popular culture

The Ninth Annual Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference at StokerCon 2026Conference Date: Friday, June 5, 2026Conference Location: The Westin Pittsburgh1000 Penn AvenuePittsburgh, PA 1522and via HopinConference Website: https://www.stokercon.com/Stokercon 2026 will be the tenth anniversary of Stokercon, and the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference is delighted to be a part of this banner year.

On December 9, 2014, the release of Ezell Ford’s autopsy report inspired an 18-day protest held in
record-breaking cold in front of LAPD headquarters. The evidence confirming that Ford had been shot by
police at close range inspired a group of dance activists, led by Black Lives Matter founding member Dr.
Shamell Bell, not only to occupy space but also to move within it. The protest represented what she coined
“street dance activism” based on “radical joy” and “collecting freedom dreaming.”

“I Put a Spell on You” @ 70: 3rd Annual Goth Music and Subculture Symposium

Theme: “Hyphenated Hauntings: Examining Proto-goth and Goth-adjacent Bands” 

Submission Deadline: 

June 12, 2026 

Symposium Date: 

August 15, 2026

Format: 

Online (via Zoom, Pacific)

Abstract: 

• 200 words

• Biographical Statement, inclusive of position, institutional affiliation, previous publications, accolades, research interests, etc.  

• Time Zone

Submit to: 

Call for Papers: Journal of Fandom Studies

Special Issue: ‘Heated Rivalry: Queering Sports in Popular Culture’ 

Guest Editors:

Yvonne Gonzales, University of Southern California

Kirsten Crowe, University of Southern California

View the full call here>>

https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-fandom-studies#call-for-papers

Call for Papers: MLA 2027 - Los Angeles

The William Morris Society in the United States is soliciting proposals for two panels at next year's MLA (January 7-10, 2027 in Los Angeles). You are warmly invited to submit proposals for either session. Please submit your proposals to the email addresses listed with each CFP. Submissions must be received by March 15.

William Morris, Collections Technology & the Virtual Archive

We invite original scholarly contributions for an edited comprehensive volume dedicated to
the histories, aesthetics, industries, and cultural politics of cinema in Bhutan. As Bhutanese
filmmaking gains increasing regional and global visibility—through both popular and festival
circuits—this volume seeks to offer the first sustained, interdisciplinary mapping of its
cinematic landscape.

Since the release of the Canadian-produced streaming TV show Heated Rivalry, the show and its actors have exploded across traditional and social media, prompting wide discussions about sexuality in sports and the female consumption of MM (male/male) romance. Based on the Game Changers novel series by Rachel Reid, Heated Rivalry follows the illicit romance between two male hockey players. In the months since, both NHL ticket and queer romance novel sales have skyrocketed; parodies of Heated Rivalry have popped up on SNL and off-Broadway stages.

Femspec seeks a guest peer reviewer to review an article submission about the television series The Orville.

Qualifications:

1. The applicant has watched the series.

2. The applicant possesses an MA or PhD in English, Women's and Gender Studies, or a related field, or is an advanced graduate student pursuing a degree in one of these fields.

Femspec is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed feminist academic journal dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, surrealism, myth, folklore, and other supernatural genres.  Femspec publishes both academic scholarship and creative writing.

Call for Proposals

Fan Studies Network North America Conference 2026 (virtual)

October 22-25, 2026

THE BOUNDARIES OF FAN STUDIES AND FANDOM

AICED-27

THE 27th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT,

UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST

5-6 June 2026

CALL FOR PAPERS

Representations of

Crime in Literature and the Arts

University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures

7-13 Pitar Moș Street, Bucharest, Romania

This online panel seeks proposals that examine how humor, irony, and formal games use linguistic misbehavior to create new emotional landscapes, construct gendered subjectivities, and challenge traditional hierarchies across global literatures.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Puns, irony, or broken syntax and a gendered “I”
• Mis-translation and playfulness in translation
• Mixing languages and subjectivity
• Post-colonial parody
• Joy as defiance
• Humor in crisis
• Games based on works of literature

Please send a 250-word abstract and a brief bio to Dr. Haihong Yang (hyang@udel.edu) by March 15th. 

Call for Papers

Philip K. Dick at 100: Fiction, Philosophy, and Cultural Afterlives

Edited Volume (Centenary Collection)

Editors:
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ercan Gürova
Ankara University, Turkey

Prof. dr Mladen Jakovljević
University of Priština in Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia

“Under consideration for publication by a reputable international academic publisher.”

This panel will foreground how Muslim minorities acculturate cooperative networks of solidarity, acceptance, creativity and affect beyond rigid notions of nation, region and sovereignties. In this context we will look at ruptures which persist due to the rigid and restrictive processes of neocolonial and neoliberal regimes and how it continues to shape the lived and material realities of South Asian Muslims across national and diasporic contexts. In particular we will discuss the historical contexts and enduring consequences of the rigid and restrictive processes of colonisation, partition, migration, trade, caste, legalities, and majoritarianism as it intersects with the inter-nation and cross-border movements of Muslims within and beyond South Asia.

Join us for our two-day conference on Trade in Legend and Tradition, to be held on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th September as the twentieth Legendary Weekend of the Folklore Society, at Tuckers Hall, home of the Guild of Tuckers, Weavers and Shearmen in Fore Street, Exeter EX4 3AN. Whether you’re into fairs or fairy gold, merchant gilds or markets, make us an offer. Contributions are welcome on the lore of trade, commerce or business: from smugglers to street cries and the South Sea Bubble, from murdered pedlars to plague stones, it’s all grist to the mill. Anyone can join us – folklorists, entrepreneurs, economic historians, storytellers, captains of industry and jacks of all trades.