popular culture

The International Crime Fiction Association is delighted to announce the thirteenth Captivating Criminality conference, held from Thursday, 25 June to Saturday, 27 June 2026 at Bamberg, Germany, with a workshop for ECR/PGR on Wednesday, 24 June 2025. This year’s topic, crime fiction, conflict, and representation, attempts to appeal to researchers of crime fiction in all its variety and presented on various media, ranging from the “classical” detective novel via filmic representations of crime to podcasts and social media. As a genre of fundamentally human expression, much of crime fiction from all places and times is concerned with discussions of both conflict and representation.

We invite scholars in religious studies and related fields to submit proposals for chapters
that will contribute to an edited volume on Metamodern Spiritualities. 
This volume will be the first of its kind to explore metamodernism as manifested in 21st century
religious/spiritual institutions, beliefs and practices. We seek contributions from
different disciplinary perspectives that critically adopt or adapt Vermeulen and Van den
Akker’s theory of metamodernism to contemporary religious/spiritual phenomena. We
welcome submissions that include, but are not limited to, theories and case studies of:

Call for Papers:

Black Performing Arts: Sound, Movement, Image, Text

Submission Deadline: November 1, 2025

Despite the outsized influence of technology on everyday cultural practices and classrooms, its role has never been more contested. Indeed, even in the case that such practices are not digitized, our societal roles are increasingly governed by systemic expectations, rules, and algorithms. These expectations create hierarchies, enforce boundaries, and classify individuals and their work.

48th Annual Comparative Drama Conference 

Conference Dates: July 9-11, 2026

Location: Madison, Wisconsin (hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Deadline for Abstract Submission: December 10, 2025

Disability Studies, Dramatic Texts, and Performance 

CFP: The Imposter
The Velvet Light Trap, Issue 99 (to be published Spring 2027)
Imposter is a loaded term that has invaded and fascinated media including accusations of
illegitimacy, fraud, and fakery. The imposter unsettles understandings of our media’s
truth, authority, and belonging. More than ever, the imposter feels unavoidable in our
lives: generative AI challenges the very idea of creativity, algorithms create debates
around curation and manipulation, and the evolving labor landscapes make us question
who is recognized as a legitimate media worker. Beyond technology, this figure is
political, social, and juridical. The imposter makes us think about precarity; precarity for

The ground falling from beneath your feet, the cliff’s edge barely holding you aloft, the free fall in open air. Cinematic representations of falling and nearly plummeting from great heights have long been around as an arbiter of suspense and a literal visualization of the classic “cliffhanger,” with origins to such a visual tracing back to the silent film era and actor Harold Lloyd dangling from the hands of a clock in Safety Last! (1923) Falling and dizzying heights have been featured over the years in a variety of forms and often successfully serve as a device to drive the plot forward or signify its climax. We see examples of villains and heroes alike battling on skyscrapers in DC and Marvel universe adaptations.

Call for Papers

Food and Culture

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

47th Annual Conference, February 25-28, 2026

Marriott Albuquerque

Albuquerque, New Mexico

http://www.southwestpca.org

Proposal submission deadline: October 31, 2025

2nd Call for Chapter Proposals
for Essay Collection

How Scripted TV Series Portray Social Media’s Power to Shape Culture

GC Secular journal invites submissions of original fiction and non-fiction for its first edition devoted to World Cinema. The aim of this issue is to open a space for writing that responds to cinema across languages, regions, and cultures, and to highlight how film travels, transforms, and shapes public imagination. We welcome analytical, creative, and research-oriented work that engages with cinema as an artform, a cultural memory, and a global conversation.

About the Theme

DEADLINE EXTENDED!

Call for Papers

ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

47th Annual Conference, February 25-28, 2026

Marriott Albuquerque

Albuquerque, New Mexico

https://www.southwestpca.org

NEW Submission Deadline: November 14, 2025

The Journalism & Media Culture area of the Popular Culture Association requests proposals on diverse topics, including journalism and media-related issues and subjects that can be local, regional, national, and/or international and can deal with historical or contemporary times. If your paper is accepted, you will be presenting at the 2026 Popular Culture Association national conference, held at the Marriott Marquis in Atlanta, April 8-1.

Sessions are scheduled in 1½ hour slots, typically with four papers or speakers that do not exceed 15 minutes each. We can also accept proposals for special panels and for sessions organized around a journalism/media-related theme. 

Call for Papers—DEADLINE EXTENDED!

Myth and Fairy Tales Area

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

47th Annual Conference, February 25-28, 2026

Marriott Albuquerque

Albuquerque, New Mexico

https://www.swpaca.org

EXTENDED proposal submission deadline: November 14, 2025

In 2025, broad legislative and cultural backlash is focused on eliminating even the idea of trans people from public space. When public space is inaccessible, online communities have, for more than the past twenty years, been a place where trans people can still find one another, self-represent, and build their own publics. Now the walled world of the app economy, organized personal attacks, discriminatory social media algorithms, ID verification laws, and government intervention are changing the internet too. At such a moment, understanding the ways that trans people navigate their digital worlds is more important than ever.