2024 Conference of   Mid-Atlantic Popular / American Culture Association (MAPACA)

MAPACA War Studies Area

Thursday, November 7 -- Saturday, November 9, 2024
Tropicana Casino and Resort
Atlantic City, New Jersey

Proposals due to http://www.mapaca.net  by  June 30, 2024

War has been one of the few constants in human history, waged by nations, tribes, and other factions for numerous reasons; some have been valid and noble, some questionable. This area will feature papers that 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.

Special Panel for the 2024 Conference:   “Wars We Never Fought” : War and Speculative Fiction

We seek proposals discussing the intersection of war and the varied genres of speculative fiction:  sci-fi, fantasy, horror, supernatural, “weird,” superhero, dystopian, alternative history, etc.   How has war structured these fantastic narratives?  What can wars that are explicitly fictional or imagined tell us about conflict in the “real world”?  About how we theorize ideas of nation, gender, race, social class, ethics, economics, politics, violence, occupation, or resistance? 

The War Studies Area also welcomes general proposals including, but not limited to, the following topics for the conference: 

war on television
war films
war in prose fiction, poetry, or drama
documentaries and war
technology and war
war and gender
aspects of media coverage of war
war and social / new media
dystopia and war
the “war on terror” and popular culture
war and music
protest / anti-war movements
propaganda
war and race
war and ethnicity
war in minority discourses
Marxist approaches to war
war and psychoanalysis
trauma and war
language and war
oral histories of war experiences
queer approaches to war
visual art and war
war in video or role-playing games
war as metaphor
war and museums
war memorials

Please submit 300 word proposals online at http://www.mapaca.net and select “War Studies” as the Area for consideration.

Proposals must be received by June 30, 2024 to be considered for the conference. 

Information on the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (MAPACA) is available at http://www.mapaca.net; information on the 2024 Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Popular / American Culture Association is available at http://www.mapaca.net/conference.