Transformative Works and Cultures

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) is an international, peer-reviewed journal published by the Organization for Transformative Works. TWC publishes articles about transformative works, broadly conceived; articles about media studies; and articles about the fan community. We invite papers in all areas, including fan fiction, fan vids, film, TV, anime, comic books, fan community, video games, and machinima. We encourage a variety of critical approaches, including feminism, gender studies, queer theory, postcolonial theory, audience theory, reader-response theory, literary criticism, film studies, and posthumanism. We also encourage authors to consider writing personal essays integrated with scholarship; hyperlinked articles; or other forms that test the limits of the genre of academic writing.

Board

Nancy Baym, U of Kansas - Rebecca Black, UC Irvine - Will Brooker, Kingston U - Rhiannon Bury, Athabasca U - Wendy Chun, Brown U - Melissa Click, U of Missouri - Abigail De Kosnik, UC Berkeley - Paul Draper, Queensland Conservatorium Griffith U - Catherine Driscoll, U of Sydney - Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Pomona C - Sam Ford, Convergence Culture Consortium - Jonathan Gray, U of Wisconsin - Judith Halberstam, USC - C. Lee Harrington, Miami U - Heather Hendershot, City U of New York - Matt Hills, Cardiff U - Henry Jenkins, USC - Derek Johnson, U of Wisconsin - Roz Kaveney, Independent - Derek Kompare, Southern Methodist U - Anne Kustritz, Brockport College-SUNY - Elana Levine, U of Wisconsin, Milwaukee - Geoffrey Long, Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab - Mark McLelland, U of Wollongong - Farah Mendlesohn, Middlesex U - Helen Merrick, Curtin U of Technology - Jason Mittell, Middlebury C - Lori Morimoto, Indiana U - Roberta Pearson, U of Nottingham - Sheenagh Pugh, U of Glamorgan - Aswin Punathambekar, U of Michigan - Bob Rehak, Swarthmore C - Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M-Commerce - Sharon Ross, Columbia C Chicago - Cornel Sandvoss, U of Surrey - Avi Santo, Old Dominion - Louisa Stein, San Diego State U - Catherine Tosenberger, U of Winnipeg

Upcoming issues

  • No. 4, March 15, 2010: Supernatural special issue (closed)
  • No. 5, September 15, 2010: General issue (close date: March 15, 2010)
  • No. 6, March 15, 2011: Fan Works and Fan Communities in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction special issue (close date: May 15, 2010)
  • No. 7, June 15, 2011: Race and Ethnicity in Fandom special issue (close date: October 1, 2010)
  • No. 8, September 15, 2011: General issue (close date: March 1, 2011)

Announcements

 

TWC No. 3

  
TWC No. 3 has been released right on schedule!  
Posted: 2009-09-15 More...
 

Special issue: Race and Ethnicity in Fandom (Summer 2011)

  
We invite submissions to a special issue on race and ethnicity in fandom guest edited by Sarah Gatson (Texas A&M University) and Robin Reid (Texas A&M University–Commerce). Contributions will focus on not only analyzing but also confronting hierarchies of race and ethnicity and their relationship to gender, sexuality, class, and disability.

The full text of the CFP is available after the jump. You may also download PDFs of the CFP as US letter or as A4.		  
Posted: 2009-04-30 More...
 

TWC releases general cfp

  
We have created a new general call for papers, updated with the latest guidelines. Please download the PDFs as US letter or European A4.

Feel free to print out and distribute widely!		  
Posted: 2009-04-02 More...
 

No. 2 released

  
TWC has just released its second issue! Read the PDFs of our full press release as US letter or A4.

We are already planning the upcoming issues. Besides a general issue for fall 2009, we are soliciting for two special issues.

"Saving People, Hunting Things" is guest edited by Catherine Tosenberger and planned for spring 2010 (call for papers here).

"Fan Works and Fan Communities in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" is guest edited by Nancy Reagin and Anne Rubenstein and planned for spring 2011 (call for papers here).

Click on the link to read the full text of our press release.		  
Posted: 2009-03-15 More...
 

Special Issue: Fan Works and Fan Communities in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Spring 2011)

  
This special issue, guest edited by Nancy Reagin, Pace University, and Anne Rubenstein, York University, will focus on the rich history of fans and their engagement with a variety of objects of fandom.

Click on the link to read the full text of the call for papers. A .pdf is available sized for US Letter–sized paper here.		  
Posted: 2009-03-08 More...
 
More Announcements...

Vol 3 (2009)

Table of Contents

Editorial

Extending transformation HTML
TWC Editor

Theory

The labor of creativity: Women's work, quilting, and the uncommodified life HTML
Debora J Halbert
Sex detectives: "Law & Order: SVU"'s fans, critics, and characters investigate lesbian desire HTML
Julie Levin Russo
On productivity and game fandom HTML
Hanna Wirman

Praxis

Sites of participation: Wiki fandom and the case of Lostpedia HTML
Jason Mittell
Identity and authenticity in the filk community HTML
Melissa L. Tatum
The Web planet: How the changing Internet divided "Doctor Who" fan fiction writers HTML
Leora Hadas

Symposium

The magic of television: Thinking through magical realism in recent TV HTML
Lynne Joyrich
The future of academic writing? HTML
Avi Santo
Repackaging fan culture: The regifting economy of ancillary content models HTML
Suzanne Scott
Snogs of innocence, snogs of experience HTML
Dana Shilling
Playing [with] multiple roles: Readers, authors, and characters in "Who Is Blaise Zabini?" HTML
Anne Collins Smith
"A Jedi like my father before me": Social identity and the New York Comic Con HTML
Jen Gunnels
“The Hunt for Gollum”: Tracking issues of fandom cultures HTML
Robin Anne Reid
Pattern recognition: A dialogue on racism in fan communities HTML
TWC Editor

Interview

Interview with Verb Noire HTML
K. Tempest Bradford
Interview with Mark Smith and Denise Paolucci HTML
zvi LikesTV
Interview with Chris Bouchard HTML
Emma Dollard

Review

"Camgirls: Celebrity and community in the age of social networks," by Theresa M. Senft HTML
Adriano Barone
"Introduction to Japanese horror film," by Colette Balmain HTML
Alessia Alfieroni
"Pride and prejudice and zombies: The classic Regency romance—Now with ultraviolent zombie mayhem!," by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith HTML
Craig B. Jacobsen


Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC), ISSN 1941-2258, is an online-only Gold Open Access publication of the nonprofit Organization for Transformative Works copyrighted under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License. Contact the Editor with questions.