popular culture

Critical Plant Studies, a book series published by Lexington Books, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, calls us to re-examine in fundamental ways our understanding of and engagement with plants, drawing on diverse disciplinary perspectives. A sampling of topics appropriate for this series includes but is not limited to:
• Representations of plants in literature, art, film, and popular culture
• Relationships between humans and plants
• Boundaries and distinctions between plants and animals
• Plants and the environmental crisis
• Phytosemiotics and plant communication
• Plant sensation and consciousness
• Vegetal agency

Transforming Pedagogy with Popular Culture We are organizing a panel (or panels) on the topic of "Transforming Pedagogy with Popular Culture" for the 53rd Annual CEA Conference in Atlanta, GA, from March 21-23. We are looking for papers that discuss how popular culture can be used to teach important concepts or skill sets in a way that engages students in the learning process. Some potential topics include, but are not limited to, critical thinking skills, empathy, composition styles, and rhetorical analysis. There is a possibility that panel presenters may be asked if they want to participate in an edited essay collection on this topic. Please note that presenters must be members of CEA to present at the conference.

ContactZone, Journal of the Italian Association for the Study of Science Fiction and the Fantastic (AISFF), is accepting abstract submissions for a special issue dedicated to dystopias.

The opposite of utopia, dystopia presents a negative vision of the future, often apocalyptic. This special issue wants to juxtapose different dystopian horizons, tackling the construction of the future from different perspectives along the trajectories of gender, class, ecology, religion and so forth.

Contributions can feature any literature (including graphic novels) or media production (film, TV series, games) from any nation or culture.

Abstract submission:

Este panel invita a explorar la cultura de internet del mundo hispanohablante y sus representaciones en producciones artísticas. El meme fue acuñado por el biólogo Richard Dawkins en 1976 para referirse a la difusión de “tunes, ideas, catch- phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or builduing arches” (249) mediante procesos de imitación. Décadas más tarde, el estudio de Patrick Davison (2012) corroboraría que la idea de “meme” había evolucionado gracias a las redes sociales y había pasado a tener el poder de exclusivamente cumplir un objetivo humorístico. Autores como B. E. Wiggins y G. Bret Bowers (2014) argumentan que la circulación del meme es una herramienta conversacional que alienta la participación de la cultura digital.

Special dossier | to be published in vol 5 no 2 (May 2024)

A fundamental element of the American imaginary, superhero and heroic narratives have seen a new apogee since the turn of the century. New and old heroes and heroines have populated popular culture, giving rise to a variety of texts that tackle diversity, nostalgia, and the need for imaginaries and narratives that help us deal with the struggles inherent to our current times.

This special dossier, edited by Marica Orrù, will collect essays on (super)hero figures in twenty-first century US popular culture, with a specific focus on diversity, cross-genre texts, and transmedia representations. 

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

We would like to invite proposals for chapters for a forthcoming edited collection on animals, fashion, and colonialism. Our project investigates the way that colonialism was inscribed on the female body through animal fashions in the long nineteenth century and beyond. Contributions are welcome from a wide variety of fields, with interdisciplinary approaches preferred. 

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:  

Building on conversations and topic connections from the 2023 Convention, this panel invokes the 2024 conference theme surplus in regards to witches and depictions of the occult. All too often, witches were history’s unwanted women, defying cultural and social norms in ways that were determined to be in excess of what was conventional. What does it mean that these narratives of witches, both real and fictional, have been told and retold such that the witch is now a near constant presence in popular culture, literature, museums, and local histories? Does this exposure enhance what we know about witches in society and their histories or futures, or does this exposure complicate and possibly dilute their historical, social, or gendered power?

As hip-hop turns 50 in 2023, there is much to celebrate and reflect on, including its impact on higher education. This session is engaged with questions about the latter: what is hip-hop doing in our classrooms and conversely, what are we doing with it in our teaching practice?

Psychology and Popular Culture

Call for Papers for 2024 Conference

The Psychology and Popular Culture area concerns itself with the ways in which popular culture both reflects and shapes the nature of our psychology.

The Psychology and Popular Culture area invites all interested persons to present papers on a broad array of topics inclusive of psychology and popular culture, such as:

The Mystery & Detective Fiction Area of the Popular Culture Association invites proposals for our annual conference to be held March 27-30, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois.

National Popular Culture Association Conference Chicago  March 27-30 2024! 

https://pcaaca.org/ 

CALL FOR CHAPTERS. The humanitarian Crisis in the 21st century: challenges of liberal democracies to deal with the humanitarian crisis 

Publisher: Nova Science Publishers

Maximiliano E. Korstanje- University of Palermo, Argentina

Christina Akrivopoulou – Hellenic Open University, Greece – Editor in Chief of Int. Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies.

Humour across Victoriana

To be published as part of the series, Humour in Literature and Culture (Routledge, 2023-2025).

This volume will attempt to explore the prevalence and function of humour across all levels of Victorian society by focusing on how humour is expressed, encountered, and experienced in all forms of media and expression.

AMERICAN NIGHTMARES: THE INAUGURAL SYMPOSIUM OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF THE AMERICAN GOTHIC

March 21st – 23rd, 2024

Salem, Massachusetts

Conference director: Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Central Michigan University

With the kind support of the American Literature Association

Proposals for individual papers, 3- or 4-person paper sessions, and 5-person roundtable sessions are solicited for AMERICAN NIGHTMARES: the inaugural symposium of the Society for the Study of the American Gothic.