Call for Papers

Children’s/Young Adult Culture

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

Submission Deadline: November 13, 2020

42nd Annual Conference, Week of February 22-27, 2021

http://www.southwestpca.org

Submissions Open September 1, 2020

For the 2021 Conference, SWPACA is going virtual! Due to concerns regarding COVID-19, we will be holding our annual conference completely online this year. We hope you will join us for exciting papers, discussions, and the experience you’ve come to expect from Southwest.

Proposals for papers and panels are now being accepted for the 42nd annual SWPACA conference. One of the nation’s largest interdisciplinary academic conferences, SWPACA offers nearly 70 subject areas, each typically featuring multiple panels. For a full list of subject areas, area descriptions, and Area Chairs, please visit http://southwestpca.org/conference/call-for-papers/

Panels are now being formed in the Children’s/Young Adult Culture area. Scholars, researchers, professionals, teachers, graduate students, and others interested in this area are encouraged to submit an abstract. 

This area covers a wide variety of possible mediums: traditional book/literature culture, but also comics, graphic novels, film, television, music, video games, toys, internet environment, fan fiction, advertising, and marketing tie-ins to books and films, just to name a few.  Proposals on fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or cross-genre topics are welcome.  Interdisciplinary approaches are especially welcome, as are presentations that go beyond the traditional scholarly paper format. 

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• The art and industry of the Picture Book – both historical and current trends (I’d love to see more presentations on picture books, including wordless picture books)
• Diversity in children’s and YA literature (gender, race/ethnicity, disability, body image, sexual identity, language)
• Use of innovative or “novel” formats for both children’s and YA literature
• The next “big” thing in children’s and YA literature
• Film adaptation issues
• Historical approaches to and the history of children’s and YA literature and culture
• New approaches to reading children’s and YA literature and culture
• Re-imaginings of myth, fairy tale, and other traditional stories
• Explorations of specific authors in the children’s and YA areas
• Fan fiction and fan followings of books, films, and authors
• Beyond books and films
• The pedagogy of children’s/YA culture (K-12 and college)
•  

Proposals on other topics related to Children’s and YA Culture will be read with interest.

All proposals must be submitted through the conference’s database at http://register.southwestpca.org/southwestpca 

For details on using the submission database and on the application process in general, please see the Proposal Submission FAQs and Tips page at http://southwestpca.org/conference/faqs-and-tips/ 

Individual proposals for 15-minute papers must include an abstract of approximately 200-500 words. For information on how to submit a proposal for a roundtable or a multi-paper panel, please view the above FAQs and Tips page.  

SWPACA will offer registration reimbursement awards for the best graduate student papers in a variety of categories. Submissions of accepted, full papers are due January 1, 2021. SWPACA will also offer registration reimbursement awards for select undergraduate and graduate students in place of our traditional travel awards. For more information, visit http://southwestpca.org/conference/graduate-student-awards/.

Registration for the conference will be open and available in late fall. Watch your email for details!

In addition, please check out the organization’s peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, at http://journaldialogue.org/

If you have any questions about the Children’s/Young Adult Culture area, please contact its Area Chair, Diana Dominguez at drdvd2014@gmail.com. Please put Popular Culture in the subject line so it is directed properly. 

We look forward to receiving your submissions!