CFP: A Celebration of Superheroes - DePaul Pop Culture Conference

First deadline: March 1st, 2021 (see below for details).

The Pop Culture Conference has gone virtual!

After postponing for a year, we are now re-accepting submissions for the eighth Pop Culture Conference, hosted by DePaul University! This year's "Celebration of Superheroes" will take place synchronously for Keynotes, Workshops, and Roundtables on May 01, 2021 and asynchronously for panels throughout the following week. More details can be found atpopcultureconference.com.

This event will feature roundtable discussions from scholars and fans of Superheroes and comics. Our keynote speaker is Sarah Kuhn, author of the popular Heroine Complex novels—a series starring Asian American superheroines, as well as I Love You So Mochi and a graphic novel about Batgirl Cassandra Cain for DC Comics. Our academic speaker is Dr. Frederick Aldama, Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor at The Ohio State University and expert in Latino literature, film, television, comics, and superheroes.

Participants may propose papers about a broad array of ideas related to Superheroes and their cultural impact. All papers should be pre-recorded in whatever format the researcher wishes – videos, narrated powerpoints, podcasts, PDF posters, etc. The audience for this event is both graduate and undergraduate students, both fans and scholars. You may propose multiple papers and panels.

Some possible topics include: The ubiquity of Superheroes; Power and Responsibility with Superheroes; the morality of Superheroes; race/ethnicity and Superheroes; Gender and Superheroes; Religion and Superheroes, teaching with Superheroes, the financial success of the MCU or DC Universes, etc.

Please submit an abstract of your talk by Monday, March 01 to popcultureconference@gmail.com. Final videos will be due Friday, April 16. If you are interested in contributing to our published charity volume, papers of 2-5,000 words are due by Friday, April 02.

For more information, please check out popcultureconference.com, and sign up for updates on Facebook (search "A Celebration of Heroes"). We hope that you will be able to join in the discussion and celebration!