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Following the recent publication of Fantasy/Animation: Connections Between Media, Mediums and Genres (Routledge, 2018), we are pleased to announce the arrival of the Fantasy/Animation Research Network that pursues further the relationship between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. We are hoping that the network will open out a critical conversation on the study of the rich legacy and complexity of animated fantasy media, in whatever form this might take, and provide a space for discussion and debate among like-minded academics, practitioners, special interest groups and fans of fantasy and/or animation. This will, we hope, lead to the building of a much-needed scholarly community that will continue, develop and complicate some of the ideas put forward in the anthology. The website has recently gone live, so visit https://www.fantasy-animation.org/ to read all our news/events and collection of blog posts, as well as listening to our associated Fantasy/Animation podcast.

We are also delighted to open out a call for contributors to write short pieces or posts for the website. These blog posts can take several forms, but we anticipate starting off with 500-1000 word written blog posts that might come together as either:

– a short editorial (movie analysis/critical reflection on an idea or concept)
– event/conference reports
– film reviews
– book reviews

Potential methodological/critical approaches within individual contributions are varied, and our concern is not necessarily how animation operates as fantasy or how fantasy operates through animation, but rather how both ideas can be productively considered in dialogue with one another. This methodology allows fantasy and animation to function as a dialectic that critically examines a relationship that has, to date, been assumed, pre-supposed or obfuscated within both popular and critical discourse.

If potential contributors have ideas for blogs, or want to suggest other possible formats for content (interviews/Q&As, pieces to camera, video essays), then please do send them over and let us know the type of post under which it fits, as well as 3-4 keywords that relate to your post. We would welcome any ideas submitted either to us directly (christopher.Holliday@kcl.ac.uk and asergeant@bournemouth.ac.uk) or through the ‘Contact Us’ Tab on the network’s website.

Best wishes, and many thanks,

Christopher Holliday and Alexander Sergeant