Call for proposals: Pop culture made me do it

Working title: Pop culture made me do it: Interrogating the influence of popular culture on identity and value systems

Call for book chapter proposals. Submissions open until 31 December 2023.

All responses and acceptances will be made no later than 31 January 2024.

Edited by Erin K. Burrell

Submit via email with subject line: Pop culture made me do it

We are excited to share with you a call for book chapter proposals for an edited collection exploring how popular culture informs our life choices, work, and identity. At this point in time, we are looking for proposals in the form of abstracts of no more than 500 words (due by 31 December, 2023). Accepted essays will be no more than 8,000 words and proposed autoethnographic, reflexive, personal, and narrative essays are preferred. Please include your contact information (name, affiliation, and email address) in your submission file.

For years there have been wars waged on pop culture as the demon in our lives. Claims of rock music being ‘the Devil’s music’ have abounded for generations.[1] Debates have raged as to the influence video games have on psychosocial wellbeing and prosocial behaviours though cases have been made both for and against these claims.[2] These dark takes seem to overwhelm the news, however, one must look for the bright side because ‘as long as there’s light, we’ve got a chance’.[3]

The media we consume has the power to teach and change us while giving us the space to learn and grow. Popular culture has nourished so many lives, shown us what is possible, and serves as a mirror to reflect our sometimes societally divergent feelings back at us. It feeds our creativity, gives us joy, reasons to cry, and offers safe places to have all the feelings one can experience. The stories and experiences within it inform our life choices, relationships, and sometimes even shifts our values away from those we were raised with. This comes because of things we love, those we exist alongside, and even those that cause us to feel rage. Stories, films, music, short programmes, and games all give us as individuals the inspiration and joy we crave while also offering an escape or place of comfort that supports our everyday lives.

Popular culture also transcends generational boundaries as what is old becomes new when used in a fresh context. This has been seen with everything from soundtrack selections to wardrobe choices in modern media and becomes even better when woven through the threads of meta commentary embedding themselves in fresh content creation.[4]

This collection asks writers and scholars to interrogate their favourite content and media to understand how it shaped who they are and the work they do today. Does having a love for Star Trek TNG help you reach the silent client in a room or was it a subtle ‘So say we all’ or even that Wonder Woman figurine on your desk that caused you to finally connect to a colleague?[5] Relationships are at the hub of social identity and so often it is the things that bring us joy that support the creation of those connections.[6]

How did popular culture inform who you are? The work you do. Was it a storybook that changed your life? Possibly a romantic comedy that reminded you that you are worthy of love. Was it rule breaking teenager who showed you that you can change the world, or a scientist being ignored that caused you to go into politics?[7] Maybe it was the very existence of Scully or Janeway[8] that motivated your movements as a woman in STEM, or even a passion for procedural dramas that pulled you into law enforcement or medicine.

No matter the case, popular culture has lessons for those of all ages, often helps to expose who we really are, and comforts us when the road we travel is challenging. It shows us that ‘A room of one’s own’ or a wheel in hand is all we need to create the reality we want and to live the life of dreams.[9]

This collection is dedicated to every person who pushes coats aside looking for a lamppost, hears the word ‘Woah’ and considers the influences of external overlords on our lives, and sees dates like May the fourth and the first Saturday in May as equally critical to their existence as mundane acts like eating and sleeping.[10]

 Authors are invited to submit a no more than five-hundred-word proposal for a chapter to be included in this collection. All disciplines, genres, and media types are welcome though all submissions must be in English, and translations provided if source media is not in English. Early career and graduate scholars, disabled persons, and scholars of culturally diverse or Indigenous backgrounds are particularly invited to participate.

Footnotes

[1] Stephens, The Devil’s Music.

[2] Ferguson, “Evidence for Publication Bias in Video Game Violence Effects Literature.”

[3] Poe Dameron, Star Wars Episode VIII-The Force Awakens[4] Music is at the heart of metacommentary in pop culture. Kate Bush’s 1985 hit Running up that Hill (A Deal with God) was used in Season 4 of Stranger Things. Simple Mind’s 1985 classic Don’t You Forget About Me used first in The Breakfast Club (1985) appeared later soundtracks for Easy A (2010) and Pitch Perfect (2012). Squeeze’s 1981 song Tempted (inspired by the Temptations) was used in 1994’s Reality Bites soundtrack and appeared in episodes of Superstore, Glee, The Carrie Diaries, and Hellcats.

[5] ‘So say we all’ comes from Battlestar Galactica and is the concluding phrase to the prayer in the Twelve Colonies.

[6] Weiland, “Ideal Selves as Resources for the Situated Practice of Identity.”

[7] See stories such as The Hunger Games, Divergent or Parable of the Sower. Consider disaster movies such as Independence Day, 2012, or Armageddon where politicians listen to scientists.

[8] Agent Dana Scully played by Gillian Anderson in X-Files aired between 1993-2002. Captain Kathryn Janeway played by Kate Mulgrew led the crew in Star Trek: Voyager from 1995-2001. Both have been listed as sparking young women’s interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) careers.

[9] Virginia Woolf’s famous speech stated all a woman needed to write was a room of one’s own and their own money. Jack Kerouac states ‘All he needed as was a wheel in his hand and four on the road’ in The Road.

[10] The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe begins with a secret passage to Narnia from the back of a wardrobe in a spare room. Neo realises he can both control and see the Matrix. May the fourth is Star Wars Day. The first Saturday in May is free comic book day.