CfP: Dolly Parton Special Issue (Journal of Popular Music Studies) Deadline: 20.11.2026
Call for Proposals: JPMS Dolly Parton Special Issue
Special Issues Editors: Phoebe E. Hughes (SUNY Binghamton); Jacob Kopcienski (Appalachian State University); Amanda Marie Martínez (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill); Jada Watson (University of Ottawa).
Call for Proposals: Across her career, Dolly Parton has made an art of challenging stereotypes while teaching her public to question the categories through which popular music, gender, sexuality, class, region, faith, commerce, and celebrity are understood. The extraordinary affection she inspires invites serious consideration of how an artist builds not only a body of work but a public life capacious enough to hold seeming contradictions: glamour and Appalachia, feminism and traditionalism, shrewd business practice and philanthropy, individual authorship and collaboration, sincerity and carefully fashioned persona.
The Journal of Popular Music Studies invites submissions that take Parton’s life, music, career, reception, and cultural worlds as sites for new research on artistry and songwriting; fandom and persona; whiteness and race; feminisms; gender and Appalachian, Southern, and regional identity; publishing, ownership, and business acumen; philanthropy; food, hospitality/tourism, and gastromusicology; and the wider politics of popular memory.
We are especially interested in work that moves beyond tribute to ask what Parton’s career makes possible to theorize about popular music. This special issue asks, ultimately, what becomes visible about popular music and American cultural life when Dolly Parton is treated not as an exception to be admired, but as a body of work to be critically studied.
Please submit the following by Friday, November 20th, 2026:
1. ) A 350-word abstract (indicating your submission type).
2.) A 100-200 word bio, including a short description of how your contribution fits into your broader work, research methods, scholarship, writing, teaching, performing (etc.).
Submission Types:
1.) Academic Articles
2.) Reviews of Books, Media, Events, etc.
3.) Field Notes: Field Notes is a non-peer-reviewed front-of-book section comprising solicited and pitched essays that associate editors collaboratively curate and oversee. These pieces often take creative forms, such as: interviews with contributors and artists, journalists, or industry professionals;, conversations between two or more scholars; reports from conference sessions or symposia; compilations of video lectures; and roundtable discussions.
Special Issue Timeline:
November 20, 2026— CFP Closes
December 1, 2026— Notification of Decision
March 1, 2027— Finished Manuscripts to Editors
December 1st, 2027— Issue Published
Please e-mail Jacob Kopcienski (kopcienskija[at]appstate[dot]edu) with any questions about the CFP or special issue.