popular culture

Many notable comic book scholars highlight Alan Moore as one of the most ambitious writers in mainstream American and British comics. Along with writers like Grant Morrison and artists like Dave McKean, Moore was part of the so-called “British Invasion” of the American comic book industry in the 1980s, and artists of this period are credited as bringing an air of credibility as well as transforming the artistic standards of the medium. Greg Carpenter, for instance, likens the work of these artists to “Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Jonson, elevating the English language into a vehicle for poetic drama.

To investigate how various disciplines respond to Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Demon Copperhead, editors Megan Krupa and Thomas Alan Holmes solicit chapter proposals for an edited collection of scholarly essays. Set in southwest Virginia during the opioid crisis, Kingsolver’s novel converses with Dickens’ David Copperfield, providing commentary about relevant social influences ranging from the global economy and international extractive industries to domestic social services, sports fandom, education, and family structure.

Who Is This For? The Access Illusion of XR

Immersive Impact Review — Issue 2 Call for Submissions

Open Date: 4/1/26

Closing Date:  5/15/26

The Immersive Impact Review invites submissions for its second issue around the theme of “Who Is This For? The Access Illusion of XR.” The Review is an open-access publication dedicated to advancing knowledge at the intersection of immersive technologies and social good.  It is published by the Immersive Experience Alliance with funding from Agog.  

Call for Papers

SHONDALAND

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

2026 SWPACA Summer Salon

June 25-27, 2026

Virtual Conference

https://swpaca.org/

Submissions open on March 30, 2026

Proposal submission deadline: April 27, 2026

Call for Papers

Biography, Autobiography, Memoir, and Personal Narrative

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

2026 SWPACA Summer Salon

June 25-27, 2026

Virtual Conference

https://swpaca.org/

Submissions open on March 30, 2026

Proposal submission deadline: April 27, 2026

While Percival Everett’s novel James (2024) functions as a radical reworking of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)–freeing Twain’s literary creation from the constraints of the nineteenth century novel as well as the expectations of its original audience–”tellings and retellings” have long served as a mode for revising and reimagining canonical narratives.  From Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966) and Ursula K Le Guin’s Lavinia (2008) to Sandra Newman’s Julia (2023), literary retellings often expose the ideological foundations of the canon while amplifying voices historically marginalized or silenced within it.

This special session invites papers on zombies and the undead as figures through which literature, film, television, games, and popular culture imagine power, hierarchy, and social conflict. In keeping with PAMLA 2026’s theme, “Our Ruling Classes: Culture, Power, Conflict,” this panel explores how zombie narratives dramatize the fragility of social order, the failures of ruling elites, and the tensions between collective survival and unequal power.

Late Bowie: Legacy, Mortality and the Archival Impulse

Call for Papers

Kingston University, Tony Visconti Studio, 11-12 September 2026

Call for Papers

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

2026 SWPACA Summer Salon

June 25-27, 2026

Virtual Conference

https://swpaca.org/

Submissions open on March 30, 2026

Proposal submission deadline: April 27, 2026

This special session, taking its inspiration from the conference rubric “Our Ruling Classes: Culture, Power, Conflict,” invites presentations that explore the dynamics of power differentials in adaptations of any kind. Following David Mamet’s notorious maxim, “Film is a collaborative business—bend over,” it seeks to investigate whether the production and reception of adaptations are marked by inevitable power imbalances, how collaborations in making and making sense of adaptations address these imbalances, and whether collaborations among equals are either possible or desirable.

The 123rd Annual PAMLA Conference's Digital Studies session examines how digital technologies shape human life, culture, the environment, and academia. The area remains interested in a broad range of work at the intersection of the humanities, the arts, and digital culture. However, in line with this year’s conference theme (“Our Ruling Classes: Class, Power, Conflict”), we are particularly interested in the power structures that shape how technologies are used, by whom, and to what ends. Who is included in the design and implementation of digital technologies, and who is left out? Who benefits, and who pays the greatest costs?

For its forthcoming issue, Mise-en-scène: The Journal of Film & Visual Narration (MSJ) invites submissions that encompass the latest research in film and media studies. Submission categories include feature articles (6,000-7,000 words); mise-en-scène featurettes (1,000-1,500 words); reviews of films, DVDs, Blu-rays or conferences (1,500-2,500 words); interviews (2,500-5,000 words); undergraduate scholarship (2,000-2,500 words) or video essays (8-10 minute range). All submissions must include a selection of supporting images from the film(s) under analysis and be formatted according to MLA guidelines, 9th edition.

Call for Papers

Medievalisms Area

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

2026 SWPACA Summer Salon

June 25-27, 2026

Virtual Conference

https://swpaca.org/

Submissions open on March 30, 2026

Proposal submission deadline: April 27, 2026

Call for Papers

Horror (Literary & Cinematic)

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

2026 SWPACA Summer Salon

June 25-27, 2026

Virtual Conference

https://swpaca.org/

Submissions open on March 30, 2026

Proposal submission deadline: April 27, 2026