popular culture

Articles solicited to add to a collection of essays on Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

Perspectives on the author, herself, are especially requested, as are perspectives from specific theoretical perspectives.

Due date for proposals. July 20th 2009
Due date for completed essays: October 1st 2009

Please send proposals in the first instance to Dr Jon Mitchell, jon.mitchell@nuim.ie

The editors of CJFS/RCEC - Charles Acland (Communication Studies) and Catherine Russell (Film Studies) at Concordia University, Montreal - seek submissions of manuscripts in film and moving image studies for the following refereed special topic issue: FILM PUBLICS RECONSIDERED.

Call for Papers

'Palestine: Culture, Conflict and Representation'

An Interdisciplinary Symposium, Friday 2nd October 2009
Nottingham Trent University, UK

Keynote address by Professor Nur Masalha,
Director of the Centre for Religion, History and Holy Land Studies, St Mary's, Surrey

As a site of complex and enduring conflict, Palestine – conceived as a cultural entity – poses many challenges to those who wish to engage in the task of its meaningful representation. Nevertheless, a desire to confront these challenges continues to flourish – among political thinkers, activists, scholars, creative practitioners, writers and critics both within and beyond the Palestinian territories.

The journal "Jura Gentium Cinema" is seeking reviews (between 5000 and 10000 words) for the American-Kuwaiti movie "Amreeka" by Cherien Dabis (AKA "Amerrika" (Fr)), winner of the Fipresci Prize at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Official site of the movie (Fr): http://www.amerrika-lefilm.com/

The review should particularly address the gender and postcolonial dimension of the movie. The review should be informative and evaluative, without being dismissive: that is, the reviewer should find some value in the work being reviewed.

Reviews in French, Spanish, Italian are also welcomed.

Women's Studies Call for Papers
Abstract/Proposals by 15 November 2009

Southwest Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association 31st Annual Conference • February 10-13, 2010

Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
330 Tijeras • Albuquerque, NM 87102
Phone: 1.505.842.1234 • Fax: 1.505.766.6710

Proposals requested for individual presentations, panels, or roundtable discussions on any aspect of the Depiction of Women in Popular Culture which includes (but is not limited to):

CALL FOR PAPERS

ROUND TABLE on
WHY ARTHUR?
REFLECTIONS ON THE INTERNATIONAL APPEAL OF THE
MATTER OF BRITAIN IN THE POST-MEDIEVAL WORLD

45TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
KALAMAZOO, MI
13-16 MAY 2010

PROPOSALS BY 1 SEPTEMBER 2009

Co-Sponsored by
THE ALLIANCE FOR THE PROMOTION OF RESEARCH ON THE VILLAINS OF THE MATTER OF BRITAIN and THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF POPULAR CULTURE AND THE MIDDLE AGES

The E. E. Cummings Society and the Society's journal, Spring, invite abstracts for 20- minute papers for the 38th annual Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900, February 18-20, 2010, at the University of Louisville. Considering the range of Cummings' modernist experiments and re-imaginings of genre through language, typography, and many art forms (from the lyric to prose non/fiction, to stage plays, and to the visual arts), along with his transgressions of formal boundaries (including metrics and rhyme), we invite papers that examine Cummings' multi-faceted engagement with the modern, in particular, issues of nation, race, and war, as well as his exploration of the popular vernacular.

For its inaugural issue (Winter 2010), the Journal of Popular Romance Studies is now considering papers on representations of romantic love in popular media, now or in the past, from anywhere in the world.

Topics addressed might include:

REMINDER: Deadline is approaching soon---July 1.

Call for Participation

Institute for Comics Studies
Comic Book Convention Conference Series

DRAGON*CON 2nd ANNUAL COMICS & POPULAR ARTS CONFERENCE

Atlanta, Georgia September 4-7, 2009

The Institute for Comic Studies and Dragon*Con present their second annual academic conference for the studies of comics and the popular arts to take place at Dragon*Con, the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US. For more info on Dragon*Con, visit http://dragoncon.org/

Motion comics are (in most cases) digitized, panel-by-panel, animated translations of comic books or graphic novels. This new medium has gained high visibility most recently as a result of Warner Bros.' adaption of D.C.'s WATCHMEN into the motion comics format as part of the studio's overall efforts to promote the live-action film version of the famed graphic novel. Several additional comics have, however, been adapted into this format, including BATMAN: BLACK AND WHITE, STEPHEN KING'S "N.", I AM LEGEND, SPIDER WOMAN, and ASTONISHING X-MEN, among many others.

"Form in Space and Time"

In current debates about the War in Iraq, it has become commonplace for politicians and journalists to conjure the specter of the Vietnam War as a means of quantifying the impact of the current war in American culture and throughout the world. Surprisingly, though, few have scrutinized these comparisons to examine the differences between the popular music of the Vietnam era and the music of the current post-9/11 era. While the Vietnam era found countless bands and musicians responding in protest to that war, there has arguably been a significantly smaller amount of contemporary musicians who have taken overt stances, in their music, about the politics of post-9/11 life, in America and elsewhere.

How is digital technology changing methods of scholarly research with pre-digital sources in the humanities? If the "medium is the message," then how does the message change when primary sources are translated into digital media? What kinds of new research opportunities do databases unlock and what do they make obsolete? What is the future of the rare book and manuscript library and its use? What biases are inherent in the widespread use of digitized material? How can we correct for them? Amidst numerous benefits in accessibility, cost, and convenience, what concerns have been overlooked?

Papers are welcome on William Blake and his influence on any one of the many artists or movements he impacted, including not only literature but visual arts and music: including but not limited to the Pre-Raphaelites, the Ancients, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, Ginsberg and the Beats, Van Morrison, Billy Bragg, Patti Smith, composer William Bolcom, -- not to mention popular writers like Joyce Carol Oates, Thomas Harris, etc. What do the artists "half create/And what perceive" in their own vision of William Blake? What is Blake's legacy today? E-mail abstracts or complete papers (limited to 10-12 minutes presentation time) to Josephine McQuail or mail to Dr. J. McQuail, Box 5053, 5 William L.