popular culture

As technological, ecological, and sociopolitical transformations challenge traditional notions of human identity, the posthuman paradigm offers a framework for exploring how literature and culture imagine, negotiate, and problematise the boundaries between humans, nonhumans, and their surroundings. This conference seeks to critically examine established notions of a posthuman future/present and its representations in contemporary narratives across literature, cinema, advertising, video games, and other media forms. The seminar examines the concepts of authority, marginality, and ambiguity within dystopian and utopian literary visions of posthumanism.

THE BILLY JOEL SYMPOSIUM

A Two-Day Academic Conference Presented by the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame

Stony Brook, NY | June 6–7, 2026

OVERVIEW

Edited Volume with e-ISBN (Digital)

Spectral Boundaries: Gender and Sexuality in Asian Horror Cinema

Dr. Soumyarup Bhattacharjee

CALL FOR CHAPTERS

Call for Proposals: Edited volume on screenwriter, actor, director, and comedienne Elaine May

***EXTENSION*** Abstracts now due by January 25, 2026.

SCREEN STORYTELLERS

The Works of Elaine May

Edited by Jonathan Winchell

This edited volume on the works of Elaine May will be a book in the SCREEN STORYTELLERS series published by Bloomsbury Academic. Seeking 250-word abstracts for previously unpublished chapters on Elaine May’s work as a screenwriter and comedy writer. Final chapters will be 3,000-3,500 words, written for an audience of student readers.

The SCREEN STORYTELLERS series is designed for students, professors, and enthusiastic

The Comics Arts Conference is now accepting 100 to 200 word abstracts for papers, presentations, and panels taking a critical or historical perspective on comics (juxtaposed images in sequence) for a meeting of scholars and professionals at Comic-Con International, in San Diego, CA, July 23–26, 2026.  We seek proposals from a broad range of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives and welcome the participation of academic and independent scholars.  We also encourage the involvement of professionals from all areas of the comics industry, including creators, editors, publishers, retailers, distributors, and journalists.  The CAC is presently scheduled to take place in person and does not accept virtual presentations.  The CAC is designed to bring together

Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios, 2023) represents a milestone in the evolution of narrative gaming. As both an heir to Dungeons & Dragons and a contemporary work of interactive storytelling, the game synthesizes centuries of myth, moral inquiry, and imaginative world-building into a playable form. This edited collection seeks essays that investigate how Baldur’s Gate 3 draws upon, reinterprets, and transforms literary and philosophical traditions—from the medieval and Renaissance periods through modern fantasy and posthuman theory—to create new modes of narrative, ethics, and embodiment.

Final Call for Book Chapter Proposals/ Abstracts

Matrifocal Narratives in Indian Fiction

Co-Editors: Sushree Routray, Rashmi Gaur, and Rahul K. Gairola

Submission Deadline: December 31, 2025

CFP for chapter contributions to book edited by the “VR as Empathy Machine: Media, Migration and theHumanitarian Predicament” Research Group at Utrecht University 

Book Title: Beyond the Empathy Machine: Critical Perspectives on Virtual Reality

2026 WAR AND MEDIA STUDIES GRADUATE STUDENT WRITING AWARD 

The War and Media Studies SIG is holding its annual graduate student writing award competition to showcase innovative work in the field by our graduate student members. We will again be partnering with the Sage journal Media, War & Conflictand the winning author will have the opportunity to be published in the journal.  

Digital Subjectivities

Digital technologies have become integral to our everyday lives – from work, play, and relationships to political engagement and scholarship – shaping our subjective experiences and the ways we relate to others and ourselves. Their proliferation not only offers new tools for communication and knowledge production but also fundamentally reconfigures how the self is conceptualised and lived. This conference will explore the impact of digital technologies on subjective experience, knowledge production within and beyond academia, culture and politics, and questions of individual and collective agency.

It’s in their Blood:

Television Series and the Representation of Violence in the 21st Century

International conference hosted by

Metropolitan University Prague and

ULICES – University of Lisbon Center for English Studies,

School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon.

6-7 March, 2026

Online

Call for Publications

Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal (Taylor & Francis)

**Special Issue on

Haunting Revisions: The Female Gothic Across Time and Media**

Guest Editors:
Dr. Cindy Murillo, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Dr. Jennifer Nader, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Overview

Call for Abstracts for Special Issue of Rhetoric Society Quarterly Maternal Rhetorics: Deconstructing Expectations of Mother/Woman/ParenthoodCo-editors: Anna D'Orazio (University of Cincinnati), Wendy Sharer (East Carolina University), and Jurrita Williams (University of Alabama) In a 2021 interview with Tucker Carlson, then-Senate candidate and now-Vice President JD Vance criticized the Democratic Party “for becoming anti-family and anti-child.” He stated, “It's just a basic fact—you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]—the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children….How does it make sense that we’ve