Youth Cinema Studies
Teens on Screens
Proposals are sought for an edited collection of essays entitled Teens on Screens in the 21st Century, on the representation of teenagers in screen media that have appeared since 2000. The resulting book will be intended for college and graduate students as well as academic libraries, and will be published by an academic press (one has already expressed interest). No single essay should exceed 8,000 words (including notes) and essays in the range of 5,000-7,000 words would be ideal. Citations and references should follow the Chicago Manual of Style.
The scope of media is meant to be expansive, and may include traditional studio or independent film features, television or internet video series, and web page productions. Similarly, the range of “teenagers” is wide, and not limited to those in the United States, nor those in dominant culture; in fact, studies of teen media about youth in underrepresented cultures are particularly welcome. Populations that overlap the teen years, such as tweens and college-aged students, can also be covered. Thus, sample topics may include:
• movie roles of Generation Z adolescents and the emergent Generation Alpha population
• LGBTQ youth production / reception / representation in popular media
• documentary depictions of teenagers in recent years
• global and diasporic populations of youth in media productions
• YouTube and other video streaming “channels” made and/or influenced by teens
• Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Discord and other social media used and made by youth
• blogs, forums, podcasts, and other internet media popular with (or made by) teens
Extensive examples of movies are available on this web page under the “U.S. Teen Films” link on the homepage.
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Publication is expected for late 2025, with the following tentative schedule:
• submission of proposal (see below): June 30, 2023
• selection of proposals done by July 31, 2023
• submission of essay drafts: December 31, 2023
• editing and revision of articles done by May 31, 2024
• submission of completed essays: July 31, 2024
• manuscript submitted to press in autumn 2024
• revision based on responses to manuscript done by spring 2025
• final approval, copy editing, publication by end of 2025
Proposals (a few hundred words would be sufficient) should clarify the basic thesis, the relevant text(s) to be studied, and the existing research that will be engaged. Include a brief biographical statement of the author(s), and their most effective email address. Please let me know your preferred pronouns as well.
Queries and submissions should go to Timothy Shary (Eastern Florida State College) at tshary17@gmail.com.
Shary has been publishing about adolescent representation in movies for nearly 30 years, with resulting books including Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema (Texas, 2002; revised 2014) and Teen Movies: American Youth on Screen (Wallflower, 2005). He edited Youth Culture in Global Cinema (Texas, 2007) with Alexandra Seibel and is the co-editor of The Films of Amy Heckerling (Edinburgh, 2016) and The Films of John Hughes (Edinburgh, 2021), both with Frances Smith. He also authored Boyhood: A Young Life on Screen (Routledge, 2017), about the 2014 Richard Linklater film Boyhood, and edited the collection Cinemas of Boyhood: Masculinity, Sexuality, Nationality (Berghahn, 2021). An updated edition of Teen Movies with the subtitle A Century of American Youth will be published by Columbia in 2023.