Announcements

  • CFP | Native American Visibility and Representations in Contemporary USA: Between Cultural Belonging and Activism

    2025-03-18

    Special thematic dossier 7.2 | Native American Visibility and Representations in Contemporary USA: Between Cultural Belonging and Activism

    Editor: María Elena Serrano Moya (Universidad de Alcalá)

    Despite the deep-rooted presence in American society and their historical and cultural significance within mainstream USA, Native American people have been frequently misrepresented, marginalized, misunderstood and overlooked within US popular culture. In recent years, prominent Indigenous figures such as Deb Haaland and Sterlin Harjo have emerged as influential voices in cultural, political, artistic, and academic spheres, challenging traditional narratives about their communities. However, despite an increase in individuals identifying as Native American (Census, 2023), their representation in visual arts and mainstream media remains disproportionately low (Smith & The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, 2023).

    This special issue seeks to critically engage with how Native American people navigate, contest and reshape discourses and representations of themselves to reclaim space in the XXI century. Thus, we welcome interdisciplinary submissions that examine Native American visibility, representation and voice and questions the intersections of media, literature, politics, identity and artistic expressions related to Native American experiences.

    Read more about CFP | Native American Visibility and Representations in Contemporary USA: Between Cultural Belonging and Activism

  • CFP | The Boundaries of US Identity and the African American Experience

    2025-03-18

    Special thematic dossier 7.1 | The Boundaries of US Identity and the African American Experience

    Editor: Beatriz Hermida Ramos (Universidad de Salamanca)

    The special dossier will focus on how US African American identities have been shaped, informed, configured, and challenged since the country’s foundation. It will look at the centrality of ethnoracial boundaries, broadly intended as geopolitical, sociocultural, metaphorical zones of liminality. Boundaries that have been deployed to construct (and deconstruct) the dominant national identity, the existing racial binary and its narratives. The proximity of Black Otherness implies a more or less overt threat to the cultural and racial integrity of the nation’s inherent Whiteness, eliciting a variety of perceived dangers. Stereotypes are born and binaries are created to maintain such integrity, playing on the difference and opposition between inclusion / exclusion, civilization / savagery, correctness / incorrectness, insider / outsider, us / them.

    The dossier invites reflections on representations of the African American experience and identity formation in popular culture and discourses, focusing on the diversity of identities, liminality, and disenfranchised experiences of US Americanness, as well as the construction of borders—both material and metaphorical—as means to define the US national imaginary.



    Read more about CFP | The Boundaries of US Identity and the African American Experience

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

    2024-05-30

    Special thematic dossier 6.2 | 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.
    We encourage contributions from scholars across various disciplines, including media studies, cultural studies, sociology, literature, and beyond aiming to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the evolving landscape of queer representation in US popular culture.

    Read more about CFP | LGBTIQ+ Representations and Media in US Popular Culture: Exploring New Directions, Challenges, and Queer Heritage

  • Deadline extended | 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.

    Read more about Deadline extended | LGBTIQ+ Representations and Media in US Popular Culture: Exploring New Directions, Challenges, and Queer Heritage

  • 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.

    Read more about Deadline extended | (Super)Heroes in the 21st-Century American Imagination

  • 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. 

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