popular culture

The "Animals & Culture" Area of the Northeast Popular Culture Association's call for papers for our 2026 virtual conference is live!   See our details below (or at https://www.northeastpca.org/conference-areas): 

The "Animals & Culture" area explores the complex and multifaceted intersections between animals, animal representations, society, and popular culture.

Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) Fall Conference October 15th to 17th - Online 

Call for Papers: Taylor Swift & Swiftie Studies Area 

Please submit abstracts of 250–400 words and a short 100-word bio to the linked form below.

The Taylor Swift & Swiftie Studies area, part of the Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) Fall Online Conference (October 15–17, 2026), features the newly established conference area and Digital Swift Symposium, a curated space for interdisciplinary scholarship on popular music, fandom, gender, authorship, and digital culture.

We’re delighted to announce a new online event to mark Dickens’s passing. On this occasion, our theme does not dwell on the Inimitable’s death, but focuses instead on his ever-expanding life on the big and small screen. Dickens was first adapted for silent cinema in 1901, and since then his work has appeared countless times on film and television. Since Dickens’s Bicentenary in 2012, a number of significant screen adaptations have appeared, including Armando Iannucci’s Personal History of David Copperfield (2019), Steven Knight’s Great Expectations (2023), two Artful Dodger character adaptations, and multiple versions of A Christmas Carol.

Die Erstausstrahlung von Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1997 auf The WB Television Network jährt sich im kommenden Jahr zum dreißigsten Mal. Die Serie hat die Populär- und Medienkultur der Jahrtausend-wende maßgeblich mitgeprägt und ist zugleich als Referenztext weit über diesen historischen Moment hinaus wirksam geblieben. Ihre anhaltende Relevanz beruht nicht zuletzt auf der ästhetischen und narrativen Verfasstheit: Genre-Hybridität, Intertextualität, ironisch-selbstreflexive Erzählverfahren sowie eine ausgeprägte figurale und narrative Komplexität machen sie noch heute zu einem beliebten Gegenstand kultur- und medienwissenschaftlicher Auseinandersetzung.

The year 2025 marked the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, yet Austen seems to be only increasing in cultural relevance on a global scale. This edited collection explores new Jane Austen-related texts – including films, streaming series, prequel/ sequel novels, graphic adaptations etc. - of the twenty-first century, including…

The Fan Studies Network North America Conference is currently open for proposal submissions for our October 2026 conference..

Mapping the Impossible: Journal for Fantasy Research is pleased to announce an open call for papers on all things fantasy and fantastic!

Mapping the Impossible: Journal for Fantasy Research is a peer-reviewed, graduate student-run, open-access publication supported by the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic at the University of Glasgow. We publishe on all types of fantasy media! Our issues have included articles on topics from Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita to the Horizon video games. We accept academic articles between 3000 and 5000 words, excluding the bibliography.

The 123rd annual conference of the Pacific Ancient & Modern Languages Association (PAMLA) will be held in Seattle at the Hyatt Regency Seattle, from Thursday, November 12, to Sunday, November 15, 2026. 

Cultural History: 

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) Annual Conference 2026

November 12-15, 2026

Seattle, WA

Call for Paper:

Our Ruling Classes: Class, Power, Conflict

Submission Deadline: May 25, 2026

Subject: Asian Literatures and Cultures

Contact: Wentao Ma (University of California - San Diego) w4ma@ucsd.edu

Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies

Vol. 53 No. 1 | March 2027

Call for Papers

From Neurodiversity to Neurocosmopolitanism:

Literature, Science, Politics

Guest Editor

Manuel Herrero-Puertas (National Taiwan University)

Deadline for Submissions: July 15, 2026

1956 was a year of theatrical milestones. Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night was published posthumously while The Diary of Anne Frank won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. And, of course, the American Society for Theatre Research was founded. O’Neill’s meditation on troubled family dynamics and addiction would go on to win the Pulitzer in 1957. The previous year, the Pulitzer went to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a Tennessee Williams play about alcoholism and (potentially) sublimated queer desire. In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry became the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway when A Raisin in the Sun premiered.

Dear colleagues,

Since 2014, the eTEXTS: Literary and Cultural Studies Conference has served as a platform for the examination and exploration of diverse "texts" from English-speaking countries of Ango-Saxon heritage. By bringing together scholars, doctoral students, and early-career professionals, the conference fosters scientific debates and critical discussions that drive forward our understanding of literature and culture.

August 3-5, 2026

Southern Utah University - Utah Shakespeare Festival

The Wooden O Symposium is a cross-disciplinary conference exploring the impact of Shakespeare's plays on culture and history, from his time to the present. This face-to-face conference aims to foster research in the field of Shakespeare Studies and to provide connections between academia and professional theatre productions through our partnership with the Utah Shakespeare Festival. The Wooden O Symposium limits participation to 25 presenters to ensure robust conversation and feedback as we strive to create a community of scholars engaged with the work of Shakespeare.