Events Calendar for September 2015

Welcome to our Events Calendar roundup for the month of September! The Events Calendar can be found on the OTW website and is open to submissions by anyone with news of an event. These can be viewed by event-type, such as Academic Conferences, Fan Events and Fests, Legal Events, OTW Events, or Technology Events taking place around the world.

• If you're a Star Wars collector, mark your calendars. If you're Star Wars weary, you may want to avoid toy retailers on September 4, which Disney, Lucasfilm, and other Star Wars merchandisers are calling Force Friday, the day Star Wars: The Force Awakens tie-in materials officially go on sale.
• FandomVerse Expo is a three-day multi-fandom convention. Its goal is to enlighten, inform, and entertain attendees while celebrating all areas of fandom: anime, comics, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, gaming, costuming, and more. It's September 4-6 in Lancaster, California, United States.
• Gleekon 2015 is the first unofficial Glee convention hosted in Italy. The three-day event, September 4-6 in Milan, includes meet-and-greets with the guests, Q&A panels, individual and group photo opportunities, and autograph sessions. Dot Marie Jones is a special guest.
• It's the first annual Scifi Wales convention, being held in the seaside town of Llandudno, Wales, United Kingdom, on September 5. Special guests include Caitlin Blackwood (Doctor Who), Virginia Hey (Farscape), Brian Wheeler (Star Wars and Harry Potter), and John Challis (Doctor Who). Attendees can also learn to make 3D paper toys with "Jedi Paper Master" Ryan Hall.
• The goal of Alamo City Comic Con is "to celebrate the artists who provide entertainment to the public via comics, movies, TV, gaming, and cosplay." This year's special guests include John Noble, Edward James Olmos, Ron Perlman, and Manu Bennett. Photo ops will be available, and the event, September 11-13 in San Antonio, Texas, United States, will include a costume contest.
• Shocka-Con 4, a horror/scifi convention, will feature Rose Siggins and Drew Rin Varick from American Horror Story; Bai Ling (The Crow, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow); and Jeryl Prescott from The Walking Dead. The event is September 18-20 in Charleston, West Virginia, United States.
• Hobbit Day! September 22 is the shared birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, and it was officially declared a holiday by the American Tolkien Society in 1978.
• Submit drafts for the Captain America/Iron Man Big Bang by September 23. Stories should focus on the relationship between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark (in any setting or continuity you can think of). Artist claims will be based on fic summaries, which will be made available beginning September 24. Minimum final word count for stories is 25,000, and final fics are due November 1. Authors are required to post their own works to an Archive of Our Own collection.
• FACTS (Fantasy Anime Comics Toys Space), September 26-27 in Ghent, Belgium, is a forum for all fans of the “fantastic genre." Guests include Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers) and Sylvester McCoy (Doctor Who, The Hobbit) and a wide variety of international and local artists. Highlights include a game zone and a fan village.
• The annual conference of the Midwest Popular Culture Association and Midwest American Culture Association, MPCA in Cincinnati will feature presentations on topics including fandom studies, gender studies, writing and rhetoric in popular culture, and more. It's October 1-4 in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.

Calls for Papers this month come from:

• Going Viral: The Changing Faces of (Inter)Media Culture. As the practice of sharing texts, images, and videos online provokes and multiplies reactions on a global scale, it can be defined as contagious—enabling any possible content to “go viral.” The 2015 fall issue of Frames will explore the palpable effects of this "contagiousness" on media culture. Topics may include but are not limited to the influence of New Media on low budget / no budget filmmaking and studio advertising strategies; piracy and copyright issues; and online film reception and its influence on fan culture. In addition to articles, video submissions are welcome. All submissions should be sent by September 14.
• Fanfiction in Medieval Studies, a Panel at the International Congress on Medieval Studies. Over the past three decades, there has been increasing interest in both Fan Studies and Medieval Studies in the relationship between medieval literary culture and fanfiction (that is, popular, "unofficial," fan-generated fiction writing that participates in a pre-existing fictional "universe" and uses its characters). This session invites papers that reflect on points of analogy between fanfiction and medieval literatures. Abstracts of 300 words or less and a Participation Information Form are due September 15.
• An Edited Collection on the Work of Joni Mitchell. Joni Mitchell is widely recognised as an innovative, influential, much-loved, and much-imitated artist. From her debut album Song to a Seagull to her most recent Shine, Mitchell’s music--her tunings, her lyrics, her scope--has drawn critical and popular acclaim. And yet, scholarly attention to her work has been relatively limited. This edited collection will attend to Mitchell as a figure worthy of sustained critical thought and appreciation, with a major publisher having already expressed interest. Please send 350- to 500-word chapter proposals by September 30.
• Fan Culture and Theory, Popular Culture Association National Conference. The Popular Culture Association National Conference takes place March 21-25 in Seattle, Washington. Proposals for both panels and individual papers are now being accepted for all aspects of Fan Culture and Theory, including, but not limited to, the following areas: Fan Fiction; Fan/Creator interactions; Race, Gender and Sexuality in Fandom; Music Fandom; and Reality Television Fandom. Submit abstracts of 100-250 words with relevant audio/visual requests online by October 1. Graduate students are encouraged to submit proposals.

Help out a researcher!

This month we have received a request for research participation from Silja Kukka at University of Oulu, Finland. As part of her research for her PhD, she is studying kink meme communities under the oversight of Dr. Kuisma Korhonen.

The purpose of this research is to study kink meme communities and their place in the larger context of pornography and contemporary porn studies, and to study the role that slash fiction plays in the development of humans' sexual identity.

Note that survey participants must be at least 18 years of age. You can find the survey online.

Contact information is kinkmeme [dot] survey [at] gmail [dot] com and kuisma [dot] korhonen [at] oulu [dot] fi.

If you have requests for research participation, please view our policy for inclusion at our website.

The OTW encourages anyone to submit an event that's not already listed, and to check out the calendar throughout the year!