"Only in Canada: Celebrity in the Great White North"

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Popular Culture Association of Canada
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This is a call for paper proposals for the panel, "Only in Canada: Celebrity in the Great White North," to be submitted for consideration to the Popular Culture Association of Canada (PCAC) 6th Annual Conference, held in association with the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada in Montreal on May 12-14, 2016. For more information about the conference, go to: www.canpop.ca. The co-organizers of this panel are Dr. Lorraine York, Dept. of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University and Charlotte Fillmore-Handlon, PhD Candidate, Concordia University.

This panel welcomes interdisciplinary scholarly contributions that explore any of the myriad forms and facets of celebrity in the context of Canadian culture. The preoccupation with celebrity in Canada has become increasingly evident in popular discourse. Despite this enthusiasm, the academic study of celebrity culture in Canada has been slow to develop and remains largely untapped. In part, this may be due to the persistent belief that Canada does not have its own star system or apparatus for the creation and circulation of celebrities. With the publication of Celebrity Cultures in Canada, edited by Katja Lee and Lorraine York, the study of celebrity in Canada is now increasing momentum and moving forward as its own distinctive field. To coincide with the publication of this book and to further consolidate recent developments in Canadian celebrity research, this panel will bring together papers that investigate the diverse forms of celebrity in Canada. By emphasizing cross-disciplinary approaches, it also hopes to expand the theoretical and methodological boundaries of studying celebrity. We welcome papers on celebrity in Canada, historical and contemporary, from a broad range of fields. The papers may take into account the following aspects of celebrity in Canada, although they are not limited to these topics:
• Celebrity in different fields, including: literature, politics and political activism, entertainment media, and sports
• Theoretical approaches to Canadian celebrity (e.g., historical, critical race, gender, and disability perspectives)
• Celebrity and methodological considerations
• Celebrity and the nation (e.g., discourses; cultural policy; Quebec's star system; Indigenous celebrity; transnational celebrity; celebrity as cultural heritage; myths of Canadian celebrity; national broadcasting)
• Currencies of celebrity (awards and award shows, cultural institutions, etc.)

Please submit your paper proposal no later than January 5, 2016. It should consist of the following items: a title, an abstract not exceeding 200 words, a list of keywords or key phrases (maximum 5), and a brief biographical note of 100 words or less. Paper proposals and any inquiries may be sent to both Charlotte Fillmore-Handlon (charlottehandlon@gmail.com) and Lorraine York (yorkl@mcmaster.ca).