1. Transmedia Explorations of Cannibalism: Dehumanizing Accusations and Empowering Rebuttals
This transmedia monograph takes the theoretical perspective of "cannibalism as discourse." It includes ten chapters that focus on an accusation of cannibalism and then a counter-culture pushback that uses cannibalism as a source of contemplation, empowerment, and/or returns the accusation of cannibalism back to the hegemonic culture.
This monograph balances analyses of film, series, novels, graphic novels, statues, paintings, and video games with research in world history, religion and theology, memory studies, popular culture, identity politics, food studies, cultural relativism, neurodivergence studies, legal documents, colonial visual arts (woodblock and paintings), ecofeminism, Indigenous studies, queer studies, sociology, and masculinity studies, among other interdisciplinary fields. This text includes primary and secondary source research (of varying levels) in Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and French, with a few key terms from Portuguese and Algonquin.
*Note: This monograph does include some horror and body horror elements; however, it is sociopolitically focused.
2. Execute, Ameliorate, or Rectify: Gender Identities, Transnational Film, and Transitional Justice
This monograph explores the intersections of gender identities -- including feminism, masculinity, and queer studies -- as presented in post-violence, history-based films. The films' sociopolitical elements are deconstructed to understand how these cinematic works function in formal political realms and informal popular culture worlds. These films are considered in light of their messages to audiences regarding events of the violent era and the post-violence reconciliation process (amnesia, investigation, forgiveness, etc.) within the processes of individual, local, national, regional, and global transitional justice.
Each chapter addresses specific intercultural situations of violence (colonialism, slavery, dictatorships, war) and the films produced by various factions and perspectives after this era, including -- for example -- hegemonic metanarratives, subversive rebel narratives, messages of forgiveness and reconciliation... Primary and secondary research will be conducted in the original language sources of Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, and English (with select Algonquin terms included).
The chapters include historical backgrounds, summary analyses of the related cinema produced post-violence, film director backgrounds, film analyses, and affective analyses (especially through popular culture media, social reactions, blog posts, grassroots activism, legal ramifications, etc.). The chapters problematize films that support hegemonic metanarratives, call for acknowledgment of the victims of human rights abuses, investigate questions of historical accuracy, promote reconnection and forgiveness, and contest eliding and silencing domination.
and with a brief explanation of your interest in being a peer reviewer for either or both of these texts.