Throughout his 40 year career, Michael Jackson intrigued and captivated public imagination through music ingenuity, sexual and racial spectacle, savvy publicity stunts, odd private (yet always public) behaviors, and a seemingly apolitical (yet always political) offering of popular art. Since the age of ten, Jackson was a consistent player on the public stage – countless public appearances, both designed and serendipitous, no doubt shaped the consciousness of this performer. The evidence we have of this shaping is seen in the artifacts he has left behind: music, interviews, books written by him, about him, a number of commercial products including dolls, buttons, posters, and photographs, videos, movies.

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/

Crossing the Line: Affinities Before and After 1900

An Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference to be held at the University of Liverpool and the Victoria Gallery & Museum

Thursday 28th – Friday 29th January 2010
Keynote Speaker: Professor Regenia Gagnier (University of Exeter)

Publishing Workshop: 'The Future of Academic Publishing' with Paula Kennedy (Palgrave Macmillan)

Plenary Lecture: 'Funding for Postgraduate Researchers', Dr Mark Llewellyn (University of Liverpool)

TO BE KEPT UP TO DATE WITH THE LATEST CONFERENCE NEWS AND INFORMATION PLEASE SEND A BLANK EMAIL WITH THE SUBJECT "SUBSCRIBE" TO ORGANISERS@CROSSING-THE-LINE.ORG.UK.

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.

There's nothing new under the sun—-including this aphorism—-though each generation seems to rediscover old thought-ways, contributing to them a rhetoric of novelty. This panel seeks to explore the ways in which critical philosophy of the past forty years has reduplicated and reconfigured the revelations of theology, especially (though not exclusively) mystical and contemplative theology. Discussions could range from the "negative theology" of the later Derrida to the mystical psychology of the Real in Lacan, or the scholasticism of structuralism. The goal is not only to "apply" the current critical lexicon to theology, but to show how spiritual texts can meaningfully comment upon and enrich our experience of critical theory.