Academic Stuffs

Do you know, it's great that re-reading my PhD proposal only makes me more excited (instead of more terrified) about starting it! Can't wait to properly get into the research and everything, though with my current plan it'll be another year before I'm writing/sending out my questions.

Before that though, I have to write my paper for the Journal of Transformative Works and Cultures (I'm so excited-I have the Aussie X Files group on board as well as heART!) and submit the writing therapy essay I wrote for my MA to a couple of journals.

I also need to get hold of The Sex Files-A Dark XXX Parody as well as any articles about it/interviews with the cast and crew. I'm hopefully attending two conferences soon (along with a friend who I met through X-Files fandom) and for one of them I want to write about the X-Files porn film. That conference is on Erotic Adaptations, on 26 January 2010 at De Montfort University in Leicester, and the description is:

Proposals are invited for papers on erotic and sexually explicit adaptations and appropriations, from film versions of erotic classics such as Justine, Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Story of O to contemporary slash fiction and porn parodies. The focus will be on screen adaptations but papers are welcome on graphic novels, novelisations, video mashups, photography, manga, book illustrations, radio and video games. The Symposium is hosted jointed by the Centre for Adaptations and the AHRC-funded Onscenity Research Network (http://onscenity.org/index.html)

Please send an abstract of 200 words for a 20 minute paper to Ian Hunter at iqhunter@dmu.ac.uk.

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: 1 November 2010

So I want to look at the film as less a porn parody and more a porn homage. Need to get a move on with the abstract though.

The second conference is also at De Montfort University, on 24 November this year, and the description is:

Vegetarians, VILFs and Fang-Bangers: Modern Vampire Romance in print and on screen

Keynote Speaker: Dr Nickianne Moody, Liverpool John Moores Univeristy

Vampires have had a long and complex relationship with human beings and have been threatening and attracting us through folklore, literature, film and television for centuries. But now they walk among us, seeking to integrate themselves into our culture, to be our business partners, friends and lovers. Why do we now prefer our vampires with a sensitive nature or with their ruthlessness focused on business deals? How does this change affect the relationship between both species and genders? This one-day conference seeks to understand and criticise the phenomenal popularity of what is sometimes termed Dark Romance. Papers are sought on authors such as Stephanie Meyers, Charlene Harris, and Lauren K. Hamilton, the adaptation of Dark Romance books for both film and TV and a general consideration of the change in our relationship with the vampire.

Proposals are invited for 20-minute papers, which might address (though not exclusively) the following areas:
•21st-century vampires in the Gothic literary tradition
•Vampires and gender/relations
•Adaptation and the shift of audience
•Debates on the Other
•Difference between film and television adaptation
•Colonialism/postcolonialism/postnationalism
•Vampires and money/business
•Vampires and class relations
•Vampires, authors and fans

For this one I'm going to look at the relationship between vampires and gender/relations. I'm going to compare Buffy, Bella and Sookie and their relationships with the men (vampires) in their lives. I haven't fully formulated my plan yet though, but I need to get a move on!

Lots of really cool things coming up then! Just have to make sure I finish my MA work too :D

It's Worrying How Time Flies

I now have only two months to finish my MA portfolio of 10000. I swear 5 minutes ago I had four months.

I've had my marks back for my teaching essay and portfolio one - 76 for the essay and my tutor's told me to submit it to some journals, and 68 for the portfolio. I was really hoping I'd get more, and I debated contesting it, but in the end I decided not to bother. I did, however, email a couple of journals for the teaching essay (which was on writing therapy and client safety) and one has come back to say yes, please submit. I've also emailed Henry Jenkins about the fan activism issue of the Journal of Transformative Works and Cultures he's guest editing, and had a reply today to say that they're interested in the paper I've proposed and would like me to submit. They can't guarantee publication as it has to go through peer review, but the fact that they're interested when it's not an area I've studied and I haven't even started my PhD yet really pleased me. I know what I'm going to write about, and I've approached some people I want to do case studies with, so just waiting for their permission and then I can start the research and drawing up my questions.