CFP: But Is It Media?
- Abstracts (500 words) due: extended to September 11, 2023 (originally September 6, 2023)
- Full article drafts (8,000 - 10,000 words) due: January 15, 2024
- Anticipated publication: fall 2025, volume 65, issue 1
To submit, email the JCMS managing editor: editors@jcmsjournal.org
With questions, email the JCMS co-editors-in-chief: liz@jcmsjournal.org and bo@jcmsjournal.org
The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (JCMS) is calling for papers for its inaugural special issue. The topic of the special issue is “But Is It Media?” As the field of media studies continues to expand, many scholars who operate under the media studies banner are shifting to studying objects, practices, and histories that look unlike traditional objects of media studies analysis. Such work pushes the boundaries of media studies, productively challenging our conceptualization of what constitutes media and what value media studies analysis brings to our understanding of the world. While this work often generates enthusiasm, it is also frequently met with skepticism. Scholars who conduct and present this work commonly find themselves asked, whether in Q&As or job interviews, “Sure, this is interesting, but is it really media?”
This special issue takes up that question–“But is it media?”--as a provocation to embrace the elements of media studies that enhance, shift, or destabilize the very notion of media itself. In particular, we are interested in work that models how media studies scholars can approach seemingly “non-media” objects, bringing out their aesthetic and cultural qualities as media. In conceptualizing this issue, we draw inspiration from the many scholarly works, some recent and some already foundational, that raise eyebrows and push boundaries. Is a shoe a work of media? Is a filing cabinet? What about a seaweed forest, or a color, or a sex toy? These may seem like odd examples, yet existing scholarship has revealed their deep ties to media cultures, histories, reception, and/or production. Our goal with this issue is not to seek some new, more definitive definition of media–that is, to relitigate what defines media–but rather to inspire a more capacious view of what media already is and the immense value of studying the lived world around us through the lens of media.
We especially encourage prospective authors to submit work that presents a specific example of the kind of objects or practices that raise or respond to the question “But is it media?” Our hope is that each of these essays will serve as a case study, presenting its own detailed analysis while speaking to broader questions about the nature of studying media. While authors are welcome to take a polemical stance in response to the question, articles will need to comply with general norms for scholarly analysis, rigor, and citation. Some potential topics include:
- The study of everyday objects, technologies, and systems as media
- The study of obsolete or obscure media forms
- The study of media forms that have been significantly overlooked by media studies
- The study of specialized tools, technologies, or professional systems not commonly understood as media
- The study of the physical world, such as physical infrastructures or material environments, through the lens of media
- Rethinking of social practices or histories themselves as media - e.g., an exploration of how certain cultural phenomena are primarily expressed or known through media
This is not a comprehensive list and prospective authors should feel welcome to pursue their own unique approach to the question “But is it media?” In their proposals, we ask prospective authors to clearly articulate the key argument of their piece and to address the larger cultural and intellectual implications of their argument. Why does this example matter for media studies? What new insights does it offer? What new perspectives does it prompt us to value?
Selection for the special issue will take place in two rounds. First, all interested prospective authors should submit an abstract for their proposed article. Abstracts should be approximately 500 words in length, not including references or bios. Abstracts should clearly state the topic and argument of the proposed piece, its object of analysis, its broader claims and stakes for the field of media studies, and its relationship to the issue topic “But Is it Media?”
To submit your abstract, please send a Word document with the title “LASTNAME JCMS special issue abstract” to the JCMS managing editor at editors@jcmsjournal.org. The Word document should include your abstract, any relevant references, and a short bio for all authors (50 to 100 words per bio). The deadline to submit abstracts is September 11, 2023. Authors can expect to hear back in response to their abstract submission by approximately September 15, 2023. Abstracts will be assessed based on the strength of their proposed arguments and analysis, their contribution to the breadth and diversity of the issue, and their fit to the issue theme.
From this pool of abstract submissions, the special issue co-editors (for the inaugural issue, they are JCMS co-editors-in-chief Elizabeth Ellcessor and Bo Ruberg) will select a number of abstracts and invite their authors to submit full drafts of their proposed articles. Full articles should be between 8,000 and 10,000 words and should comply with general style guidelines for JCMS articles. Full articles will be due January 15, 2024.
All full articles submitted for the special issue will pass through full anonymous peer review. Please note that only articles that are accepted through peer review will be included in the issue. Authors should anticipate engaging closely with revision feedback from both the JCMS editors and the peer reviewers. The anticipated publication date of the special issue is fall 2025 (volume 65, issue 1).
The JCMS editorial team and its supporting editorial board (listed here) are excited to undertake the journal’s first special issue. While JCMS does publish In Focus dossiers, collections of short essays grouped around a specific theme or sub-field, the journal has not previously published full special issues. JCMS is now exploring publishing one special issue annually. The first of these special issues will be edited by co-editors-in-chief Elizabeth Ellcessor and Bo Ruberg. In the future, members of the JCMS community will have the opportunity to propose and edit special issues.
Our goal in moving toward an annual special issue is to bring new energy and varied perspectives to our full-length research articles. The field of media studies is changing in important, inspiring ways, and JCMS special issues are designed to illuminate and wrestle with those changes. Each JCMS special issue will focus on one timely, field-level question that applies to and/or challenges media studies across its various forms. In contrast to In Focus, JCMS special issues will address the field broadly, while also encouraging authors to remain rooted in the analysis of specific objects, archives, experiences, systems, and/or histories.
Please feel free to contact JCMS co-editors-in-chief Elizabeth Ellcessor (liz@jcmsjournal.org) and Bo Ruberg (bo@jcmsjournal.org) with any questions.