The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association’s Race and Ethnicity area welcomes paper submissions from graduate students, faculty, collectors, writers, and independent researchers of popular culture. NEPCA’s 2023 fall hybrid conference will be held October 12 – October 14, 2023 at Nichols College and via Zoom. The deadline for proposals is August 1, 2023.

We encourage panel proposals, as well as, individual submissions.

Papers are generally 15-20 minutes in length. We also encourage works in progress, and informal presentations. The key expectations on presentations are that:

• The proposal should be rooted in research.
• We do not automatically exclude original poetry, composed works of fiction, or musical/dance/storytelling performance, but such works must be connected to greater theoretical and research frameworks.
• NEPCA generally avoids proposals whose intent is overtly commercial.
• Proposals should appeal to a broad audience.

This area considers the intersection of race, ethnicity and popular culture. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• Constructions and depictions of race in particular genres (film, comics, music etc.) or mass culture and social media (spirit animals, sugar skulls, “Taco Tuesdays” etc.).
• Cultural appropriation.
• The intersections of race, ethnicity, popular culture and academia, including pedagogy.
• The intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in popular culture.
• “Whitewashing” and other approaches to racialization in book-to-screen adaptations.
• Race and ethnicity in public discourse (i.e., attack on DEI in higher education).
• Intersections with and meanings of race and ethnicity in constructions of nation/nationalism, “post-racial” culture, neoliberalism, globalization and capitalism.

If you have questions about this area, please reach out to the Race & Ethnicity Chair: Enrique Morales-Diaz, Westfield State University, enrique.morales-diaz@oneonta.edu

Visit the Conference Page for more information.

The deadline for the submission of abstracts in August 1, 2023. Please use this form.

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