Follow Joss in June happenings via Twitter (#jij2015). See the program here.

Watcher Junior: The Undergraduate Journal of Whedon Studies releases its new issue this month. This issue features five articles that explore topics in Firefly, Serenity, the Buffy Comics, Cabin in the Woods and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
 
Two essays focus on Firefly characters with one exploring the relationship between the vessel Serenity and her female crew members and the other comparing River as the Oracle of Serenity with Greek mythology’s Oracle of Delphi. A third essay examines the themes of nihilism and existentialism in The Cabin in the Woods. This issue includes two essays that examine the feminism of Buffy the Vampire Slayer through other texts and media, in one case  in comparison with the Season Eight comics regarding sexualized representations of the female characters, and in the other science fiction author Donna Haraway’s theories about hybrid beings, specifically the Simian, the Cyborg and the Woman.
 
Find the new issue here: http://www.whedonstudies.tv/current-issue1.html.
 
Watcher Junior is edited by Jodie A. Kreider, Lecturer in the History Department at the University of Denver, and Meghan K. Winchell, associate professor of history and chair of the History Department at Nebraska Wesleyan University, which sponsors the journal. Watcher Junior is published with the support of the Whedon Studies Association.

Don't forget to submit your proposals to Joss in June. The deadline has been extended to Tuesday, April 7, 2015. Get them in today!

Editors Rhonda V. Wilcox and David Lavery released the latest issue of Slayage today, one that includes eight new essays on Whedon's works as well as a report from last summer's conference in Sacramento, CA.

This week, organizers launched the official, developing website for this summer's Joss in June in Murfreesboro, TN. Check out the website here.

Middle Tennessee State University will play host to the second "Joss in June" conference this summer, to be most likely be held on campus in MTSU's beautiful new Student Center, with attendees staying at Murfreesboro's DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel. After a reception on Friday night, 26 June 2015, the conference will take place on Saturday, 27 June. Saturday evening and Sunday will be open for those wishing to experience Nashville, just 30 miles away. Visit the developing website here. To learn more, contact Joss in June convener David Lavery.

The jury for the Mr. Pointy Awards invites nominations of excellent scholarship in Whedon Studies for work copyrighted in 2014 to be recognized by the Whedon Studies Association's Mr. Pointy Awards. Nominations can be submitted to the jury for:

• best article (including scholarly chapters in books, scholarly articles, scholarly essays online)
• best book (monograph or collection)

These articles and books should be on any aspect of the various Whedonverses, their audiences, or the work of Joss Whedon or that of his associates (e.g. other writers on a Whedon series, the music director of a Whedon series, an actor in a Whedon series, an editor of a Whedon film, etc.).

In order to make a nomination, you need not have read everything published in Whedon Studies in 2014. The jury is simply looking for associates to nominate work that they found especially powerful or insightful--every nomination helps build the overall list.

Nominations should be sent by WSA members by 30 March 2015 to Bronwen Calvert, chair of jury, at [email protected]. Please note that WSA members may not nominate articles or books they wrote/co-wrote and/or edited, although they may nominate articles from the book they edited if they did not write the articles. WSA members may nominate book volumes to which they contributed an essay but did not perform larger editing duties.

Only associates of the WSA may nominate. If you would like to join the WSA, please contact Secretary Kristopher Woofter at [email protected].

Journal of Fandom Studies
Call For Papers

Special Issue: Music and Fandom
Guest Editors: Jessica L. Getman, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Aya Esther Hayashi, The Graduate Center, CUNY

Music operates simultaneously as an object of, an accessory to, and a production of fandom.  Though this phenomenon has been addressed by scholars such as Henry Jenkins, Solomon Davidoff, and Mark Duffett, the use and production of music remains a relatively ignored area of research within the field of fan studies.  This leaves a wide variety of important fan practices unexplored, including music-making (filk, geek rock, wizard rock, fanvids, and cover bands), the hybridization of media in fan creations (i.e., music in fan fiction, music in fanvids, and music in LARPing and Cosplay), fan performance and recording practices, and music-making as a community-building exercise within fandom, to name a few.