Seeking Chapter Submissions: Going to the Movies with CS Lewis-#Cambridge Scholars Publishing

 Going to the Movies with C.S. Lewis, Call for Chapters

An edited collection tentatively titled “Going to the Movies with C.S. Lewis” is seeking chapter submissions. The book is expected to be published through Cambridge Scholars Publishing.  

Having been born many years after C.S. Lewis died I of course never had the opportunity to watch a movie with the man. However, over the years I feel, as many others probably feel as well, like Lewis accompanies me as I watch movies, read books, attend church services, and make other daily pursuits. Lewis’ works shape my thinking on many theological, educational, and cultural matters like few other authors’ works do.

This book is an attempt to take some of those insights from C.S. Lewis and apply them to film studies. It will explore the thought and theology of C.S. Lewis by connecting his work with film theory, specific films, and adaptations of his work. In many ways it is a book meant to explore how Lewis’ thought can help us view films.

The following categories are meant to act as general guidance for sections of the book:

1. Exploring Film Theory with C.S. Lewis
2. Exploring Individual Films with C.S. Lewis
3. Analyzing Lewis’ Life through Films of About Lewis
4. Analyzing Lewis’ Fiction through Adaptations of his works

Some chapter ideas that would fit into the above categories include, but are not limited to:

1. The Four Loves on film
2. Lewis’ approach to literature as a guide to approaching film
3. “On the Reading of Old Books” and On the Watching of Old Movies
4. Lewis’ idea of fantasy in relation to particular films
5. Ideas in his essays or books that relate to film studies, film theory, or individual films
6. The many different Narnia adaptations (comparisons between the versions or examinations of particular films as adaptations of the original stories)
7. Lewis’ thoughts on Christmas and Christmas movies (what would Lewis think of Hallmark Christmas movies?)
8. Lewis portrayed on film – how does this change the way he is viewed?

Again, these are only suggestions. Anything connecting Lewis’ thought with the cinema will be considered.  

Submission Procedure

Please submit a chapter proposal by March 31, 2024 which includes the following: title, abstract, and a short biography of the author(s). Proposals should be a maximum of 500 words written in English, using Microsoft Word format, Times New Roman, 12 pt. font. Please send the Word document as an attachment to the book editor (Bryan Mead, bmead@etbu.edu). Authors of accepted proposals will be notified and sent specific submission guidelines. Chapter contributions should be at least 4,000 words and will follow Chicago style (footnotes and bibliography). Submissions are welcome from early career researchers and established scholars.

If your proposal is accepted, chapter submissions will be due by September 15, 2024. Proposal acceptance does not guarantee chapter’s inclusion in the book.

Editor Information: Bryan Mead, Ph.D, is Assistant Professor of English at East Texas Baptist University where he teaches film studies, literature, and composition. He is the author of Writing in Film Studies, From Professional Practice to Practical Pedagogy (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024). Bryan has also published many essays in journals such as Journal of Religion & Film, Journal of European Popular Culture, Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture, Intégrité: A Faith and Learning Journal, and Film & History. His essays have also appeared in edited volumes such as J.R.R. Tolkien and the Arts: A Theology of Subcreation (Square Halo Press, 2021), Representations of Sports Coaches in Film: Looking to Win (Routledge, 2017), and The Arts of Memory and the Poetics of Remembering (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016).

CFP: Virtual International Conference on #Glitching #Comics -The #ComicsStudies Society

In her 2020 publication Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto, Legacy Russell explores the notion of “glitch-as-error with its genesis in the realm of the machinic and the digital.” With this framing, she argues that glitches might “inform the way we see the AFK [Away-From-Keyboard or real] world, shaping how we might participate in it toward greater agency for and by ourselves” (8-9). With her sights set on social systems of gender, race, and sexuality in particular, Russell asks how embodied subjects who defy patriarchal white supremacist cisheterosexist norms are positioned or appear as glitches, as errors, in digital and AFK spaces. Rather than take for granted the normative understanding of glitch-as-error, Russell argues for a feminist praxis that reconceives glitches as a form of refusal and a means by which to challenge the status quo. Russell is particularly interested in how artists record, perform, and embrace the glitch to expose our flawed social systems, explore the in-between, and “imagine new possibilities of what the body can do, and how this can work against the normative” (14). To read Russell’s work online or to hear her talking about glitch feminism see here: https://www.legacyrussell.com/GLITCHFEMINISM  

Building on Russell’s bold and necessary work, the CSS Conference Committee invites members to join us in glitching comics. What can errors in production processes of print comics reveal about systems of racialization? How might digital reading practices expose industry sexism or ableism? What do creators accomplish when they embrace glitchy aesthetics? How do comics or comics media that dwell in the in-between or sit with discomfort help us to refuse violent social norms? How do marginalized creators take advantage of systemic failures? 

Like Russell, we recognize the feedback loop between digital and AFK spaces so we encourage participants to draw on print or digital comics, comics-related media, or texts that actively blur these distinctions. The Comics Studies Society invites proposals for 15-minute individual papers, pre-formed panels, media objects (such as critical making, comics, video, Twine, or performance), and pedagogy or other workshops that engage with how comics (across forms, genres, media, experiences, regions, and cultures) disrupt the status quo. 

Topics may include but are by no means limited to: 

• “Glitch Refuses”
  • Resistant narratives
  • Texts that defy genre distinctions
  • Subversive reading practices
• “Glitch Throws Shade”
  • Errors that expose hegemonic social norms
  • Aesthetics that reveal the fallibility of normative ideals
  • Reactivity in fan communities
• “Glitch is Error”
  • Comics that embrace the unknowable
  • Media that strive for elasticity
  • Historical errors that disrupted the status quo
• “Glitch is Anti-body”
  • Disability in comics
  • Production processes that prioritize accessibility for disabled creators and readers
  • Representations of bodies that glitch “hegemonic normative formulations”

• “Glitch is Virus”
  • Reception of or resistance to AI art in comics
  • The brokenness of labor standards in the comics industry
  • Infection or monstrosity as a “vehicle of resistance” to identity norms
• “Glitch Mobilizes”
  • How digital platforms/modes of creation provide opportunity
  • The promise of “newly proposed worlds” in comics media 
  • Fan activism
• “Glitch is Remix”
  • Retcon as a form of reclamation
  • The rearranging of creative traditions to generate something liberatory
  • Repurposing discomfort to reveal truths

We ask that you submit abstracts via the Google Forms below or on our website no later than 11:59pm Central Time (US) on February 16, 2024. All submissions will undergo transparent peer review. Notifications will go out and registration will open in March. The virtual conference will take place in June 23-26 2024.

• Individual Paper Proposals
• Panel Proposals
• Roundtable Proposals
• Workshop Proposals

Please contact the Conference Committee with any questions: comicsstudiesorg@gmail.com

Contact Information

The Comics Studies Society

comicsstudies.org / comicsstudiesorg@gmail.com

Contact Email

comicstudiesorg@gmail.com

URL

http://comicsstudies.org

Attachments

Glitching Comics Conference Poster featuring an astronaut in a shattered mask, the conference title, and date