Mechademia/JAMS AX Symposium 2023 at Anime Expo
Want to present your scholarly work at Anime Expo? Mechademia and the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies (JAMS), working in collaboration with Anime Expo, are excited to announce the Mechademia/JAMS AX Symposium, July 1-4, 2023 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This symposium presents an incredible opportunity to connect fans directly to scholars researching and writing about the medium we all love. While the Mechademia/JAMS Symposium welcomes all papers taking a scholarly perspective on anime, manga, cosplay, and their fandoms, we specifically welcome papers around the theme of isekai.
Isekai (異世界、other world) is a popular GENRE found in Japanese light novels, manga, anime, and video games. Characters from one world can be transported, reborn, or trapped in a parallel universe often defined by fantastical elements such as magic, monsters, and quests. Isekai has become a significant cultural phenomenon that reflects THE ESCAPIST YEARNINGS OF contemporary culture, imagining new worlds beyond a mundane existence is at the core of many creative narrative works.
This year’s AX2023 Academic Symposium will welcome papers on themes related to:
- Isekai as a genre in manga or anime
- EXAMPLES of isekai found in other forms of media
- fan cultures and how they TEND TO reflect other worlds
- expression of realms through first person otome games
- transportation and transformation of the self AS SUBJECT
- immersive world building experiences through TTRPG
- characters IN or anime itself as “other” IN NARRATIVE
- extended worlds introduced through fanzines or dojinshi
- escapism found through digital worlds or cosplay
- Isekai in comedy, drama, horror, alternative perspective
The Mechademia/JAMS Symposium will also host “Office Hours” at Anime Expo. Office Hours will be a space for attendees to connect directly to the scholars presenting at the symposium in a casual space where they can ask questions to scholars about their research, anime and manga studies, and higher education in general.
Submit a title and 150-word abstract through this form. Submissions are due by May 1st.