CFP: Society for the Study of American Women Writers 2018 Triennial Conference

Posted on December 22, 2017 by Web Intern

Deadline for submissions: February 16, 2018
Full name/name of organization: Christopher Allen Varlack, Society for the Study of American Women Writers
Contact email: ssaww.vpdevelopment@gmail.com

CFP for the SSAWW 2018 Triennial Conference in Denver, Colorado
Conference Theme: “Resistance and Recovery across the Americas”
November 7-11, 2018 | The Westin Denver Downtown

From Anne Hutchinson to Phillis Wheatley to the Crunk Feminist Collective, American women writers have historically engaged in resistance in their creative/activist works, pushing against restrictive gender norms, a patriarchal culture that devalued women in political and economic spaces, the tradition of silence and silencing, and any number of other obstacles that limited women’s voices and their freedom to explore the full breadth of their unique identities. At the same time, from scholars like Frances Foster to the initiatives championed by the likes of Legacy and the Colored Conventions Project, scholars also work toward recovery, eager to rediscover the works of American women writers who were active in their resistance, insightful in their social and political critiques, and responsive to the dominant discourse on race, protest, social justice, as well as identity, etc. emerging during their lives. For the 2018 SSAWW Triennial Conference in Denver, CO, we invite proposals on the topic of “Resistance and Recovery across the Americas,” from early American literature to the literature of the present day. Proposals are encouraged in, but not limited to, the following topics:

Literary Studies

Writing the fight: social justice, resistance, and protest in poetry and prose
Confronting race, whiteness, invisibility, and labor
Social and political resistance in American women’s writing
Resistance to restrictive gender roles in women’s writing
The role of writing in emotional recovery from systemic oppression
Memoir as a genre of recovery and resistance
Periodicals, newspapers, and magazines: women and textual engagement
Recovering American women’s writing from the archives

Teaching and Pedagogy

Women scholars’ resistance and work to change academic institutions
Resisting the canonical syllabus by diversifying the field of women writers taught in the classroom
Teaching beyond traditions by transcending traditional theoretical lenses, engaging new approaches to student research/scholarly production, etc.
Encouraging thinking beyond traditional academic silos by engaging the intersection of art, music, literature, etc. for a more interdisciplinary approach

Public Humanities

Performance
Scholarship as social engagement
Teaching outside of the academic classroom
Creating partnerships for public humanities by bridging the university and the public sphere

Digital Humanities

Utilizing digital avenues to showcase research projects and student work
Pedagogical practices of digital tools, assignments, projects in the classroom
Labor and recovery in the digital age: new models of resistance, politics, and economies
Approaches to shepherding projects from initial idea stage to fully-formed digital works
The state of digital humanities
Access to grant funding and sustainability of long-term projects
Perceived disparities between projects focusing on male versus female authors
How digital publication platforms can both hurt and/or help recovery work
Discussion on the differences between digital and print texts, journals, etc.
Professional challenges within universities or the discipline (e.g. how to “count” digital work toward promotion and tenure, etc.)

The deadline for proposals of approximately 250 to 300 words is Friday, February 16, 2018, using the corresponding Google Form listed below. Session lengths are 1 hour and 15 minutes, and preference will be given to pre-formed panels as well as roundtables (pending review by our esteemed SSAWW reviewers), though high-quality individual submissions will be accepted and grouped into coherent panels when possible. Remember that panels typically consist of three, preferably four, presenters allotted approximately fifteen minutes each to present their work with time remaining for discussion. Roundtables typically consist of five to eight participants allotted approximately six to eight minutes to present their work with time remaining for discussion. In order to help facilitate the review process and the development of this exciting SSAWW program, we ask participants identify five key words for their proposals when submitting.

Submit individual paper proposals to: goo.gl/y3wLgL
Submit pre-formed panel proposals to: goo.gl/J8f1QQ
Submit pre-formed roundtable proposals to: goo.gl/P61gGK
Submit workshop and exhibition proposals to: goo.gl/Q4v4Aj
Submit special sessions (for SSAWW affiliate organizations) to: goo.gl/HPf2oe
For complete sessions, please ensure that notifications are sent to potential participants by early February at the latest to allow those whose proposals are not accepted for the panel or roundtable to submit individual paper proposals by the submission deadline of February 16, 2018. Chairs will be asked to provide an abstract for the panel as a whole (approximately 250 to 300 words) as well as the contact information and a brief biographical statement (no longer than 60 words) for each participant, each individual abstract, and any A/V requirements (please note that while we do recognize the need for support for some presentations, there are always high costs associated with securing this equipment that we would like to limit).

For help regarding any technical issues with the new electronic submission form, please contact the Program Director for the 2018 SSAWW Triennial Conference, Dr. Christopher Allen Varlack, at ssaww.vpdevelopment@gmail.com; he is also the contact person for scheduling, A/V requests, etc. For questions regarding the conference, please contact the Vice President of Organizational Matters, Dr. Sabrina Starnaman at ssaww.vporganizationalmatters@gmail.com.

Note that selected participants must be members of SSAWW no later than September 28, 2018 in order to secure their place on the conference program. We look forward to receiving proposals for the many thoughtful and informative sessions that our SSAWW members always produce and to seeing you in Denver for yet another powerful SSAWW Triennial Conference. The registration and hotel information will be posted to the SSAWW website, listserv, as well as social media accounts under separate cover.

For additional information about the Society for the Study of American Women Writers, please visit our website at ssawwnew.wordpress.com.

CFP: Domestic Space: The Home in American Science Fiction

Posted on December 22, 2017 by Web Intern

ALA 2018, San Francisco May 24-27, 2018

Deadline for submissions: January 21, 2018
Full name/name of organization: John Miller
Contact email: jmiller@nu.edu

The so-called “Golden Age” of American science fiction coincided with the mythologizing of the American home in the two decades following WW II as an idealized site for the realization of a certain conception of “American values.” While science fiction might seem an unlikely genre in which to explore and question ideas of domesticity, much science fiction in and since the 1950s has done just that. This panel invites papers that in any way explore the theme of domesticity or the idea of “home”—including the idea of the “home planet”—in specific works of American science fiction. Papers comparing multiple works or authors or that situate these works within larger discourses and debates on the nature of the home in American culture in the 20th and 21st centuries are particularly welcome. Please submit proposals of no more than 250 words to John Miller, jmiller@nu.edu, by 1/21/18.

PhD Studentship in Landscape and Children’s Literature

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Web Intern

Oxford Brookes University – School of Education
Qualification type: PhD
Location: Oxford
Funding for: UK Students, EU Students, International Students
Funding amount: £16,000 for a maximum of three years
Hours: Full Time
Placed on: 15th December 2017
Closes: 20th February 2018
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Three year full-time funded PhD Studentship

Eligibility: Home/EU and International students

Bursary: £16,000 for a maximum of three years

Fees: Tuition fees at the Home/EU rate only will be paid by the School of Education

Deadline: The closing date for applications is 13.00 on Tuesday 20th February 2018

Interview date: Interviews will be held as soon as possible after the deadline

Start date: 17th September 2018

Oxford Brookes University is pleased to offer a full-time PhD Studentship in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and applications are invited for a PhD Studentship in Landscape and Children’s Literature.

The project will be co-supervised by Professor Mary Wild and Dr Roger Dalrymple in the Oxford Brookes School of Education with potential involvement from a third, external supervisor. This project offers an outstanding student the chance to conduct research into the role, significance and function of landscape in children’s literature, with a likely emphasis on popular British children’s fantasy fiction of the last fifty years. The precise critical approach to the topic is negotiable but should broadly align with ecocriticism – an interdisciplinary approach to textual analysis which elucidates the constructions and meanings encoded in literary depictions of landscape. The project’s focus should be confined to post-war children’s literature, given the pre-eminence of works of this period in children’s current reading habits and core texts in the primary classroom.

He or she will join a vibrant and expanding community of doctoral students with access to world-class resources. A full project description will be included in the application pack.

The successful candidate will receive an annual payment of £16,000 as a stipend towards living expenses for a maximum of three years.

The studentships are open to both Home/EU and International students. Home/EU fees will be covered by the School of Education for a maximum of three years. However, International applicants should be aware that they would need to fund the difference between the Home/EU and International research degree fees each year. Please note that all fees rise by approximately 4% each year. Please see this page for information on current International fees:

Page for information on current International fees:

http://www.brookes.ac.uk/studying-at-brookes/finance/postgraduate-finance—international-students/research-degree-fees-for-international-students/

For information on current Home/EU fees: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/studying-at-brookes/finance/postgraduate-finance—uk-and-eu-students/research-degree-fees/

As a successful applicant, you will join a supportive and research-active School. For more information on the School of Education, please visit https://www.brookes.ac.uk/school-of-education/

Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the Directors of Studies mwild@brookes.ac.uk and rdalrymple@brookes.ac.uk to discuss their application.

How to apply: To request an application pack, a project description and for further details of how to apply, please contact hss-researchdegrees@brookes.ac.uk quoting Landscape and Children’s Literature in the subject heading.

CFP: Speculative Fiction as Literature of Emergence

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Web Intern

Deadline for submissions: January 2, 2017
Full name/name of organization: Gabriella Friedman/American Studies Association 2018
Contact email: gf258@cornell.edu

Speculative fiction is often loosely defined as an umbrella category that includes genres such as science fiction, fantasy, supernatural horror, and magical realism—that is, as fiction that deploys non-mimetic or “fantastic” elements. This panel, however, will take up conceptions of speculative fiction that go beyond this generic distinction. That is, instead of defining speculative fiction primarily by the presence of non-mimetic elements, the panel will explore speculative fiction as any fiction that generates emergences—ontological, epistemological, and/or political—which are seemingly unimaginable in our existing society.

Can speculation be understood as a mode of thinking, being, operating, or relating to others? If so, how and to what ends does literature articulate this mode? What does the fantastic/magic/the non-mimetic do in speculative fiction when it is present? Can literature which features no overtly non-mimetic elements be considered speculative fiction? What is the relation between speculative fiction and experimental fiction? What are the political stakes of speculative fiction?

Papers on literary texts from any period are welcome–papers that engage with race or gender are especially of interest.

Panel proposal for the American Studies Association meeting in Atlanta, GA (November 8-11, 2018).

Please send 300 word abstract and brief bio to Gabriella at gf258@cornell.edu by January 2nd.

CFP: “Embodiment and Charlotte Perkins Gilman” ALA 2018

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Web Intern

Deadline for submissions: December 31, 2017
Full name/name of organization: Charlotte Perkins Gilman Society
Contact email: hhuber@email.sc.edu

American Literature Association (ALA) 28th Annual Conference–May 24-28, 2018–San Francisco, California

“Embodiment and Charlotte Perkins Gilman”

Despite a career-spanning insistence on the spiritual value of collective humanity, the writings of Charlotte Perkins Gilman often take a turn toward the exploration of individual embodiment. In her autobiography, Gilman attests to a “life-long interest in physical culture” and recounts many of her life’s events through somatic experience. In another instance, she recalls a doctor’s praise for having depicted so thoroughly the physical experience of nervous breakdown in “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” This session invites papers that explore Gilman’s fascination with the physical body and her simultaneous investment in and resistance to individualized embodiment. This panel’s selected papers should contribute to a better understanding of themes of embodiment and corporeality in Gilman’s writings. They may also illuminate Gilman’s and/or other writers’ enmeshment in scientific, medical and popular treatments of the body in late nineteenth and early twentieth century culture. Additionally, this panel encourages pedagogical approaches to embodiment and similar themes in the works of Gilman and other contemporary authors. Submit 250 to 500-word abstracts and a CV, by December 31, 2017, to Hannah Huber, University of South Carolina, at hhuber@email.sc.edu.

CFP: “Follow the Yellow Brick Road? Challenging Approaches to Progress in North America”

Posted on December 17, 2017 by Web Intern

Call for papers for the 11th Annual Graduate Conference of the GSNAS Berlin:

“Follow the Yellow Brick Road? Challenging Approaches to Progress in North America”

Graduate School of North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, June 7-8, 2018

Notions of progress have remained pivotal to North American identities and academia. Discussions range from how “progress” may be evaluated empirically to whether the concept is a useful theoretical tool at all. In practice, visions for social and economic change are generally coupled with the idea of progress. Particularly in North America, competing perceptions of progress remain a driving force behind public and political discourses. Across the political spectrum, current debates often hinge on appropriations or differing interpretations of progress. These debates have intensified against the backdrop of technological innovation, sociopolitical upheavals, and programmatic schisms in progressivist movements.

The 11th Graduate Conference hosted by the Graduate School of North American Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin will explore interdisciplinary ideas of progress and consider their relevance across numerous fields of research. How is progress framed in various academic dialogues? What functions do concepts of progress and progressivism fulfill in North American societies? To what extent have American values promoted or obstructed progress? Which counternarratives exist? What are the contested theories and methods by which progress can be measured, if it can be measured at all?

As an interdisciplinary institute, the Graduate School welcomes abstracts for individual 20-minute papers from political science, history, economics, literature, cultural studies, and sociology, as well as related fields of research. Graduate students (M.A. & Ph.D.) and early career scholars are especially encouraged to apply.

Proposals may explore, but are not limited to, the concept of progress in the following contexts:

• Progress and American Exceptionalism

• Progress in the colonial imagination and practices of “writing back”

• Religions as catalysts of change

• Whose progress? Social justice and activism

• Definitions of progress in progressivist movements since the 19th century

• Progress in a “post-fact” society

• Digital transformation and the future of work

• Representations of progress, regress, and stagnation in popular culture

• Teleological understandings of progress

• Utopian and dystopian art, film, and literature

• The future of remuneration and minimum basic income

• Visions of innovation, technology, and development

• Gendered and racialized notions of progress

• The rise of economic nationalism in the age of globalization

Abstracts should be limited to 300 words and include the author’s name, e-mail address, institutional affiliation, discipline(s), and a short biography. The deadline for submissions is February 1st, 2018. The conference committee will confirm the receipt of abstracts via e-mail and will notify the selected researchers by the end of March 2018.

Please submit all abstracts and questions to gsnas.conference2018@gsnas.fu-berlin.de. The conference will be held in English. For further information go to www.gsnas-conference2018.de

CFP: “Transatlantic Conversations: New and Emerging Approaches to Early American Studies”

Posted on December 17, 2017 by Web Intern

CALL FOR PAPERS:
“Transatlantic Conversations: New and Emerging Approaches to Early American Studies”

A Workshop Jointly Sponsored and Organized by the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies and the Society of Early Americanists

October 4-6, 2018
Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany

The discipline of early American studies seems full of gaps: from Eric Slauter’s perceived trade gap between historians and literary scholars (Early American Literature, 2008) to the theory gap between early American literature and later disciplines identified by Ed White and Michael Drexler (American Literary History, 2010). Given the boon of transatlantic scholarship in the past few decades, however, the relationship between European and North American scholars working on early Americanist topics appears to grow closer than ever before. A small but stalwart group of European—especially French, German, Austrian, Swiss, and British—early Americanists regularly attends North American conferences, such as the SEA biennials and the annual ASA convention. In turn, however, too few North American scholars are reading scholarship published and attending scholarly gatherings in Europe.

This joint Obama Institute-SEA workshop will bring together early Americanist scholars from North America and Europe in a 2 ½-day intensive conversation and collaboration about transatlantic perspectives on new developments in the field of early American studies. The workshop seeks to engage several critical fields around which specific collaborations during the conference will center:
•    Digital humanities and archival studies
•    Intersections between book history, print and material culture
•    Transpacific and archipelagic studies
•    Indigenous studies
•    African American studies
•    Periodical studies
•    Ethnic, multilingual, and comparative literary studies
•    Environmental and medical humanities; history of science
•    Religious networks
•    Post-critique
•    Aesthetics and new formalism
Seminal critical interventions—such as Elizabeth Anker and Rita Felski’s Critique and Post-Critique (Duke, 2017) or Ed Cahill and Ed Larkin’s focus on aesthetics in their jointly edited issue of Early American Literature (2016)—frequently catalyze new work in early American studies on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet scholars in Europe and North America often apply theoretical questions in different ways and proceed from different assumptions about the aims, methods, and rhetorical articulations of scholarly and critical innovation. Even more basically, varying practices of reading and teaching, or uses of text, context, and critique often make conversations at standard conferences non-starters or inconclusive. This workshop provides early American literature scholars the opportunity to
•    Discuss their work with scholars across the Atlantic.
•    Debate applications of key critical texts in their field to early American studies.
•    Plan collaborative publications, grants, workshops.

The Workshop will be limited to 30 participants grouped together in small, critically and thematically focused teams. Each team works together over 2 days and shares results in poster presentations at the end of the workshop. Preceding the Workshop, each pre-arranged team agrees upon, circulates, and reads a) one article-length work in progress written by each participant, and b) a limited number of critical/theoretical works informing each sub-field to anchor the conversation and collaboration.

SUBMISSIONS
Please email the following materials to the Workshop Chair, Prof. Oliver Scheiding (scheiding@uni-mainz.de) as PDF attachments by February 15, 2018:
• A 2-page CV.
• A circa 400-500 word proposal, including the applicant’s critical and theoretical focus, current work(s)-in-progress, past and future work in primary text archives, and a statement detailing specific objectives and ideas for scholarly collaboration. The proposal should address how and why the applicant’s work would profit from collaboration with colleagues across the Atlantic. Although the main Workshop language will be English, all applicants should detail their level of competency in languages other than English (such skill will not be required but may help in grouping applicants in specific teams).

Workshop acceptances will be sent out by March 15, 2018.

CFP: Madness, Mental Illness and Mind Doctors in 20th and 21st Century Pop Culture

Posted on December 4, 2017 by Web Intern

CALL FOR PAPERS

Madness, Mental Illness and Mind Doctors in 20th and 21st Century Pop Culture

3rd & 4th May 2018

University of Edinburgh

www.madnessinpopculture.com

CALL FOR PAPERS

“Sometimes it’s only madness that makes us what we are.” Grant Morrison, Batman: Arkham Asylum (1989)

In Madness and Civilization, Michel Foucault writes that “madness fascinates man”. Indeed, examples of this dark allure are present throughout the ages. From tales of those who paid a penny on Sundays to view the insane held at London’s Bethlem Hospital in the early nineteenth century, to ever popular portrayals of mental illness and madness in the literature, television, and film of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, representations of psychiatric illness remain loaded, highly visible, and deeply entrenched in Western pop culture.

Mental illness – and more colloquially, madness – often functions metaphorically as representative of a subversive liminality that delegitimizes protest against the status quo. Characters like John Givings in Richard Yates’s novel Revolutionary Road, for example, are ultimately neutralized as political agents through psychiatric diagnosis. Other more recent filmic and televisual representations of mental illness utilize such psychiatric tropes in alternative but highly recognizable ways. Television shows such as Sherlock and House emphasize the connection between madness and genius, while Fight Club and the television series Mr Robot focus on the social equation between mental illness and criminality. The American true crime podcast Sword and Scale has been accused of demonising victims of mental illness. In Andrew Solomon’s Noonday Demon, Allie Brosh’s webcomic Hyperbole and a Half, and Kabi Nagata’s manga My Lesbian Experiences with Loneliness, the line between pathology and pathography, medicine and memoir, has blurred.

This conference will examine these representations, and explore the ways in which madness, mental illness, and those who are both affected by, and striving to treat, psychological maladies are depicted in twentieth and twenty-first century popular culture. We ask: how have fluctuating historical conditions and attitudes influenced the ways in which madness and mental illness are portrayed in the media? What kind of relationship exists between medical understandings of psychological disorders and popular depictions of such illnesses? Do contemporary portrayals of “madness” in popular fictions work to demystify and destigmatize mental illness, or do these representations reinforce negative stereotypes, further obfuscating our understanding of psychological disorders?

We welcome proposals for 20-minute presentations from a range of disciplines that engage with popular conceptions of madness and mental illness in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Proposals that include visual arts or other media, as well as the traditional paper, are welcomed. Topics include, but are not limited to:

Depictions of mental illness in film, television, literature, podcasts, graphic novels, and video games.
Madness as political/protest (social conformity as ‘true’ madness)
Women/gender and madness
Madness and creativity
Pop culture vs. medical establishment
Psychiatry in popular culture
Madness and horror/the Gothic
Madness, confinement, and physical space
Asylums, community care, and deinstitutionalization
Madness as metaphor
History of psychiatry and antipsychiatry
Freud and the history of popularization of psychoanalysis
Post-war psychiatry
The politics/impact/importance of life narratives
The “myth” of mental illness
Medical humanities and medical science
Mental health and contemporary politics
Madness and confessional narrative

Please submit abstracts of 300 words, along with a short biographical note (150 words), to madnessinpopculture@gmail.com by 2nd February 2018. Further information at www.madnessinpopculture.com.

CFP: UK-US Early Career Research Collaboration Workshop – Violence

Posted on December 1, 2017 by Web Intern

Deadline for submissions: December 6, 2017
Full name/name of organization: British Academy/American Academy of Arts and Sciences/American Philosophical Society
Contact email: c.moorhouse@britac.ac.uk

UK-US Early Career Research Collaboration Workshop

Saturday 10th–Sunday 11th February 2018
136 Irving Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

The British Academy, in collaboration with the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, is inviting applications for early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences to attend a research collaboration workshop on the broad theme of violence. The workshop format will enable the exchange of ideas across disciplinary as well as national boundaries with the aim to help create and build exchange, cooperation and partnership between the researchers attending in the short- and long-term.

Purpose and Focus
Violence is a near ever-present reality for much of humanity, but there are significant limits to how narratives and experiences of violence are understood in the public imagination and policy process. This workshop will investigate how violence is defined and conceptualised by fostering an interdisciplinary discussion of some key themes related to our understanding of violence, and considering the implications for research and policy engagement.

Some seed funding will be made available at the end of the workshop to support collaborations between UK and US scholars on a competitive basis for research proposals formulated by participants, which will be presented in a group session on the final afternoon of the workshop. This funding is only one of the ways in which the Academy will provide mechanisms for participants to continue the conversations and research ideas developed through the workshop and of course the participants will be welcome to discuss and collaborate outside any Academy support.

The Workshop

The workshop will take place in Boston from 10th–11th February 2018. The British Academy will meet the costs for travel, accommodation and subsistence for all participants over the course of the workshop.

Application Process

Applicants should provide a CV which should not exceed two sides of paper. Applicants are also asked to provide a justification (not exceeding two sides of paper) explaining:

Why they are interested in violence based on their research and/or teaching areas;
What disciplinary and interdisciplinary skills and/or experience they would contribute to the workshop; and,
How the workshop could help to develop their own research and career development.
Applications should be sent to c.moorhouse@britac.ac.uk no later than 5pm (GMT) on Wednesday 6 December.

Please see this page for more information.

CFP: House of Cards: Critical Essays on the Netflix Original Series

Posted on December 1, 2017 by Web Intern

Deadline for submissions: May 1, 2018
Full name / name of organization: Scott F. Stoddart, Saint Peter’s University
Contact email: scottfstoddart@gmail.com

House of Cards: Critical Essays on the Netflix Original Series

Abstracts: DUE 1 May 2018

Finished Essays DUE: 1 September 2018

House of Cards (HOC) is an American political drama developed and produced by the playwright Beau Willimon (Farragut North), adapted from Michael Dobbs’ novel and the BBC series, written by Andrew Davies.

House of Cards is noted for accelerating the concept of “binge watching” among the television audiences, making available its entire first season of (consisting of thirteen episodes) on Netflix on February 1, 2013, making it the first television series to allow viewers to watch when time permitted. The series has just screened its fifth season, and its ratings and accolades continue to mount: The series has been nominated for 33 Emmy Awards, winning six, and eight Golden Globes, winning two.

House of Cards follows the machinations of Francis J. Underwood (Kevin Spacey) and his assent from Majority House Whip to the presidency of the United States, tracing his vengeance on those he believes wronged him (Season 1) through to his running for re-election (Season 4). Meanwhile, his wife, Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) searches for her own position of power, paralleling Francis’ ruthless quest, as she joins him on the ticket and becomes Vice President (Season 5).

For all of its merited qualities, the series is currently shrouded in controversy. The recent revelations regarding its star, Kevin Spacey, the series, often seen as a barometer of political and popular culture, has taken on a new facet, as Netflix quickly fired the star after allegations of sexual misconduct on- and off-set, life imitating art once more. This is an aspect this book needs to cover critically.

Therefore, I am seeking critical essays on any aspect of the series, including:

Comparisons between HOC and other American political dramas, including The West Wing (Sorkin, 1999 – 2006); The Newsroom (Sorkin, 2012 – 2014) and Veep (Iannucci, 2012 – );
Comparisons between HOC and Michael Dobbs’ novel and/or the original BBC series of the same name;
Frank Underwood’s political vision: How it was shaped by his past — both fictionalized and real – and how this morphs from ambition to monomania;
Claire Underwood’s rise from not-for-profit champion to First Lady – from UN ambassador to Vice Presidential candidate;
The show’s other political female characters who take a stand against Underwood’s politics, including Jackie Sharp (Molly Parker), Heather Dunbar (Elizabeth Marvell), Catherine Durant (Jayne Atkinson);
The series’ secondary male characters who work with Frank, namely Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), Edward Meechum (Nathan Darrow) and Reny Danton (Mahershala Ali);
The series’ technical aspects, including its breaking of the fourth wall;
The series’ secondary female characters and their place in the Underwoods’ America, namely Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) and Rachel Posner (Rachel Brosnahan)
The place of race, gender and sexuality in the series, and how these translate to an understanding of the Underwoods’ America;
The role of the press and/or media in the series: How do these institutions record the Underwoods’ rise, and how do they fail the populace;
The use of real political situations that parallel the fictional political situations used in the series;
The series’ commentary on the 2016 “Race for the White House;”
The controversy regarding star Kevin Spacey’s coming out after being accused of sexually molesting and harassing men on-set and in his personal life; the further controversy regarding Netflix’s decision to fire him and move on with the series focusing on Clare.

Abstracts for 20 – 25 pages essays regarding the series are due by 1 May 2018; completed essays will be due by 1 September 2018. The book is under contract with McFarland & Co for a December 2018 publication. Inquires, abstracts and completed essays should be sent to: Dr. Scott F. Stoddart, Associate Professor of English and Cinema Studies at scottfstoddart@gmail.com.