CFP Issue #67 of The Velvet Light Trap: Seeing Race: Our Enduring Dilemma 
  
"You lie!" Rep. Joe Wilson shouted during President Barack Obama's
speech on health care reform in the halls of Congress. Media pundits
were quick to point out that the 19th century was the last occasion of
such an egregious breach of protocol took place in Congress. Members of
both Houses urged the Republican congressman from South Carolina to
apologize for his misconduct--and he did. Soon after, though, the
discourse shifted to the reasons for Wilson's outburst. The factor of
race became one major point in attributing blame, but that fire was
never allowed to flame because of the overwhelmingly hegemonic ideology
of colorblindness that currently saturates our culture. This same story
could be told in relation to the nomination of Supreme Court Justice
Sonia Sotomayor, the pop culture firestorm that singed Isaiah
Washington and the cast of Grey's Anatomy, or the discourses surrounding First Lady Michelle Obama's hair.
The notion that we cannot talk about race unless it is specifically and
clearly identified as such in media and culture-at-large is as
implicitly understood as is the notion of "one nation under God"--and
it is just as powerful. And yet, although we claim to be blind to the
markers of external and cultural difference, we always "see" race. 
  
Issue #67 of The Velvet Light Trap will explore all the varied
ways that we "see" race in television, film and new media. While the
editors maintain a broad definition of "seeing race," special
consideration will be given toward articles that interrogate the nexus
of racial visibility as a sociocultural fact and/or color blindness as
an ideological practice. Whether papers approach seeing race as a
discursive category, a commercial commodity, and/or an object of
consumption, the editors anticipate submissions that connect these
strategies to the historical, industrial, political, and cultural
factors that underpin a society's values.


  
Possible Topics include, but are not limited to: 
Seeing Race in War 
Spectacle 
Production Cultures 
Race and Genre 
Race in Political Media 
Race and Gender Intersectionality in Media
 
 
Papers should be between 6,000 and 7,500 words (approximately
20-25 pages double-spaced), in MLA style with a cover page including
the writer's name and contact information. 
  
Please send one copy of the paper (including
a one-page abstract with each copy) and one electronic copy saved as a
Word .doc file in a format suitable to be sent to a reader anonymously. The journal's Editorial Advisory Board will referee all submissions.

For
more information or questions, contact Andrew Scahill at
adscahill_at_mail.utexas.edu. Hard copy submissions are due January 30,
2010, and should be sent to:

The Velvet Light Trap, c/o The Department of Radio-Television-Film,
University of Texas at Austin, CMA 6.118, Mail Code A0800, Austin, TX, 78712
 
The electronic copy submission is also due on January 30, 2010 and
should be sent to Andrew Scahill at [log in to unmask]

The Velvet Light Trap
is an academic, peer-reviewed journal of film and television studies.
Graduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the
University of Texas-Austin alternately coordinate issues. The
Editorial Advisory Board includes such notable scholars as Charlie
Keil, Dan Marcus, David Desser, David Foster, Michele Malach, Joe
McElhaney, Beretta Smith-Shomade, Jason Mittell, Malcolm Turvey, James
Morrison, Tara McPherson, Steve Neale, Aswin Punathambekar, Peter
Bloom, Sean Griffin, and Michael Williams. 


 		 	   		  
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