Calls for Papers: Illness, Medievalism and Girls' Series

Laura Vivanco

Edited Collection: “Psychosomatic” Illness in Popular Culture (Abstracts due September 1) 

The proposed collection invites interdisciplinary analysis of the phenomenon of “psychosomatic” illness as it is (mis)understood in expert and popular culture. Possible themes or topics include:

•the persistence of mind-body dualism in both expert and lay concepts of illness and wellness
•the connection between stress and illness in popular culture

More details here. And on a similar theme:

Medical Humanities: Health and Illness in Popular Culture, April 1-4 2015 (Abstracts due 1 November)

The "Medical Humanities: Health and Disease in Culture" area for the 2015 Popular and American Culture Association meeting in New Orleans invites proposals related to the portrayal of health, illness, and health care in the discourses of popular and American culture. [...]
Subject areas might include but are not limited to:
• Narratives of physical and mental illness or disability told from the perspective of patient and/or provider in contemporary pop culture media: fiction, poetry, graphic fiction, memoir, television, film etc. [...]
• The problematic representation of illness narrative in popular culture (quests, battles, wins, losses, survivors, victims—and the construction of the patient-as-subject)

More details here.

Call for Blog Contributors - Genre and Medievalism

The Tales After Tolkien Society promotes scholarship exploring any and all ways in which popular culture genres engage with the Middle Ages. What does ‘medieval’ mean in different genres – including but limited to Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance, Westerns, Historical, Horror, Young Adult and Children’s?

The Society aims to connect scholars and build a community of those working on medievalisms in genre literature, and to promote their work. We organize conference panels, and have two edited collections forthcoming.

We are currently seeking new contributors to our blog talesaftertolkien.blogspot.com
More details here.

Collection: Girl Talk: The Influence of Girls’ Series Fiction on American Popular Culture (Abstracts due 5 October)

Since the mid nineteenth century, American girls have had books written especially for them, often featuring the same characters who begin to feel like their friends, enemies, and overall substitute social cliques. [...]

The editor seeks submissions that interrogate the cultural work that is performed through the series genre, contemplating the messages these books relay about subjects including race, class, gender, education, family, romance, and friendship, and examine the trajectory of girl fiction within such contexts as material culture, geopolitics, socioeconomics, and feminism.

Note that for the purposes of this collection, series books will include any books featuring the same female protagonist/s for at least three volumes.

More details here.