[SIGCIS-Members] CFP Journal of Cinema & Media Studies: "But is it media?"

[Liz Ellcessor]

Hello all,

Excited to share this call for the inaugural special issue of JCMS: The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. Work on media technologies, computing, digital systems, and so on is absolutely welcome!

Abstracts (500 words) due: 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 at jcmsjournal.org<mailto:editors at jcmsjournal.org>

With questions, email the JCMS co-editors-in-chief: liz at jcmsjournal.org<mailto:liz at jcmsjournal.org> and bo at jcmsjournal.org<mailto:bo at jcmsjournal.org>

About the topic: “But Is it Media?”

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.

To read the full CFP, click here<https://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001rqnKV65sC5VxftUQfawEVcvgU0kVX4uTWNsJXKWdwIjOM7od16zDBsbujztYRZmKKFHKuS5nXyJPsSvLzpC_iipodmvQip4SIIIQ26VekfK1mxPAB_8zjU8l8uu8JYUux9DhOzd8GXeqxsa-MQwfhLhm0q0XEQlsY7r1OcRBN4Vn8BcKA_GZYgksGOJh4YI957y1U8DvME2AlVz5PLiYwms_FjNbkvNv&c=dpTPnQ9bmGkyiWoJKGllj8QX3bO8Iz9elNpLvhqHJ_OTS30ofrNnow==&ch=uiWZs4nAi5qYL9DEpYD3Dx2e23fGFMJKnyRFECJEInPfw40bevagNg==>.

We look forward to receiving your submission!

Best,
Liz

--
Elizabeth Ellcessor
Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Media Studies
Director, Disability Studies Initiative
Senior Faculty Fellow, Miller Center for Public Affairs
University of Virginia
lizellcessor at virginia.edu<mailto:lizellcessor at virginia.edu>

Co-editor, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies<https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/>

In Case of Emergency: How Technologies Mediate Crisis and Normalize Inequality<https://nyupress.org/9781479811632/in-case-of-emergency/> (NYU Press, 2022)
Disability Media Studies<https://www.amazon.com/Disability-Media-Studies-Elizabeth-Ellcessor/dp/1479849383>, with Bill Kirkpatrick, eds. (NYU Press, 2017)
Restricted Access: Media, Disability, and the Politics of Participation<https://www.amazon.com/Restricted-Access-Disability-Participation-Postmillennial/dp/1479853437/> (NYU Press, 2016)



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