With Fox’s hit Empire and the upcoming release of the new Star Wars movie, ideas of empires and imperialism are once again circulating in popular culture. With questions of empire at the center, the College of St. Joseph is seeking presentations for its 5th annual popular culture conference, held April 8-9in Rutland, VT. Presentations can explore any popular manifestations of empires, and diverse methodologies and systems of inquiry are welcomed. Some ideas for presentations [this list should not be seen as limiting]:

• Welcome to Trantor: Asimov’s benevolent empire
• Pulp imperialism
• The distorted empires of Middle Earth
• These are the droids you are looking for: the empire of consumerism
• Greyhawk, Faerun, and Athas: Competing empires in Dungeons and Dragons
• My Little Empire: The imperial politics of My Little Pony
• Nancy Drew: Girl imperialist

Undergraduate, graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars are welcomed, as are innovative or collaborative presentations.

200-300 word abstracts should be send to jonas.prida@csj.edu by Dec 15th.