SGMS: Mechademia Conference on Asian Popular Cultures 2013
Call for Papers: Fanthropologies

*Location: Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN
*Conference Date: September 27-29, 2013
*Submissions Deadline: 20 August 2013

*Special Guest: Hiroki Azuma

Reposted from H-Japan.

Based on the book, Mechademia 5: Fantropologies, SGMS: Mechademia Conference will explore the breadth of fandom and fan cultures. Popular cultural objects and fans — or otaku — are at the center of an ever-expanding network of influences, differences, obsessions, practices, knowledges and performances. Fans have transformed Japanese popular culture into a pervasive global discourse. Fanthropologies will address the vast but disparate movements that have begun to define communities across ethnic and national boundaries. Communities linked by common passions and conceptions are sewn together by conventions, web sites, blogs, downloads, and other performative practices.

With the addition of our special guest, Azuma Hiroki, the conference will also be looking at the political and economic issues, as well as issues of emerging changes in the self conceptions of the Japanese people after and around the Fukushima disaster.

Our subject area extends from the fandoms associated with anime, manga, games, subcultural fashion, and art, fan-based global practices and disaster issues associated with Asian popular cultures. Proposals may include textual readings that problematize the fan experience, critical theories of fandom, and investigations and excavations of fan-produced texts and performances.

For conference presentation panel, submit suggested panel title, and all abstracts, participant names and contact information; or for singular presentation paper submission, please send contact information and a 200-word abstract by August 20, 2013 to: Gretchen Gasterland-Gustafsson at: gretchen_gasterland-gustafsson@mcad.edu

The submission deadline is August 20, 2013. Presentations should be no longer than 20 minutes in length. Projection and other technical facilities will be available in all conference session rooms. Details on hotel accommodation and schedules will be forthcoming. Check the SGMS Facebook site for updates.