The Journal of Gods and Monsters

Special Issue: The Monstrosity of Displacement 

We are pleased to announce the creation of a new double blind, peer-reviewed, open access journal exploring the relationships between religion, monsters, and the monstrous: The Journal of Gods and Monsters. Headed by editors Natasha Mikles, John Morehead, Michael E. Heyes, and Brandon Grafius, The Journal of Gods and Monsters will be digitally housed at Texas State University and can be accessed at journals.tdl.org/godsandmonsters.

Monsters are often defined as those unfortunate beings displaced from the “normal,” and in the inaugural issue of The Journal of Gods and Monsters, we are exploring this displacement and the role of religious traditions in its construction, maintenance, and complication. Such beings labeled as monsters might be displaced from biology, such as the cynocephalic protagonist of the Greek Life of St. Christopher. Then again, a monster’s displacement could be cultural, as seen in contemporary efforts by some Burmese Buddhists to displace and monstrosize the Rohingya minority. Or it could be soteriological, like the transhistorical phenomenon of Jews and Muslims being made into monsters via their exclusion from some structures of Christian salvation.

We seek article-length contributions that address the cross-cultural intersection of religion, monstrosity, and displacement. We specifically encourage methodologically diverse submissions that tackle the issue of monstrosity and displacement from a wide range of regional and temporal arenas, such as:

• Literal monsters (such as the shapeshifting fox Tamamo-no-Mae exorcised by Genno Shinsho)
• Figurative monsters (as certain violent religious extremists or immigrant groups have been branded)
• Self-proclaimed monsters (“I am the monster” declares Eleven on Stranger Things)
• Assigned monsters (the “demonic networks” that Paula White claimed were arrayed against Donald Trump in a 2019 campaign rally).

Details: Submissions should be scholarly in nature, between 5000 and 10000 words, and are requested by January 12^th, 2020 for inclusion in the Spring issue (submissions after this date will be considered for future issues). We encourage submissions from all disciplines, geographic areas, and time periods. Articles should be submitted via the online system at https://godsandmonsters-ojs-txstate.tdl.org after registration. In the case of questions, please contact the editorial team at editorsJGM@gmail.com or at their professional email addresses.

To inquire regarding book reviews, please contact book review editor Brandon Grafius (bgrafius@etseminary.edu).