Edited By
Julian C. Chambliss, Assistant Professor Department of History, Rollins College, Thomas C. Donaldson, Department of History, University of Albany and William Svitavsky, Associate Professor & Electronic Resource Librarian, Rollins College

This edited volume will offer a collection of essays that explores the current scholarship related to superhero comics and comic culture in U.S. society. Despite the current popularity of superhero comics in the popular media, scholarship exploring the comic medium remains limited in scope and depth. Adding to recent scholarship that has striven to define the superhero’s unique relationship to American culture, this volume will offer critical appraisal of the race, class, and gender as presented in superhero stories and how, if at all, this genre informs the construction, representation, and distortion of American culture.

Topics of interest for submission may include but are not limited to the following:

Race and the Superhero
Gender and the Superhero
Superheroes and Nationalism
Religion and the Superhero
The Superhero in the Media
The Superhero and Identity

Please note, we are especially interested in consideration of specific comic eras from the above perspectives.

For consideration, please send the following information to William Svitavsky (wsvitavsky@rollins.edu) by 5/01/08:

1. Paper title and abstract/proposal (500 words max.)
2. Brief vita or one-paragraph biography
3. Complete personal information: name, department, academic institution, mailing address, and e-mail address.