CFP: Mechademia 5 - Fanthropologies (Deadline: Jan. 5, 2009)

Above: The cover to Volume 2; see the contents listing for that issue at the Mechademia website. BTW, I love the word "fanthropology."

Call for Papers
Mechademia 5: Fanthropologies
(University of Minnesota Press, forthcoming in 2010)

In recent years, interest in fan communities and fan activities has exploded, and the term otaku has become global currency. Terms like "fan" and "otaku" have been mobilized for a wide range or reasons in a wide variety of discourses, from gender studies to inquiries about technology and sociality. We think that the exploration of fan activities and otaku phenomena is crucial to understanding the contemporary world of transnational image and information flows, as well as the transnational formation of concepts and discourses.

In keeping with our mission to forge links between different communities of knowledge and to challenge the conventional channels for the flow of information, in Mechademia 5, we propose a challenge to the received understandings of fans. We would like to challenge quasi-anthropological and pseudo-sociological readings in which the identity of "fan" or "otaku" is presumed in advance as a fixed object of knowledge. We propose "fanthropologies" not as the anthropology of fans but as an exploration of the challenge that fans present for the imposition of anthropological knowledge and the sociological gaze. To do "fanthropology" is not to do anthropology of fans but to ask what anthropology might be for or to fans.

We thus invite submissions that take seriously the social and historical construction of fans or otaku as an object of knowledge rather than impose it imperiously. We welcome essays that counter the tendency to posit fans as nothing more than a new object for old forms of knowledge. We seek essays about zones of activity as varied as manga and anime fandoms, game and character design, subcultures, emergent communities and microfascisms, connoisseurship, packaging, pop arts and fine arts, to name but a few.

We encourage authors from various backgrounds with diverse interests to write in a variety of formats and from a range of perspectives. These might include textual readings that foreground reader or viewer experience, critical theorizations of fandom, and studies of fan-produced texts, as well as first-person narratives, photo essays, artistic interventions, and other approaches not listed here. We call on contributors not only to write across disciplinary boundaries but also to address readers in allied communities of knowledge.

The submission deadline is January 5, 2009. Submissions may be sent as attachments to submissions @ mechademia.org. Essays should be between 1,000 and 5,000 words and use Chicago style documentation. Authors may include up to five black-and-white images, and additional images or color images may be possible with special permission from the publisher. Further information is available on the Mechademia web site at http://mechademia.org.

CFP: Mechademia 4: War/Time (Deadline:January 7, 2008 )

This is a wonderful journal. Be sure to have your library order it!

MECHADEMIA 4: War/Time
Editor: Frenchy Lunning Associate Editors: Thomas LaMarre, Christopher Bolton, Michelle Ollie

Call for Papers

Mechademia is an annual forum published by the University of Minnesota Press, for critical work on anime, manga, and fan arts. We are seeking submissions on topics linked to Japanese and international manga or anime, as well as related material from fields like fashion, film studies, fine art, game design, and global fan culture, among others. We encourage contributions in a variety of formats, by authors from a wide range of backgrounds and fields. Contributors should endeavor to write across disciplinary boundaries, presenting their unique knowledge in all its sophistication, but with a broad audience in mind.

We are currently accepting submissions for Mechademia #4, the theme of which is "War/Time." Possible topics include:

• past and future conflicts
• war and memory
• animated violence and cinematic duration
• millennialism and apocalypse
• manga histories
• heroic archetypes versus real histories
• avatar wars
• etc.

This list is only a beginning: contributors are encouraged to interpret the topic broadly and contribute their own original perspectives. Superior submissions that fall outside the theme may also be considered if space permits.

The submission deadline for volume #4 is January 7, 2008.

Submissions should be approximately 5000 words or less, plus notes. Mechademia uses Chicago style documentation. Files may be sent as attachments to submissions@mechademia.org.

Detailed submission guidelines and further information are available on our web site at http://mechademia.org.

CFP: MECHADEMIA 3: Limits of the Human

Mechademia is a new journal, one I'm very much looking forward to reading. It joins our list of academic journals about comic art.

MECHADEMIA 3: Limits of the Human
Editor: Frenchy Lunning
Associate Editors: Thomas LaMarre, Michelle Ollie, Christopher Bolton

Mechademia is a new annual refereed journal from the University of Minnesota Press, a forum for critical work on anime, manga, and fan arts. We are seeking submissions on topics linked to Japanese manga or anime, as well as related material from fields like fashion, film studies, fine art, game design, and American or global fan culture, among others. Mechademia's goal is to promote critical thinking, writing, art, and creative activity that can bridge the current gap between professional, academic, and fan communities and discourses.

To this end, we seek contributions in a variety of formats, by authors from a wide range of backgrounds and fields. Contributors should endeavor to write across disciplinary boundaries, presenting their unique knowledge in all its sophistication, but with a broad audience in mind. Each issue will have a theme that will focus the conversation and connect different pieces, but we encourage contributors to interpret these themes broadly in order to keep the way open for new and original kinds of work. Superior submissions that fall outside the theme may also be considered if space permits.

We are currently accepting submissions for Mechademia #3, the theme of which is "Limits of the Human." This issue will look at the way anime, manga, and related media have probed the contours human identity and activity-by imagining non-human others; by positing breakthroughs in human capability; or by showing us our own limitations as readers and viewers, among many other strategies. Possible topics include cyborg theory; new fan species; animalism and animalization; undead and the occult; speed and distance; phenomenologies and ontologies, etc. And this list is only a beginning: contributors are encouraged to interpret the theme broadly and contribute their own original perspective on the topic.

The submission deadline for issue #3 is January 5, 2007.

Submissions should be approximately 5000 words or less. Mechademia uses Chicago style documentation, though other formats are acceptable at the submission stage. Files may be sent as attachments to submissions at mechademia.org.

Detailed information about the journal's mission and submission procedures is available on our web site at http://mechademia.org.