Several months ago, I was excited to share news about the launch of a new peer-reviewed journal with a specific focus on Japanese animation, comics, and related topics – the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies. And now, JAMS has officially opened the Call for Papers for its first issue, currently on track to be published early next year.
Specifically, the journal welcomes all types of “scholarly analysis of anime” (and manga) and related topics such as cosplay and other fan activities and practices, from all kinds of authors, whether faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, or independent scholars, and is open to different forms of research methods and approaches, from critical readings to quantitative/data-driven studies. The recommended length for submissions is between 4,500 and 7,500 words, but longer or shorter manuscripts may be accepted after a discussion with the journal’s editors, and it is also open to book review submissions.The deadline for submitting a paper for inclusion in the inaugural issue is August 31, 2019.
In addition, JAMS has also updated its website with a full listing of its editorial board. The journal’s editors are a line-up of experienced anime/manga scholars, with varied backgrounds as authors and educators:
Dr. Frenchy Lunning (editor-in-chief, Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga, and Fan Arts)
Dr. Brent Allison, University of North Georgia (editorial board member, Mechademia)
Dr. Andrea Horbinski (copy editor, Mechademia)
Kay Clopton, The Ohio State University
Dr. Maria Bonn, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois
Elizabeth Wickes, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois
The full CFP is reproduced below, and archived on the Call for Papers website hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Department of English.
The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies (JAMS) is excited to announce a CFP for its inaugural issue! JAMS is an open-access journal dedicated to providing an ethical, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary space for academics, students, and independent researchers examining the field of anime, manga, cosplay, and fandom studies to share their research with others. JAMS is peer reviewed by scholars with experience in anime and manga studies.
This is an exciting time for anime and manga studies as a discipline, with courses on the subject appearing at universities like Yale and the University of California, Berkeley. The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies hopes the works submitted to and published within our first issue can spark further conversations about the deeper meanings, understandings, and/or cultural significance of anime, manga, cosplay, related media, and their fandoms, what anime and manga studies can be as an area of study, and the types of interdisciplinary work that can come out of analyzing anime, manga, cosplay, related media, and their fandoms from a variety of scholarly perspectives.
Because of this goal, JAMS aims to publish scholarly analysis of anime through any number of theoretical lenses. From the sociocultural/historical context of anti-war arguments in the films of Hayao Miyazaki, to the representation of queer characters in anime like Yuri!!! on Ice and Classmates, to the implications of communal identity and character performance in the cosplay world; JAMS is interested in diverse viewpoints and ideas on what can be explored in this area of study. Included in this interest specifically are works involving qualitative and quantitative, data-driven research surrounding anime, manga, cosplay, and their fandoms. Pieces published in JAMS will reach an interdisciplinary audience and should be written free of jargon. Scholarly book reviews of texts concerning anime, manga, cosplay, related media, and fandom culture surrounding these areas will also be considered.
All papers published in JAMS are published with a Creative Commons license, Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Ideal submissions to JAMS are between 4,500 and 7,500 words. Please contact the editor if you wish to discuss longer or shorter submissions.
Please visit our site: https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/jams/about, for information about the journal and our policies. We welcome inquiries and are glad to discuss ideas for potential submissions. Scholars interested in supporting anime and manga studies as a discipline as peer reviewers should also reach out to JAMS. Inquiries can be directed to animestudiesjournal@gmail.com.
Submissions will be accepted until August 31st, 2019.