Jodie A. Kreider (University of Denver) and Meghan K. Winchell (Nebraska Wesleyan University), editors of Buffy in the Classroom: Teaching with the Vampire Slayer (McFarland, 2010), invite submissions for a new collection of essays on teaching using the work of Joss Whedon. Whedon has produced a large body of quality work beyond Buffy, including Angel, Dollhouse, Firefly, Avengers, Much Ado About Nothing, Cabin in the Woods, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and a variety of comic book series, among others.
This collection will combine the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching by exploring the ways in which Whedon texts are taught in international secondary and post-secondary classrooms through both interdisciplinary and discipline-specific approaches. It will focus on methodology and practice to encourage and guide others interested in adding Whedon texts to their pedagogy. The editors welcome submissions on Buffy, but this volume seeks to feature the entirety of Whedon’s texts.
The volume will include articles that cover tested and concrete examples, lesson plans, and reflections upon classroom experiences. We are interested in how instructors use Whedon’s work to convey larger lessons within and across disciplinary lines. Themes and disciplines may include but are not limited to gender, race, class, literature, philosophy, music, aesthetics, religion, feminism, science, technology, education, language, identity, morality, or heroism.
- How do you integrate Whedon’s work into your classroom? Do you teach single examples of his work or do you teach a full course on one or all of Whedon’s texts?
- How do you do so, what are the benefits, drawbacks, and challenges?
- What kinds of assignments and practices work with this material?
- How do the students react to such practices?
- How does Whedon’s work help to clarify issues, ideas, and disciplinary concepts?
- How do you connect Whedon’s works to a new generation of students who has not encountered them before?
- How do you link Whedon texts to other narratives, scholarship and the larger body of academic work on the Whedonverses?
- How do students react to the inclusion of Whedon texts specifically and popular culture broadly in the classroom?
For more information on the academic field of Whedon Studies refer to the Whedon Studies Association at www.slayageonline.com.
Please submit a proposal of approximately 500 words (attached as a Microsoft Word document; the file name should include Whedon), along with a Curriculum Vitae including full contact information to both Jodie.Kreider@du.edu and mwinchel@nebrwesleyan.edu by November 1. The deadline for first drafts will be March 2015 and final drafts will be due late May 2015.