… All play means something…!’ So we ask what can a focus on play and interactivity bring to the growing corpus of work developed on zombies in film and other media? Why the fascination? What practices have evolved? How and why are zombie based games designed and developed? What are the consequences? What does it mean to participate in an interactive zombie apocalypse? What does it mean to play with, or as, the undead?

This call for chapters will consider contributions from a wide set of academic disciplines, for example: economics, cultural theory, sociological studies, social psychology, psychology, politics, business, design, arts, history, philosophy, literature, and film. Today the study of zombies as a topic within many of these disciplines has become popular, resulting in articles, chapters and books. This book will build on the existing interest that is dispersed into different outputs, exploring this phenomenon in a multidisciplinary Routledge Advances in Game Studies publication.

Format

Please submit one page abstract (500-600 words), plus references. In this abstract it is important that you 1) highlight your focus on zombies and video games, 2) draw out your theoretical framework you plan to apply, and 3) state possible contribution made in the chapter. In addition to the abstract we ask you to submit a short bio, including key publications and academic discipline/school. Expected length of final chapter, 5000-6000 words.

Time plan 2017

January 31 – Deadline abstract

April 30 – Deadline chapter, first draft

May – Workshop (planned for Staffordshire or Gothenburg)

August 30 – Deadline chapter, second draft

October 31 – Deadline, final chapter

Editors

Stephen J. Webley, Staffordshire University, S.J.Webley@staffs.ac.uk

Peter Zackariasson, University of Gothenburg, peter.zackariasson@gu.se

please see link below

https://www.academia.edu/30084636/Call_for_chapters_-_The_Playful_Undead...




Contact Email: s.j.webley@staffs.ac.uk
Website: https://www.academia.edu/30132758/Routledge_Advances_in_Game_Studies_Critical_Analyses_of_Zombies_and_Gameplay

Reading List: Vampires and Zombies: Transcultural Migrations and Transnational Interpretations

Monsters Studies now at UP of Mississippi:

Vampires and Zombies: Transcultural Migrations and Transnational Interpretations http://www.upress.state.ms.us/books/1845

Edited by Dorothea Fischer-Hornung and Monika Mueller

240 pages (approx.), 6 x 9 inches, introduction, 9 b&w illustrations, bibliography, index

9781496804747 Printed casebinding $65.00S


Essays that hunt down what happens when the undead go global

Contributions by Katarzyna Ancuta, Daniella Borgia, Timothy R. Fox, Richard J. Hand, Ewan Kirkland, Sabine Metzger, Timothy M. Robinson, Carmen Serrano, Rasmus R. Simonsen, and Johannes Weber

The undead are very much alive in contemporary entertainment and lore. Indeed, vampires and zombies have garnered attention in print media, cinema, and on television. The vampire, with roots in medieval European folklore, and the zombie, with origins in Afro-Caribbean mythology, have both undergone significant transformations in global culture, proliferating as deviant representatives of the zeitgeist.

As this volume demonstrates, distribution of vampires and zombies across time and space has revealed these undead figures to carry multiple meanings. Of all monsters, vampires and zombies seem to be the most trendy--the most regularly incarnate of the undead and the monsters most frequently represented in the media and pop culture. Moreover, both figures have experienced radical reinterpretations. If in the past vampires were evil, blood-sucking exploiters and zombies were brainless victims, they now have metamorphosed into kinder and gentler blood-sucking vampires and crueler, more relentless, flesh-eating zombies. Although the portrayals of both vampires and zombies can be traced back to specific regions and predate mass media, the introduction of mass distribution through film and game technologies has significantly modified their depiction over time and in new environments. Among other topics, contributors discuss zombies in Thai films, vampire novels of Mexico, and undead avatars in horror videogames. This volume--with scholars from different national and cultural backgrounds--explores the transformations that the vampire and zombie figures undergo when they travel globally and through various media and cultures.

Contents (from WorldCat)

pt. 1 MIGRATORY TRANSFORMATIONS --
The Smiling Dead; Or, On The Empirical Impossibility Of Thai Zombies / Katarzyna Ancuta --
"She Loves The Blood Of The Young" The Bloodthirsty Female as Cultural Mediator in Lafcadio Hearn's "The Story of Chugoro" / Sabine Metzger --
Octavia Butler's Vampiric Vision Fledgling as a Transnational Neo-Slave Narrative / Timothy M. Robinson --

pt. 2 NON/NORMATIVE SEXUALITIES --
Appetite For Disruption The Cinematic Zombie and Queer Theory / Rasmus R. Simonsen --
Vampiros Mexicanos Nonnormative Sexualities in Contemporary Vampire Novels of Mexico / Danielle Borgia --
Hybridity Sucks European Vampirism Encounters Haitian Voodoo in The White Witch of Rosehall / Monika Mueller --

pt. 3 CULTURAL ANXIETIES --
Revamping Dracula On The Mexican Silver Screen Fernando Mendez's El vampiro / Carmen Serrano --
The Reanimation Of Yellow-Peril Anxieties In Max Brooks's World War Z / Timothy R. Fox --

pt. 4 CIRCULATING TECHNOLOGIES --
"Doctor! I'm Losing Blood!" "Nonsense! Your Blood Is Right Here" The Vampirism of Carl Theodor Dreyer's Film Vampyr / Johannes Weber --
Disruptive Corpses Tales of the Living Dead in Horror Comics of the 1950s and Beyond / Richard J. Hand --
Undead Avatars The Zombie in Horror Video Games / Ewan Kirkland.



Dorothea Fischer-Hornung, Heidelberg, Germany, is senior lecturer (retired) in the English Department and the Heidelberg Center for American Studies, Heidelberg University. She is the editor of Aesthetic Practices and Politics in Media, Music, and Art: Performing Migration and founding coeditor of the interdisciplinary journal Atlantic Studies Global Currents. Monika Mueller, Bochum, Germany, is senior lecturer of American literature and culture at the University of Bochum, Germany. She is the author of George Eliot U.S.: Transatlantic Literary and Cultural Perspectives.

240 pages (approx.), 6 x 9 inches, introduction, 9 b&w illustrations, bibliography, index

CFP Horror and Fashion (proposals by 10/31/2015)

An intriguing idea for a collection:

CFP: Horror and fashion
Announcement published by Gudrun Whitehead on Monday, August 31, 2015

Type: Call for Papers
Date: August 28, 2015 to October 31, 2015
Subject Fields: Cultural History / Studies, Film and Film History, Literature, Popular Culture Studies, Women's & Gender History / Studies

This is a call for proposals for chapters to comprise a potential new publication, which has had strong interest from Bloomsbury. Editors of this volume are Dr. Julia Petrov, Alberta College of Art and Design, Canada and me, Dr. Gudrun D. Whitehead, University of Iceland.

Overview
Recently, academic attention has turned to exploring the links between popular culture and dress. Thematic approaches to sub-cultural dress have included Gothic: Dark Glamour (Steele and Park 2008), Punk: Chaos to Couture (Bolton et al 2013). The role of media in fashion dissemination and reception has been discussed in Fashion in Film (Munich 2011) and Fashion in Popular Culture (Hancock et al 2013). Furthermore, scholars have recently noted fashion’s obsession with subversion (Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty; Bolton et al 2011), as well as the dark side of fashion production and consumption (Fashion Victims; Matthews David 2015).

At the same time, horror has gained a wider audience than ever before, moving from sub-culture into mainstream culture. No longer content with lurking in the shadows, vampires, zombies, ghouls, murderers, and mythical creatures can now be found on the big screen and in bestselling books, mesmerizing audiences in old roles and new. Previously securely identified through mannerisms and dress, monsters and villains are now fully integrated into society, attending high-school, going to work and dressing according to the latest fashion, rather than the clothes they perished in. This is evident from teen horror going mainstream such as the Twilight book and film series, but also from multiple current TV shows, such as Z nation, iZombie, the Walking Dead, and more. Cult TV program The X-files is returning to the small screen and Bruce Campbell will sport his Evil Dead chainsaw once again, this time as a major television program, rather than in a film. These are only a few examples from many, demonstrating the recent surge in the horror genre, both as mainstream and independent productions. The proposed volume seeks to explore these recent trends in horror through one of their basic components, costume design.

To date, apart from a few articles and book chapters (e.g.: Tseelon 1998, Nakahara 2009), there has been no thorough investigation of fashion and horror. This edited volume, therefore, proposes to explore the links between the horror genre and dress in all its forms, from costume to fashionable clothing. Disciplinary approaches may include fashion studies, media studies, film, literature, folklore, costume design, sociology, popular culture studies, gender studies, material culture studies and others. The editors seek contributions from scholars at a wide variety of institutions from around the globe on topics such as:

1. Fashion in horror:
Dress is an important element for developing narrative and characterization in both literary and film horror. Within this theme, chapters could explore:

• Costumes as expression of plot 
• Costumes and character archetypes
• Costumes and villains: instant recognition of horror film-series villains from costume designs
• Costumes identifying sub-genres 
• Costume style and production companies (such as Hammer Horror)
• How can costumes act as an emotional stimulus for audiences? 
• Gender and horror: costume differences between male and female characters in horror
• Collecting horror film costume
• Horror cosplay
• From burial-dress to prom-dress: History of horror through costume design.

2. Horror in fashion:
As fashion exists in a world of popular culture references, this theme seeks to explore the mutually-referential relationship between high-street/high-fashion designs and horror. Chapters might address:

• Designer clothing that references horror films or literature
• The influence of horror films on fashion
• How is horror communicated in fashion? 
• How fashion has expanded horror? Has it given the horror movie genre a new set of references or a new audience?

What the proposal should include:
300-400 word chapter summary of no more than 8,000 words (including notes and references), including a chapter title and keywords, information on central argument/research question, a summary of main points, theoretical approach, and relevant sources.
Contact information, institutional affiliation, and biographies for authors and co-authors (please note corresponding author for collaborative chapters).

Deadlines:
Please submit proposals to Dr. Petrov and Dr. Whitehead at CostumedHorror@gmail.com, no later than on Halloween, 31 October 2015.

Authors will be informed about acceptance or rejection of their proposals no later than 30 November 2015. The entire book proposal will then be sent to Bloomsbury for a thorough review by international scholars. Contributing authors will receive a contract once the proposal has been successfully peer reviewed and accepted at the publisher’s board meeting. Authors will then be sent article guidelines, and full chapters should be submitted for review and subsequent revision. The entire book manuscript will then be submitted to Bloomsbury where it will go through the publisher’s own manuscript peer review. It is anticipated that the volume will be published in late 2016, or early 2017.
Contact Info:
For further information please feel free to contact me, Gudrun D. Whitehead or Julia Petrov.  The contact email is: CostumedHorror@gmail.com

Contact Email:
CostumedHorror@gmail.com

CFP Race, Gender, and Sexuality in The Walking Dead (1/11/2016)

CFP, Collection of Essays on Race, Gender, and Sexuality in The Walking Dead, abstracts due Jan. 11, 2016
Discussion published by Dawn Keetley on Saturday, August 29, 2015
https://networks.h-net.org/node/13784/discussions/80322/cfp-collection-essays-race-gender-and-sexuality-walking-dead

RACE, GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN THE WALKING DEAD FRANCHISE

The Walking Dead franchise has become a popular culture juggernaut that shows no signs of slowing down. Yet, despite its soaring popularity, there has been a longstanding critique that the franchise, in both its comic book and television incarnations, advocates an explicitly patriarchal and predominantly white world order. Zombie narratives have shown themselves to be uniquely qualified to deconstruct the many illusions (and injustices) of our social order, so why have so many felt that The Walking Dead has only hardened the conventional boundaries of race, gender, and sexuality? Nonetheless, in all its forms, The Walking Dead is an evolving narrative—and many would argue that, specifically in its representations of what women and men of all races may become, the franchise is working toward more utopian possibilities.

All four of the collections of essays on The Walking Dead—James Lowder’s Triumph of the Walking Dead (2011), Wayne Yeun’s The Walking Dead and Philosophy (2012), Dawn Keetley’s “We’re All Infected”: Essays on AMC’s The Walking Dead and the Fate of the Human (2014), and Travis Langley’s The Walking Dead Psychology (2015)—cover a wide swathe of topics, and take up gender, sexuality, and race only fleetingly. We think it’s time for a collection addressed squarely at these issues, so crucial to the franchise’s vision of a post-apocalyptic world.

To that end, we are currently accepting chapter proposals for an edited volume exploring the interlinked representations of gender, sexuality, and race in all The Walking Dead franchises. This edited volume will explore the many ways in which all three crucial identity categories are constructed/deconstructed on television and in the comic book series. Because our intention is to present a highly diverse collection, we are interested in chapters exploring all facets of race, gender, and sexuality related to the television shows and comic books, as well as in tie-ins and connected materials (e.g. the AMC webisodes, Walking Dead Specials, etc.).


Possible topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• The relationship between undeadness and race/gender politics in The Walking Dead
• The role a dystopian, post-apocalyptic environment plays in shaping gender and race construction in The Walking Dead
• How race, gender, and sexuality intersect in The Walking Dead
• Queer visibility and gender in in The Walking Dead
• How The Walking Dead reflects/challenges the traditional depiction of gender and race in its predecessor zombie narratives
• How either the comics or the TV series has evolved in its representations of women, men, and people of color
• How fan conversation on the internet (on blogs, for instance) has critiqued and potentially shaped the ways race, gender, and sexuality are depicted in the franchise.

Please submit a 500 word abstract and short biography to Dawn Keetley (dek7@lehigh.edu) and Elizabeth Erwin (eerwin@lccc.edu) by January 11, 2016. We anticipate a tentative due date of August 1, 2016, for full essays. We will be more than happy to respond to any and all queries in the meantime.

CFP Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities (Spec Issue) (3/1/16)

This sounds promising:

Call for Papers for Medical Humanities
Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities
http://scifimedhums.glasgow.ac.uk/journal-issue/

The BMJ Group journal Medical Humanities will be publishing a special issue: ‘Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities’.

Themes

We invite papers of broad interest to an international readership of medical humanities scholars and practising clinicians on the topic ‘Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities’.

Science fiction is a fertile ground for the imagining of biomedical advances. Technologies such as cloning, prosthetics, and rejuvenation are frequently encountered in science-fiction stories. Science fiction also offers alternative ideals of health and wellbeing, and imagines new forms of disease and suffering. The special issue seeks papers that explore issues of health, illness, and medicine in science-fiction narratives within a variety of media (written word, graphic novel, theatre, dance, film and television, etc.).

We are also particularly interested in articles that explore the biomedical ‘technoscientific imaginary’: the culturally-embedded imagining of futures enabled by technoscientific innovation. We especially welcome papers that explore science-fiction tropes, motifs, and narratives within medical and health-related discourses, practices, and institutions. The question – how does the biomedical technoscientific imaginary permeate the everyday and expert worlds of modern medicine and healthcare? – may be a useful prompt for potential authors.

Subject areas might include but are not limited to:

• clinicians as science-fiction writers
• representations of medicine, health, disability, and illness in science-fiction literature, cinema, and other media
• the use and misuse of science fiction in public engagement with biomedical science and technology
• utopian narratives of miraculous biomedical progress (and their counter-narratives)
• socio-political critique in medical science fiction (via cognitive estrangement, critical utopias, etc.)
• science fiction as stimulus to biomedical research and technology (e.g. science-fiction prototyping)
• science-fiction tropes, motifs and narratives in medical publicity, research announcements, promotional material, etc.
• the visual and material aesthetic of science fiction in medicine and healthcare settings

Publication

Up to 10 articles will be published in Medical Humanities in 2016.

All articles will be blind peer-reviewed according to the journal’s editorial policies. Final publication decisions will rest with the Editor-in-Chief, Professor Deborah Bowman.

Important Dates

Please submit your article no later than 1 March 2016

Submission Instructions

Articles for Medical Humanities should be a maximum of 5,000 words, and submitted via the journal’s website. Please choose the special issue ‘Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities’ during the submission process.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of your submission, including possible topics, or the possibility of presenting your work under the auspices of the Wellcome Trust funded project ‘Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities’, please contact the Guest Editor in the first instance:  Dr Gavin Miller (gavin.miller@glasgow.ac.uk)

Cute Zombies 2015

It has started already. Like the other holidays, Halloween comes sooner and sooner each year, and Hallmark is one of the first to market its monstrous wares, including a kid zombie ornament for your Halloween tree (I guess). It is fairly ghastly, and I'm sure it will be a sell-out.

Happy Halloween! Zombie Ornament
Keepsake Ornament
3rd in the series
$14.95
Available July 11, 2015

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Take a peek into the creepy graveyard scene within this gourd ornament to see what lurks at night. Treat yourself or a friend to the third ornament in the Happy Halloween series! Learn more about Keepsake Ornaments.

Christmas tree ornament.

Each ornament in this series features a spooky Halloween scene.

On ornament:
RIP
2015

Tree-shaped series symbol around number 3.

Dated 2015.

Artist crafted.

Pre-packaged for easy gift giving, preservation and storage.

2.3" W x 3" H x 1.6" D