Second Arc

The Mechademia series continues twice a year from the University of Minnesota Press, edited by Frenchy Lunning and Sandra Annett. Mechademia: Second Arc is a scholarly journal devoted to the study of East Asian popular cultures, broadly conceived. (All issues are dated in the northern hemisphere.) To subscribe to the journal and order back issues, if available, see the journal page at the University of Minnesota Press. Because the print run for each issue is small, subscribing through the Press is the only guaranteed way to obtain physical copies of the journal.

Current & Back Issues

Vol. 11.1: Childhood

Vol. 12.1: Transnational Fandom, guest ed. Andrea Horbinski

Vol. 12.2: Materialities Across Asia, guest ed. Stevie Suan

Vol. 13.1: Queer(ing), guest ed. James Welker

Vol. 13.2: Soundscapes, guest ed. Stacey Jocoy

Vol. 14.1: Science Fictions, guest ed. Takayuki Tatsumi

Vol. 14.2: New Formulations of the Otaku, guest ed. Susan Napier

Vol. 15.1: Modes of Existence, guest ed. Sylvie Bissonnette

Vol. 15.2: 2.5D Cultures, guest ed. Akiko Sugawa-Shimada

Vol. 16.1: Media Mix, guest ed. Marc Steinberg

Vol. 16.2: Media Platforms and Industries, guest ed. Bryan Hartzheim

Vol. 17.1: Cosplay, Street Fashion, and Subcultures, guest ed. Masafumi Monden

Vol. 17.2: Methodologies, guest ed. Jaqueline Berndt

- Coming summer 2025

Coming Soon

Vol. 18.1: Death and Other Endings, guest ed. Anne Allison

- Coming winter 2025

Vol. 18.2: Studio Ghibli, guest ed. Rayna Denison and Jacqueline Ristola

- Coming summer 2026

Vol. 19.1: “Semiosis/Symbiosis,” guest ed. Vincenzo Idone Cassone

- Coming winter 2026

Vol. 19.2: Graphic Narratives, guest ed. Deborah Shamoon

- Coming summer 2027

Vol. 20.1: Game Studies

- Coming winter 2027

Vol. 20.2: Erotic Bodies – Hentai, BL, and Beyond, guest ed. Tom Baudinette

- Coming summer 2028

Calls for Papers

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. Submit two copies of your article as a Word document. One of these copies should be anonymized: do not include your name anywhere in the article, and remove the author’s name from the document properties (look under “Info” in Word). Named citations of your own work are acceptable, provided you do not use first-person language to discuss the work in question.

Submissions should be 5,000-7,000 words and follow the Mechademia Style Guide, which is based on the Chicago Manual of Style. Figures are limited to eight per essay; image permissions are the responsibility of authors upon acceptance.

Vol. 19.1: “Semiosis/Symbiosis,” guest ed. Vincenzo Idone Cassone

In its broader sense, semiosis is the process through which humans interpret and give meaning to the world, allowing communication through languages, practices, media, objects, or discourses (Peirce, Morris, Greimas & Courtés). We are inescapably immersed in a web of significance that we continuously weave, tear apart, and reweave (Geertz).

Sometime in the distant past, we perceived ourselves as part of a plural world, where other living and sentient beings – be it animals or spirits, myths or ghosts, plants or ideas – could understand and make sense of the world just as we do. But when we began considering ourselves to be “modern” (Latour), we started to believe that we were the only ones who
could understand and make sense of the world.

But after decades of religious secularisation, the postmodern collapse of grand narratives, and many economic, environmental, and social crises, it is increasingly difficult to recognise an emerging scheme or narrative, aside from the ever-repeating well-worn ideologies with little faith and little sense of purpose.

Yet, in this context, original worldviews emerge from outside of our vision, breaking the rhythm and segregation of our world (Greimas), shaped by human-centric paradigms. They result from accepting and including, once again, the many forms of otherness that we considered meaning-less, extra-semiotic (Lotman); and other living species (animals, plants,
the planet itself), other forms of life (spirits, souls, AI), and other intangible meanings (feelings, legends, hopes, desires). Moreover, they emerge by accepting symbiosis, understood as the enduring close relationships established between different living beings or species.

Anti-specism, environmentalism, transhumanism, intersectionality, and critical heritage paradigms, have all shown us a world in which living beings cooperate and communicate to give meaning and keep the world alive. All these paradigms have been implying a different worldview, in which meaning emerges through the living interaction and communication between different life forms, species, and subjects. A space in which new meaning and purpose emerge for all of us: semiosis as symbiosis (Sebeok).

On closer inspection, for a long time popular media in Japan and Asia have been displaying similar worldviews and paradigms: by focusing on non-human characters in future worlds, or by remixing animist beliefs and myths with secularised society; by showing the post-human condition of cyborgs or pure data, or by playing with the life of objects, places, and ideas
across the centuries. Above all, they tend to reflect on how we share life and meaning together. The media themselves, metaphorically, could also be seen as a complex living ecology, where assemblages of people, technology, affects, and bodies are increasingly hybridized and converging.

This volume of Mechademia: Second Arc seeks essays that address how new meaning-making worldviews emerge out of the interaction between different forms of life, and how indeed, even popular media themselves are entangled and propagate these dynamics. Contributions may focus on non-anthropocentric narratives and storytelling, or explore animation-driven paradigms of animism, investigate representations of the post-human condition, or folkloric or religious worldbuilding; they may discuss the biopolitical dynamics of media ecology, or any media genre, form, or text that displays the interaction between
different domains of life as the source for new paradigms of meaning-making. Contributors are also encouraged to reflect on the metaphor of symbiosis as a way in which media develop and explore new meaning, for example by investigating media hybridization in relation to remediation and media convergence, or reflecting on the interaction between human/non-human that gives shape to a media ecology, or discussing how media self-narratives and rhetorics interact with the media industry and its biopolitical dynamics.

Authors are encouraged to be bold in applying the lenses of semiosis and symbiosis as tools to explore new paradigms, to present innovative interpretations of the systems of media popular culture, or to discuss specific texts and works under thought-provoking perspectives. Approaches that connect semiotic theories and methods with contemporary media and
cultural studies are welcome.

Possible topics for this special issue include:

Non-anthropocentric storytelling and worldbuilding
Post-human futures and imaginaries
Animism in animation, animated animism
Playful and carnivalesque subversion of species, genres, and media
Hybrid digital remediation and media convergence
Media ecology and popular media as a biosphere
Boundary-breaking mythic and folkloric elements in popular media
The biopolitical dynamics of the media industry
Narratives of ecological existentialism
The political and sociocultural implications of symbiosis
Togetherness, affect and anti-specism in popular culture

Other topics and approaches are also welcome.

The deadline for submission of essays for this volume is July 1, 2025. All submissions
should be sent to submissions@mechademia.net. Please indicate

Deadline for submissions: July 1, 2025.

Submissions should be 5,000-7,000 words and follow the Mechademia Style Guide, which is based on the Chicago Manual of Style. Figures are limited to eight per essay; permissions for images for publication are the responsibility of authors and must be submitted upon acceptance. Submissions: 5,000-7,000 words including citations in Chicago Style, 17th ed. in Bibliographic Endnote form with no notes or CFs. Figures should be at least 300DPI and in either TIFF or JPG formats submitted in a separate file and not embedded in the text, with captions, submitted in a separate Word document.

Works Cited:
Geertz, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures, Basic Books.
Greimas, A.J. (1987) De l’imperfection, Louis Fanlac Editions.
Greimas, A.J. and Courtés J. (1979) Semiotique: dictionnaire raisonné de la théorie du language, Hachette.
Latour, B., & Porter, C. (2010). On the modern cult of the factish gods, Duke University Press.
Lotman, Y. M. (1990). Universe of the Mind. A semiotic theory of culture, 20-35.
Morris, C. W. (1946). Signs, language and behavior (p. 208). New York: Prentice-Hall.
Peirce, C. S. (1974). Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce (Vol. 5). Harvard University Press. [Par:5.473]
Sebeok, T. A. (1991). The evolution of semiotics. In A sign is just a sign (pp. 94–114). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

CFP Vol. 19.2: Graphic Narratives, guest ed. Deborah Shamoon

Manga is a major site of cultural production in Japan, a key component in the media mix, and a cornerstone of the Cool Japan initiative. The multimodal nature of manga, combining text and image, makes it a powerful, flexible artistic form, capable of endless variation. The expressive capacity of manga spans from the avant-garde, to mass entertainment, to educational material, to public messaging. The depth and variety of manga as a medium demand an equally rigorous scholarly approach, with particular attention to the form, that is, how visual and linguistic aspects work together to make meaning.

By analyzing the structural elements of manga, such as its storytelling techniques and visual language, we can better understand manga’s capacities as a medium, and what distinguishes it from other forms of narrative media. This exploration includes genres like shōnen and shōjo, where cultural and historical influences can be seen shaping both the stories and their artistic presentations. This also includes yonkoma (comic strips), gakushū (educational) manga, essay manga, and even public messaging in manga format, such as works on public health or disaster preparedness. Furthermore, including study and comparison of graphic narratives from other cultural contexts, particularly Asia, contributes to a wider comprehension of visual and narrative arts globally.

Manga currently stands at a crossroads, as digital distribution overtakes print formats. However, this is not the first time manga had to adapt to new modes of production. In the 1950s and 1960s, the difference in page size and distribution practices between kashihon (rental books) and magazines similarly forced changes and adaptation in production and in the art and storytelling. The shift from a single page or a double page layout to vertical scroll makes the formal qualities of manga all the more evident. Formal analysis of manga not only enriches the academic discourse surrounding this popular medium but also contributes to broader discussions in media studies, cultural studies, and art history.

In this volume, we will explore new approaches to the study of manga, including comics and graphic narratives from other cultures. We encourage contributions that expand our understanding of the graphic narrative medium, not limited to Japan, but including other Asian regions.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

Analysis of formal approaches or hyōgenron in the fields of Comics Studies or manga kenkyū
Yonkoma or comic strips
Visual or narrative features and/or historical development of manga genres such as shōnen, seinen, shōjo, josei, gekiga, gakushū, essay, etc.
Use of manga format for public messaging or academic writing
Visual or historical analysis of kashihon manga
Picture books, emonogatari, or illustration and manga
Formal analysis of individual mangaka/artist’s work
Visual and/or narrative features of digital comics
Formal analysis of the vertical scroll in digital manga
Narratology or art history and manga
Pedagogical approaches to teaching visual analysis of manga

Any other topics and approaches are also very welcome.

Deadline for submissions: July 1, 2025.