Deadline: September 22, 2025

Guest editors:
Jun. Prof. Dr. Julia Eckel, Dr. Maike Sarah Reinerth and Dr. Vera Schamal

The ability and power to act is commonly referred to as agency. As a concept it is widely debated in various academic and transdisciplinary discourses, from Gender and Queer Studies to Science and Technology Studies, as well as Actor Network Theory, New Materialism and Posthumanism. The autonomy of the neoliberal subject and the acting power of material or cultural entities, which fundamentally challenges boundaries between subject and object, human and non-human etc., is the central aspect in these discussions and theoretical framings.

Surprisingly, agency has only been partially addressed in Animation Studies, although animated works appear to be an especially prolific audio-visual format to address notions of agency at different levels. Techniques and processes of animation usually exhibit a craftedness that inherently questions the relationship between human and non-human agency through its creative processes. The question of agency as the ability and power to act furthermore involves political and critical dimensions, which are prominently addressed in the context of information, education or protest, that strive for empowerment and self-determination by and through animation.  

Given that the animated image can be strongly interrelated with these theoretical, aesthetical, and political questions of agency, it seems fruitful to systematically think about animation and agency together. This guest-edited theme on Animation and Agency was created by members of the research network Animation and Contemporary Media Culture. Challenges and Potentials of Animation Studies in the Digital Era. Scholars and practitioners are invited to look at the concept of agency from theoretical, aesthetical, historical, practice oriented or practice-based perspectives. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Animation and agency in the field of education, social engagement, and empowerment.
• Animation and activism, animated political protest and/or propaganda, animation that enables, shows, and/or negotiates political agency.
• Animation and body politics, animation and queer subjectivities, power(lessness) of the subject and (intersectional) dimensions of race, class, gender, and disability in animation.
• Animation and sustainability, ecological storytelling and environmental agency, imagining sustainable futures and critiquing anthropocentric worldviews in the context climate crisis.
• Narrative representations of agency in animated works, stories about agency of characters or environments.
• Animation and algorithmic agency, animation and AI, creative agency at the threshold of subjectivity and technology.
• Animation and material agency, objects and devices as active factors in creative practices, questions of authorship and agency.

We welcome posts that are:

1. Between 600 and 900 words discussing any aspect of the above topics. 
2. Forwarded as a Microsoft WORD file. 
3. Include at least one image to visually support their argument/post. 
   3a. The images must be less than 2 MB in size per image and sent as individual files. 
   3b. Please indicate where the images should be placed in the text, including image caption(s) and credits. All permissions are the responsibility of the contributor.
4. Include a short bio of 100 words max.
5. Include 3 keywords.

Please note that we are introducing a new submission form! Please fill it in with all the required information for your submission here: Submission form.

Please contact Julia Eckel via julia.eckel@uni-paderborn.de with submissions or questions, and CC co-editors Carmen Hannibal and Anastasiia Gushchina on blog@animationstudies.org.