H-Announce Whitewashing and Racebending: Diversity in Literature and Popular Culture (NeMLA 2018) Announcement published by Rafael Ponce-Cordero on Monday, June 26, 2017 Type: Call for Papers Date: September 30, 2017 Location: Pennsylvania, United States Subject Fields: Popular Culture Studies, Film and Film History, Race Studies How has it been progressive or restrictive to change the race or ethnicity of a character in adaptations of literature and other texts? How do such choices in character design and casting increase diversity? How do such choices perpetuate problematic legacies from the source material? Examples may include stage, film, and fan productions of novels, plays, and comics. This year saw whitewashing of Asian characters from comics, as in Doctor Strange and Ghost in the Shell, as well as missed opportunities to re-cast Danny Rand in Netflix’s adaptation ofIron Fist and expunge the white savior narrative that has plagued that kung-fu comic. This panel will examine diversity beyond these adaptations of comics and consider whether and how popular culture in general addresses limited diversity in literature, especially in casting choices for adaptations, and what makes such adaptations effective or ineffective in addressing such real-life problems. Additional examples we anticipate submitted abstracts will consider include whitewashing in adaptations of religious texts such as Exodus, adaptations of video games such as Prince of Persia, adaptations of animated series such as Avatar: The Last Airbender, and adaptations of real-life stories such as 21. We will also consider progressive work accomplished in racebending, in stage adaptations such as Harry Potter and Hamilton, fan productions such as cosplay, and, returning to comics, adaptations such as The Flash, Supergirl, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Please submit 300-word abstracts and brief biographical statements bySeptember 30, 2017 directly through NeMLA's system:https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/16951 The 49th Annual NeMLA Convention will take place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 12-15, 2018. Contact Info: Rafael Ponce-Cordero, Keene State College Contact Email: [email protected] URL: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/16951 Citation: Rafael Ponce-Cordero. Whitewashing and Racebending: Diversity in Literature and Popular Culture (NeMLA 2018). H- Announce. 06-26-2017. https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/184662/whitewashing-and-racebending-diversity-literature-and-popular Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1.