CFP: The Power of Shame in Film (two publications)

Shame, Power and Cultural Identity in Media, an edited volume for Bloomsbury Publications

Watching with Shame: Affects and Ethics in Media Spectatorship, a Special Issue of Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind

Editors: Mette Kramer, Catalin Brylla & Karen Adkins

Deadline for abstract submissions: 3 April 2026

Shame is a uniquely complex and ambivalent emotion, simultaneously self-protective and self-effacing, socially regulated and deeply internalised (Brown 2006). Its survival-oriented and self-reflective dimensions make it a potent tool for media persuasion, capable of producing both critical awareness and conformity, which we hope to critically address in the two volumes.

Shame is not only experienced personally, intersubjectively and socially, but also para-socially, operating across different modes of expression, reception and communication. For this reason, a wide range of disciplines across the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences have examined the mechanisms and effects of shame.

Beyond its subjective and interpersonal dimensions, shame is often structurally produced through dominant cultural narratives and social norms that privilege certain identities while rendering others deviant, deficient or burdensome (Ahmed 2004). Within marginalised groups, this dynamic frequently operates through exposure to, and internalisation of, stigmatising representations, whereby media consumers absorb and reproduce hegemonic beliefs that frame their social positioning as ‘inferior’ (Brylla & Hughes 2017). Shame, in this sense, functions as a mechanism of social control - an affective technology that reinforces existing hierarchies by discouraging resistance and sustaining self-surveillance. Contemporary political cultures have further intensified this dynamic through forms of strategic or performative shamelessness, prominent in alt-right, conservative movements and populist political discourse (Bowden 2021). These not only reject shame at the moral level of the political actor but actively weaponise it against marginalised groups through practices of public othering and discrimination (Wodak 2019). Nevertheless, shame can also serve as a tool for social resistance, serving as a social indictment of people who are complicit in oppressive norms and structural injustice (Lebron, 2013).

In psychology, shame is considered “an acutely painful emotion that is typically accompanied by a sense of shrinking or "being small," and by a sense of worthlessness and powerlessness. Shamed people also feel exposed. Although shame does not necessarily involve an actual observing audience to witness one's shortcomings, there is often the imagery of how one's defective self would appear to others.” (Leary and Tangney 2004: 18). Shame thus constitutes a complex higher-order social emotion that can be both destructive and adaptive. Research has focused on its functions and origins, as well as its distinction from related self-conscious emotions such as guilt. Directed inward, shame arises when individuals perceive themselves as deficient or morally wrong in the eyes of the social world (Sheikh and Janoff-Bullman 2010). As a self-conscious emotion, it can inhibit both self-oriented and other-oriented empathy, at times activating primitive survival responses such as fight, flight, freeze or fawn (Kaufman 1996). At the same time, shame engages higher-order moral processes that regulate social norms and ego ideals. It can also function as a catalyst for self-reflection and vulnerability, underscoring its deeply ambivalent role in emotional and social life (Piretti et al 2023).

Within Western philosophy, shame has been examined in relation to respect and its valence as a moral emotion. A central debate concerns whether shame is universal and grounded in human dignity and recognition, or whether it is conditional, tied to achievement, social roles, and thus susceptible to use as a mechanism of status improvement or decline (Darwall 1977, Nussbaum 2004). Within this moral framework, some psychologists and philosophers debate the moral utility and danger of shame, while others conceptualise it as a cognitive emotion oriented towards self-knowledge, which gives shame the propensity to be both an internal and external regulator.

We are soliciting contributions for two publications on shame:

1) Edited Volume: Shame, Power and Cultural Identity (Bloomsbury Publishing)

This edited volume approaches shame through a broad, interdisciplinary lens, with a particular focus on its role in shaping cultural identity. It invites contributions from across disciplines, with an emphasis on media texts, platforms, production and reception (not limited to film), examined from interdisciplinary perspectives. Given the substantive differences in how shame is conceptualised, whether as a universal human emotion or as culturally and contextually specific, the volume aims to juxtapose overlapping and divergent interpretations of shame across fields. It further seeks to examine how shame, within contemporary cultural and political landscapes, shapes identities across different communities and individuals, with consequences for how we perceive ourselves and others, and how we negotiate contexts of shame.

For this edited volume, we welcome theoretical and methodological contributions from across the humanities, social and natural sciences, including psychology, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, media and cultural studies, health and medicine, that draw on interdisciplinary approaches to shame, power and cultural identity. We particularly encourage submissions that engage with diverse cultural, geopolitical and socio-historical contexts, including perspectives and case studies from the Global South.

Following abstract acceptance, the word count for chapters will be6000-8000 words (excluding footnotes and references).

Bloomsbury’s mission and values can be found here.

2) Special Issue: Watching with Shame: Affects and Ethics in Media Spectatorship (Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind)

Cognitive film theory has extensively examined basic emotions in audiences, yet higher-order cognitive emotions such as shame and guilt have received comparatively less attention, making shame a particularly timely focus for the journal. This special issue invites contributions that explore shame as a force in film and media spectatorship: as both a persuasive and self-reflective emotion mobilised in ideological contexts and as a hegemonic mechanism that governs the emotional lives and self-conceptions of viewers, especially those situated within marginalised communities. The representation and elicitation of shame can generate powerful spectatorial responses, prompting affective and cognitive shifts that engage viewers’ negotiations of intersecting social identities such as class, culture, ethnicity, sexuality, gender and disability. These processes may also involve individual journeys with therapeutic and introspective objectives that negotiate vulnerability and self-awareness.

For this special issue, we welcome theoretical and methodological contributions from across media psychology, the humanities and the social and natural sciences, drawing on interdisciplinary approaches to shame and spectatorship across a wide range of media forms, in line with the journal’s remit. We particularly encourage submissions engaging with media and cultural practices in the Global South. The issue will include contributions from Professor Emeritus Torben Grodal and other invited authors.

Following abstract acceptance, articles should not exceed 8,000 words (excluding footnotes and references).

Projections’ Aims and Scope can be found here.

Submission Guidelines (for both publications)

Please submit:

• the title of your proposed contribution
• a 300 word abstract
• up to five key references (APA or MLA)

All submissions must be fully anonymised for peer review. Please include a separate document containing the title of your submission, your name, institutional affiliation and contact details. The editors will consider all submissions for both publications; contributors are invited to indicate any strong preference for book or journal publication in their submission. Abstracts should be submitted to all editors. 

For further information or queries, please contact the editors:

Mette Kramer: [email protected]

Catalin Brylla: [email protected]

Karen Adkins: [email protected]