popular culture

The Gender, Identity, Sex and Sexuality Area Chair of the Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (NEPCA) seeks individual-paper proposals for presentation at NEPCA's annual fall conference, which will be held on the campus of Queensborough Community College (Bayside, Queens, New York City) October 23-24, 2009.

If one function of television viewing is wish fulfillment, then it is perhaps unsurprising that television series that focus on the lives of the wealthy continue to be popular. Often, these series include at least one character who is an "outsider" to the world depicted and who must attempt to migrate between social classes; such characters' awe, envy, and, at times, revulsion towards the lives of those in this world are meant to reflect the attitudes of the audience. What, then, do such series/characters tell us about the possibility of migrating between classes in contemporary society? Do such shows ultimately argue that such class migration is something to aspire to or to avoid?

Short Story: Stories with Histories. Short stories are a literary genre especially given to migration, appearing in different formats and venues as they are expanded into novels, reprinted in different collections, or adapted for television or film. Papers for this panel should focus on short stories with a history of rewriting, reproduction, translation, and/or adaptation. Speculative or archival explorations that recover palimpsests from previous drafts, electronic files, or other, more elusive traces, are also welcome. Please send a 250 word abstract to Shiela Pardee, Southeast Missouri State University by April 15. E-mail submission preferred: spardee@semo.edu

Shifting Spatialities: The Dynamic Boundaries of Place and Space

Rice Graduate Symposium
October 2-3, 2009
Rice University, Houston, TX

Call For Papers
Submission Deadline: July 1, 2009

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Sharon Marcus; Professor of Literature, Columbia University

As the citizen of the nation becomes the consumer of the multinational corporation, our roles as inhabitants of space become increasingly complicated. Our literature, our faith, our bodies all speak to the different ways that we find to occupy the shifting territories of the postmodern landscape. Looking both to the past and future can help us to discover the real and imagined ways our cultures can develop in more richly and defined ways.

Truth and Lies: An Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference
June 11th - 12th

Organized by the College of Arts and Humanities, Bangor University, Wales

Call for Papers

Our society bombards us with deception: false reports, embellished
testimony, misleading advertising, and that which goes unsaid. But are we
really being lied to? Or is the truth hiding underneath the deception, and
is it up to us to actively bring it to light?

We invite contributions from postgraduates across the disciplines in the
Arts and Humanities. Topic areas should reflect the interdisciplinary theme
of the conference. Suggestions may include (but are not limited to):

Studies in Gothic Fiction, a new peer-reviewed, on-line journal is seeking articles and reviews for its premiere on-line issue. Studies in Gothic Fiction is devoted to covering all issues of Gothic literature and media studies. Articles should be between 6,000 and 10,000 words. Reviews should be approximately 1,000 words with full publication dates and details of the subject: novels and graphic novels, film, television, drama, video games etc. All articles should be written in endnote format, following MLA style. Submit articles for consideration as word attachments to studiesingothic@zittaw.com.
Deadline for submissions is August 30th, 2009.

This panel seeks to explore theoretical approaches to ancient and/or modern texts. Proposals that deal with a single genre, such as poetry or prose or drama, are acceptable. However, scholars are also encouraged to explore texts that cross traditional boundaries and examine relations between, for instance, the Iliad and the Odyssey on the one hand and the Lord of the Rings novels on the other. Similarly, while read-and-lecture presentations are acceptable, scholars are encouraged to use audio-visuals to support their arguments.

CFP: Modernist Studies Association 2009
MSA 11: The Languages of Modernism

Montréal, Québec, Canada, 
November 5-8, 2009

Wordless Modernism: Grammars of the Sensible

"Is there, we ask, some secret language which we feel and see, but never speak, …any characteristic which thought possesses that can be rendered visible without the help of words?"
— Virginia Woolf, "The Cinema" (1926)

War Area / 2009 Conference of the Mid Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association
Hilton Boston Logan Airport Boston MA 11/5-11/7/2009

Proposal Deadline: 06/15/2009

MAPACA War Area

War has been one of the few constants in human history, waged by nations, tribes, and other factions for numerous reasons—some valid and noble, some questionable. This area seeks to explore the ways that wars—declared and undeclared, just and unjust, sacred and profane, fictional and "real"—have impacted the social, economic, technological, ideological, and other aspects of culture.

ANGLES: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY POSTGRADUATE CONFERENCE ON CULTURAL HISTORY
Birkbeck, University of London
Saturday 20 June 2009

CALL FOR PAPERS - FINAL REMINDER

Call for Papers

Fifth African American Literature Symposium

"It's A New Day: The Vicissitude of African American Autobiography from Briton Hammon to Barack Obama"

Call for Papers--Graphic Novels in Libraries and Archives: Ideas and Issues.

Graphic Novel publishing has exploded in the last decade. While, during the mid-1990s, it might have been possible for even a modestly budgeted library to acquire much of the published Graphic Novel output, now it is almost impossible even for libraries with big budgets to afford EVERYTHING published in this format. What was once considered a "cult" of devoted Graphic Novel readers and fans is now a part of the mainstream of readers. Graphic Novels is the one area of publishing that continues to grow year by year.

Frank Miller (5/10/09; MWPCA/MWACA 10/30/09-11/01/09)

CALL FOR PAPERS (Please circulate)

Panel for the 2009 Midwest Popular Culture Association / Midwest American Culture Association Conference in Detroit, MI, October 30-November 1

Panel Title: Frank Miller—Comic Books and Graphic Novels

Deadline for submissions: May 10, 2009

Holocaust Representations Since 1975
A conference at the Department of English, The University of Chester,Friday 18th September 2009

Keynote speaker: Professor Robert Eaglestone (Royal Holloway)

We welcome contributions from a range of disciplines, including literature, film, history and philosophy. The scope of the conference will be broad, but some areas of interest might include: