CFP The Alt-Right in Popular Culture

deadline for submissions:
September 1, 2017
full name / name of organization:
Katlyn Williams/The University of Iowa
contact email:
katlyn-e-williams@uiowa.edu
Over the past few years, a loosely defined group that has since come to be referred to as “the alt-right” began to receive increased attention and scrutiny in the American media. The group presents itself to the public as an alternative to the mainstream conservatism of the contemporary Republican Party, and is an amorphous mass of people, largely associated with Internet social media platforms. The alt-right appears to be motivated by white nationalism, antigovernment conspiracy theory, xenophobia, and an opposition to identity politics. Its existence is linked with news sites like Breitbart News, the white supremacist site American Renaissance, and the neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer (among others), and with movements like the Men’s Rights, neo-Nazi and anti-immigrant movements. In 2017, Donald Trump’s presidential election has arguably legitimized and further publicized alt-right figures and ideologies, most clearly demonstrated by the rise of Trump Aid Steve Bannon, former Breitbart chairman, to the White House. In this cultural moment, it is essential that scholars and thinkers of the contemporary begin critical explorations of the formation, influences and attitudes that comprise a cultural understanding of the alt-right and niche internet groups as a political and social phenomenon. Intrinsic to this study is the interrogation of various modes of toxic masculinities associated with these internet platforms and their popularization of both fascist and nihilistic political and social paradigms. This volume calls for full-length essays that will contribute to this interrogation. I plan to approach university presses with this volume, which will pioneer the serious study of the alt-right within the academy. This collection is the first of its kind.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

Alt-right leaders and their treatment in the media
The relationship between alt-right and nihilism
The alt-right and fascist iconography and influences
The alt-right and its growing antithesis, an emerging “alt-left”
The emergence of the alt-right and its forebears/predecessors
Media focus on figures like Milo Yiannapoulos/Richard Spencer
Literary/critical/philosophical influences on the alt-right
The alt-right and popular genres, specifically science fiction and fantasy
The alt-right and configurations of toxic masculinities
Artist pushback against alt-right groups/anti-fascist art installations and output
Street art (both alt-right & anti-fascist)
Commercial/mainstream response to alt-right ideologies
This collection will be interdisciplinary, and is open to scholars in Media Studies, Film Studies, Literary and Historical Studies, Women’s Studies, Queer Studies, Gender Studies, Philosophy, Cultural Studies, and beyond.

Please send an abstract (450-700 words) and a short bio to Katlyn Williams (katlyn-e-williams@uiowa.edu) by September 1st, 2017.

This volume will call for completed essays of 5,000-7,000 words by March 1st, 2018.