cfp.english.upenn.edu

The Apocalypse and Disaster in Culture
Area of the 34th Annual SWTX PCA/ACA

February 13-16, 2012 in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Hyatt Regency Hotel

Conference theme is "Celebrating Popular/American Culture(s) in a Global Context."

Although we will officially be post-apocalyptic (according to the Mayans ) when we reach this conference date, there are still plenty of apocalyptic scenarios left in our culture, and as apocalyptic fiction, film, graphic novels, and such spans the test of time, we still have plenty to talk about and analyze. We have comets, nuclear war, natural disasters, zombie attacks, financial breakdowns, viral attacks and particularly aliens (as they seem to be making a comeback) to discuss. This year, the area has expanded to include disaster as well. Ideas for topics are included below; however, proposals are not limited to these ideas and any approach to scholarship on the apocalypse or disaster is welcome.
Abstracts are due by November 16th and should be submitted to the submission database found at conference2013.swtxpca.org. For more information, please visit www.swtxpca.org. If you have any questions about the area, email area chair Shane Trayers at shane.trayers@maconstate.edu

Ideas for topics on Apocalypse and Disaster:

* Real examples: “Doomsday Preppers” television documentary, Bath salt “Zombie” attacks, Tornadoes, Hurricane Katrina, Tsunami, East Coast Earthquake, Volcanoes, Ice Age apocalypse, Aurora Shootings.

* Atomic culture: bomb shelters, civil defense, Los Alamos and other Manhattan Project sites
(life, work, tourism, preservation), Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Cuban Missile Crisis, representations in the press, public history, etc.

* Film: Melancholia, Resident Evil, Terminator, 2012, The Core, Daybreakers, Zombieland, End of Days, Independence Day, Night of the Comet, Day after Tomorrow, Armageddon, The War of the Worlds,
Last Night, 12 Monkeys, The Road, The Book of Eli, Children of Men, The Matrix, Crimson Tide, Contagion, Dante’s Peak, Twister, Thirteen Days, etc.
* TV: Falling Skies, The Walking Dead, Dark Angel, Jericho, Battlestar Galactica, Invasion, V, Revolution, etc.
* Literature: Pesthouse, The Road, Children of Men, Alas Babylon, The Stand, etc.
* Comic books and video games: Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil etc.
* Poetry: William Butler Yeats, Gerald Stern, etc.
* Religious Apocalypse: Revelations and other religious apocalyptic texts.
* Apocalypse as response to terrorism, conservatism, gender issues

* Cultural Apocalypse of native cultures through colonization.

* Apocalypse and disaster as response to economic issues, capitalism, or consumerism.

* Note: If your proposal deals with a related TV show, film, etc., but does not focus on the apocalyptic/
post-apocalyptic/disastrous situation (or its impact) specifically, consider submitting it to one of the conference’s Science Fiction and Fantasy sub-areas instead.