CFP: Corporeal Media

Edited by Anne Pasek & Radha S. Hegde
Commentary & Criticism
Feminist Media Studies

It is time for feminist media studies to refocus its attention on the body. Bodies matter in the ways in which they are differentiated, valued, shared, disrupted, erased and spectacularized. In the current geopolitical and technologized context, the body is not only an object of cultural representation but also a medium through which economic and environmental forces circulate. The body is therefore often a surface on which particular knowledges and harms are inscribed.

This issue of Commentary and Criticism invites brief position papers/think pieces that engage with bodies in their geopolitical particularities as extensions of media systems and their material infrastructures. Inspired by both old and new materialisms, we welcome essays that address embodied experiences, physical symptoms, labor practices and corporeal regimes that speak to ways of knowing massively-distributed media networks and/or sketch new directions for feminist media studies.

Corporeal analytics invite feminist, anti-colonial, anti-racist, transnational, crip, and queer perspectives. Accordingly, possible paper topics include, but are not limited to:

• Toxics, slow violence, and neo-colonialism
• Time, technology, networks, and their physicality
• Risk, health and the laboring body in media(ted) industries
• Surveillance and corporeal borders
• Interfaces, sensors and bodily norms

We are particularly interested in submissions from beyond North America and the UK.

Submission Instructions

The Commentary and Criticism section of Feminist Media Studies aims to publish brief (~1000 words), timely responses to current issues in feminist media culture, for an international readership. Submissions may pose a provocation, describe work in progress, or propose areas for future study. We will also consider book and event reviews, as well as contributions that depart from traditional academic formats. We encourage all submissions to strategically mobilize critique to offer a productive contribution to both feminist politics and media studies. Submissions must go beyond mere description in order to be considered for publication in Commentary and Criticism.

Please submit full contributions by 15 September 2018, via email to Anne Pasek. Questions and expressions of interest can also be addressed to Anne Pasek in advance of the deadline. Submissions for Commentary and Criticism will not be correctly processed if submitted through the main Feminist Media Studies site.