Call for Papers

Angela Lansbury at 100: Celebrating her Stardom and Legacy

Date: 9th and 10th October 2025
Location: The Exchange, University of Birmingham
Hosted by: Laura Milburn and James Rhodes

In celebration of the centenary of the birth of Angela Lansbury (1925–2022), this conference invites scholars, critics, and practitioners to explore the extraordinary life, career, and cultural impact of one of the most versatile and enduring figures in film, theatre, and television history.

From her early breakout roles in Gaslight and The Picture of Dorian Gray, through her celebrated Broadway performances in Mame, Gypsy, and Sweeney Todd, to her iconic portrayal of Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote, Lansbury’s work transcended genres and generations. Her contributions to the performing arts, her negotiation of stardom across national and cultural boundaries, and her embodiment of complex female characters remain ripe for scholarly exploration.

We welcome proposals for papers, panels, or creative presentations addressing topics including, but not limited to:

– Angela Lansbury’s performance style and method
– Representations of women, aging, and authority in Lansbury’s work
– Lansbury’s role in musical theatre history
– Lansbury and Disney
– Murder, She Wrote and its impact on television narrative and genre
– Transatlantic stardom: Lansbury’s navigation of British and American identities
– Adaptation and legacy: Lansbury’s influence on subsequent generations
– Angela Lansbury’s political activism and public persona
– Intersections of class, gender, and genre in Lansbury’s career

Submission Guidelines:

Please submit a 250-word abstract and a short biography (100 words) to angelalansburyconference@gmail.com

Proposals for complete panels (3–4 papers) are also welcome; please include an overview and abstracts for each paper.

Key Dates:
• Deadline for proposals: 14th July 2025
• Notification of acceptance: 31st July 2025
• Conference date: 9th and 10th October 2025

For further information, please contact Laura Milburn and James Rhodes via email
angelalansburyconference@gmail.com

Disney and Religion: A Small Spiritual World, After All

Disney and Religion: A Small Spiritual World, After All
Call for Papers

Disney and Religion: A Small Spiritual World, After All will be the first transnational, collaborative study of religion and the Walt Disney Company. This edited volume will explore a wide array of Disney’s international theme parks, film releases, and fandoms, showing how Disney has transformed the world’s spiritual traditions while creating new global traditions of its own. The book will be part of the new Wiley-Blackwell series in Religion and Popular Culture. 

We seek contributors to write short chapters of 5,000-6,000 words. 

Abstracts and subsequent essays should concisely explore a Disney media, theme park, experiences, object, or other aspect of Disney culture in a way that will be accessible, written to engage the intelligent lay reader. Ideally, each essay should use a Disney example or examples to introduce readers to 1-3 key concepts in the study of religion (such as “pilgrimage” or “sacrifice”), although we are open to other accessible chapter formats. 
The book’s emphasis is global in scope, so we especially hope to receive contributions on religion(s) in intersection with the following topics: Disneyland Paris, Shanghai Disney Resort, Tokyo Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, Disney Cruise Lines, adventures by Disney, Disney Theatrical Productions (especially international, touring, and licensed small productions around the globe), home Disney rituals (especially the ones people created and documented online during the COVID lockdowns); the transnational representation and reception of religion of Disney films and other media; fandom studies and religion; tourism and religion; Disney’s international history. We are open to other topics.

Submission Guidelines
1) June 30, 2025: Interested scholars should email 250-350 word abstract (with tentative title) and one paragraph biography Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine, volume editor, at joe315@lehigh.edu, by June 30. Decisions will be made by July 15 [DEADLINE EXTENDED]

2) First drafts of accepted papers will be due will be due September 1, 2025, and final drafts will be due November 1, 2025. Please also feel free to reach out with any questions.

Disney Across the Globe

Studies in Comics Special Issue: ‘Disney Across the Globe’

With ‘Disney Across the Globe’ we hope to appeal to a global network of comics researchers. Whether Mickey Mouse was first published in Brazil’s O Tico Tico, France’s Le Petit Parisien, or Italy’s Topolino is of less relevance than the fact that Disney characters invaded the global children’s press in the 1930s. This Special Issue endeavours to contextualise this spread as a transnational process of adaptation and appropriation, rather than a unilateral process of colonization. As the 1930s introduced an array of entertainment featuring Disney figures, we also encourage transmedia studies which relate to comics.

STIC invites articles from scholars who:

• Are keen to explore the formats of magazines revolving around Mickey and Donald Duck: weekly, monthly digests, album and picture books, movable books, etc.
• Wish to highlight the transmedia spread of Mickey and Donald Duck and how the Disney comics magazines related to other medial venues.
• Are curious about the commercialisation and commodification of children: publicity on in-house products, theme parks, television and radio shows in relation to comics.
• Can study the magazines in as wide a number of countries and languages as possible, especially those lesser-known contexts: Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, etc.
• Locate syndicates, agents and transnational networks of licensing to enrich existing comics and cultural history scholarship.
• Focus on the reception of the magazines and reconstruct the readers of those magazines: looking at correspondence sections, Mickey clubs and communities, editorials and competitions.

Submissions

The editors seek:

• Research articles (4000–8000 words)
• Short-form articles (1000–3000 words)

Articles should have a strong critical focus and draw on close analysis of (comics) texts, communities, histories, and so forth. Articles must be submitted in English (quotes in other languages should be translated for the journal’s readers). Short-form articles may be review-style pieces of new publications and exhibits or ‘state of the field’ commentary. Artist interviews are also welcome.

Disney Studies @ NEPCA

The Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) Disney Studies Area invites submissions for NEPCA’s annual conference to be held virtually October 9-11, 2024. Virtual sessions will take place via Zoom. Registration for the conference opens in mid-July. 

Disney Studies invites submissions from scholars and independent researchers for topics related to Disney. The intent behind this area is to foster dialogue about an entertainment corporation that has seeped and inspired many facets of popular culture. Submission topics are welcome for any Disney-related topic, including but not limited to: 

• Theme Parks and hyperreality 
• Animation (films, process) 
• Princesses, Pirates, and everything in between 
• Walt Disney 
• Imagineering and urban planning 
• Disney+, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, The Wonderful World of Disney 
• DisneyNature, the True Life Adventures, and Ecology 
• Diversity and Disney Hegemony 

NOTE: Proposals for acquired properties (e.g. Star Wars, The Muppets) are welcome, but need to connect to Disney. 

The call will be open until July 15, 2025. You can submit your proposal at this link (https://www.northeastpca.org/about-4).

For more information, please visit our 2025 Conference Page (https://www.northeastpca.org/call-for-papers) or e-mail Disney Studies Area Chair Priscilla Hobbs at p.hobbs-penn@snhu.edu.

Silly Old Bear? Adaptations, Appropriations, and Transformations of Winnie-the-Pooh

Silly Old Bear? Adaptations, Appropriations, and Transformations of Winnie-the-Pooh
Co-sponsored by the Monsters & the Monstrous Area and Disney Studies Area
Call for Papers for 2025 Virtual Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA)
Thursday, 9 October, to Saturday, 11 October, 2025
Submissions are open until Tuesday, 15 July by 5 PM EDT

A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh has always been a bit of a shapeshifter manifesting under various names and appearances since the start of his now over one-hundred-year career as a transmedia figure. Over the past century, Pooh and his associates from the Hundred Acre Wood have been adapted and appropriated to feature in artwork, cards, clothing, collectibles, comics, cookbooks, fiction, films, games, illustrations, memes, musical theater, original videos, philosophical treatises, plays, poems, radio broadcasts, self-help manuals, stuffed animals, songs, streaming video, television programs, theatrical productions, theme park attractions, and translations as well as critical commentaries and works of scholarship. These stories tell of their adventures across time and space, and each text offers a unique approach to the characters. Notably, Pooh and his band have often undergone radical transformations through various parodies and pastiches, with many more innovative approaches appearing since their move into the public domain beginning in 2022. 

In this session, we seek to catalog and critique some of these various takes on Winnie-the-Pooh and his companions. We ask you to explore how these adaptations, appropriations, and transformations of these familiar figures connect to and/or diverge from the Poohian tradition established by Milne and illustrator E. H. Shepard. We want you to uncover what these works might say about the gang from the Hundred Acre Wood, the creators of these new works, and, ultimately, ourselves as the receivers of these texts. We encourage you to make use of the resource guide provided at https://tinyurl.com/SillyOldBearRG in formulating your approach. 

To submit a proposal, please review the requirements and procedure from NEPCA’s main conference page at https://www.northeastpca.org/conference. Proposals should be approximately 250 words; an academic biographical statement (75 words or less) is also requested. Payment of registration and membership fees will be required to present. More details on exact costs will be forthcoming. 

Direct submissions to the Monsters & the Monstrous Area can be made at https://cfp.sched.com/speaker/sTP9T9X3cW/event. Address any questions or concerns to the area chair at popular.preternaturaliana@gmail.com. 

Further information on the Monsters & the Monstrous Area can be accessed on our blog Popular Preternaturaliana: Studying the Monstrous in Popular Culture at https://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/. 
Further information on the Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) can be accessed from our new website at https://www.northeastpca.org/.

We Live Again! Disney’s Gargoyles as an Evolving Transmedia Text

We Live Again! Disney’s Gargoyles as an Evolving Transmedia Text
Co-sponsored by the Monsters & the Monstrous Area and Disney Studies Area
Call for Papers for 2025 Virtual Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA)
Thursday, 9 October, to Saturday, 11 October, 2025
Submissions are open until Tuesday, 15 July by 5 PM EDT

Conceived by creator Greg Weisman, Disney’s Gargoyles began as a television series in the 1990s and has been expanded over the decades through action figures, books, clothing, collectibles, comics, conventions, fan art, fanfiction, games, puzzles, and recurrent rumors of a live-action reboot. Although now over thirty years old, Gargoyles has remained incredibly popular since its initial debut, yet, while other aspects of Disney Studies are flourishing, scholars have mostly neglected the series. Therefore, we seek in this session to offer some critical attention to Gargoyles and its various adaptations and continuations. 
Proposals should display some knowledge of the history and scope of the series, its adaptation history, and its ongoing evolution. We encourage you to make use of the resource guide provided at https://tinyurl.com/WeLiveAgainRG in formulating your approach. 

To submit a proposal, please review the requirements and procedure from NEPCA’s main conference page at https://www.northeastpca.org/conference. Proposals should be approximately 250 words; an academic biographical statement (75 words or less) is also requested. Payment of registration and membership fees will be required to present. More details on exact costs will be forthcoming. 

Direct submissions to the Monsters & the Monstrous Area can be made at https://cfp.sched.com/speaker/sTP9T9X3cW/event. Address any questions or concerns to the area chair at popular.preternaturaliana@gmail.com. 

Further information on the Monsters & the Monstrous Area can be accessed on our blog Popular Preternaturaliana: Studying the Monstrous in Popular Culture at https://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/. 
Further information on the Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) can be accessed from our new website at https://www.northeastpca.org/.

Walt Disney – An Icon of Children’s and Young Adult Culture

Although there have been many studies on the achievements of Walt Disney, his corporation, and the films and other cultural texts (series, books, toys) it has created, in the next issue of Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura [Childhood: Literature and Culture] we would like to once again – also from new perspectives, inspired by the anniversary marking the studio’s 100 years celebrated two years ago – explore the influence of the studio’s founder and the media corporation that emerged from it on the shape of 20th-century and contemporary children’s and young adult culture (especially since this corporation continues to grow and undergoes constant transformations).