aspeers calls for Papers by M.A. Students

aspeers,  the first and currently only MA-level peer-reviewed journal for American studies in Europe, calls for papers by M.A. students of American studies or related fields. The submission deadline is October 15, 2017.

In its 11th edition, the journal will again feature a general section and a topical focus.

More details on each sections’ respective call for papers are listed in the following:

=== General Call for Papers ===

For the general section of its eleventh issue, aspeers seeks outstanding academic writing demonstrating the excellence of graduate scholarship,
the range of concerns scrutinized in the field of American studies, and the diversity of perspectives employed. We thus explicitly invite
revised versions of term papers or chapters from theses written by students of European Master (and equivalent) programs. For this section,
there are no topical limitations. Contributions should be up to 7,500 words (including abstract and list of works cited). 

=== Topical Call for Papers on “Alternative Americas” ===

From ‘flyover country’ to ‘coastal liberals,’ from the ‘American heartland’ to ‘urban elites’–the 2016 presidential election engendered numerous debates about where the allegedly ‘real’ America lies. Beyond displaying political divisiveness, each invocation stylizes a vision of the United States that stands as an alternative to the presumed political and cultural mainstream, each locates ‘real’ America in a different place, and each constitutes an attempt at making alternative voices heard–from Americans who feel un- or misrepresented by politicians or neglected by the media, thus trying to reassert themselves into the public sphere.

‘Alternative’ visions of America and of what it means to be American, often cast as competing with or as polar opposites to a perceived mainstream, loom large throughout US culture and history. Whether their fault lines are drawn between rural and urban, conservative and progressive, or young and old, at their core, they form interventions into the status quo: voicing dissent, spotlighting difference and otherness, making the invisible seen and representing the previously unrepresented, criticizing assumed norms, or unearthing forgotten points of view. Implicitly or explicitly, such alternative configurations also highlight the constructedness of the ‘mainstream’ they position themselves against.

For its eleventh issue, aspeers thus dedicates its topical section to “Alternative Americas” and invites European graduate students to critically and analytically explore American literature, (popular) culture, society, history, and politics through the lens of alternative visions of the US. We welcome papers from all fields, methodologies, and approaches comprising American studies as well as inter- and transdisciplinary submissions, ranging from economy and political science to history, media studies, literary and cultural studies, and beyond. Potential paper topics could cover (but are not limited to):

• Expressions of counterculture, specific subcultures, or other counter-voices to what is considered (the political) mainstream (e.g., the hippie, Beat, Occupy Wall Street, Tea Party, or alt-right movements)
•  Literary and filmic representations of alternatives, e.g., in fantasy and science fiction, (post)apocalyptic narratives, utopias and dystopias, alternate  history, or conspiracy fictions
•  Spotlights on the US beyond the mainland, towards its ‘alternate’ fringes–the border zones of the US with other countries, inter-American relations, etc.

•  Anti-normative and alternative social constructions, e.g., alternative religions or family constellations

•  Camp, queerness, and other concepts questioning the ‘norm’ or the ‘natural’

•  Notions of fact and fiction in journalism and politics (e.g., ‘alternative facts’ and fake news)

•  Deconstructions/’revisions’ of traditional mainstream genres in various media (music, literature, TV, etc.)

For more information on aspeers as well as on submission guidelines, please see their website.