Daily Archives: 7 August 2018

CFP Playing the Past: Race, Gender and Heroism in Gaming (ICMS Kalamazoo, 2019)

Proposals are invited for a roundtable on ‘Playing the Past: Race, Gender, and Heroism in Gaming’, to be convened at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, 9-12 May, 2019.

Video and PC gaming have come to play a substantial role in popular consciousness in the 21st century and the medium itself offers a uniquely immersive experience unfathomable in other facets of popular culture. In virtual “medieval” and fantasy worlds, a player gets the chance to live the story rather than being a passive observer, and in MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, he or she can even relate to other players as that character, experiencing the world as priest or paladin existing in an expansive virtual space. However, the interactive nature of these games also raises important questions about how we conceptualize and create the past and the impact these imagined worlds can have on notions of the “medieval” for a non-academic audience.

Often these games leave women behind in the role of damsels in distress, drawing from modern conceptions of “medieval” chivalric codes that do not make space for female adventurers and heroes. Moreover, race often refers to various humanoid creatures like trolls and goblins, and these fantasy “races” are often included in lieu of real racial and ethnic diversity on the grounds that fantasy creatures are somehow “more medieval.” When a developer chooses to include women or people of color in their “medieval” video game, alt-right gamer movements like Gamergate have resisted, claiming the game has become “ahistorical” by allowing anyone but white men into their pseudo-medieval fantasy. This roundtable will raise questions about how the past has been used in gaming to alienate non-white, non-male players, and the extent to which gaming developers have managed to resist medievalist tropes as held in popular consciousness.

Each participant will give a 7-10-minute presentation, which will be followed by a roundtable discussion. Possible topics can include but are not limited to constructions of the past in video game medievalisms, problematic uses of race and gender in fantasy gaming, and the mobilization of faux medievalism against inclusivity by online movements like Gamergate. 

Please submit a 200 word abstract to Ali Frauman atafrauman@indiana.edu by 15 September, 2018 and direct any questions to the same address.

Entries open: SMFS Graduate Student Essay Prize 2018

The Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship (SMFS) Graduate Student Essay Competition is now open. This competition is open to all currently-enrolled graduate students, including those who will complete their degree in the current year.  Papers submitted for consideration should be polished, original scholarly work and may cover any aspect of medieval studies that focuses on issues of women, gender, and/or sexuality.   

Requirements:

  1. Papers should be no longer than 8000 words, not counting foot/endnotes and bibliography.
  2. Papers should be submitted as Microsoft Word documents (.doc OR .docx), double-spaced with standard margins, and include a FULL citation apparatus—foot- or endnotes and bibliography, all in Chicago Manual of Style [preferable] or MLA format.

Papers that do not conform to these basic guidelines will be returned with a request to revise in accordance with required length and formatting.

The prize will be 5 years’ membership of SMFS and publication of the winning paper, subject to editing, in our journal Medieval Feminist Forum.

Deadline for submission of papers is 1 October 2018.  The winner will be announced around 1 February 2019.  There may be years when the prize will not be awarded, depending on submissions in that given year.

Send all submissions (via email attachment) and correspondence to Melissa Ridley Elmes, MElmes@lindenwood.edu

CFP: Literature and Madness (Popular Culture Association 2019)

The Literature and Madness section of the Popular Culture Association is soliciting 15-20 minute papers for the upcoming year’s annual PCA/ACA conference in Washington, D.C, scheduled for 17-20 April 2019.  The deadline for abstract submission is 1 October 2018.

Contributors are encouraged to think broadly about either or both terms of ‘literature’ and ‘madness’. For instance, madness can be addressed in its contemporary medical forms, as codified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), or it can be considered in any of the forms it has been assigned in other historical periods.  Likewise, literature can be viewed widely.  Past panels have included analysis of popular and canonical literary works and/or genres, but they have also included analysis of film, opera and musical theatre, song lyrics, instrumental music, single-media and multi-media art, and the cultural and economic conditions surrounding the production, publication, performance, and/or installation of such works.

The Literature and Madness section accepts submissions from faculty members, graduate students, and independent scholars.  Undergraduate students are encouraged to submit abstracts to the undergraduate sessions offered during the conference.

Abstracts of 250-300 words should be submitted electronically on the PCA/ACA website, through the links and process detailed at http://ncp.pcaaca.org/user.  Prospective contributors who have questions about submitting an abstract or who encounter difficulty with the electronic links and process on the PCA/ACA website should contact the Area Chair for the section.

Contact Info: 

Russ Pottle
Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Worcester State University
Worcester, MA 01602
rpottle@worcester.edu