DEADLINE EXTENDED!

Call for Papers

Children’s/Young Adult Culture

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

46th Annual Conference, February 19-22, 2025

Marriott Albuquerque

Albuquerque, New Mexico

https://www.southwestpca.org

EXTENDED Proposal submission deadline: November 14, 2024

Proposals for papers and panels are now being accepted for the 46th 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 https://swpaca.org/subject-areas/

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)
• The Creative Process in Children’s and YA lit (from inspiration to composition to finished published product)
• 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 https://swpaca.org/app

 For details on using the submission database and on the application process in general (including submitting proposals for roundtables and preformed panels), please see the FAQS & Resources tab on https://swpaca.org/ 

Individual proposals for 15-minute papers must include an abstract of approximately 200-500 words. Including a brief bio in the body of the proposal form is encouraged, but not required.  

For information on how to submit a proposal for a roundtable or a multi-paper panel, please view the above FAQs and Tips page.   

The deadline for submissions has been extended to November 14, 2024.  

SWPACA offers monetary awards for the best graduate student papers in a variety of categories. Submissions of accepted, full papers are due January 1, 2025. More details are here: https://swpaca.org/graduate-student-paper-awards/  SWPACA also offers travel fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students as well as contingent faculty: https://swpaca.org/travel-awards-students-faculty/

 Registration and travel information for the conference is available at https://swpaca.org/albuquerque-conference/  For 2025, we will be returning to the Marriott Albuquerque (2101 Louisiana Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110), which boasts free parking and close proximity to dining, shopping, and other delights.

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, PhD, Emeritus Professor, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, drdvd2014@gmail.com, OR Assistant Area Chair: Ashley Johnson, Independent Scholar, ashleycheyennej@gmail.com. If you have general questions about the conference, please contact us at support@southwestpca.org, and a member of the executive team will get back to you. 

This will be a fully in-person conference. If you’re looking for an online option to present your work, keep an eye out for details about the 2025 SWPACA Summer Salon, a completely virtual conference to take place in June 2025.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!