Recently I’ve been having such fruitful conversations about Lady Gaga and her impact on issues like feminism, queer studies, celebrity and fame, and even irony and postmodernism that I think it’s about time we formalized and publicized some of those conversations. To that end, as follows is the call for papers for the first issue of a new journal in Gaga Studies, to which anyone and everyone is encouraged to submit:
CALL FOR PAPERS – Journal of Popular Gaga Studies
A new journal in Gaga Studies is seeking submissions for its first issue. Gaga Studies is the interdisciplinary examination of musician and performance artist Lady Gaga’s impact on the popular culture and on the worlds of music, performance, and art. We welcome submissions from all critical perspectives, though we are particularly interested in those which place Lady Gaga in the context of feminist, gender, and queer/LGBT politics and thought. We are also interested in criticism of and commentary on the growing body of secondary literature in Gaga Studies from both the academic and the popular press.
Although this is not the first online journal in Gaga Studies, it aims to occupy a niche distinct from its predecessors by writing consciously and cautiously for a general audience. While we respect the work done by our colleagues (and our academic betters!), submissions to the Journal of Popular Gaga Studies must be accessible to readers without a background in critical theory or other modes of academic thought and inquiry. We also look favorably upon submissions from writers who are not established academics, particularly undergraduate and graduate students or young people of similar age and experience. Part of this journal’s aim is to make serious cultural-studies criticism accessible and available to a wide audience, and we take doing so very seriously indeed.
To submit, please send a brief (1-2 paragraph) abstract/pitch/outline to the editor, Emily Rutherford, at populargagastudies at gmail dot com. Please include a short bio, listing your name and your institutional affiliation if you have one. Full-length submissions are also acceptable, and should be at least 1,200 but probably no more than 4,000 words. Initial abstract submissions for the first issue are due September 31, 2010. Please direct all further questions and comments to the editor.
Emily Rutherford 