Call for Proposals – Special Issue of Journal of Media Practice and Education: Approaches to Feminist Research Practice

Call For Proposals on the theme of Feminist Media Practice: Proposals due Friday 3rd October 2025 emailed to: j.mairs-dyer@ulster.ac.uk

Guest editors: Jolene Mairs Dyer (Ulster University), Kim Munro (University of South Australia), Christine Rogers (University of the Sunshine Coast)

Deadline for 500-word abstract submissions plus 200-word bio: Friday 3rd October 2025, with acceptance confirmed by end of November 2025

Deadline for full papers: June 2026

Expected date of publication: 2027

What are feminist media practices? Feminism has presented shifting frameworks through generations and waves, encountering critiques around lines of geographical location, class, race and whiteness, and gender identity. Despite these contestations, feminism continues to motivate screen and media practitioners and theorists that “prioritize and promote global awareness, alternative models of allyship, and advocacy for the most marginalized by the legacies of colonialism, patriarchy and capitalism” (Moradiyan-Rizi and Warren, 2025, p. 3).

In one of the first waves of feminist film theory, Johnston’s (1973) notion of “women’s cinema as counter cinema” suggests that feminist approaches to fiction filmmaking are those that challenge dominant film outputs in terms of form and content. In relation to documentary studies, Walker and Waldman (1999, p. 17) confirm that “feminist theory … has by necessity grappled with … issues of identities and power sharing”.

More broadly, contemporary feminist approaches can be seen in all aspects of thinking about, making and writing films. Contemporary approaches to practice research include challenging conventional and teleological narrative structures in fiction and non-fiction (Taylor 2017, Guzman and Hong, 2023), exploring collective authorship and collaborations (Zimmermann, 1999; Gough-Brady and Rogers, 2023; Lusztig, Jayanti, Mirza, Uddoh and Zimmerman, 2015), interrogating archival practices including gaps and omissions (Yue, 2021; Thornley, 2023, Munro, 2025), de-colonial practices (Minh-ha, 1992, 2009), through immersive media (Theunissan and Favero, 2022), through activism (Juhasz, 2017) and in filmmaking on the margins and outside conventional hierarchies and norms (Balsom and Peleg, 2022).

In terms of re-thinking the singular gaze and theorising collective authorship, Mairs Dyer’s (2023) notion of the Matrixial Screen Encounter theorises the gaze as intersubjective and provides a model for re-thinking unitary authorship whereby the gaze of all creatives involved in any creative practice collectively contribute to form an on-going encounter with the audience.

The Journal of Media Practice and Education welcomes proposals for contributions to a special issue on Feminist Practice Research. We are seeking proposals that outline practice-based research that is informed by feminist theoretical frameworks that challenge fiction or nonfiction filmmaking practices in terms of form and/or content. We also welcome proposals that explore feminist approaches to immersive media (VR, XR, 360° filmmaking) and how these forms are being adopted and adapted to explore feminist themes and concerns.

We welcome contributions that explore the following through feminist frameworks:

• Creative practice that de-centralises traditional power dynamics in fiction and documentary filmmaking
• Practice research that explores notions of power and the gaze
• Approaches to immersive and/or interactive practice research
• Explorations of form, for example, filmmaking vocabulary
• Editing practices in fiction and documentary filmmaking practice research
• Practices in and with archives
• Challenging notions of form and content in screenplays
• Production practices including collective models of authorship and co-creation