CFP: Linguistics and the Study of Comics (edited collection; revised) (Nov. 16)

Here's an updated version of an earlier post...

Second Call for Proposals

Linguistics & the Study of Comics

(Edited Collection)

Submission Deadline:

Monday 16 November 2009

Scholars are invited to submit their work on the linguistic study of the comic arts. The essays in this edited collection will focus on the ways that linguistic codes function in comics.

Any aspect of linguistic theory and analysis is welcome, and all submissions should appeal to both comics scholars and linguists. All forms of comics will be considered: graphic novels, comic strips, comic books, on-line comics, videos, etc.

Scholarship in non-English and multilingual comics is especially encouraged.

Contributor Guidelines

1. Send an abstract of 400-500 words accepted.
2. Send a one-page tailored curriculum vitae for each author and co-author. (Narrative CVs are fine.)
3. Submit abstracts and CVs as Word or Word-compatible files. PDFs are also acceptable.
4. Submission deadline: Monday 16 November 2009.
5. Materials should be sent to Frank Bramlett via email: fbramlett [at] unomaha.edu

Possible topics for this edited collection

pidgin/creole studies * politeness theory
conversation analysis * language variation
speech act theory * bilingual/multilingual texts

intercultural communication * language & gender

language & sexuality * code switching * phonology

morphology * syntax * semantics * corpus linguistics

cognitive linguistics * interactional sociolinguistics

standard/prestige language * language policy

language & ethnicity/race * constructed languages

critical discourse analysis * language socialization

language death * language preservation

CFP: Comics and the American South (Essay Collection - 12/15/08)

CFP: COMICS AND THE AMERICAN SOUTH

(Essay Collection - 12/15/08)

DESCRIPTION:

With the skyscrapers of Superman's Metropolis, Batman's Gotham City, and Chris Ware's Chicago dominating the storytelling landscape of American comics, vivid images of southern life and culture are often overlooked.

In response, the editors of COMICS AND THE AMERICAN SOUTH seek essays that demonstrate how familiar debates in southern literature surrounding race, class, sexuality, religion, and regional identity find new expression in serial comic books, graphic novels, editorial cartoons, webcomics, and newspaper strips. We also seek essays that demonstrate how integrating comics scholarship into southern studies might alter the terms of those familiar debates and challenge our fundamental assumptions about the South and southern literature.

Potential subjects range from nineteenth-century editorial cartoons to the modern southern icons of mainstream superhero comics or independently published graphic novels that critique social and historical legacies of the region. This proposed collection will bring together scholars in comics studies and southern studies alike for a wide-ranging and long overdue assessment of the rich and complex history of comics representations of the South and suggest the transformative potential of comics scholarship for New Southern Studies.

POSSIBLE EMPHASES MIGHT INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

• Editorial cartooning in/about the South (from any historical era)
• Newspaper comic strips in/about the South (e.g. Walt Kelly's Pogo, Doug Marlette's Kudzu)
• Representations of southern characters or settings in mainstream superhero and adventure comics (e.g. series such as Rogue, Impulse, Swamp Thing, Papa Midnight, Suicide Squad, Hawkgirl, Daredevil: Redemption, Hellboy: The Crooked Man; characters such as Cannonball, USAgent, Gambit, Photon, Shadowman, Brother Voodoo, Man-Thing)
• Comics that draw upon the conventions of the superhero genre to comment on the South (e.g. Captain Confederacy, The American Way)
• Representations of comics, comics readers, and comics tropes in fiction, poetry, and drama about the South (e.g. the work of Randall Kenan, Jack Butler, Jay Cantor, Lewis Nordan, Bob Rogers)
• Indie/Alternative/Underground voices (e.g. Bayou, Incognegro, Preacher, Sinland, Stuck Rubber Baby, James Sturm's America)
• Representations of southern folklore and cultural traditions in religion, music, and sports (e.g. Bluesman, Me and the Devil Blues, R. Crumb's blues comics, Stagger Lee, Farewell, Georgia, Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow)
• Comics on Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Coast (e.g. Revacuation, A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge)
• Cartooning in the Global South
• Comics adaptations of southern literary works

SUBMISSION INFO:

Please submit a two-page abstract and CV to Brannon Costello
(bcostell @ lsu.edu) and Qiana Whitted (whitted @ sc.edu) by December 15, 2008.

CFP: Sweet Christmas! Constructions of Blackness in Comics and Sequential Art (anthology)

Note that a PDF version of this call for papers is available here.

Sweet Christmas!
Constructions of Blackness in Comics and Sequential Art
edited by Damian Duffy, John Jennings, and Frances Gateward
Issues of Black racial representation in comics have generally fallen into a few set categories: surveys of black characters and creators, or studies of racially denigrating stereotypes in sequential art history. Sweet Christmas! is an anthology that seeks to put forth scholarly investigations that move past categorization and into the ways comics make meaning with and/or about Black racial representation, as well as the interactions of those representations with society as a whole.

Written essays of 6,000 words and visual essays (b/w, in the comics medium, and no longer than 10 pages in length) are sought for this anthology. We welcome proposals that address the following issues theoretically or through comparative studies, through the work of individual artists/writers, or through explorations of individual titles or themes.

SUGGESTED TOPICS INCLUDE:

• Auteurist studies of Black comics writers and artists


• Historical interrogations of Blacks in the comic book industry


• Black independent comics and characters outside the superhero genre


• Milestone Comics and its legacies; what is the state of contemporary Black comics?


• The depiction of Black historical figures Afro-futurism in comics and sequential art
  
• The practice of taking white superheroes and making them Black (Captain America, Iron Man, Green Lantern, Firestorm, etc.)


• Representations of Black spirituality


• The treatment of African mythology


• Images of Black femininity and Black masculinity


• Hip Hop culture and its depictions in comics and sequential art


• The use of humor and satire in the Black tradition


• Representations of the Civil Rights Movements and Black Power Movements

This list is not meant to be inclusive; other topics are welcome. Please send your one page abstract and a short bio by January 15, 2008 to (essays due October 1, 2008):

Damian Duffy - thbt12[at]gmail.com - 142 Law Building, 504 East Pennsylvania Ave., University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, Champaign IL 61824

John Jennings - jayjay[at]uiuc.edu - School of Art and Design, 143 Art and Design Building, 408 East Peabody Drive, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign IL 61820

Frances Gateward - gateward[at]uiuc.edu - Unit for Cinema Studies, 3072 FLB, 707 S. Mathews, University of Illinois, Urbana IL 61821