popular culture

For a generation, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise was emblematic of heroism, fighting against adversity, and inclusion of outsiders. This is why Rowling’s arguable alignment of herself, in 2020 and since, with transphobic and trans-exclusionary rhetoric felt like such a betrayal to many of her readers, prompting a revaluation of her work and what it means to them now. With the co-edited collection Potions, Powers, and Prejudice: Reassessing Harry Potter, we intend for contributors to explore the matter of what we collectively do with Harry Potter in the wake of its creator’s very public turn. Some readers have favored a careful delineation between author and work; others have regretfully concluded that no such delineation is possible.

Call for Expressions of Interest.

In July of 2026 Punch magazine will be 185 years old!

The Punch’s Pocket Book Archive team are editing a special commemorative issue of Victorian Periodicals Review to celebrate Punch, both the magazine and the evolution of a clear brand identity that witnessed many imitations and adaptations across the world.

We would like to invite expressions of interest from scholars who are working on Punch, developing and enriching the field, to consider topics such as: global imitators of the magazine; the merchandise; the almanacks; the pocket-books; the reprinted bound volumes and thematic collections; the online digital resources and more.

Call for Papers: Film International: Journal of World Cinema

Aims & Scope

Film International is devoted to the study of world cinemas, focusing on films within international and transnational contexts. The Journal offers insights into the broader scope of cinema practices across the globe, both feature length and otherwise, including by way of cultural comparison. It not only encourages attention to underrepresented regions such as the Global South, small-nation and minor cinemas, but also to how aesthetic choices have been made in these contexts.

Within Cli-Fi, Anthropocene Literature, Speculative Futurism, and visual cultures of the Anthropocene, increasing attention and sympathy have been given to the non-humans in narratives of climate crisis. From films like 20th Century Fox’s Planet of the Apes reboot to texts such as Ted Chaing’s Parrots of The Great Silence, The Strange Bird of Jeff VanderMeer’s same-named Novella, and the Elk-Headed Woman of Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians, to visual works like Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s The Substitute, Animal perspectives have never been more prevalent in narratives of human-driven climate catastrophe.

Call for paper for a Special issue of Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies

Educators in Popular Culture: Educational Settings as Sites of Intersectional Struggle

Special Issue Editors: Jennifer Esposito and Tanja Burkhard

Popular culture is an educative space and, as such, we learn about ourselves and others

through our engagement with popular culture forms (Edwards & Esposito, 2020).

Expressions of popular culture that highlight educational settings, specifically schools and

Food fests, feasts, and gatherings address the role of food in events, gatherings, celebrations, and ceremonies. Exploring how people incorporate ideas about food into festival culture, including history, heritage, tradition, creativity, and social and political factors. 

In addition, it examines festivals in which food is not the main focus, yet contributes significantly to the atmosphere, memory, and tradition. It also looks at people's fascination with taste. In addition to examining these notions, we will also examine trends in the consumption and production of food.

Mythology in Contemporary Culture 

at the 

Annual Conference of the 

 Popular Culture Association

 New Orleans Marriott April 1-19, 2024 

Call for Papers

                “To be neurodivergent is to reclaim the pathologizing aspects of a long-term cognitive diagnosis and to reclaim one’s neuro-status as a possible position from which to claim resources, representation and recognition” (Stenning and Bertisldottir Rosqvist 1535).

Divination, Witchcraft & the Occult *SPECIAL TOPIC*

Popular Culture Association Conference

16-19 April 2025

New Orleans, Louisiana, US

The broad interest in divination, witchcraft, and the occult has been part of popular culture for centuries. Scholars’ discomfort with the topic is often palpable: they tend to focus on intersections that feel more legitimate, e.g. legal ramifications (laws against occult practice, witch trials etc), or archival documents, or simply sticking to fictional accounts.

Punk Scholars Network USA and Canada 3rd Annual Conference

Call for Papers

March 2 & 3, 2025

The Punk Rock Museum – Las Vegas, Nevada

Theme: Punk on Display

Following the success of our second in-person conference in August 2024, we are excited to announce our third in-person conference sponsored by PSN Canada and PSN USA. This year, the conference will be held on March 2 and 3 at The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 32nd Annual NINE Spring Training Conference (March 5-8, 2025) invites original unpublished papers that study all aspects of baseball, with particular emphasis on history, literature, and social policy implications. Abstracts only, not to exceed 300 words, should be submitted by November 11, 2024, to co-directors Willie Steele (wdsteele@lipscomb.edu) and David Pegram (david.pegram@paradisevalley.edu) for the abstract committee’s consideration. Following the submission deadline, authors will be notified as quickly as possible whether their papers have been accepted.

The Folklore Area of the Popular Culture Association is considering proposals for sessions organized around a theme, special panels, and/or individual papers related to Folklore Studies for the 2025 Popular Culture Association Conference by November 30, 2024. The conference will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana (April 16-19).

Sessions are typically scheduled in 1½ hour slots, with four papers per standard session. Presentations should not exceed 15 minutes. As always, proposals addressing any topic related to folklore or folklore studies are welcome, including but not limited to the following:

“In olden days a glimpse of stocking / Was looked on as something shocking. / Now, heaven knows, Anything goes.” This epigraph begins Chris Jenks’ 2003 work Transgression, exemplifying the sense in which acts of transgression can have real, tangible, palpable effects on society. Jenks defines “transgression” as violating, infringing upon, or going beyond the limits set by a boundary or convention (2). Transgressive fiction, then, is the genre of literature that depicts various acts of boundary-crossing in order to analyze and criticize them for the purpose of reflecting upon the ideological constructions that its characters react against or wholly reject.

RSAJournal, the journal of the Italian Association of American Studies (AISNA) seeks contributions for its n. 36 issue (September 2025) for both its General and Special Sections.

Full papers for the General Section, on any aspect of American Studies, should be submitted by January 31st, 2025, using our OJS portal, at rsa.aisna.net (which includes full submission and stylesheet details).