CFP-A-Palooza!: Calls for Papers for Collections, Journals Focusing on Comics

Hi there! I just wanted to mention several journal- or edited collection projects on which I'm working that might also interest you or those who know you.

First off, did you know I'm guest-editing an edition of ImageTexT, that very prestigious journal on comics, etc., out of the University of Florida? I am, and I'm doing so with Najwa Al-tabaa, a doctoral student at UF who is formerly of UTEP (interestingly, I'm very close to being "formerly of UTEP" myself, but rest assured, all submissions will still be vetted through folks associated with strong universities, *hint hint*) and honored me with the position of second reader on her MA thesis. She's good; I'm established. What's not to love about that pairing?

At any rate, the issue we're working on is entitled "Comics and Post-Secondary Education," so we're seeking articles about teaching comics in community colleges, universities, prisons, adult literacy programs, etc. Learn more about the project and submit something by the July 2013 deadline by visiting here.

Secondly, SANEjournal:sequential art narrative in education has announced its next themed issue. The deadline for this one looms less largely, though. "The Singularity Plurality" issue asks, "How can the writing or writings of one scholar inform how we teach comics or teach with them, or how we should do those things?" For example, what does the work of Louise Rosenblatt suggest about how we should read or teach comics?Paulo Freire? Click here to read the CFP.

As well, I am co-editing a collection with Derek Parker Royal about comics' presence in the American Southwest and Borderlands. We hope the collection does for the Southwest and Border region what Costello and Whitted’s Comics and the U.S. South did for that region and Southern studies via mining, creating, and illuminating the intersections of comics scholarship and established academic writing on the Southwestern United States, the U.S-Mexico border, and their literatures, identities, and cultures.

While abstracts were due to us by January 2013, I can tell you we'll soon issue another volley to get more submissions to join the intriguing ones we've seen so far. If you think you might have an essay that would be good for Comics and the American Southwest and Borderland, click here for contact details and general information about how we're conceiving the project currently.

Finally, I'd like to inform you about "The Conversations Project: Interdisciplinary Conversations About Comics, Literacy, and Scholarship," an edited collection in which I've asked scholars and teachers in humanities disciplines to pair with someone in the social sciences/education to talk about comics scholarship and comics teaching. The official CFP asked for abstracts by January 2013, but the first set of pairs will be getting me their essays around June 20. After that set, I'll send out more invitations, so if you're interested in comics scholarship and/or comics-and-literacy, maybe consider finding an informed buddy in a field other than your own and starting what we hope will be an innovative, gap-bridging conversation in a book which plans to be full of them. Some major players in comics scholarship and the comics-and-literacy movement have already signed on. Maybe you'll do so too. To learn more about the initial call, click here.

Of course, you can talk to me directly about any of these projects by emailing jbcarter777 at gmail dot com. Perhaps we'll be working together soon! :)

ImageTexT Special Issue: "Comics and Post-Secondary Education" CFP

Hi, all. I'm pleased to share with you that I am guest-editing an issue of ImageTexT journal, one of the premiere comics scholarship publications. Former UTEP graduate student (I was on her thesis committee!) and current University of Florida doctoral student Najwa Al-tabaa is co-editing the issue with me.

Please consider submitting your work, and help us spread the word. Here's a link to the actual Call For Papers.

SANEjournal issue 1:2 Now Available!!!

"Teaching the Works of Alan Moore," the second edition of volume 1 of SANEjournal:sequential art narrative in education, just published!

The issue features thoughts and ideas on teaching Moore Classics like Watchmen and V for Vendetta, but it also explores Promethea, Lost Girls, and other texts from Moore's amazing opus.

Three articles, three rationales, and one review make up the table of contents, which features scholars from Northwestern University, The University of New Mexico, and even a practicing high school teacher who uses Watchmen with his upperclassmen.

Click here to visit the journal, and here's to happy reading and fun learning! Warning, you might get tachyons in your eyes or find yourself in a flux resulting from rifts in the space-time dimension!

Article in *InLand* Published!

So you've probably already hunted down my article "Graphic Novels, Web Comics, and Creator Blogs: Examining Product and Process" in this summer's Theory Into Practice 50.3.

Right? It was the most urgent thing on your list of urgent things. Remember? You 'member!

Now sink your teeth into "Aligning the IRA/NCTE Standards to Graphic Novels: An ELA Pedagogy of Multiliteracies," co-written with Katie Monnin and Brian Kelley, which is appearing now in InLand 28.1.

Both these journals' summer issues explore YA literature, and there's plenty more good readin' beyond the the stuff from the professor in the West Texas town of El Paso.

*SANE journal* Publishes First Issue!

The "Comics in the Contact Zone" issue is now live! Click the title of this post to visit, and enjoy!

Comics Issue of Transatlantica Journal is Online!

The first half covering Shakespeare, the second half giving comics equal weight... :)

I'm especially eager to read Craig Fischer's essay, which seems to focus on Theirry Groensteens' The System of Comics, a textbook for my "New and Multimodal Literacies" graduate class next semester, and I see lots of application in my own work in Charles Hatfield's article on interdisciplinarity in comics studies.

_Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics_ 1st Issue Now Available!

Click this post's title to read articles from a host of comics scholars. This is the debut issue we're talking about, so you'll be reading history. The journal is a Routledge publication, and it is allowing free access to the articles through 2010.

I will probably submit something to this journal eventually, but I need to hear back from TAR about some things first. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics joins International Journal of Comic Art, ImageText, Studies in Comics, and, of course, the in-development SANE journal as important outlets for scholars' work on comics.

SANE journal Update

I mentioned a month or so ago that I'm working on starting an academic journal focusing exclusively on comics and education. Here's an update on my progress:

I've been talking with a high-end online academic publisher but recently discovered a much more affordable entry-level online academic publisher. I've also sent e-mails to several granting agencies and to a couple of university presses but still need to hear back. I'm also scheduling a meeting with my department chair soon to discuss the idea of the journal being sponsored by UTEP's English department. I don't necessarily need the department's sponsorship to get the journal started, but it could be a very nice thing for me and my institution, especially as UTEP moves towards what it is calling "tier one" status. I've been putting together lists of editorial board members and reviewers, making sure I have representatives strong in education research, practitioner work, and the various humanities. I am putting off actually contacting anyone on these lists yet, but that could happen as early as this week. I've got ideas for the first dozen or so issues too. I'm trying to decide if it is poor form to do a call for editorial/review board members and a call for papers for the first two issues within a few hours of one another (anybody?).

My goal here is to gather the best and most appropriate folks to be part of the editorial/review boards, meaning folks who have already proven themselves with publications about comics-and-literacy, (and I know many of these folks, if not most of them) but I have such a long list of folks whom I know who would love to submit work to such a journal and/or review articles for it, that I really think this could be a great opportunity for many, many people.

I'll keep you informed as more develops!

_Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics_ Debuts Soon!

Looks like other folks are getting in on this "we need more journals on comics and sequential art" argument. Routledge is publishing Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics twice a year starting in 2010.

Subscriptions are $45 a year and the editors are out of Manchester Metropolitan University in the U.K. Bart Beaty, Charles Hatfield, Mel Gibson, Joseph Witek, and Rob Weiner are on the review board, which is international.

The aims and scope of the journal suggest it will cover all aspects of comics and mentions being interdisciplinary, but education is not mentioned specifically as a particular interest of the journal (meaning I still have my niche market for SANE journal. Yay!)

I can't tell for sure if it is an ejournal or will be print-based (it may well be both), but it looks like a great new outlet for comics scholarship.

Announcing High-Level Plans: SANE journal

Because I am beginning to talk to corporate and other organizational entities about it, and it is always good to have a record of these things, I find it as necessary as it is exciting to inform you that I am currently trying to create an on-line, open-access, peer-reviewed journal that focuses specifically on issues related to sequential art and education. So far, I've been talking with High Wire Press, out of Stanford University, to make this dream a reality.

Pulling from the "fiestiness" behind the naming of this blog (EN/SANE world: "some people might say it is crazy to use comics in the classroom. I'm here to tell you it is quite sane!:), I'm calling it SANE journal: Sequential Art Narratives in Education. My hope is that the journal will publish twice a year and be available to anyone with Internet access, free-of-charge.

The journal would accept research-based articles, practitioner-based articles, reviews of book and articles associated with comics-and-literacy, reviews by way of rationales for teaching graphic novels, and would also list outside resources.

As I've noticed a trend of "appropriation" and redistribution of voices in the growing field of comics-and-education studies, manuscripts will not be stripped of author's names in review. If a writer is an established presence in the field who seeks to move the argument in one direction or another, the editorial/review teams wants to know the article came from someone who has already proven him/herself an influential voice. No more of this having your arguments blocked by reviewers who ask you to give hints at your identity while also working under a journal that requires all author-identification be stripped away. No more noticing authors with established reputations in other fields publishing articles that reinvent the wheel while possibly using their sudden interest in comics along with their name recognition to stifle what might be your more informed thoughts on the subject. No more worrying that a journal might not even be amenable to work on comics and education as trends change and new buzz words develop and new irons get hot. No more worrying that you can't find a place for your work because gatekeepers have worries predicated on sales or saving face or being seen as an outlet that accepts comics in the classroom.

I seek for SANE journal to become the central academic source for articles and thought on sequential art in education, whether it be pre-school, middle school, or graduate school.

The review board will pull from folks in the social sciences/education studies, the humanities, and comics scholarship. Due to my connections in the field, I already have a list of possible review board members. I hope to get the journal associated with Reading with Pictures, Institute for Comics Studies, NACAE, The Center for Cartoon Studies -- heck, maybe even ICAF, NCTE, and NAMLE eventually. I am also hoping to make connections with corporate entities dedicated to producing comics with educational/literacy value.

If you know anyone who might be a good review board member, feel free to e-mail me his or her name, as I'm happy to add to my list. I'm not at the "contact individuals for invites" yet, as I want to have as much information available to them before I ask them to join up with a nebulous construct.

Also, if you are associated with or know of an agency that might be a good source of funding, please let me know. I'll be spending some time writing grants for the project and working with my institution's Development Office in the coming months, but any and all leads are welcome.

At the very least, wish me well in this endeavor, which I feel is needed, necessary, important, and timely.

(*draft. may be expanded later. already expanded several times)

The Beat Announces Peter Kuper's Tour for Diario De Oaxaca GN

Looks like I've got another must-read. Wonder if this book will actually make it to El Paso. The GN selection in this city is very bad, but maybe there's an audience for this one. Also, for those of you who are mangling the title, It's pronounces Wa-HA-Ca, as best I can tell. My students tell me it is a beautiful part of Mexico.

New Academic Journal for Comics Scholarship

Studies in Comics will debut this winter! Thanks to P.C. for the info!