Deadline Approaching - CFP: Fashioning Fat Special Issue of Fat Studies

Hi all, here is a reminder of this upcoming CFP deadline. Please email [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> with any questions.


Call for Proposals: Special issue of Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society on Fashioning Fat

Guest Editors:
Calla Evans, Ryerson University, [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> 
May Friedman, Ryerson University, [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
To be considered for inclusion in this special issue, please send a 250-400 word proposal and current CV or resume to Calla Evans ([email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>) by November 1, 2019.  Any questions should be emailed to Calla Evans ([email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>).

In her 2010 article “Fat Studies: Mapping the Field” Charlotte Cooper charts the course for future scholarly work that fuses popular and academic perspectives with social justice concerns, calling on Fat Studies scholars to “consider the value of fat diversity, fat culture, address new complexities, and create possibilities for recognizing fat as a perspective, a new kind of interdisciplinary lens” (2010, p. 1029). One area where we’ve seen fat deployed as an interdisciplinary lens is in the field of Fashion Studies, where scholars have done important work charting the ways in which fat identity is constructed, performed, reflected and resisted through fashion and dress. This special issue of Fat Studies on Fashioning Fat seeks to offer a fresh perspective on how the fat body is fashioned, building on the rich body of knowledge around plus-size fashion consumption and dressing practices and supporting new interdisciplinary work on the dressed fat body. 

To this end, we are seeking pieces which consider the term “fashioning” broadly as well as those who fit more comfortably at the junction of Fat Studies and Fashion Studies. 

Proposed topics might include, but are not limited to: 

Anti-fat bias in the fashion industry and the ways in which plus-size consumers engage with mainstream plus-size clothing.
Intersectional analyses of fat and fashion; How are race, class, gender, sexuality, age, ability, and/or other identity markers, reflected in how the fat body is fashioned?
Fatshion and fat dressing practices as activism; Fashion as a resistive tool for fat bodies; Fashion “hacking” as activism.
Historical and contemporary popular cultural representations of the dressed fat body; How is the fat body dressed for TV and movies? How are other intersecting identity markers fashioned upon the fat body?
Analyses of how the fat body is dressed on stage and in other artistic works.
The role of the fashion industry and clothing in constructing and maintaining neoliberalist framings of fat and fatness.
Projects that engage with the ways in which fat dressing practices can “queer” fat embodiment and representations of the fat body.
Critiques of the commodification of fatness and plus-size fatshion influencer ecology.
Considerations of a “fat” fashion pedagogy; how do/can we teach future fashion designers about dressing the fat body?
Projects that engage with “fattening” the field of Fashion Studies; Critiques of who is being left out of the current body of knowledge around plus-size dressing practices.
Geographical differences in how the fat body is dressed; How does the fat body approach the practice of dressing across the globe?
Analyses of plus-size fashion and fatshion oriented texts.
Projects that engage the fat dressed body with disability studies, mad studies, and additional forms of non-normative cognitive and physical embodiments.
Fat fashion and dressing as resistance; the political nature of fashion engagement for the fat body.
Considerations of the ‘fatshionista’ and the historical and contemporary location and impact of the ‘fatshionista’ community.
Reflections on everyday fat dressing practices; personal relationships with clothing and dressing.
Imaginings of a fat-inclusive fashion future.

Contributors will be notified of the status of their proposal by December 1, 2019. Full manuscripts, including all notes and references, should be between 2,000 and 6,000 words and will be due by February 1, 2020. If you wish to include reproductions of visual images with your article, please provide documentation of permission to do so from the artists/copyright holders of the image(s). All authors will need to sign a form that transfers copyright of their article to the publisher, Taylor & Francis/Routledge.

Fat Studies is the first academic journal in the field of corporeal scholarship that critically examines theory, research, practices, and programs related to body weight and appearance. Content includes original research and overviews exploring the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, age, ability, and socioeconomic status. Articles critically examine representations of fat in health and medical sciences, the Health-at-Every-Size model, the pharmaceutical industry, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, legal issues, literature, pedagogy, art, theater, popular culture, media studies, and activism.

                                  
Calla Evans (she/her/hers)

PhD Student, Communication and Culture
Ryerson University

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 647-229-6218


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