Celebrity Forum’ Special Issue of
Celebrity Studies Journal (Routledge)
Michael Jackson: Celebrity, Death & the King of PopMichael Jackson’s recent death, its wall-to-wall rolling news coverage and the outpouring of public grief that accompanied it confirms not only the centrality of celebrity in contemporary life, but Jackson’s role in defining celebrity culture and the parameters, benchmarks and excesses of pop stardom. The Celebrity Studies Journal ‘celebrity forum’ section seeks short, provocative and open-ended pieces for a special issue on Jackson and his death. Please send abstracts of no more than 150words, together with a 50 word biography to
[email protected] by 30th September.
Topics can include, but should not be limited to:
• Reflections on his role in shaping the meaning of celebrity culture
• Coverage of his death and funeral
• Public mourning and pop ‘royalty’
• Grief tourism
• The legacy of child stardom
Guidelines for the section and final articles are below. Accepted papers will be notified in early October, with papers due by 1st December.
Celebrity Forum
Celebrity Forum provides a space for timely responses to contemporary and historical issues in celebrity culture. We encourage submissions in two forms: 1,000-1,500 words (including notes) “think pieces”, including case studies, which should be provocative and open-ended, encouraging exchange and debate. Alternatively, we invite 500-1,000 word (including notes) submissions of comments and views on previous articles published within either the main section of the journal or Celebrity Forum. Above all, Celebrity Forum is designed to be dialogical and primarily engaged with cutting edge developments in celebrity and its study.
Celebrity Studies is a journal that focuses on the critical exploration of celebrity, stardom and fame. It seeks to make sense of celebrity by drawing upon a range of (inter)disciplinary approaches, media forms, historical periods and national contexts. Celebrity Studies aims to address key issues in the production, circulation and consumption of fame, and its manifestations in both contemporary and historical contexts, while functioning as a key site for academic debate about the enterprise of celebrity studies itself.