TWC issue 2: call for papers
Now that we’ve put our first issue of Transformative Works and Cultures together, it’s time to start thinking about the second. The Spring 2009 issue will have a focus on games and gaming, and you can read the full call for papers here.
For Symposium in particular, we’re looking for your reflections on games and gaming culture––memories, manifestoes, analyses, complaints, celebrations. We’d like to hear about video games old and new, RPGs on and offline, fan art and fiction around bingo for money games, gaming communities; anything at all. Speaking for myself, I’d particularly like some submissions that discuss race, gender, class, ability and how they play out in the social worlds of gaming.
Please contact symposium@transformativeworks.org if you have any enquiries, and please, please pass this on to anyone you know who might be interested in submitting.
The full CFP text, since my link goes to a .rtf file:
Transformative Works and Cultures, Vol. 2 (Spring 2009)
Deadline: November 15, 2008
Guest Editor: Rebecca Carlson
Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) invites essays on gaming and gaming culture as transformative work. We are interested in game studies in all its theoretical and practical breadth, but even more so in the way fan culture shapes itself around and through gaming interfaces. Potential topics include but are not limited to game audiences as fan cultures; anthropological approaches to game design and game engagement; on- and off-line game experiences; textual and cultural analysis of games; fan appropriations and manipulations of games; and intersections between games and other fan artifacts.
TWC is a new Open Access, international peer-reviewed online journal published by the Organization for Transformative Works. TWC aims to provide a publishing outlet that welcomes fan-related topics and to promote dialogue between the academic community and the fan community. The first issue of TWC (September 2008) is available at http://journal.transformativeworks.org/. TWC accepts rolling electronic submissions of full essays through its Web site, where full guidelines are provided. The final deadline for inclusion in the special games issue is November 15, 2008.
TWC encourages innovative works that situate popular media, fan communities, and transformative works within contemporary culture via a variety of critical approaches, including but not limited to feminism, queer theory, critical race studies, political economy, ethnography, reception theory, literary criticism, film studies, and media studies. Submissions should fit into one of three categories of varying scope:
Theory: These often interdisciplinary essays with a conceptual focus and a theoretical frame offer expansive interventions in the field of fan studies. Peer review. Length, 5,000–8,000 words plus a 100–250-word abstract.
Praxis: These essays may apply a specific theory to a formation or artifact; explicate fan practice; perform a detailed reading of a specific text; or otherwise relate transformative phenomena to social, literary, technological, and/or historical frameworks. Peer review. Length, 4,000–7,000 words plus a 100–250-word abstract.
Symposium: Symposium is a section of concise, thematically contained essays. These short pieces provide insight into current developments and debates surrounding any topic related to fandom or transformative media and cultures. Editorial review. Length, 1,500–2,500 words.
Submission information: http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/about/submissions