MYSTERY & DETECTIVE FICTION AREA

deadline for submissions: 
November 30, 2024
full name / name of organization: 
Popular Culture Association (PCA/ACA) National Conference, April 16-19, 2025, New Orleans, LA
contact email: 

The Mystery & Detective Fiction Area of the Popular Culture Association invites proposals for the 2025 annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, April 16-19, 2025.

We seek proposals from researchers, academics, graduate students, and independent scholars for scholarly discussions on all aspects and periods of mystery and detective fiction. Interdisciplinary approaches are strongly encouraged, including cultural studies, visual arts, media studies, audience reception and fan studies.

A wide range of topics and approaches on mystery and detective fiction writers and works ranging from classic to contemporary are welcome but we ask that proposals extend existing scholarship in new directions and avoid plot summary or review. Proposals should have a clear and focused argument that can be developed adequately in a 15-minute presentation.

Proposals on the following topics are suggested for the 2025 conference:

  • Literary or textual analysis of specific authors and/or time periods, including storytelling styles, stock characters, and tropes relevant to the genre
  • Regional mystery and detective fiction set in or around New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf coast
  • Subgenres (e.g., hardboiled detective fiction, eco-detective fiction, neo-noir etc.)

**We are hoping to have a panel devoted to cozy mystery and detective fiction, so please think about submitting if you are a fan**

  • Generic hybridity and the repurposing and relocation of crime fiction within other genres (e.g., horror, sci-fi, romance, dystopia, Westerns)
  • Authors from or texts featuring characters identifying with marginalized or historically excluded communities, (e.g., Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous/Native American, LGBTQ+) and the literary, social or political impacts within the genre
  • Transnational and global crime fiction, and the ways in which mystery and detective fiction is produced, received or reimagined across national boundaries
  • Adaptation and transmedial analysis of mystery and detective fiction in film, television, theatre, computer games, etc.
  • Fan and mystery community culture (e.g., conferences, associations, forums, bookstores, author events, fandoms)

Special Topics

Fictional Truths and Truthful Fictions

Co-hosted by the Mystery & Detective Fiction and True Crime Areas, this special session will feature papers analyzing the mutual influence and generic exchange between true crime and crime fiction texts (e.g., televisual or literary adaptations of real-life crimes or the use of mystery archetypes and tropes in true crime texts).

Please indicate in your proposal if you would like your paper to be considered for this panel. Papers that are not accepted for this special session will still be considered for regular panels.

The Body in the Library: Special Collections Research Round Table

This roundtable session will feature researchers, librarians and archivists discussing strategies and best practices for conducting research about mystery and detective fiction authors in libraries, digital repositories, private collections, archives and other special collections.

Killing It in the Classroom: Teaching Mystery and Detective Fiction Round Table

This roundtable session will feature a variety of veteran teaching faculty discussing their experiences developing and delivering crime fiction courses at the college, university and postgraduate levels. The session will include examples of course outlines, sample evaluations and reading lists.

Submission Process

Please submit your 100- to 250-word abstract outlining both your object(s) of analysis and your primary argument through the PCAconference’ssubmissionportal by November 30, 2024.