This conference aims to bring together Postgraduate students and Research Scholars to critically engage with the theme of “Popular Culture and the Politics of Representation.” Culture has always been the force to determine the course of human history, which has been sempiternally constituted by multitudinous and multidirectional fluxes of cultural exchanges, overlaps, and influences of various degrees. The aforementioned dynamics had not only been operative at collective levels but also at individual ones, ceaselessly permeating and turning us into its impacts and mouldings.

We are in the purview of culture even before we are born into this world. “There is no such thing as a human nature independent of culture”, writes Clifford Geertz in The Interpretation of Cultures (1973) defining culture as a “set of control mechanisms—plans, recipes, rules, instructions…—for the governing of behavior” (44, 49). The terms ‘culture’ and ‘popular’ have been defined and reappropriated in various ways within the course of history. ‘Culture’ is, in a sense, both preserver and destroyer. It preserves traditions, customs, rules and set structures. Simultaneously, it destroys the multiple plausibilities of any distortion or new turns on the ground of morality and by doing so it holds and exercises power. ‘Popular’, on the other hand, according to Raymond Williams, “well liked by many people,” and “work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people” (237). Therefore, the definitional aspect of popular culture brings into play a complex combination of the different meanings of the term ‘culture’ with the different meanings of the term ‘popular’. Popular culture encompasses the practices, artifacts, and ideologies widely consumed by a large number of people in a given society and thereby constitutes “the people”. It draws from everyday life, emerging from collective practices, mass media, and entertainment industries. 

Stuart Hall, in his essay “Notes on Deconstructing ‘The Popular’” (1981), emphasizes that popular culture is a contested terrain where dominant ideologies are reproduced, resisted, and renegotiated. This dialectical nature underscores how popular culture can simultaneously uphold and subvert power structures. Following Gramsci’s political concept of ‘hegemony’, one can also define popular culture as a battleground between the forces of ‘incorporation’ working in the interests of dominant groups and the ‘resistance’ of subordinate groups. Similarly, John Fiske, in Understanding Popular Culture (1989), positions the audience as active participants who decode and recontextualize cultural texts, transforming them into sites of resistance or meaning-making. Therefore, popular culture is produced and consumed simultaneously by the “the people” or masses. This fluidity of production and consumption challenges traditional power hierarchies, offering new opportunities for marginalized voices. Thus, popular culture is not merely entertainment but a complex socio-political phenomenon that reflects and shapes societal discourses. Its study requires a nuanced understanding of the operations of power, resistance, and identity. Moreover, from music, cinema, and literature to memes, video games, and social media, the forms and modes of popular culture continually reflect and shape the cultural zeitgeist. At the heart of these cultural products lies the politics of representation—the question of who produces, who is represented, whose ideology is consumed and what are the effects. 

Representation is not merely a passive mirror of reality; it actively participates in constructing meaning, perpetuating and breaking stereotypes, identities, power dynamics and enabling or obstructing social change. Popular culture functions as both a reflection and a driver of societal ideologies, making it a fertile site for the politics of representation. It is a battleground where dominant ideologies are reinforced, negotiated, or contested, shaping perceptions of gender, race, class, sexuality, and other axes of identity. The study of popular culture’s representational politics has been enriched by significant scholarly contributions. Stuart Hall’s seminal essay, “Encoding/Decoding,” (1980) foregrounds the active role of audiences in interpreting cultural texts, emphasizing the polysemic nature of representation. In feminist scholarship, Laura Mulvey’s essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1975) critiques the male gaze in cinema, offering a framework to analyse gendered power dynamics in visual culture. Similarly, Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble (1990) interrogates the performative aspects of gender, which are often constructed and represented in popular culture texts. Similarly, Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) underscores how representation operates as a form of power, constructing the “Other” to reinforce Western hegemony. In the digital age, the landscape of popular culture has expanded through participatory platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. More recently, works like Henry Jenkins’ Convergence Culture (2006) and Zeynep Tufekci’s Twitter and Tear Gas (2017) explore the transformative role of digital media in shaping cultural production and audience participation. Moreover, the developments in the field of digital representation incorporate posthumans and AI for the reproduction of popular culture.

We invite submissions that explore the representation of gender, race, class, sexuality, religion, disability, and other intersecting axes of identity in popular culture. Submissions may address, but will not be limited to the following sub-themes:

Sub-Themes:

1. Gender and Sexuality in Popular Culture

2. Race and Ethnicity in Popular Culture

3. Digital Cultures in Popular Culture

4. Class and Capitalism in Popular Culture

5. Fan Cultures and Participatory Media

6. Representation of Disability in Popular Culture

7. Globalization and Cultural Imperialism

8. Environmentalism and Popular Culture

9. Posthuman and AI in Popular Culture

10. Ageism in Popular Culture

Submission Guidelines:

• Abstracts: Interested participants are invited to submit an abstract of 250-300 words along with a brief bio (100 words) by 20 March 2025.

• Acceptance Intimation: Selected participants will be notified on 24 March 2025. 

• Conference Dates: 8 & 9 April 2025, at 11.00 A.M. 

• Format: All submissions should adhere to the MLA 9th Edition guidelines for citations and formatting.

• Submissions should be emailed to ku.eng.conference25@gmail.com

Contact Information: For queries, please contact:
Email: ku.eng.conference25@gmail.com

Contact Numbers: 9123394722/ 7797475580/ 9051529482/ 9051404382