Overview

Series Editor Wallea Eaglehawk writes that BTS are leaders of the Love Yourself, Speak Yourself Revolution, and that under capitalism, self-love is a radical act of resistance. Now has come the time to start locating, documenting and celebrating the many ways in which people can love and care for themselves in defiance of the status quo. Eaglehawk is calling for autoethnographic essays that draw from BTS’ Love Yourself trilogy and global messaging to show how self-love and care can look around the world. 

The quality of autoethnographic essays is that they are able to be deeply personal, told from the perspective of the writer. But also, as they combine scholarly elements of research and analysis, these stories become contextualised as universal, and often, political experiences. The personal is political after all, and the Love Yourself book aims to show how this can look in the realms of self-love. 

A note from the Editor: please be reminded that these essays are not about BTS, rather, they are about you and how you practice or understand self-love, healing and care in your own life. Your essay may, of course, draw inspiration from BTS and discuss their Love Yourself trilogy and movement, but only insofar as to contextualise the arguments and stories in the chapter — we do not require historical accounts, we require your journey. Writers are urged not to focus too heavily on the group or else they may not meet the brief of providing an autoethnographic essay.

Requirements

Final chapters will not exceed 4000 words (note: we do not require submission of a complete chapter, only a proposal or abstract)
APA referencing with superscript numbers 
UK English preferred
Work that has been published elsewhere will not be accepted

Submission guidelines

Please prepare a proposal or abstract which outlines in no more than one page:

• Your concept

• Examples of citations and analysis which you will call upon in your chapter

• Demonstrate your ability to deliver this chapter (i.e. what makes you the right person to talk about this topic, tell us your story)

Complete this form (lodge your proposal or abstract at the end) 
Submissions close October 30, 2020

Process

Once submissions close the editors will select appropriate submissions to proceed to the development stage. This selection process is blind for the co-editors as all personal information will be removed. 
An example of selection criteria is as follows:

• The submission responds to the brief and addresses themes of self-love and care /10

• The submission is consistent with BTS’ love yourself messaging /10

• The submission has met the outlined requirements /5

• The submission has a clearly defined story which is unique and needs to be heard /10

• The applicant has demonstrated an ability to write and meet deadline requirements based on past experience or provided materials /5

Each editor will give their recommendation alongside a score out of 40 total points. 
Successful applicants must meet milestones in the development, writing and editing stages of their creative works. A failure to meet milestones and deadlines will result in removal from the project. 
Those who are not selected to be published in the book will be given an online publication pathway through Bulletproof.

Other

Selected writers will receive one free copy of the book in paperback and electronic versions. 
First preference will be given to those not previously published by Revolutionaries or their imprints.

Abstract example

“ARMY as a feminist identity” by Keryn Ibrahim in response to a call about the ARMY identity for I Am ARMY.

I first heard about BTS through a Western celebrity gossip blog LaineyGossip. Smart, articulate and critical, the gossip site has educated me in social justice issues related to the celebrity ecosystem, those who occupy it, and gossip consumers. Honing my critical lens helped me examine issues outside of celebrityhood, and made me a better academic. I had never anticipated that clicking on an article about a seven-member Korean boyband wonder would one day bring me here, an aspiring scholar of BTS studies writing for a book on being an ARMY. That initial discovery was followed by the by-now regimented ARMY initiation rite: first edging at the precipice then falling down the BTS rabbit hole – the Youtube marathons, the blogs, the madness of stan Twitter. Two years since then I have become an expert and enamored ARMY. I am not just fascinated by the band, I am also taken by the discourses in and around the fandom. Being ARMY is being an activist; fans are known to band together against perceived and real injustices. The gendering of fandom in the media and elsewhere became a particular crusade of mine, as the reduction of this incredibly diverse, autonomous group of fans of many identities to a single, negative profile of crazed teenage females represented to me, to quote Bourdieu, a symbolic act of violence. I began writing, researching and speaking about BTS and ARMY as a feminist scholar, and doing so has taken me to places where other people also recognize the potential and potency of BTS and ARMY as feminist discourse and a tool for emancipatory action. This chapter is about that journey represented in several phases, and about what I hope the future holds for me, as an ARMY, and for ARMY as a feminist identity.