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Monthly Archives: September 2018

Call for Papers
Walking in Other Worlds: Fantastical Journeys of Children’s Agency
Editors: Ingrid E. Castro and Jessica Clark

We are seeking completed submissions for an edited volume that interrogates representations of child and youth agency in fantasy. Our collection Walking in Other Worlds: Fantastical Journeys of Children’s Agency explores child and youth agency in the context of fantasy popular cultural forms. These sources of analyses may include television, cartoons, films, novels, toys, comic books/graphic novels, advertising, storytelling/folklore, fashion, art, video games, etc. An academic publisher is connected to this project.

Representations of children’s agency in fantasy can be analyzed from a variety of grounding points. For example, chapters might consider the intersection of agency and:

Friendships/Dating
Family/Intergenerational Relations
Pets/Animals/Nature
Age/Time
Material Culture: Permanent/Impermanent
Gender/Race/Ethnicity/Class
Bodies/Sexuality/Disability
Religion/Spirituality
Education/Work
Innocence/Knowledge
Space/Place/Location
Genre/Era
(This list is by no means exhaustive and we are happy to consider any work which places representation of children’s agency in fantasy at its center).

We will be including chapters by authors from a variety of disciplines, nationalities, and viewpoints, reflecting the contemporary study of and with children and childhood. In their submissions, authors are expected to engage with both their own discipline’s work on children/youth/agency as well as the interdisciplinary Childhood Studies work on children/youth/agency.

All accepted chapters must be written by PhD holders, as per publisher stipulation. Please submit to: representationsofagency@gmail.com

Due date for submission of completed drafts: October 15, 2018

Jargon-free drafts should be 7,000-9,000 words in length, Times New Roman 12 font, double spaced, Chicago Style in-text references. Please use endnotes, not footnotes, for any additional information or useful commentary when necessary.

York University is conducting a search for an Indigenous scholar who works on Indigenous futurisms for their anthropology department.

Position Rank: Full Time Tenure Stream – Assistant/Associate Professor

Discipline/Field: Indigenous Futures

Home Faculty: Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Home Department/Area/Division: Anthropology

Affiliation/Union: YUFA

Position Start Date: July 1, 2019

Department of Anthropology

The Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies invites applications for a tenure-track professorial-stream appointment in Indigenous Futures at the Assistant or Associate Professor level, to commence July 1, 2019.

We are seeking a candidate whose research is grounded in decolonial methodologies, including a focus on issues such as resurgence, refusal, or survivance in relation to Indigenous knowledges, lands, territories, land/body relations, and/or urban Indigeneity. An ongoing engagement with Indigenous issues and/or communities in the candidate’s area of research is strongly desired. The area of specialization is open but a grounding in ethnographic research methods is required. The geographical setting of the candidate’s ethnographic research is open. A PhD, or a PhD near completion by the start of the appointment, in Sociocultural Anthropology or an allied discipline such as, but not limited to, Indigenous Studies or Native American Studies is required.

Qualified candidates must demonstrate excellence or the promise of excellence in teaching and in scholarly research and publications appropriate to their stage of career. The candidate must be suitable for appointment to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. The successful candidate will be expected to teach courses in their own areas of expertise as well as core courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Pedagogical innovation in high priority areas such as experiential education and technology enhanced learning is preferred. For more information about our undergraduate and graduate programs, please visit our website at http://anth.laps.yorku.ca/

York University acknowledges its presence on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations. The area known as Tkaronto has been care taken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat, and the Métis. It is now home to many Indigenous Peoples. We acknowledge the current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. This territory is subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region. York University supports Indigenous research and education through its Indigenous Framework for York University , the Centre for Aboriginal Student Services, the York Aboriginal Council, and Skennen’kó:wa Gamig, or the House of Great Peace, a space for Indigenous faculty, staff, and students. York is committed to fostering understanding of, respect for and connections with Indigenous communities; and the University is working to support the recruitment and success of Indigenous undergraduate and graduate students, the integration of Indigenous cultures, approaches and perspectives into curricular offerings and research, collaboration with indigenous communities, and recruitment and retention of Indigenous faculty and staff.

This selection will be limited to Aboriginal (Indigenous) peoples. York University values diversity and encourages candidates from Aboriginal (Indigenous) communities to self-identify as a member of one or more of the four designated groups: Aboriginal (Indigenous) Peoples, women, visible minorities (members of racialized groups) and persons with disabilities. Qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens, Permanent Residents and Indigenous peoples in Canada will be given priority. Applicants wishing to self-identify can do so by downloading, completing and submitting the forms found at: http://acadjobs.info.yorku.ca/ . Please select the “Affirmative Action” tab under which forms pertaining to Citizenship and Affirmative Action can be found.

Applicants should submit a signed cover letter; a curriculum vitae; a statement of teaching philosophy; a core reading list for a graduate and an undergraduate course; and one writing sample of no more than 50 pages. Please email the application package in PDF format with the subject line “Indigenous Futures” to Professor Shubhra Gururani, Chair, Department of Anthropology at jobsanth@yorku.ca. The applicant should arrange to have three letters of reference sent to the Chair by email. The letters should arrive by the deadline from referees’ professional email address.

The deadline for receipt of completed applications is November 1, 2018. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. All York University positions are subject to budgetary approval.

Please see the call here: http://webapps.yorku.ca/academichiringviewer/viewposition.jsp?positionnumber=1924

Look for JFA 28.3 (2017) to arrive in the mail very soon! The final issue of Volume 28 is a special issue on representations of the body in YA fiction, guest edited by Mathieu Donner. To read his introduction and for a preview of the contents, check out the current issue page.

Please also check out the JFA blog here: http://www.fantastic-arts.org/jfa/jfa-28-3/.

Assistant Professor, Folklore and Narrative

The George Mason University Department of English invites applications for a nine-month, tenure track Assistant Professor Position in Folklore and Narrative. We encourage applicants with expertise in the verbal folklore of African American, Asian American, Latinx, Native American, Asian American, immigrant, and other marginalized U.S. communities. George Mason University has a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of excellence and diversity among its faculty and staff, and strongly encourages candidates to apply who will enrich Mason’s academic and culturally inclusive environment.

George Mason University is Virginia’s largest public research university, with an R-1 rating and is committed to keeping our doors open and accessible to as many capable students as possible. Mason was recently named the most diverse university in Virginia by U.S. News & World Report. Our students represent all races, ethnicities, nationalities, religions, sexual orientation and gender identities and hail from over 130 countries. We are devoted to providing access to excellence, and that sets us apart from many of our peers. In a continuing effort to enrich GMU’s academic environment and provide equal educational and employment opportunities, we actively encourage applications from members of all ethnic groups underrepresented in higher education.

The English department is home to two dynamic and growing graduate programs in folklore: an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies in Folklore and a graduate certificate in folklore. These programs prepare graduates for a wide range of careers in community and cultural organizations that demand expertise in documenting local culture and bringing informed historical and cultural frameworks to public sites and discussions. We also have a robust undergraduate minor and concentration in the English major.

Responsibilities:

Candidates will teach in the Folklore Studies Program undergraduate and graduate programs beginning Fall 2019, teaching a 2:2 load. Candidates should be prepared to teach folklore graduate courses, including courses on folk narrative and U.S. diversity, narrative genres (i.e., legend, myth, fairy tale folk tale, personal experience narrative), narrative and literature, and departmental undergraduate courses in folklore, including the ethnographic field school for cultural documentation and the introduction to folklore studies.

Please visit http://english.gmu.edu for more information about the department and http://folklore.gmu.edu for more information about the folklore studies program.

Please visit https://jobs.gmu.edu/postings/43927 for more information about this position.

Call for Papers: Mythopoeic Children’s Literature, Special Issue of Mythlore

Fall 2019 Guest Edited by Donna R. White ** Draft Deadline: March 30, 2019 ** Final paper deadline: June 30, 2019 **

Mythlore, a journal dedicated to the genres of myth and fantasy (particularly the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis), invites article submissions for a special issue focused on children’s literature.

Children’s fantasy has always been a part of mythopoeic literature, and Mythlore has occasionally published articles about myth- building children’s writers such as J.K. Rowling and Nancy Farmer; however, this special issue will focus specifically on mythopoeic literature for children. As always, we welcome essays on The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit, but we also encourage articles that discuss the works of other mythopoeic writers for young readers. Classic works like Peter Pan and The Wind in the Willows have clear mythopoeic elements, as do modern fantasies by Philip Pullman, Diana Wynne Jones, Lloyd Alexander, and many others. Studies of lesser known writers like Carol Kendall are also welcome. To get an idea of the range of topics covered in Mythlore, visit the online archive at https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/ and consult the electronic index, which can be downloaded free at http://www.mythsoc.org/press/mythlore-index-plus.htm Submission guidelines can be found at http://www.mythsoc.org/mythlore/mythlore-submissions.htm.

Send queries and questions to Donna R. White, dwhite@atu.edu. Drafts and final papers should be submitted via https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/

The Department of Public & Applied Humanities at the University of Arizona is seeking a tenure-track Assistant Professor. The top candidate will be able to contribute expertise, leadership, and imagination to the department’s efforts to theorize and prefigure responses to the future of the human being.

Candidates should be highly collaborative, exploratory, and hardworking, with a humanities-oriented research specialization in one or more of the following areas: the environment (natural or built),
fabrication (material, biological, electronic), health (cellular, systemic, societal), technology (digital, analog, biological), or storytelling (place-based and/or digital). Experience with and an
understanding of international and/or foreign language content creation, or Indigenous/First Nations/Native lifeways will be of particular interest given the Department’s institutional and geographic location.

The teaching load is two courses per semester. Teaching responsibilities will include undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as curricular design and program innovation.

The Department of Public & Applied Humanities is one of 18 units in the University of Arizona’s College of Humanities. The Department works to translate the personal enrichment characteristic of humanities study into public enrichment and the direct and tangible improvement of the human condition. Through research-driven,
collaborative, and publicly facing projects built to explore and enhance life in the community and beyond, our students and scholars convert understanding into action for the measurable betterment of
society. The Department is fundamentally experimental, entrepreneurial, and transdisciplinary, and focuses on public and private opportunities that straddle disciplinary boundaries.

More information about the position may be found at: https://uacareers.com/postings/32090

Following the recent publication of Fantasy/Animation: Connections Between Media, Mediums and Genres (Routledge, 2018), we are pleased to announce the arrival of the Fantasy/Animation Research Network that pursues further the relationship between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. We are hoping that the network will open out a critical conversation on the study of the rich legacy and complexity of animated fantasy media, in whatever form this might take, and provide a space for discussion and debate among like-minded academics, practitioners, special interest groups and fans of fantasy and/or animation. This will, we hope, lead to the building of a much-needed scholarly community that will continue, develop and complicate some of the ideas put forward in the anthology. The website has recently gone live, so visit https://www.fantasy-animation.org/ to read all our news/events and collection of blog posts, as well as listening to our associated Fantasy/Animation podcast.

We are also delighted to open out a call for contributors to write short pieces or posts for the website. These blog posts can take several forms, but we anticipate starting off with 500-1000 word written blog posts that might come together as either:

– a short editorial (movie analysis/critical reflection on an idea or concept)
– event/conference reports
– film reviews
– book reviews

Potential methodological/critical approaches within individual contributions are varied, and our concern is not necessarily how animation operates as fantasy or how fantasy operates through animation, but rather how both ideas can be productively considered in dialogue with one another. This methodology allows fantasy and animation to function as a dialectic that critically examines a relationship that has, to date, been assumed, pre-supposed or obfuscated within both popular and critical discourse.

If potential contributors have ideas for blogs, or want to suggest other possible formats for content (interviews/Q&As, pieces to camera, video essays), then please do send them over and let us know the type of post under which it fits, as well as 3-4 keywords that relate to your post. We would welcome any ideas submitted either to us directly (christopher.Holliday@kcl.ac.uk and asergeant@bournemouth.ac.uk) or through the ‘Contact Us’ Tab on the network’s website.

Best wishes, and many thanks,

Christopher Holliday and Alexander Sergeant

ICFA 40 “Politics and Conflict”

When: March 13–17, 2019

Where: Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel, Orlando, Florida, USA

Guest Scholar: Mark Bould (University of the West of England)

Guest Author: G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel, Alif the Unseen)

Will you be attending?
Register: https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/event-2865930

Event details

Call for papers: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/annual-conference/submissions/ or as a PDF: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ICFA40-CFP-Final-1.pdf

Proposal deadline: October 31, 2018.

Membership and registration gateway: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/mnrgateway/

Cost: Regular member early registration is $110; it goes up to $135 on January 15, 2019; then up again to $165 on February 1. Students, there is no early registration fee break for you. Use the “normal” registration fee of $55, which goes up to $110 on February 1. Please note that the Friday Guest Scholar lunch is included with your registration fee. The other meals cost extra.

Preferred pronouns: We now have a ticky box for your preferred pronouns. This will appear on your badge unless you opt out.

Swag update: We have abolished the pink tax. All swag is now the same price: $25 per piece (up slightly from last year). Regular T-shirts and fitted T-shirts (formerly called ladies’ fitted T-shirts), as well as small and large totes, all cost the same. Bonus: if you realize you would prefer another piece of swag, you can freely exchange it, as there is no price difference.

Problems logging in? What if the system fails to recognize your name/e-mail combination? Don’t create a new profile. STOP and e-mail me. I can update your info.

Do you have a credit? (The system will tell you.) Sign up as usual, which will generate an invoice. Then STOP. Do not pay. Instead, e-mail me and tell me to apply your credit to the invoice. I will then contact you with your outstanding balance, if any.

Looking forward to seeing you in Orlando!
Karen Hellekson, ICFA Registrar (iafareg@gmail.com)