Omotayo Banjo – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Call for Proposals: Immigrant Generations, Media Representations and Audiences, book to be edited by Omotayo Banjo. Deadline for abstracts: April 20, 2020.

According to the Pew Research Center, foreign-born immigrants comprise about fourteen percent of the American population. Second-generation Americans (U.S. born children of immigrants) comprise about 12% of the population and is projected to increase to 18% in the next 30 years. As a result, Schildrkraut (2007) argues that multiculturalism is a competing definition of Americanism as it “endorse[s] this notion that America’s unique identity is grounded in its immigrant legacy and in its ability to convert the challenges immigration brings into thriving strengths, pg. 600.” According to the Institute of immigration research report (2015), foreign-born immigrants comprise up to 11% of the entertainment industry with up to six percent representing producers and directors.

Series like Master of None, Jane the Virgin, and films like My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 and Crazy Rich Asians have emerged telling stories which resonate with the intergenerational and intercultural characteristics of American identity. Recently, the Hollywood Reporter initiated a video series hosted by Charlamagne Tha God titled Emerging Hollywood. This interview-platform show captures some new game players in Hollywood who engage American cultural politics from their ancestral perspective and as such offer a more nuanced view of what it is to be American. Entertainers and producers like Hasan Minhaj (Patriot Act), Yvonne Oriji (Jesus and Jollof), Ali Wong (Fresh off the Boat), and Gina Yashere (Bob Hearts Abisola) unashamedly represent their (or their parents’) ancestral land within their home country and engage this hybridity with ingenuity.

Challenging Hollywood’s beliefs that White dominated narratives are universal, these new players demonstrate the story of immigrants and their children both resonates and presents an evolving definition of American identity.

The aim of this anthology is to make room for scholarship which examines how immigrants and their U.S. born children use media to negotiate their American identity and how audiences engage with mediated narratives about the immigrant experience (i.e., cultural adjustments, language use etc).

Submissions may include textual or audience analysis, survey or experimental methods. Texts of interest include film (mainstream and independent), television, web series, original series, books, online magazines, and music which speak to the first and second-generation experience. If possible, the topics should engage to some extent questions of migration, diaspora and media and acculturation. Although the project is under way, newer submissions are welcome to make the volume stronger. Please contact the editor with any questions.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

Deadline for abstracts (approx. 300- 500-words excluding citations): April 20, 2020.
Include a cover page with all of the authors’ contact information, key terms, and an abridged c.v. for each author
Submit proposals to Omotayo Banjo with “First Gen Media” in the subject line.
Invitations to submit full manuscripts will be sent by May 4, 2020
If selected, a draft of your chapter submissions must be original works of at least 3000-6000 (estimate) words, references included. Chapter draft deadline: July 24, 2020.

Call for chapter proposals: First Generation American Media, to be edited by Omotayo Banjo. Deadline: February 8, 2019.

Through film, television, books and music, immigrants and their children have told personal, collective, and universal stories. Not only do their narratives give voice to non-dominant groups, but mediated narratives of the immigrant experience also offer insight into both the ideal and reality of living in the United States. In addition, these narratives highlight the acculturative experiences shared among minorities regardless of racial background.

The purpose of this anthology is to gather essays which 1) engage questions of representation of immigrants and their children, 2) offer analysis of first and second generation American produced texts and their audiences, and 3) share reflective essays from minoritized first-generation Americans about their assimilation experience, and if possible their connection to any first-gen narratives. While there are different definitions for first-generation, for this anthology, first-generation is being defined as children of parents who immigrated to America as adults or who immigrated to America themsleves as children.

Submissions may include textual or audience analysis, autoethnographies, personal essays, survey or experimental methods. Creative and non-academic submissions are also welcome. Texts of interest include film (mainstream and independent), television, original series, books, online magazines, and music which speak to the first-generation experience. Essays written by those who are first or second generation are encouraged.