The Mechademia series continues twice a year from the University of Minnesota Press, edited by Frenchy Lunning and Sandra Annett.
All submissions should be sent to the Mechademia submissions editor. Please indicate the title of the volume you are submitting to as follows: “Submission–[volume name]” in the subject line.
Submissions should be 5,000-7,000 words and follow the Mechademia style guide, which is based on the Chicago Manual of Style.
Vol. 11.1: Childhood
The first volume of Second Arc will be published in spring 2018.
Vol. 12.1: Transnational Fandom (due 1 June 2018; published spring 2019)
Mechademia 2019 will focus on the theme of transnational fandoms. For further details, see the full CFP.
Vol. 12.2: Materialities Across Asia (due 15 June 2018; published autumn 2019)
Materialities Across Asia encompasses a wide range of material objects and physical practices related to East Asian media, including:
- cosplay
- anime figures, model kits, ball-jointed dolls
- cell phone charms, “fancy goods,” and other merchandise
- anime dances and performance arts
- practices of collection and display
- fan pilgrimages and media geographies
- fanzines
- historical magazines and archives
- advertising and ephemera
For further details, see the full CFP.
Vol. 13.1: Queer(ing) (due 1 June 2019; published spring 2020)
This volume addresses queer identities and queering practices within East Asian media and fandoms. The editors welcome topics including:
- fujoshi and fudanshi fan cultures
- yaoi, Boy’s Love, and slash media
- yuri, Girls’ Love, and femslash media
- representations of queer identities in East Asian media (transgender, intersex, bisexual, pansexual, gender-fluid/genderqueer/nonbinary, asexual)
- queer(ing) pornographies (“hentai,” tentacles/“consentacles,” BDSM/fetish media)
- queer(ing) fan practices (cross-play, maid cafes, butler cafes)
- East Asian media and intersectional queer studies (sexuality and gender understood in combination with race, ethnicity, age, ability, nationality, religion, etc.)
Vol. 13.2: Episteme: Future/Past/Present (due 15 June 2019; published autumn 2020)
This issue explores issues of temporality and historical shifts in knowledge seen within East Asian media. Topics include:
- Depictions of futurity, “modernism,” and advancement in East Asian media (science fiction, futurism, cyberpunk, discourses of technology)
- Utopian/dystopian media
- Engagements with historical events in East Asia or globally
- Alternate chronologies, steampunk, historical revisionism
- Time travel narratives
- Epistemic histories: knowledge, periodization, “eras,” “generations,” or “waves” in media or fan culture
- Systems of knowledge
- Media ecologies