Coming Spring 2026 from MacFarland & Co
Trickster. Traitor. Villain. Variant.
Hero?
Marvel Studios' Loki, the charismatic and compelling God of Mischief portrayed by Tom Hiddleston, first strode across screens in 2011’s Thor. Five films and a veritable multiverse of merchandising campaigns later, the television show Loki debuted as part of Marvel Studios' foray into televisually expanding upon the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to show characters' post-Endgame exploits. The show Loki tackles tough topics over the course of its two seasons, showcasing its ability to contain multitudes, from reframing the grand heroics of the MCU through the banality of bureaucracy at the Time Variance Authority, to tracing the title character's arc from power-hungry despot to self-sacrificial [anti]hero. Through recurring themes of power, identity, duplicity, and control, both Loki and Loki concern themselves with multiversal moral dilemmas and quantum physics-inspired quandaries—-what happens to a God when no one’s left to worship him? How does one successfully subvert a corrupt system to enact positive social change? Who is responsible for the pattern of our lives? Which matters more, fate or free will?
Whereas the MCU overall and certain Marvel characters (such as Black Widow) have received scholarly treatment, no critical volume yet exists devoted solely to study of Loki and Loki. The mischievous malcontent’s redemptive narrative journey, and the insight such exploits unveil about the human condition, remain academically under-explored.
I am excited to invite submissions for a new volume which aims to fill that gap, entitled From Villain to Variant: Critical Perspectives on Marvel Studios' Loki. Essays may critically engage with Loki the character, Loki the televisual media property, and/or the role of Loki and Loki within the larger context of the MCU and other Marvel Studios properties. I seek between eight and ten original essays of around 6,000 words each rooted in various fields and schools of criticism that offer original ideas, arguments, and interpretations concerning what Loki and Loki mean in our modern media landscape.
Contributor chapters may approach the televisual series as its own entity, facets of Loki’s character arc across MCU properties, or Loki-adjacent characters and narratives from a variety of critical perspectives. Possible topics include but are not limited to:
Gender and sexuality studies
Toxic masculinity
Memory and trauma studies
Religion, faith, and eschatology
Wardrobe, aesthetics, and material culture
Genre and metaphor
Post-modernity and (anti-)heroism
Quantum mechanics, astrophysics, and time paradoxes
Identity and philosophy
Camp and comedy
Power, leadership, and ethics
Submissions engaging Loki's history within the world of Marvel Comics may be considered. However, as this volume focuses on 21st-century digital media properties, submissions must have as their primary focus generating and sustaining scholarly discourse around Marvel Studios' cinematic and televisual versions of Loki.
Inquiries regarding the suitability of specific chapter ideas are welcome.
Please submit abstracts of 300-500 words and 100-word author bios as PDF attachments to: [maryiatrop] at [gmail] [dot] [com]
Submissions will be accepted through December 31st, 2024.
Final drafts for accepted proposals will be due by August 1st, 2025. Each essay will be subject to editorial review, and successful contributors should expect to undertake at least one round of revisions before publication.
Tentative Project Timeline
CFP Deadline
Selected contributors notified
First drafts due to editor
Notes and revisions returned to contributors
Final drafts due to editor
Manuscript delivered to publisher
About The Editor
Mary Ellen Iatropoulos, MA, MPS is an award-winning scholar and author. She regularly presents at numerous educational and academic conferences, among them NeMLA, SAMLA, and Slayage, the biennial academic conference of the Association for the Study of Buffy+. Her 2012 Slayage paper (“Defining Joss Whedon’s Disability Narrative Ethic”) won the prestigious Mr. Pointy Award for Best Paper of the Conference, and in 2014, her paper “Laughing and Crying Behind Her Mask: Sentimental Code-Switching in Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall” was awarded the Best Paper in Women’s/Gender Studies from the Northeastern Modern Language Association’s Women’s and Gender Studies Caucus. Her writing has been published in the Southwest Journal of Cultures, as well as several edited volumes of pop-cultural literary criticism, including the PopMatters eBook After the Avengers as well as Blood, Body, and Soul and Re-Entering the Dollhouse, both from McFarland. She is co-editor of the volume Joss Whedon and Race: Critical Essays available here from McFarland Publishers.
Mary Ellen has more than 20 years' experience educating a vast array of learners, from prisoners to pre-schoolers, from community college students to blue-chip senior executives. She holds a BA in English from Vassar College as well as an MA degree in English and an MPS degree in Humanistic/Multicultural Education, both from SUNY New Paltz. She earned the Outstanding Graduate Award for her work for the latter in 2013 and is featured in the department’s “Many Ways To Be An Educator” campaign (video available here).
As Director of Special Projects at The Art Effect, an arts and media non-profit where children and youth can explore, experience, and excel in the arts for college and career paths, Mary Ellen oversees successful design, implementation, and evaluation of sequential media and visual arts curricula for in-school and after-school media programs for schools, libraries, and community learning centers such as Marist College, the Poughkeepsie City School District, Vassar College, The Cary Institute, Scenic Hudson, Poughkeepsie Day School, Ulster B.O.C.E.S., and libraries throughout the Mid-Hudson Library System. Prior to working for The Art Effect, she held the position of Director of Media Education for Spark Media Project, a non-profit organization specializing in media and technology. She is an advocate for media arts education in New York's Hudson Valley and beyond, with her leadership efforts garnering the 2019 "40 Under 40 Movers and Shakers" award from the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce. Mary Ellen also adjuncts at Dutchess Community College in the Performing/Visual Arts and Communications department, teaching courses in media, mass communications, and public speaking.
Questions? Ideas to pitch? Contact:
[maryiatrop] at [gmail] [dot] [com]
maryelleniatropoulos.com