The 2024 Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) will host its annual conference this fall as a hybrid conference from Thursday, October 3 – Saturday, October 5. Virtual sessions will take place on Thursday evening and Friday morning via Zoom, and in-person sessions will take place on Friday evening and Saturday morning at Nichols College, Dudley, Massachusetts.

We are excited to be back together again face-to-face and to continue providing a virtual option for access and affordability. We are looking forward to another engaging and rewarding conference for new and seasoned members alike. We are seeking proposals for panels and presentations for this year’s conference, including proposals for the Philosophy, Belief, and Pop Culture Area.

Philosophy questions general and fundamental concepts of our world and reality, such as reason, values, language, knowledge, existence, and the mind, body and soul. It functions as one of our oldest means of studying, understanding, and explaining, and prominent practitioners feature across time and cultures (e.g., Plato, Nietzsche, Confucius, Laozi, Ibn Rushd, Ptahhotep, Adi Shankara, Anthony William Amo, Nezahualcoyotl, etc.). This area welcomes proposals from all academic and methodological perspectives that either use philosophic principles to engage with/analyze examples of pop culture or explore depictions of philosophy within pop culture. Some specific potential topics include but are not limited to:

• The portrayal of philosophy, belief systems, religions, and mythologies across any medium (e.g., literature, film, television, comics/graphic novels, poetry, anime and manga, video games, tabletop role-playing games, etc.)
• The depiction of historic philosophers and religious leaders in pop culture and media
• The evolution of philosophical principles, belief systems, religions, and mythologies in pop culture and media
• The application of philosophic principles and religious teachings in American politics and news media
• The development of new philosophical principles, belief systems, religions, and mythologies through fiction

NEPCA’s call-for-papers will be open until June 15 by 11:59p.m. (EST). You can submit your proposal here - https://nepca.blog/2024-conference-page/