Soap operas, wrestling, periodicals, reality television, comic books, literature, video game and film franchises, vlogging, sports, advertising campaigns, and now even politics and political journalism have harnessed the power and popularity of the serialized form to build and sustain audiences in our increasingly fractured media landscape.

The Soap Opera and Serialized Storytelling area welcomes submissions that address soap operas, other serialized narratives that share this unique and vital structure, and cross-genre comparative work. If it encourages you to follow the story or characters into the next episode, we want to hear about it!

All perspectives and methods of inquiry are welcome, including interdisciplinary examinations of seriality as a narrative form and considerations of its impact and usage across multiple forms of discourse. We are accepting abstracts until 2022 Jan 21 at 5:00 pm EST for our fully virtual conference next April (2022 Apr 13 - 2022 Apr 16).

Submitting Your Work

On the conference website, begin by creating an account and crafting your submission. For individual papers, you will submit a title and abstract of 200 words or less. For themed panels, each presenter must enter their own presentation. Please reach out to the area chair for more information on themed panels. A presenter may deliver only one formal paper at the conference but may also participate in other ways, such as chairing a panel. If you are interested in additional forms of participation, please email the area chair.

Possible Areas of Investigation Include, but are Not Limited to the Following:

English Language Soap Operas

From Days of Our Lives to Emmerdale, from Hollyoaks to Home and Away, we are interested in works on all aspects of both English language soap operas currently on the air and legacy soaps that are no longer being produced but made substantial contributions to television history.

Mediated Serials in a Global Context

We welcome studies of international forms of meditated serials, including telenovelas, Asian dramas, and more. We are also interested in papers exploring the global broadcasting and popularity of English Language soaps.

Professional Wrestling

Professional wrestling is the storytelling medium perhaps most often compared to the “traditional” soap opera. We are interested in papers on all aspects of professional wrestling including writing about fantasy wrestling and e-federations. We especially welcome works that focus on how professional wrestling utilizes seriality.

Magazines and Periodicals

As seriality is a key feature of the periodical, we welcome papers focused on periodical studies. While papers on all aspects of periodical studies will be considered, we are especially interested in work focused on seriality.

Queer Seriality

We welcome works focused on how serialized narratives can queer time and space. Papers can explore queer temporality, cross-textual seriality, and more.

Serialized Storytelling Across Mediums

Commercial serial narratives are abundant in contemporary media. From video game franchises to podcasts to social media-based storytelling, we find elements of serial narrative everywhere. We welcome work on seriality and serialized storytelling across platforms and mediums.

Serialized Narratives across Film, Television, Streaming, and Online Entertainment Series

How is serialization harnessed by contemporary storytellers across film (including film franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe), television (from limited episodic series like The Crown to Bridgerton and everything in-between), and streaming media?

Online Content Creators

Youtube, TikTok, and more! From beauty channels to the drama channels that cover them. From finding serialized elements in music commentary channels to watching a creator’s curated video series of Amazon recommendations. How do influencers and content creators utilize elements of seriality to craft videos and develop audiences?

Fandom and the Serialized Form

We welcome papers on fandom, including fan texts, fan curation practices, online fandom, and commentary around serialized narratives.

Game Shows and Reality Television

We are interested in papers focused on seriality as seen on game/quiz shows and the serial narratives seen on reality television. This interest extends to a focus on competitive reality shows (Big Brother, Survivor, The Amazing Race, The Bachelor, The Circle, The Challenge, and more) that bring serialized narratives to the world of the game show and reality docudramas (The Real Housewives franchise,The Hills: New Beginnings, etc.) that share many traits and tropes with soap operas.

COVID-19 and Serialized Media

In acknowledgment of the current pandemic, the SO&SS Area is interested in fielding a panel or panel(s) on the effect of the pandemic on the consumption of serialized texts, as well as the use of seriality and the genre characteristics of soap opera in politics and political journalism.

Contact Info:

Any questions? Please reach out to R. Bruno, the area chair for Soap Opera & Serialized Storytelling, at soss.pca.aca@gmail.com