The Boston Cultural Studies Project is seeking both substantive and theoretically oriented essays regarding contemporary cultural beliefs, practices, myths, symbols, texts, and icons. Accepted submissions will be posted on the website (www.bostonculturalstudies.com). We are looking for short commentaries (400-700 words) on contemporary culture in order to construct an inventory of cultural resources and provide examples of how to evaluate cultural texts and practices. Reviews of cultural resources and rebuttals of past submissions are also welcome. In accordance with our objectives (see below), the Boston Cultural Studies Project website will provide a forum of dialogue and debate, consultation and conversation, reference and refutation for engaged participants and casual observers. Your submissions should help facilitate this interaction.

Send your article with a brief bio to both Michael Ian Borer at miborer@bu.edu and Thomas Nesbit Jr. at tanesbit@bu.edu for evaluation. Please do not send attachments. Instead, copy your article and paste it to the body of the email.

The Project's objectives:

Address issues regarding contemporary American cultural resources (e.g., religion, literature and the arts, popular entertainment, electronic media, and products of other “culture industries”)

Critically assess the impact of these cultural resources on both social and individual identity and meaning construction

Determine the proper methods, vocabulary, and criteria for interpreting, discussing, and understanding cultural texts by appropriating theories from the social sciences and the humanities

Examine cultural texts in relation to their socio-historical contexts for a better understanding of both the texts and their respective cultures

Create and maintain a forum for discussion and debate about where and how contemporary Americans adopt answers to the fundamental existential questions and “ultimate concerns”