Announcements

• Call for papers | LGBTIQ+ Representations and Media in US Popular Culture: Exploring New Directions, Challenges, and Queer Heritage

  2023-11-06

  Special thematic dossier | LGBTIQ+ Representations and Media in US Popular Culture: Exploring New Directions, Challenges, and Queer Heritage

  Editor: J. Javier Torres-Fernández (University of Almería)

  In the ever-evolving landscape of US popular culture, the representation of LGBTIQ+ individuals has undergone profound transformations, reflecting broader societal shifts in attitudes, norms, and activism. Over the years, LGBTIQ+ representation has moved beyond the binary and traditional confines, paving the way for an array of diverse narratives and identities. A recent GLAAD report (2022) found LGBTIQ+ representation on US TV at a high, with nearly 12% of regular characters who are LGBTIQ+, up 2.8% from the previous year. However, the study found that there were shortfalls and missing opportunities to tell a wider range of stories about LGBTIQ+ characters. This special issue aims to examine, critique, and celebrate these representations seeking to foster a comprehensive and interdisciplinary exploration of LGBTIQ+ representations and media in US popular culture.

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• Deadline extended | (Super)Heroes in the 21st-Century American Imagination

  2022-11-28

  A fundamental element of the American imaginary, superhero and heroic narratives have seen a new apogee since the turn of the century. New and old heroes and heroines have populated popular culture, giving rise to a variety of texts that tackle diversity, nostalgia, and the need for imaginaries and narratives that help us deal with the struggles inherent to our current times.

  This two-part dossier, co-edited by Marica Orrù and Anna Marta Marini, will collect essays on (super)hero figures in twenty-first century US popular culture, with a specific focus on diversity, cross-genre texts, and transmedia representations.

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• Deadline extended: Call for articles vol 4 no 2 (spring 2023) | STEM in US Popular Culture

  2021-10-07

  The deadline is extended to December 1, 2022.

  This special thematic dossier aims to offer different explorations and analyses of the ways in which US popular culture texts can offer both positive and negative representations of the STEM fields in connection to gender. We are looking for intersectional approaches that go beyond ‘white feminism’ and beyond a limited understanding of gender, paying attention to gender-nonconforming individuals, class-related issues, neurodivergence, and any instances of othered bodies in fictional and non-fictional popular culture from the United States. 

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