Call for Papers, Abstracts, and Panel Proposals
RACE & ETHNICITY AREA
2017 Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Conference
St. Louis, MO
Proposal Submission Deadline: APRIL 30, 2017

Pre-Conference: Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Main Conference: Thursday – Sunday, October 18-22, 2017
Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch
Address: 315 Chestnut Street, St. Louis, MO 63102 Phone: 314-655-1234

The Race & Ethnicity Area of the MPCA/MACA requests 175-250 word proposals for papers to be presented at the 2017 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. Please upload proposals to the Race & Ethnicity area, http://submissions.mpcaaca.org/.

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, including film and television;
• 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 constructions of race and ethnicity in public discourse, particularly including aspects of the 2016 presidential election and/or the Black Lives Matter movement and/or immigration executive actions and responses.

Individuals may present only one paper at the conference; 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.

Please plan to attend the entire conference. Panels will run at the following approximate times: Thursday 8:00 am-6:00 pm, Friday 8:00 am-6:00 pm, Saturday 8:00 am-6:00 pm, and Sunday 8:00 am-2:00 pm. Special events will include game night on Thursday evening, featured speakers on Friday evening, and an evening keynote speaker on Saturday. These events, plus continental breakfast on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, will be free for conference registrants. A preliminary version of the schedule will be posted on our website around July 2017. The final version will be distributed in hard copy at the conference.

More information about the conference can be found at http://mpcaaca.org/stlouis-2017/2017-cfp/. 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 will provide an LCD projector for presentations. (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.

Questions? Contact Jessica Birch at jessica.elizabeth.birch@gmail.com.

(Pdf version: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2dmjZ92EiwDcXBjUzdRdVVWbXM)