Popular Culture, Academic Conferencing and Calgary

As you may already know, I'm involved in the Popular Culture Association of Canada, which is a scholarly organization devoted to promoting the study of popular culture in Canada. We define our terms broadly, and though we're based in Canada, we don't restrict our interests to Canadian culture or our membership to Canadian scholars, students, artists and other professionals.

In addition to curating any and all media arts submissions, this year I'm program committee co-chair. That means I've gotten a sneak peak at the proposals coming in, and I'm already getting excited! But I'd love to get more people involved. Conveniently, we have agreed to extend the submission deadline to January 10, giving folks a few extra weeks to think about what they might propose.

If you're interested in any aspect of popular culture and want to present your analysis or exhibit your art work(s), propose something! We're meeting in Calgary in May (just down the road from beautiful Banff, no less), and would love to have you there.

You can find more information at our website. All proposals should be sent to conference [at] canpop.ca.

Popular Culture Association of Canada Conference 2013 (third time's the charm!) - deadline extension to Jan 11, 2013

The call for papers and visual/multimedia presentations for the third annual Popular Culture Association of Canada conference has been out for a while now. But there's still time to send in a proposal before the EXTENDED JANUARY 11 DEADLINE.

Once again, the conference is taking place in Niagara Falls, Canada, in view of the Falls themselves and right around the corner from the amusements of Clifton Hill.

I highly recommend the conference for its high grade of intellectual stimulation and fun - sometimes all at once!

Here's part of the relevant PCAC blurb and pitch:

We invite proposals for papers and/or panels on theories of popular culture, research methods in popular culture, the teaching of popular culture, forms and genres of popular culture, and any epiphenomena of popular culture, past or present. We also welcome presentation and exhibition proposals from visual and multi-media artists whose work engages with popular culture.

Our broad definition of popular culture encompasses communicative texts, practices and experiences, mediated and unmediated, contemporary and historical, Canadian and non-Canadian (including the local and the global).

We share an interdisciplinary vision of this Association. We are interested in featuring papers from scholars and/or producers and practitioners of popular cultural phenomena from a wide variety of disciplines and cross-disciplinary perspectives in the humanities, social sciences and sciences.

If you're interested in submitting a proposal and/or attending, submission and conference details are all posted to the PCAC website.

See you there, I hope!

Science fiction and fantasy (and horror) conferences galore

It's pretty frequent that I wish I had a couple extra versions of myself. It would be great for productivity.  And that way I might not have to miss so many excellent cons (conferences and conventions both). The coming eight months or so are full of science-fictional and fantastical conferencing and convening opportunities, and somehow I have to choose only a few to actually attend...

2012

FAN EXPO: Aug 23-26
I'm pleased to say I'll be heading out to this Toronto extravaganza for the first time in a few years, though I'll only get to experience a sliver of what's going on. As usual, it's the science fiction expo and the Festival of Fear that are the main draws for me.

SLSA (Society for Literature, Science and the Arts): Sep 27-30
Where literature and the arts meet science you inevitably find science fiction and SLSA always seems to have stimulating sf panels. This year the overarching theme is the nonhuman. I was slotted to attend, and wish I could, but a trip to Milwaukee at the end of September just isn't in my power.

NEPCA: Oct 26-27
This regional branch of the Popular Culture Association features a few science fiction & fantasy panels on its programming schedule, one of which will include a paper by me. This year the conference takes place at Saint John Fisher College in Rochester.

WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION: Nov 1-4
I've never been, but this year the con comes to Toronto, so I'm sorely tempted (though membership comes at a steep price). Announced guests include John Clute and Gary K. Wolfe, whose scholarship I admire, and authors like Charles de Lint, Tanya Huff, Patricia Briggs, and Mercedes Lackey.

2013

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE for the FANTASTIC in the ARTS – Fantastic Adaptations, Transformations, and Audiences: Mar 20-24

I've been to ICFA twice and had a great experience both times. This year promises to be even livelier than usual with Neil Gaiman featuring among the top-listed guests, along with author Kij Johnson and scholar Constance Penley. Does this fall after March break in 2013? In the past I've found myself making the return trip to Orlando in the midst of vacationing families. The hotel is in the middle of nowhere, but there's a good Asian restaurant and the pool is nice. If you want to participate you have until the end of October to put together a persuasive proposal.

Conference of the Popular and American Culture Association (PCA/ACA): Mar 27-30 

The Science Fiction & Fantasy and Horror areas of this huge conference are active and engaging, and well worth checking out (although not the only panels of interest, of course). This year folks are gathering in Washington, DC, for the main event. The SF/F section has set a Nov 30 deadline for proposals.

SFRA/EATON Science Fiction Conference: Apr 11-14

I haven't been to the conferences of either organization, although they sound like fascinating collections of people and ideas. This coming year people can check them both off in one shot. Proposals for this California conference are due on September 14, so time is running out.

Popular Culture Association of Canada (PCAC): May 9-11

Our call for presenters isn't out yet, and we don't have an official science fiction, fantasy or horror section, but these genres tend to feature fairly prominently in the programming schedule. Stay tuned for more info about next year's conference, the last slotted for Niagara Falls (at least in the immediate future).

WisCon 37: May 24-27
Billed as the "world's leading feminist science fiction convention," WisCon is featuring Joan Slonczewski and Jo Walton as Guests of Honor this year. This is another enticing event I have yet to check out.

And this isn't even all of them! 

(sigh)

drawing a breath as the summer smog settles in (aka, time for an update)

While my mind suffuses with thesis-related esoterica I've clearly been neglecting my other expressive outlets. But not quite all my time hasn't been spent brain-deep in crafting the unwieldy thesis monster. Here's some of the fun I've been getting up to (and plan to soon).

PCAC 2012 - the second Popular Culture Association of Canada conference - was delightful and intellectually stimulating as predicted. I was, unsurprisingly, particularly absorbed in the papers dealing with science fiction and fantasy texts in various media, and with Liisa Ladouceur's "What is Goth?" talk. Plus there was glow-in-the-dark mini golf. I'm looking forward to next year's conference already.

With 2012's Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences taking place just down the road in Waterloo, May ended up being conference month for me. I only saw a small fraction of what the multi-organization conference had to offer but I caught some excellent presentations and enjoyed geeking out on intersections between communications, science and technology studies, and posthumanism. My own contribution (a paper on True Blood, to follow-up my PCAC paper on Fringe) was part of the Canadian Communication Association meeting.

Now if only I could make it to the Science Fiction Research Association conference in Detroit at the end of June...

At the metal end of things, Heavy Metal Adam and I have been have been co-hosting Hellbound Summer Metal Meltdown on CFMU 93.3 FM - Saturday nights, from 10:30 pm to midnight. Fellow Hellbounder Albert Mansour frequently joins us on-air, and in May we had the help of Jonathan Millard-Smith as well. Tune in next weekend if you're looking for a Saturday night soundtrack.

On deck: Henry Rollins spoken word tour, Invasion Infernale Fest in Hamilton, and wishing I could somehow swing a Witch Mountain / Blood Ceremony show too.

studying popular culture: May 10-12 in Niagara Falls

If you want to find me over the next couple of days, you're going to have to come to the Sheraton on the Falls. I'll be there from Thursday to Saturday, attending the second (going on annual) conference of the Popular Culture Association of Canada.

Last year's conference was impressive enough for the association's first gathering, but this year may turn out to be even better. Panels begin Thursday afternoon with discussions of speculative fiction, tourism, and masculinity, and continue through Friday and Saturday, covering topics like popular music, celebrity, dance, bodies, fandom, and many and much more. And our keynote talk takes us into the world of goth, thanks to Liisa Ladouceur, author of Encyclopedia Gothica.

In addition to presenting my own paper, I'm excited to be coordinating the exhibition of some pop culture-related art for the conference. Concept artist Rachel Kahn and photographer Adam Wills have generously made some of their amazing digital paintings and concert photos available for display, and I'm thrilled to have had a hand in making this happen. 

So I'm off to the Falls again (with or without a barrel)!

(Check out the National Post's art section tomorrow for a profile of the Association and the conference.)

Update: Toronto Star coverage of the conference: http://www.toronto.com/article/727525.

pop culture meets academia in Canada (call for papers)

In some circles I'm known as an academic conference junkie. I've been trying to get a handle on my habit, but the constant temptation as I see one tantalizing call for papers after another come through my email in box... Well, I am learning to exhibit (what I would call admirable) restraint.

The first half of my 2012 is more for writing and teaching than presenting and networking, but I expect to make an exception for this event:

CFP: Popular Culture Association of Canada (PCAC) 2^nd Annual Conference, May 10-12, 2012

Last year's conference was a blast (intellectual stimulation included), so a follow-up visit seems entirely in order.