Call for Papers for Saving the Day: Accessing Comics in the
Twentieth-First Century (A Roundtable)
51st Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language
Association
Boston Marriott Copley Place, in Boston, Massachusetts, from
5-8 March 2020
Paper abstracts are due by 30 September 2019
Session organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, The Medieval Comics
Project, and Carl P. Sell, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Although the presence of physical comics has declined, the
plethora of comics-based movies and television shows available to contemporary
audiences has made it almost impossible for an individual not to have acquired
a familiarity with the comics medium and some of its most recognizable
characters. Even more so than past generations, our students are especially responsive
to superheroes and related tropes of comics, but what are the best ways to
bring this material into the classroom to illustrate both where the comics are
today and where they’ve come from?
In response to these questions, this session will introduce and
instruct participants in the use of various online tools (such as comics
companies’ websites, comics sellers’ store sites, databases of comics, fan
wikias, and repositories) to successfully find and access comics and
information about them of value to our teaching and research. This objective is
especially vital, as resources like the Grand
Comics Database and its various search options, can be invaluable when
looking for resources (particularly when paired with repositories of comics,
like Comic Book +, comiXology, DC Universe, and Marvel
Unlimited). Furthermore, instruction on the various forms of the comiXology, DC Universe, and Marvel
Unlimited platforms are of great importance as they stand to revolutionize
access to and distribution of comics in the twenty-first century by providing
affordable digital editions of books from all eras of the medium’s history. Additionally,
fans of the comics have produced important resources essential in any quest to
track and understand the larger contexts involved in how comics have developed
and their characters evolved; these include various wikis devoted to specific
publishers (like the DC Database and
the Marvel Database) and sites like The Appendix to the Official Handbook of the
Marvel Universe. Finally, Comics Studies is a thriving field of scholarship
with many print and online resources available. Unfortunately, all of these new
resources appear foreign to most educators. We hope that this session will
change that and promote a greater awareness of the resources available to
successfully integrate comics into our academic lives.
This session is a roundtable, in which 3-10 participants
give brief, informal presentations (5-10 minutes) and the session is open to
conversation and debate between participants and the audience.
The direct link for this session is https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18042.
Please contact the organizers at SavingtheDay2020@gmail.com
with any questions or concerns.
Abstract submissions must be made through NeMLA’s official
site. Applicants will need to login or create an account at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/login.
Submissions must begin with a paper title of not more than 100 characters
(including spaces) and adhering to the following: capitalize titles by MLA
formatting rules unless the title is in a language other than English; do not
use quotation marks in the session title or abstract title itself but please
use only single quotation marks around titles of short stories, poems, and
similar short works; italicize the titles of long works mentioned in the paper
title; and do not place a period at the end of the title. Submissions should also
include an academic biography (usually transferred from your NeMLA profile) and
a paper abstract of not more than 300 words; be sure to italicize or use
quotation marks around titles according to MLA guidelines.
Please be aware that NeMLA membership is not required to
submit abstracts, but it is required to present at the convention. In addition,
note that it is permissible to present on (1) a panel (or seminar) and (2) a
roundtable or a creative session, but it is not permissible to present on a
panel and a seminar (because both are paper-based), on two panels or two
roundtables (because both would be the same type). Further information on these
and other policies can be accessed at http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/callforpapers/submit.html.
Chairs will confirm the acceptance of abstracts before 15
October 2019. At that time, applicants must confirm the panel on which they
wish to participate. Convention registration/membership for 2019-2020 must be
paid by 1 December 2019.
No comments:
Post a Comment