CFP Race & Ethnicity Area 2016 MPCA/ACA

Call for Papers, Abstracts, and Panel Proposals

RACE & ETHNICITY AREA

2016 Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Conference

Chicago, IL

Proposal Submission Deadline: APRIL 30, 2016

Thursday-Sunday, October 6-9, 2016

Hilton Rosemont Chicago O’Hare

Address: 5550 N. River Rd., Rosemont, IL 60018, Phone: (847) 678-4488

The Race & Ethnicity Area of the MPCA/MACA requests 150-250 word proposals for papers to be presented at the 2016 Midwest Popular Culture Association Annual Conference. Proposals for co-authored papers, complete panels (3-4 presenters), or nontraditional formats such as workshops, roundtables, open forums, and/or visual/artistic/creative approaches are also welcomed.

To create a broadly-ranging discussion of race and ethnicity in popular culture, we would like to bring into conversation with each other topics that have tended to be subsumed under other genres or categories (e.g., SF/F, Film, Pedagogy), as well as those that focus on more traditionally-studied aspects of race and ethnicity. Submissions from any/all disciplines are welcome.

Suggested topics and approaches include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Critical race theory, critical and/or comparative ethnic studies, and/or critical whiteness studies;
• Analyses that address intersectional/co-constructed/multidimensional identities;
• Racialization, constructions of ethnicity, and racial/ethnic “performance” in popular culture;
• Discussions about the intersections of race, ethnicity, popular culture, and academia, including pedagogy;
• Considerations of the meanings of race and ethnicity in a “postracial” culture;
• How race and ethnicity play into constructions of nationalism in popular culture;
• “Whitewashing” and/or other approaches to racialization in book-to-screen adaptations; and/or
• Mass culture or social media reactions to constructions of race and ethnicity in public discourse, particularly including the Trump phenomenon and/or other aspects of the 2016 presidential election and/or the Black Lives Matter movement.

Please upload proposals to the Race & Ethnicity area, http://submissions.mpcaaca.org/. Individuals may only submit one paper; please do not submit the same item to more than one Area. Please include name, affiliation, and e-mail address of each author/participant with the abstract. A preliminary version of the schedule will be posted on our website around August 2016. The final version will be distributed in hard copy at the conference.

Panels will run at the following approximate times: Thursday 8:00 am-5:00 pm, Friday 8:00 am-6:15 pm, Saturday 8:00 am-6:15 pm, and Sunday 8:00 am-4:30 pm. Special events will include game night on Thursday evening, featured speakers on Friday evening, and a luncheon speaker on Saturday. These events, plus continental breakfast on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, will be free for conference registrants.

More information about the conference can be found at http://www.mpcaaca.org/. Attendees are financially responsible for all costs related to their participation in the conference, e.g., transportation, lodging, meals, registration, membership, etc. Graduate students are invited to apply for competitively awarded travel grants from MPCA/MACA. Details are available at http://mpcaaca.org/conference/travel-grants/.

Special Notes Regarding Proposal Submissions: (1) MPCA/ACA can provide an LCD projector for presentations. You must ask for it at the time you submit your proposal. (2) If necessary, indicate and submit potential scheduling conflicts along with your proposal. (3) If you wish your presentation to be listed as MACA (rather than MPCA), please include this request with your proposal.

If you have any questions, please email Jessica Birch at jessica.elizabeth.birch@gmail.com.