Call for articles
Women and Electronic Dance Music Culture
Special edition of Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture
Edited by Rebekah Farrugia and Magdalena Olszanowski
This special edition of Dancecult seeks to address the diverse roles of women-identified persons within electronic dance music culture (EDMC). While a great deal has been written about the practices of EDM subcultures and DJ culture in general, the experiences of women has received little attention perpetuating and reinforcing male dominance.
Women’s involvement in EDMC has largely been written out of the genre’s history; however, scholarly research has begun to intervene in popular and academic discourses that for decades positioned women as outside the sphere of EDMC with the exception of their presence as dance floor participants. Where once few women-identified role models and women-centered spaces served as inspiration for women to become agents in EDMC, the support network for women has been expanding. Since the 2000s especially, there has been tremendous growth in the number of women-centered EDM collectives and support networks worldwide. Still, as women are forging inroads, their successes are tempered by a discourse that continues to insist on ‘a lack” of women’s involvement. Over the past decade, research has begun to address both the significant and innovative contributions of women to the genre and industry as well as the ongoing misogyny that limits women’s participation, opportunity, and recognition in EDMC. Currently, women make crucial contributions to EDM in their roles as DJs, producers, agents, promoters, designers, VJs, and so on.
This special issue of Dancecult will include current research that examines, interrogates, and highlights the tensions and experiences of women, transgender and gender nonconforming contributors to EDMC. This issue is grounded in existing EDM literature as well as contemporary debates in the field of culture and gender studies as well as technology studies as inflected by intersections of gender, power, privilege, and bodies in globally diverse locales and cultures. We are particularly interested in intersectional work that addresses race, class, ability, age, and/or sexuality in addition to one or more of the themes below.
// SUGGESTED THEMES //
Potential themes for articles include (but are not limited to):
– problematizing the contemporary popular discourse (or lack thereof) on women-identified persons
– women’s emotional labour and backstage support
– trans and gender nonconforming participants in EDM
– diverse practices/interrogating and interpreting modes of participation
– intersections of gender and technology
– gender scripts in EDM
– the industry of EDM production
– formation and dynamics of collectives, especially marginalized collectives
– historical analyses of issue themes
– emerging initiatives in EDM
// SUBMISSIONS //
Feature Articles:
Feature Articles will be peer-reviewed and are 6000–9000 words in length (including endnotes, captions and bibliography). For policies, see here.
“From the Floor” Articles:
This special edition will also feature a special version of the From the Floor format: “In Our Own Words”. Submissions for this shorter format (750–2500 words) should relate one (illuminating / thought-provoking / exemplary / problematic / surprising) vignette from one’s own work and practice, followed by brief and exploratory comments. We are particularly looking for mini-ethnographies, auto-ethnographies, and interviews. See guidelines at the Section Policies link above.
Articles must adhere to all style and formatting rules stipulated in the Dancecult Style Guide (DSG).
Multimedia Submissions:
Dancecult encourages authors to complement their written work with audio and visual material. See the DSG for style and formatting requirements.
Language:
Although the language of publication in Dancecult is English, the editors strongly encourage submissions from non-Anglophone scholars and will be happy to provide linguistic/stylistic support during the writing process.
// DATES AND DEADLINES //
This special edition will be published in Dancecult on 1 November 2017.
If interested, send a 250-word abstract (along with a 100 word maximum author biography) to farrugia[at]oakland[dot]edu by 1 July 2016.
If your abstract is accepted, the deadline for submission of a full article draft to Rebekah Farrugia (farrugia[at]oakland[dot]edu) is 1 December 2016. Beyond that, the deadline for online submission to Dancecult (for blind peer-review) is 1 April 2017.
Please send inquiries and expressions of interest to Magdalena Olszanowski magdalena[dot]olszanowski[at]concordia[dot]ca.