popular culture

"Un/Making Graphic History:
BD and Narratives of Resistance in French"

Call for Papers

Newsies, both as a film in 1992 and a Broadway show in 2012, has been a sleeper hit for all of its existence. Disney wrote the film off as a failure when it took roughly $15 million to make and only grossed $2.8 million – and yet, the film found a wide, willing, and devoted audience through VHS rentals and Disney Channel showings. The Newsies Broadway show was originally intended to be a licensed adaptation for high schools and colleges - and yet, the built-in audience was so eager for a Broadway adaptation that Disney Theatrical Productions decided to make the gamble.

This session is part of the 35th annual Medieval-Renaissance Conference, sponsored by the Center for Medieval-Renaissance Studies at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, Spetember 15-17, 2022.  It welcomes proposals about all topics related to King Arthur as a figure in literature, history, art, and entertainment.  Interested in interdisciplinary approaches, such as the character of Arthur in romance and history, in art and literature, and in popular media, are especially encouraged.  We also welcome proposals on:

While fantasy fiction has become incredibly popular and prolific in these last few decades, the appeal of fantastical literature dates back to antiquity, as mythologies, legends, and encounters with the supernatural have formed a large part of narrative traditions in every culture and language. This companion seeks to update and address underexamined areas of fantasy fiction, with the chief aim to provide a global introduction to English-language and English-translation fantasy fiction. This collection will focus on the contemporary written word (narrative prose) produced in late 20th and early 21st century.

In The Hero with A Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell asserts that the mythic figure of the hero is central to understanding the human experience. He argues that “the hero is symbolical of that divine creative and redemptive image within us all, only waiting to be known and rendered into life.” The hero, in other words, might be said to be the embodiment or archetype of the imago Dei raised to the highest pitch, functioning as an exemplar of what humanity at its level best can do.

Call for Papers

Taylor Sheridan's Wests

Submit a Manuscript to the Journal National Identities (Taylor and Francis, Routledge) 

For a Special Issue on Nation, Narration, and Nationalism in Indian Popular Bollywood Movies

Special Issue Editor(s)

Pippa Catterall, University of Westminster, UK
P.Catterall@westminster.ac.uk

Goutam Karmakar, Barabazar BTM College, SKB University, India
goutamkrmkr@gmail.com

Katherine Mansfield:

Germany and Beyond

Bad Wörishofen, Germany

16-17 July 2022

(readings, tour 18 July)

NEW DATE

An international conference organised by the

Katherine Mansfield Society

Hosted by the Bad Wörishofen Mayorality

and Tourist and Spa Bureau

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

PAMLA 2022: Open Educational Resources (OER) in the French and Francophone Classroom (roundtable)

The use of Open Educational Resources (OER) has grown steadily due to the rising cost of textbooks and the unstable financial situations of students, further aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the relevance and authenticity of conventionally published materials is often called into question. As a result, instructors increasingly turn to OER to meet these needs.

The global pandemic and long periods of self-quarantine shifted everything from work habits, to school, to media consumption, and more.

For example, the game Animal Crossing: New Horizons brought families together and even provided a supportive space for on-line memorial services.

Zoom parties became a new way of coming together, as did streaming watch parties.

We invite you to join us in building a creative, interdisciplinary, and accessible symposium that considers the challenges of engaging the public and the role of resistance within the cultural spaces curating Americana. This two-day event will take place on the 19th and 20th of May. Hosted online by the University of Kent, UK. 

Please submit a 250-word proposal, with title and 50-word biography for a presentation, panel or workshop to kentamericanists@gmail.com by April 17th, 2022.

French and Francophone Literature and Culture Panel at PAMLA 2022 Conference in Los Angeles, CA

Date: November 11-13, 2022

Place: UCLA Luskin Conference Center and Hotel


We are open to a wide range of paper topics dealing with French and Francophone literature and culture, but are particularly interested in papers that engage with the special conference theme of "Geographies of the Fantastic and the Quotidian."

Since launching its hugely popular “Countdown to Christmas” made-for-TV movie series in 2009, Hallmark has expanded its offerings of American small-town romances to include Valentine’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, New Year’s, and Hanukkah, as well as winter, spring, summer, fall, and “Christmas in July.” Dozens of original films are planned and shot each year, often in Canadian locations such as Vancouver and Ottawa. These now-year-round productions are formulaic, heteronormative, Christian, and overwhelmingly white—and they have been undeniably commercially successful, rocketing Hallmark to cable success and spawning imitations across multiple platforms.

Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, a refereed academic journal now in its seventh volume, is currently seeking manuscripts addressing how the construction of sexual/gender identity as conveyed in recent media and popular culture is changing. We are looking for essays that investigate such areas as non-binary genders, trans identities, and intersectionality, among others.