Shakespeare in Pop Culture
Call for Papers
Shakespeare in Pop Culture
Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)
48th Annual Conference, February 17-20, 2027
Marriott Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Submissions open: September 1, 2026
Proposal submission deadline: October 31, 2026
Proposals for papers and panels are now being accepted for the 48th annual SWPACA conference. One of the nation’s largest interdisciplinary academic conferences, SWPACA offers nearly 70 subject areas, each typically featuring multiple panels. For a full list of subject areas, area descriptions, and Area Chairs, please visit https://swpaca.org/subject-areas/.
The Shakespeare in Popular Culture area welcomes proposals that explore “Shakespop,” or the presence of Shakespeare and his works in popular mass media. Submissions may engage with a variety of textual objects that make reference to Shakespeare, including movies, television shows, advertisements, novels, short stories, graphic novels, comic books, and more. Potential topics might include:
- Adaptations or appropriations of Shakespeare
- Shakespearean parody or pastiche
- Global or local Shakespeares
- Shakespeare in translation
- Cross-cultural, intercultural, or multicultural Shakespeares
- “High culture,” “low culture,” and Shakespeare
- Shakespearean pedagogy or Shakespeare in the classroom
All proposals must be submitted through the conference’s database at https://swpaca.org/app.
For details on using the submission database and on the application process in general (including submitting proposals for roundtables and preformed panels), please see the FAQS & Resources tab on https://swpaca.org/. Individual proposals for 15-minute papers must include an abstract of approximately 200-500 words and a brief summary of 100 words or less.
For information on how to submit a proposal for a multi-paper panel, please view the above FAQs & Resources link.
The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2026.
SWPACA offers monetary awards for the best graduate student papers in a variety of categories. Submissions of accepted, full papers are due January 1, 2026. More details are here: https://swpaca.org/graduate-student-paper-awards/. SWPACA also offers travel fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students as well as contingent faculty: https://swpaca.org/travel-awards-students-faculty/.
Registration and travel information for the conference is available at https://swpaca.org/albuquerque-conference/.
In addition, please check out the organization’s peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, at https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dialogue/.
If you have any questions about the Shakespeare in Pop Culture area, please contact its Area Chair, Sophia Johnson, from the University of Texas at Arlington, at sophia.johnson2@uta.edu. If you have general questions about the conference, please contact us at support@swpaca.org, and a member of the executive team will get back to you.
This will be a fully in-person conference. If you’re looking for an online option to present your work, keep an eye out for details about the 2027 SWPACA Summer Salon, a completely virtual conference to take place in June 2027.
We look forward to receiving your submissions!