Transforming Pedagogy with Popular Culture We are organizing a panel (or panels) on the topic of "Transforming Pedagogy with Popular Culture" for the 53rd Annual CEA Conference in Atlanta, GA, from March 21-23. We are looking for papers that discuss how popular culture can be used to teach important concepts or skill sets in a way that engages students in the learning process. Some potential topics include, but are not limited to, critical thinking skills, empathy, composition styles, and rhetorical analysis. There is a possibility that panel presenters may be asked if they want to participate in an edited essay collection on this topic. Please note that presenters must be members of CEA to present at the conference.

Influenced by Le Corbusier’s ‘Radiant City’, the Pruitt-Igoe housing projects in St. Louis were a modernist, utopian vision of urban renewal. However, they quickly slid into disrepair and in 1972 were partially demolished in a nationwide, televised spectacle. The failure of Pruitt-Igoe shows us that the dystopia is always necessarily contained within the utopia: despite the intentions of its architect Minoru Yamasaki, in planning the Pruitt-Igoe housing projects, it was always destined to be a vision of 'functional' racial segregation by its federal ideators. Although the edict of racial segregation was thrown out by the Supreme Court, the dystopian seed had been planted, and serves as an exemplar for what a dystopia truly is: a utopia unraveled.

CALL FOR PAPERS: ACLA 2024: Texts in Motion: Walking and Literature