Popular Culture Association CFP DUE 5 December 2021

VIRTUAL CONFERENCE Popular Culture Association

April 13-16 2022

The individuals who comprise the PCA are a group of scholars and enthusiasts who study popular culture. The Popular Culture Association (formally the Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association) is a 501c3 which offers a venue to come together and share ideas and interests about the field or about a particular subject within the field. The Association also provides publication opportunities and sponsors the PCA Endowment.

The phrase “Popular Culture” is difficult to pin down. Common usage yields several different definitions. Our list of Subject Areas shows the term’s many facets for us. These Subject Areas, as diverse as they are, focus on one common denominator–the study of popular culture.

Relative to WLC, there are several featured areas below, including Romance, with Jodi McAlister as one of the Area Chairs…contact her on [email protected] for more details.

Children’s and YA Literature and Culture	invites presentations for papers on any aspect of children’s and YA popular culture: material culture, media, games, advertising, literature, and so on. Past topics have included recent films/television series; technology and social media; books, authors, and series; and issues and trends in children’s and YA literature and culture such as race, gender, and sexuality, dystopian fiction, the controversy about adults reading YA fiction, and environmentalism. New approaches to classic children’s and young adult literature and culture are also welcome.
Gender Studies	Topics could include, but are not limited to, the representation of gender identity and gender expression within popular culture, the use of gendered appeals in advertising, the potential of popular culture to educate audiences about diversity, equity, and inclusion, the role of gender in the Olympics, and the use of gender studies terminology within popular media.
Creative Fiction	We welcome stories in almost any style, although the maximum reading time is 18 minutes.  We also welcome full panels of readers.  We do not accept undergraduate submissions.
Non-Fiction	All types of personal essays, memoirs, autobiography, and literary journalism, in traditional and non-traditional forms, are welcome, on any subject. Of particular interest is creative nonfiction that examines writers and the writing process. Presentations that incorporate sound, music, images or video and/or experiment with elements of digital storytelling are also of interest.
Poetry Studies and Creative Poetry	The Poetry Studies & Creative Poetry Area invites proposals from two kinds of panelists: those reading original poetry and those delivering short papers on some aspect of poetry. We welcome submissions from undergraduates, retirees, and everyone in between.
Romance	…fantasy and escape in romance and romantic media. We encourage you to define this theme broadly, and to think not just about specific texts but through them, to the broader discussions in which they are implicated. How can we most productively think through this tangled web of fantasy and escape and their relationship to the “real”?
Science Fiction and Fantasy	The goals of our area are (1) to share and support research, scholarship, and publication and (2) to mentor emerging scholars. As a result, we invite proposals from professors, independent scholars, graduate students, and undergraduates (with the approval / guidance of their professors). … any theoretical or (inter)disciplinary approach to any topic related to SFF:  art; literature; radio; film; television; comics and graphic novels; video, role-playing, and multi-player online games.