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Announcing the Michael K. Schoenecke Leadership Institute

2014-leadership-instituteThe Southwest Popular/American Culture Association (SWPACA) is pleased to announce the creation of The Michael K. Schoenecke SWPACA Leadership Institute, which will debut at the SWPACA conference, February 11-14, 2015 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Institute is named in honor of Southwest PCA co-founder Michael Schoenecke, who, with Peter C. Rollins, established the Southwest/Texas PCA/ACA (now SWPACA) in 1979. Since that time, generations of scholars have shared and celebrated popular culture studies at the organization’s annual meeting for over 35 years.

The Michael K. Schoenecke Leadership Institute will serve as an opportunity for individuals interested in learning about the history of the popular/American culture movement as well as the history of the SWPACA organization, its leadership, and the role the organization plays in promoting the study of popular and American culture. The Institute will further provide venues for individuals interested in serving the organization in a leadership capacity.

We extend a cordial invitation for you to join us in Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 11 – 14, 2015 as we celebrate Michael K. Schoenecke’s contributions to the field of popular and American culture and as we welcome a new generation of scholars to the Southwest PCA. Further information regarding the Institute curriculum, schedule, and application process will be forthcoming at our website and through our social media outlets.

Regards,

Lynnea Chapman King, PhD
Executive Director
Southwest Popular/American Culture Association
E: lchapmanking@southwestpca.org

Tamy Burnett , PhD
Treasurer
Southwest Popular/American Culture Association
E: tburnett@southwestpca.org

Additional Information:

http://southwestpca.org/leadership-institute/

2014 Peter C. Rollins Book Award Winners

The SWPACA Executive Team and the Peter C. Rollins Book Award judging panel are pleased to announce that the Rollins Book Award has been expanded to recognize outstanding scholarship in multiple areas of popular and American culture.

Traditionally, the Rollins Book Award has recognized manuscript-length work in the area of Film/Television Studies. The Rollins Award will continue to do so, with the annual recipient in that category being invited to present the Keynote address at the SWPACA Awards Reception the following year. In addition, the Rollins Book Award committee will recognize one to three volumes/year in the category of general popular culture and a “rolling” category identified each year based on trends in popular and/or American cultural studies.

For 2014, the Peter C. Rollins book award winners are:

  • Film/Television and History: Kimberley Monteyne, Hip Hop on Film: Performance Culture, Urban Space, and Genre Transformation in the 1980s (University Press of Mississippi)
  • Popular Culture: Justin S. Vaughn and Lilly J. Goren, Women and the White House: Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics (University Press of Kentucky)
  • Sequential Art/Comics and Animation Studies: Philip Nel, Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children’s Literature (University Press of Mississippi)

Each year the Rollins Award Committee welcomes submissions of book-length work (single/multiple author or edited collection) published within the previous two calendar years. Books published in 2012 or 2013 may be submitted for consideration.

For full submission guidelines, please see visit the Rollins Keynote Speaker Page.

Thank you for attending the 2014 meeting!

thank-you-for-attending-2013The Southwest PCA Executive Team would like to thank all participants and guests who attended the 35th annual meeting of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association, held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 19-22, 2014. We enjoyed meeting with you, hearing your presentations, and visiting with you at the various functions throughout the week; we hope that your time at the conference was stimulating and rewarding.

We would especially like to thank our honored guests and keynote speakers, Dr. Spencer Herrera, Levi Romero, and Robert Kaiser, who presented portions of their book Sagrado: A Photopoetics Across the Chicano Homeland (UNM Press, 2013). Special thanks, as well, to Dr. Alisa Perren, author of the Rollins Book Award for her work Indie, Inc: Miramax and the Transformation of Hollywood in the 1990s (U of Texas Press, 2012). Photos from the keynote and the awards ceremony are available on the Southwest PCA site.

If you’ve not had opportunity to visit the new journal site, we would encourage you to do so.  The inaugural issue of Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy is available at journaldialogue.org, and the second issue is forthcoming this Fall.

The Southwest PCA invites you to join us at our 36th annual conference, to be held February 11-14, 2015, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Albuquerque, where our conference theme will be “Many Faces, Many Voices: Intersecting Borders in Popular and American Culture.” We look forward to seeing you there and to the next 35 years and beyond in popular culture studies.

Until then,

Lynnea, Ken, Kelli, Tamy, and Chris
Southwest PCA Executive Team

Southwest PCA is now on Flickr!

flickr-annoucementWe are pleased to announce that we now have a Flickr account to share photos from the conference! Take a moment to head over to http://www.flickr.com/photos/southwestpca/ to view our photos.

We will post photos from the conference, the keynotes and others!

As of now, we have two sets:

Keynote by Dr. Spencer Herrera and New Mexico Poet Laureate Levi Romero; this set contains photos from Thursday’s Keynote

Rollins Award and Graduate Awards; this set contains photos of our Rollins Keynote speaker, Alisa Perren, as well as award announcers and all of our graduate  award winners.

We hope you like the photos. Keep your eye on the Flickr page as we grow our photographic presence and keep a record of our meetings!

2013 Peter C. Rollins Book Award Winners

The SWPACA Executive Team and the Peter C. Rollins Book Award judging panel are pleased to announce that the Rollins Book Award has been expanded to recognize outstanding scholarship in multiple areas of popular and American culture.

Traditionally, the Rollins Book Award has recognized manuscript-length work in the area of Film/Television Studies. The Rollins Award will continue to do so, with the annual recipient in that category being invited to present the Keynote address at the SWPACA Awards Reception the following year. In addition, the Rollins Book Award committee will recognize one to three volumes/year in the category of general popular culture and a “rolling” category identified each year based on trends in popular and/or American cultural studies.

For 2013, the Peter C. Rollins book award winners are:

  • Film/Television and History: Alisa Perren, Indie, Inc.: Miramax and the Transformation of Hollywood in the 1990s (U of Texas P, 2012)
  • Popular Culture: Julie Anne Taddeo and Cynthia J. Miller, Steaming into a Victorian Future: A Steampunk Anthology (Scarecrow P, 2012)
  • Sequential Art/Comics and Animation Studies: Matthew J. Smith and Randy Duncan, Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods (Routledge, 2011)

Each year the Rollins Award Committee welcomes submissions of book-length work (single/multiple author or edited collection) published within the previous two calendar years. Books published in 2012 or 2013 may be submitted for consideration.

For full submission guidelines, please see visit the Rollins Keynote Speaker Page.

New Name, New Look, New Logo, New Web Site

SWPACA-LogoThe Southwest Popular/American Culture Association (SWPACA) is pleased to announce its 35th annual conference will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 19-22, 2014. This year marks several areas of growth for the Association:

  • The association name will change, effective May 2013, from the “Southwest/Texas Popular and American Culture Association” to the “Southwest Popular/American Culture Association”
  • The SWPACA web site has been updated and moved to its new home at www.southwestpca.org – be sure to check back regularly for news and info!
  • The SWPACA is pleased to announce the launch of Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy.  Please visit www.journaldialogue.org for more information.
  • • The SWPACA’s flagship award, the Peter C. Rollins Book Award, established a new standard in 2013, recognizing three outstanding volumes in separate areas of popular and American culture:
    • Traditional Film/Television Studies
    • Popular Culture Studies
    • Sequential Art/Comics and Animation Studies

It is our goal to attract a new group of authors with these new subject categories in honoring the legacy of Peter C. Rollins the founder of our organization.

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